DARTS
By Justin-EllieandJoel4ever
Jackson WY
It had been a long boring day of guard duty on the wall and all that Joel wanted to do was get home to Ellie, take a shower, eat some supper and then do his absolute favorite thing in the world to do; cuddle with Ellie on the couch and watch a DVD of one of his westerns that he loved to watch. It just so happens that cuddling on the couch with Joel and watching his westerns was Ellie's absolute favorite thing in the whole world to do as well. It's the little things in life, you know?
Joel was in one of his moods today though because at his guard post at the wall Tommy had teased him all day about losing the Town's annual shooting contest to Ellie the day before. He'd lost to her on the final shot. But in that moment, as all the towns folk swarmed Ellie slapping her back and congratulating her and finally lifting her up onto their shoulders to parade her around, he'd never felt prouder. She'd beaten out several of the town's best shooters and even him with the final shot. Ellie was now the town's best shot with a gun AND a bow and she was quickly turning into the best shot that Joel had ever seen. Yep, he was pretty damn proud of her and he showed it by giving her the biggest 'congratulations' hug he could when the crowd had finally dissipated. Squeezing her like a bear trap and bending over to kiss her forehead, he then stared into those beautiful green eyes so she would know that he meant every single word and he told her, "Well done Kiddo. I'm so proud of you." They walked home afterward arm in arm and she teased him the whole way. But, he took it with a smile, willingly, because it came from his 'baby girl'. That and the fact that he WAS damn proud of her as well.
But Tommy had been ribbing him all day about losing to Ellie and even though he couldn't be prouder of her, getting ribbed constantly, especially by Tommy, had made him grumpy. Well, grumpier than normal for him at least. With each step closer to Ellie though, he felt his spirits lift so he quickened his pace. When he finally reached their home, he took the front porch steps in one bound and bolted through the front door.
"Ellie, I'm home!" he yelled. No answer. "Ellie?...Ellie!"
She finally yelled back, "I'm in the back yard! C'mere! I got something to show you!"
With a sigh of relief, Joel headed through the kitchen and out the back door into the back yard. Ellie was standing there with her backpack still over her shoulders-Joel thought to himself, 'She must have been somewhere. She never leaves home without it. Old habits are hard to break I guess.'- and she was throwing darts at a dartboard that she had hung up on the side of the back yard shed.
"Where the hell did you get that Kiddo?" Joel asked.
"I traded some old books that I've already read and didn't much care for to Buck over at the trading post for it. Wanna shoot a game?" she said. "Oh, wait. From what I remember, you may not want to…because you fuckin' suuuuuuuck!" Ellie said with a shit eating grin on her face.
"That a fact?" Joel said rubbing his chin.
"Yep, you didn't even hit the dartboard last time you threw a dart. Don't you remember? You really do have CRS disease! Hell, even Sam could have whipped your old ass that day!" she said with a take that! look on her face.
Well, after losing the shooting contest to her the day before, he wasn't about to pass up this challenge from the little twirp. "Oh, you're sooo gonna eat those words Kiddo. It's ON!"
Ellie looked at him and said with a mischievous grin, "Bring it!".
"Well then. I reckon we otta make this a bit more interesting, since you're sooo confident Kiddo. Whatcha' say?" Joel said.
In her best Joel Texas accent Ellie drawled back at him, "Well, I reckon we otta, I reckon!" Joel loved it when Ellie mimicked his Texan accent. He thought it was cute as hell!
"Alrighty then." Joel said. "Here's the bet. We each get two darts. Closest to the bullseye center wins. And to sweet'n the pot a little more, loser has to fix supper AND wash the dishes afterwards. Deal?"
"Well you better skeeedaddle over yonder to Maria's and fetch an apron, cause tonight, you're going to be house bitch." She added, "I reckon." with a smile on the end just to tease Joel a little more. Well, that and she hoped it would get under his skin a little and make him a little less accurate to boot. Never hurts to plan ahead you know! It was all in good fun between them anyway.
With a huff, Joel marched off ten paces from the dartboard and drew a line in the dirt with a stick. "No cheatin' now squirt." Joel said as he lined up his first shot.
"Paaaalease!" Ellie said with a snort. "This is eeeeasy money old man! I ain't GOTTA cheat!"
Joel let out a chuckle, stepped up to the line, aimed a little and let his first dart fly. Thwack! The dart ended up in the black area just around the outside of the dartboard.
"Shit." Ellie huffed. "This is going to be a whole lot fucking easier than I thought it was gonna be old man! Sure you don't want to back out now and save yourself further embarrassment?" With a bow at the waste and a wave of his right hand, Joel beckoned Ellie to the line for her first throw.
Thwack! Ellie's first dart landed in the white section of the outer ring of the number 5 row on the dartboard. She turned to Joel and gave him a wink. 'Why you little…' Joel thought to himself. "Outta the way squirt. Let me show you the winning shot." Joel said as he stepped to the line and lined up his final dart.
Thwack! Joel's final dart landed on the black section of the inner ring of the number 20 on the dartboard. Joel backed up, crossed his arms over his chest and as he looked at Ellie he said, "How bout that? Not bad huh?"
Ellie looked at him with a snort and said, "Yeah. Not bad for an old fart with Alzheimer's! Remember? You fuckin' suuuuuuck!"
Joel huffed and waved his hand toward the line beckoning her to take her final, best shot. "You're up, squirt. Don't choke."
Ellie stuck her tongue out at him and said, "Choke on THIS old man."
Thwack! Ellie's final dart landed in the black section of the inner ring of the number 20 row right under Joel's final dart and about an inch closer to the bullseye than his. Ellie had just beaten him….AGAIN.
"BOOOOSH!" Ellie said with a pump of her fist.
Now maybe it was the constant ribbing Tommy had given him all day at the wall, or maybe it was a little bit of his pride being jilted by being beaten by Ellie for the second time in two days, he didn't know which in the moment, or maybe it was both, but Joel pulled his trusty revolver from his hip holster and put a huge bullet hole just off dead center bullseye on the dartboard.
He smiled to himself and just before he turned towards Ellie to gloat, he was startled by the thundering sound of his shorty shotgun going off next to him where Ellie was standing. In shock, he watched as the whole white and black checkerboard center of the dartboard exploded into a cloud of particles, dust and smoke and disappeared. With a start, he turned to Ellie just in time to see her pull the shorty up in front of her mouth pointing it toward the sky and blow away the smoke coming out of the barrel like she'd seen some of the cowboys do in Joel's westerns.
She then bent to the ground and picked up the spent shell casing to save for repacking later. She put a fresh shell back into the shorty and turned to put it back into her backpack. Then she turned back to Joel and folded her arms across her chest. With a rye smile on her face, Ellie cleared her throat and said, "I want canned chili for supper with canned peaches for desert. Use our best dishes and silverware. Oh, and service with a smile…you grumpy old fart." She knew that canned chili and peaches were both Joel's favorites and thought that might help to ease the sting of losing to her…AGAIN.
With his eyes and mouth wide open, Joel turned to look at the dartboard again and, as if it had done it just to mock him, the shattered dartboard fell off the side of the shed and broke in half as it hit the ground. He turned back to look at Ellie. She was standing there, arms still crossed, waiting patiently for a response from him.
"You want crackers with your chili?" He asked.
With a huff and a smile, Ellie said, "DAAAMN right! Now get to it….Bitch!"
From over towards the shed, Joel SWORE he heard the shattered dartboard yell at him 'Yeah! Get to it Bitch!' and out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw it flip him off as well.
With a smile and a -I'm impressed- nod to Ellie, Joel put his hands up in defeat and turned to walk towards the backdoor of the house that led into the kitchen and resigned himself to the thought that, 'Yep. I'm house bitch tonight'. As he walked he couldn't help but smile to himself as he also thought, 'God DAMN I'm proud of you baby girl!'
Ellie turned to walk behind him and she caught Joel's smile in the corner of her eyes. She looked to the ground, smiled and thought, 'Yeah. I know what you're thinking, old man. But YOU taught me how to do all that. So I'm proud of YOU too.'
She didn't see Joel shake his head after that though. Deep in his thoughts as he reached the back door, he'd just realized, 'Holy shit! I'll never hear the end of it if Tommy finds out about this after losing to Ellie yesterday too!...No. You know what? Fuck it. She deserves it. I'll tell him myself.'
Besides, Ellie wasn't EVER going to let him forget it either. But being house bitch for a night was worth EVERY SECOND of her ribbing him about it from now on just to see her laugh and smile.
Joel knew that even in losing to Ellie, he would still be the object of her attention, affection, laughter and joy. And that made him the real winner.