"Jessie, will you please go and saddle up Bullseye?" Woody asked again with a sigh, whisking quickly around the small office,
"Why do I have to do it?" the redhead replied with a whine, pushing a few papers around the table surface she was perched on,
"Because you're cluttering up the place and I'm trying to get the office ready for the new deputy arriving" he replied, finally stopping at his desk and picking up his hat,
"Oh, was that today?" Jessie asked, tilting her head quizzically.
Woody paused the pinching and reforming of his hat and glanced over at her, narrowing his eyes, "Are you really trying to convince me that you'd forgotten? After you've spent the last week trying to find out everything you can about this guy?",
Jessie frowned and stood from the desk, "I'll go and saddle Bullseye" she murmured, pushing her hands into her skirt pockets and leaving the office, letting a cone of bright sunlight flash through the doorway briefly as it stood open.
Woody shook his head and stood straight from his desk which he'd been leaning on,
He made his way over to the peeling mirror that hung up on the opposite wall. The sheriff looked down to his hat once more, still moulding it into shape, and then looked back to his reflection, slowly placing said hat atop his head, angling it so it sat just right. The glittering of the badge on his chest then caught Woody's eye, and he looked down to it, wiping off a small smear with the very end of his sleeve.
The door to the office then opened again, and with a sigh, Woody turned to address who he assumed was Jessie, trying to catch sight of the new deputy again,
Instead however, a short but broad man stood in the doorway, watching him a little quizzically,
"Sheriff Woody?" the man asked, letting the door swing closed behind him,
"Ah, yes-" Woody nodded, walking around his desk to approach the man, his hand outstretched, "-you must be Mr-"
"Buzz, Buzz is fine" he replied, shaking the sheriff's hand.
"Right, Buzz it is then, was your journey okay?" he said gesturing to the second desk beside his own,
"Oh, thank you" Buzz nodded, "Yes, it was fine thank you" he said as he put his bags on the table,
"Good, I'm glad to hear that" Woody smiled, perching on the countertop once more.
The two men then fell into silence, looking at one another blankly, both having exhausted their planned topics of conversation in just a few seconds.
"Oh! Err-" Woody suddenly exclaimed, turning to look over the neatly stacked papers on his desk, "Here" he said, picking up a small, flat box and holding it towards Buzz,
The man walked over slowly, and took the box, turning it over in his large hands, he then opened it, revealing a shining gold badge in the shape of a star, the word 'deputy' etched across its front.
"Thank you" he said, smiling softly and going to pin it to his front,
"No thanks required, you sir, are now officially the deputy of Andy's Town" Woody smiled, his arms folded over his chest, "Now come on, I'll give you the tour"
0o0o0
The two men stepped out onto the dust dry street of the town, the place lit with the warm orange light of the slowly setting sun, and they begun, side by side, towards the saloon at the other end of the road, Woody pointing out places by name and owner as they went.
"-the bank is managed by Mr Ham, but he's an elusive character, we don't see a whole lot of him around the town. And this is the barbers shop, owned by Mr and Mrs Potatohead- they're a nice enough couple if you can get past the shouting matches and the sarcastic comments" Woody chuckled mirthlessly, glancing over to Buzz who had been very quiet since the tour began, "You alright there partner?" he asked, his smile wavering a little,
"Oh, yes. It's just a lot to get used to… and a lot to remember" the deputy admitted, looking a little sheepish,
"Don't worry too much about remembering it all" Woody said patting him on the back, "It's a small town, everyone knows everybody here, so you'll pick up names quick" he assured him, removing his arm and sliding his hand into his own pocket.
"And this is the saloon, owned by Barbara and Kenneth. They're real nice too" Woody beamed, placing one booted foot on the bottom step up to the decking, "You'll be staying here tonight, and for a couple days after until your house is all furnished and ready for you to live in. Now, got any questions?" he asked, putting his hands to his hips,
"One, I suppose" Buzz nodded,
"Well shoot partner" the brunette nodded, folding his arms and leaning against a pillar holding up the sun cover over the saloon's entrance.
"I heard that the crime rate here is higher than it is in almost any other town in this part of the west. Not to doubt your abilities sheriff, but the town is a lot smaller than I thought it would be" Buzz said, his cheeks flushed a little,
Woody sighed, and his smile dropped, "Listen" he said, starting towards the deputy to speak to him in a lower tone, "People 'round here are real nice, trust me. But if there's one bad thing about nice people, it's that they're real good targets for bad people. And believe me, we have our fair share of bad people around here", he then raised his hand, drawing Buzz's attention to three posters pinned to the board outside the saloon,
"One eyed Bart and one eyed Betty-" he began, indicating the poster on the far left,
It showed drawings of two stout people, one male, and one female. The drawings were badly done, but it was clear from the image that Bart had a large black moustache, and that Betty had huge earrings in each ear. Unsurprisingly, both wore an eyepatch each, covering an apparently missing eye.
"-a married couple who steal money from the bank almost once a month. I've chased them across the plains to the train tracks on dozens of separate occasions, but I lose them in the mountains every time. They must have hideout somewhere up there, no doubt guarded by their vicious dog, the thing's bit me more than once.
"Then there's Bazooka Jane-" he continued, pointing to the poster on the right,
Again, the drawing was probably a poor likeness of the criminal it was of, but in this case, it wouldn't have made much of a difference as 'Bazooka Jane' had a large hat casting her eyes in shadow and a bandana over her mouth and nose. All that could be distinguished from the picture was that her long hair was tied into a neat plat, and it was slung over one of her shoulders,
"-she's a lone wolf who has a soft spot for animals. She steals horses, cattle and sometimes even sheep from local farmers and cowboys, letting them run free across the plain instead- we hardly ever manage to wrangle the animals back, and I've never even come close to catching Jane, at least not on horseback.
"And finally, the most dastardly and heartless of the bunch, the positively evil Dr Porkchop-"
Compared to the other posters, the final one showed an image that could practically be considered a caricature of the man it was meant to be. The man had a round face, most of which was hidden out of sight by the brim of a bowler hat- what could be seen however, was a plump cigar clasped between his thick lips,
"I think he runs the network of criminals. He's rich, no doubt, and I think he gives resources to those that work for him. In return, they give him more money"
Woody then straightened up and flattened down his hide waistcoat, "But aside for them, everyone's real nice",
As the final word left his mouth, the saloon doors swung open violently, and a man fell hard through them onto the decking,
A split second later, one saloon door flapped hard again, hitting the outside wall, and a tall, redheaded woman stepped out from the doorway, stopping to stand over the crumpled, and cowering man, her face like thunder and her voice filled with rage,
"I don't want to see your no good, damn dirty face in this town again you hear?!" she was shouting, pointing down at the man threateningly, "In fact-" her eyes darted to Woody, and she took a long stride towards him, her hand finding his pistol that was strapped to his side immediately, and she drew it, pointing it towards the man who still lay on the decking,
"Hey!" Woody yelped, reaching for the gun, and twisting her hand away so she dropped it with a clatter.
Buzz then jumped into action, looping his arms around the woman's to hold them both behind her back,
As this all happened, the man who had been destined to get the bullet had scampered from the patio and had found his feet, he was now running straight out of town, pulling up his dampened trousers clumsily as he did so,
"What the heck happened Jessie?" Woody asked with a sigh, retrieving his pistol and putting it back in its holster,
"The guy tried to put his hands all over me Woody, I had no choice!" the redhead insisted, struggling against Buzz's hold,
"Oh, you had no choice did you?" the brunette huffed, stepping toward her, "You just had to kick the snot out of him and shoot him did you?"
Jessie stopped struggling and instead looked down to her shuffling feet, remaining silent.
Woody then sighed again and flapped a dismissive hand towards her, "What am I going to do with you?" he murmured, "Let her go Buzz, let her go" he then added, rubbing his closed eyes sorely,
"Sheriff?" the deputy asked, giving him a quizzical look from over Jessie's shoulder that he could only just see over,
"I said let her go" he nodded in response.
Buzz did as he was told, and Jessie quickly moved away from him, instead going to join Woody, her arms folded as she observed the deputy closely, her look somewhat sceptical,
"Jessie, this is Buzz, the new deputy" Woody began, introducing him, "And Buzz, this is Jessie, my sister"
The stout man immediately felt his face heat up, and he didn't doubt for a second that his cheeks were glowing bright red,
"We'll let you off this occasion, but you gotta promise not to go 'round beating guys up for no good reason", the sheriff said addressing his sister once more,
"No good reason!?" Jessie exclaimed, looking over to her brother is disbelief, "Woody, he was-"
"I said, we'll let you off!" Woody cut in sharply, "This time",
Jessie looked as if she were about to make another argument, but instead she huffed loudly and stormed back into the saloon, letting the doors swing wildly behind her again as she did.
"Sorry you had to meet her that way" Woody sighed, moving a little closer to Buzz who hadn't said a word in several minutes, "She's usually pretty tame"
Buzz coughed awkwardly, clearing his throat, "I-I'm sure she is" he nodded, taking his handkerchief from his pocket and mopping up some sweat from his brow,
"Golly partner, you look warm. Must be this desert heat, come on, we'll get you a cold drink inside" Woody said, leading his new deputy into the saloon.
But it wasn't the desert heat that was making Buzz sweat, as the sun had gone down by the time they made it into the public house, the blistering temperature having dropped with it, and Andy's Town was instead becoming illuminated by gas lights and torches.
