4 MONTHS LATER

"Tyler!" an angry voice screamed from the front desk. "This gentleman dresses to the left! Not the right!"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. After being seated at a sewing machine all day, I stretched my legs forward, stood up, and cracked my back. There was my boss, yelling at me as usual. I was one of the only seamstresses in town, and he always had me making and altering the fancy business suits. What did he know? All he had to was wear funny glasses and measure people. I trudged forward into the front room to stop the yelling.

"Jim, that suit is for the man who's coming in tomorrow, I ain't done with the other ones yet,"

"Take this," he ordered as he threw a pile of heavy cloth into my arms. "Where's the suit that's done?"

I pointed with my toe, seeing as my arms were so full. "Right there," I muffled from under the clothes. I couldn't see where I was going, but I started turning around to towards the back room. Just then the doors opened. I turned faster to get out of their way, I was shuffling to the back when a voice stopped me in my tracks. I couldn't believe it. There was no way.

"Red?"

I froze.

"Red!"

I unfroze my legs and walked faster. "He didn't see me, I'm not here, hide, hide!" I whispered to myself. I got to the back room and set the pile of clothes down on a table. I sighed in relief and turned around only to bump my face yet again on the buttons of Mr. Bohannon's vest. He didn't say anything, he just looked down at me and grinned a bit. I could see Elam down the hallway getting measured.

"Everyone said you were dead!" I blurted out.

He ignored my comment, seeing as it wasn't true and walked around. He walked past the sewing machines and picked up a scrap of material. He wadded it up and placed it on his ear.

"You work here now?" He asked.

"I had to go somewhere," I answered.

"Hm." He glanced around some more, stopped walking and put his hand on his hip. "Well, you should know, I dress to the left," Without another work he tipped hat, he and Elam each picked a suit and walked out. No explanation, no conversation, nothing.

Well he wasn't dead. That was good I guess. I walked towards the front of the building and saw them walk down the road to a hotel when I realized there were little drops of blood from Mr. Bohannon's ear. I grabbed a rag and began cleaning the floor, deciding whether or not to find him and talk to him, or ignore it altogether.

I thought about it all day. What was he doing? I knew he had invested his whole heart and soul into that railroad. Part of me didn't understand why he even cared at all, but the other part of me understood his longing to have purpose. After all he had lost, maybe he just wanted to see something through to the end for once in his life.

I grabbed a small back of medical supplies and walked down to the hotel. I smiled at the owner, who knew me well. "Where's the hairy one and his negro friend staying?"

"Upstairs," he pointed.

I smiled again and walked up to the first floor. I walked down the hall and felt warm steam coming through the second door. Without knocking I turned the doorknob and walked in. Mr. Bohannon was sitting in a tub with his back towards me. He didn't see me come in but I could see his ear still bleeding. I grabbed a stool and slammed it down next to the metal bathtub. Mr. Bohannon suddenly was jolted out of his relaxation; his eyes flew open as he gasped and looked up to see what the hell was going on. Finally he saw me standing there and began yelling.

"Get the hell outta here! I'm.. I'm, I'm in the nude! Get, get, get, away! Go!" he said while splashing water at me while attempting to cover himself.

"Do I look like I give a damn?" I answered calmly.

I sat down and pulled out a need and some thread. I grabbed the side of his head and pushed it backwards.

"Ugh," he grumbled as he gave up and let me look at his ear.

After looking at it for a bit, I could see that it was no cut. Whatever had bit him or sliced him had taken off a chunk.

"Did you even clean this?" I asked a bit rudely.

"I'm tryin' to clean in now!" he yelled.

"O.K. this is gonna hurt," I ignored him as I poured alcohol on it, letting it spill over into the bath.

Mr. Bohannon clenched his teeth together and sucked air in. As quick as I could I pushed the wound closed with two fingers and sewed it up with only a few stitches. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as Mr. Bohannon tried not to squirm. He was like a girl getting her ears pierced.

"Now you won't bleed all over the floor," I said as I put away my needle.

I stood up and splashed water into his eyes. Annoyed, he grunted and wiped his eyes. As I was walking out the door he shouted at me.

"Red!"

"You're welcome!" I called back.

Is I walked down the steps I could hear him- absolutely infuriated as he stomped out of the bathtub with wet feet, letting water slosh all over the floor as he cursed loudly. I laughed.

That night I went to sleep where I always did. At my workplace, because it's where I lived. And I usually spent all night working on dresses and pants anyways.

"I've done my good deed for the day, and everything is settled with me and that hairy guy. I don't have to worry about it anymore," I told myself as I shut my eyes.

However, my peaceful slumber met a terrifying end when a cold splash of ice water arose me from my sleep.

I yelped, sprung up, and started wiping at my face.

He was laughing. Obnoxiously. With the glass cup still in his hand. I was so tired I didn't even have the energy to glare at him. I just looked up at him from the ground like a sad, wet puppy. He was still laughing. I was mad, yes, but I had also never seen him smile before.

"Good morning, Mr. Bohannon, you son of a –"

"Red, get packed up, we're leavin' in a bit," he said as he threw a dry hand towel at me.

I caught it and look up at him, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Packed for what?"

"Railroad needs someone who can sew and someone who can cook. You can do both, let's go," He turned and walked out the door, leaving me sopping wet and miserable.

I hated his authoritativeness, but I couldn't disobey it, I started packing up a small trunk. I guess I was headed back to the railroad. I now had new, clean dresses that I made from extra material that I could bring with me. The only thing that didn't fit in the trunk was my favorite frying pan. But I couldn't leave it behind, so I just held on to it.

Mr. Bohannon arrived in the late afternoon to come get me, even though I told him I could just meet them on the train.

"You 'bout ready yet?" he shouted as he walked in.

"I'm ready!" I said excitedly as I held my trunk and frying pan up.

He looked down and shook his head in disapproval.

"What? Don't you judge me. The pan didn't fit in the trunk. And that is a stupid hat," I said as I walked passed him and knocked his hat off with the handle of my frying pan.

Mr. Bohannon grumbled and bent down to grab his stupid-round-bowler hat. We walked down the dirt road and got Elam. The train was pulling in, loud and earthquake-y. My heart started pounding. I was getting out of here. I'd be on my way west, and maybe I'd see the Pacific ocean. We got aboard the train and I refused to let Mr. Bohannon help me with my trunk. After some issues with seating Elam and us, we got settled in. The train began to move and suddenly I turned into a 5 year old. I gasped and got up with my frying pan still in hand. I ran outside the train car and held onto the railing, letting the wind hit my face. Suddenly, I saw my boss, Jim running towards the train with his measuring tape still on his neck.

"WHERE ARE GOING?!" he shouted as loudly as he could while gasping and running.

"Where does it look like I'm going!?" I yelled back and waved.