First Time They Laid Eyes On Each Other
The sun hung high and hot above a small Mexican town just west of Juarez.
Into the town's small, adobe jail that only had two cells, one currently occupied, came two rurales with a shackled white man between them. The blonde, bearded man was clearly drunk, as he couldn't even walk without the lawmen's support, plus he was giggling like an idiot. The rurales opened the vacant cell's door and tossed the white man inside where he immediately fell on his face among the dust that covered the floor. He quickly stopped laughing as the Mexican's slammed the door shut and began laughing themselves.
"Enfriar los talones alli, gringo." one of them said, and then continued laughing along with his amigo as they walked off together, leaving their prisoner.
After a few minutes, or maybe it was hours, of inhaling dusty spit, the man sobered up enough to push himself up off the floor and crawl into a sitting position against the cell's back wall. He rubbed his head with his hands and groaned. Then he lifted his eyes and something in the cell across from him caught his attention.
She had long, curly, dark hair that ran past her shoulders. Brown eyes that looked like amber gems set into dark stone against a tan, oval face. She was thin, muscular and dressed like some kind of female bandito with a long, maroon cape wrapped around her neck like a scarf. She was sitting on the wooden bench in her cell facing him and studying him intently.
"Who the fuck are you?" asked the man, wincing at the sound of his own voice.
"Doesn't matter," said the woman in a smoky whisper. "I'm about to hang in a few hours, so who cares? Who is anyone once they're dead with no one left to remember them?"
"Damn, girl, I don't want to hear riddles. I'm about two miles south of being hungover and I'm hot and sweaty and feel like hell-"
"You don't look so great either," said the woman, and it was true. The man was sweaty and also very pale and wearing nothing but some ripped up brown pants, a pair of old, leather, cowboy boots and the upper half of a union suit which was stained and holey.
"Pardon me, your highness, I didn't realize I was in the presence of Mexican royalty." said the man, trying to bow while sitting down and instead just falling forward, which made him half laugh, half moan.
"I suppose it's all part of god's awesome sense of humor that you're my last companion before the gallows," the woman said to herself while looking up at the ceiling. Then she looked over at the pathetic heap across the way and something akin to pity came upon her. Quietly she said, "My name is Juliette Flowers."
That perked the man up surprisingly quick.
"No shit?" he asked, excitedly, getting to his feet and brushing himself off. "By all accounts that would make you the baddest bitch both sides of the Rio Grande then."
"Yes it does," she answered, coolly. "And I am."
"Well, I'm Ransom Pride. I trust you've heard of me too," he said with a smile.
"No," she answered.
Ransom laughed.
"What brings someone like you to be trapped here in this nothing town?" he asked.
"I killed a man," said Juliette, with no emotion.
"Any particular reason?" asked Ransom.
"He beat a woman to death," Juliette answered. "A woman I grew up with. A woman I saved when both of us was girls. I promised I'd always look after her and the others, but I failed her, so I figured the least I could do was avenge her, so I stabbed the summabitch that killed her right in the gut."
Ransom looked at Juliette Flowers like she was singing his favorite song.
"And now they're gonna hang ya?" he said.
"Unless there's some rather prompt divine intervention," answered Juliette.
"Well," said Ransom, reaching downward, "I don't know how divine this is, but it'll do the job, I wager." He reached into his boot and pulled out a thin stick of dynamite.
Juliette eyed the explosive.
"They took all my effects," she said. "Even the straight razor I keep in my boot."
"I don't doubt that," said Ransom, "But I do believe they searched me far less thoroughly than they did you, for obvious reasons."
"What exactly is your plan?" asked Juliette.
"Once I figure out how I'm gonna light this, I'm gonna stick it over there by that wall between our cells and the blast should take out enough wall for both of us to escape through," Ransom answered.
"Why would you help me escape?" asked Juliette. "You just met me. You don't even know if anything I've told you is even true."
Ransom shrugged.
"You're a trusting fool, Ransom Pride," Juliette said simply. "But it doesn't matter. Ain't no fire around here anyway."
Ransom jerked his thumb in the direction of his cell's barred window.
"El sol," he said. "But I'm gonna need you to lend me a buckle." He pointed to the many belts that Juliette wore around her waist.
"You gotta be kidding me," she said.
"This ain't my first rodeo," said Ransom, reaching out his hand through the bars.
Juliette just looked him over.
"Why'd they throw you in here?" she asked.
"Being drunk," said Ransom with a smile. "Also I pissed on the statue of some saint."
"Which one?" asked Juliette.
"St. Nicholas," said Ransom.
Juliette quietly undid one of her belts and removed the buckle, then she handed it through her own bars into Ransom's waiting hand. He took it over to his window and maneuvered it in the sunlight until he had caught a beam of light in the reflective metal, which he then aimed at the fuse of the dynamite stick. He looked up at Juliette.
"Get ready to run," he said.
The fuse caught and he quickly threw the dynamite out of his cell and towards the far wall of the jail. Juliette covered her ears and Ransom did the same. Within seconds the dynamite exploded, putting a hole the size of some double doors in the wall and leaving just enough room at the edge of both cells for the occupants to slip through to the outside. Ransom and Juliette heard the rurales down the hall running in their direction, so they quickly made their way through their respective holes. Once outside, Ransom shook his head.
"That was not the best thing for a hangover," he said.
"Come on!" yelled Juliette, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him towards some hitched up horses that were bucking around due to fright. She and Ransom quickly calmed them and untied them then hopped on their backs as the rurales leaned out of the hole in the side of their jail and began shooting at the outlaws with rifles.
Juliette and Ransom quickly rode around to the front of the jail to dodge them, so the rurales regrouped and left the hole to head to the front also.
"I'm not leaving without my straight razor," Juliette called to Ransom.
"Fuck your straight razor," he called back.
"It has significance. If I get nothing else back, I'm getting that," she said, and he could tell there was no arguing with her.
Ransom quickly looked at the jail where the two lawmen would no doubt be running out of any minute now, guns-a-blazing, then he looked to the east at a clear road out of town. He knew he could just ride off and let her do whatever she wanted. He had helped her escape and he owed her nothing else. Hell, he hadn't even owed her that to begin with, but something made him hesitate.
"I'll lure them out, you get your shit," he called to Juliette. She nodded in appreciation and understanding. Then she headed back behind the jail as the rurales came out onto the front porch. They both stopped and shot at Ransom, but he had already urged his horse to run to one side, so they missed. They quickly ran to their own horses, mounted them, and gave chase, as Ransom headed down an alley between two buildings.
Meanwhile, Juliette came to the hole in the wall she had just escaped from, got off her horse, and quickly slipped back through it. She ran down the long hall past the cells to the front of the jail where there were two desks. She assumed her stuff would be in the bigger one, so she tried the drawers, but they were locked. She raised one of her long legs above her head and then brought it down hard on the handle of one of the drawers, snapping it off. Inside, as expected, was her guns, gun belt, and blade. She took the belt and put it on, then slipped the blade into one of her boots. She turned to leave out the front doors, but was startled by a huge, sweaty, Mexican man with no shirt on who brandished a sword and was blocking the exit.
"Donde crees que vas, puta?" he roared.
Juliette didn't know if this was another lawman, or just a concerned vigilante, but it didn't matter, he was in her way. She drew her gun and fired at him, but quickly realized the bullets had been removed, so as an alternative course of action, she chucked the gun at the man and hit him square in the forehead, knocking him out. Rather than chance going near him to retrieve it, Juliette just headed back down the hall and out the hole again where she remounted her new horse.
As she rode around front, Ransom came flying past with one of the the rurales behind him.
"Where's the other one?" called Juliette.
"I don't know," called Ransom, as he and his pursuer passed her.
"How can you not know?" yelled Juliette.
"A man with vision don't have time for pissant details," yelled Ransom as he rode out of her sight.
Juliette turned and sighed, but then caught sight of the second man as he barreled down at her from the west. Thinking quickly, she reached for her straight razor, opened it, and chucked it like an expert knife thrower hitting the man right in the jugular. He fell from his horse, bleeding profusely. Juliette dismounted and went over to him. As he lay on the ground bleeding, he looked up at her with fear in his eyes.
"Vaya con Dios," Juliette said, coldly, reaching down and yanking the blade out, sealing his fate.
Juliette got back on her horse, stashed her weapon, and rode off in the direction of Ransom.
Fifty feet ahead of her Ransom had led the rurale down a blind alley. As the lawman advanced on the unarmed man he aimed his rifle right at his heart. Rather than cower or try to dodge out of the way, though, Ransom lunged forward and grabbed the rifle by the barrel. Before he even knew what was happening the rurale had had the tables turned on him. Ransom pulled the trigger and blew his enemy right off his horse.
"You seem like a pretty capable guy to have around," said Juliette as she rode up to the scene.
"I have certain... skills," said Ransom.
"Maybe you'd like to throw in with me for the time being," said Juliette.
"I don't know, you have a pretty bad reputation," Ransom said, coyly. "What would my preacher father say?"
"Probably Matthew 6:13: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," answered Juliette.
"I like a girl who knows her bible," said Ransom.
He urged his horse onward towards her and she turned to ride along with him and the two outlaws, now allies, silently rode off into the sunset together.
The End?