Chapter 7
The group gathered near the rear porch of the bunkhouse. Kid slid down on the floor of the porch, leaned back against the wall for a nap. Billy took a seat on the nearby railing with Buck sitting on the steps as he tended to cleaning his revolver. Jimmy decided to shoot some cans off a fence post while Sam sat next to Lou near Buck.
Jimmy stood before his audience. He quick drew his weapon and hit target while shooting from the hip. He glanced at Sam to see if he had her attention.
Sam pondered, "I thought he used a cummerbund as a holster…" she puckered in thought.
Jimmy approached, "Let's see you do that, Doc."
She looked to Lou for help. "Um…"
Lou stated, "Jimmy can teach you better than I can."
"You don't know how?" Jimmy gathered.
"I just bought this gun and Lou loaded it for me. I've never fired anything in my life." she confessed.
Jimmy admitted, "I admire your honesty. Stand up. I'll show you some basics."
Lou nudged her, "Go on."
Sam stood up wishing she was back home for she felt a bit intimidated by the man. She walked over and stood near to Jimmy and the firing range.
"See that can." he pointed down range to the post.
She nodded.
"Shoot it." he instructed.
"Um…" she looked down to her holster and gently retrieved the gun by the handle. She didn't have a very good grip on it and Jimmy knew that would be an issue.
"It won't bite ya." he told her. "Get a good grip on it."
"I'm trying." she miffed. She tightened her grip unsure what to do next.
"Face the target." he instructed.
She turned slightly.
He cocked his head to the side looking at the playable new shooter. He placed his hand around hers and inspected how she was holding the grip of the gun. "Like this." he adjusted her hold. He noticed her hands were too small for a man. As a matter of fact her hands looked much like Lou's. He found the closer her inspected her and the gun the more began to wonder if perhaps Sam may be a girl. The clothing didn't look like anything a girl world wear to his estimation but also didn't look much like men's clothing either. But her soft skin, delicate hands and pleasing scent had him wondering. He glanced at Lou and then back at Sam. He looked down at her feet. He noticed her boots were different as well. "Your stance is off."
"This is how I stand." she shrugged.
He moved up behind her, stuck his foot between her feet and nudged her inner leg until she moved the foot to the position he wanted.
She looked over her shoulder at him and spoke in a rather meek tone, "Having fun back there?"
He gave a half smirked and then raised her arm up by her elbow. He then instructed, "Use both hands, cocked the gun and line up the bead with the notch in the hammer. Don't touch the trigger though."
She complied.
"Now, place the sight right below the middle of the can." he told her.
She aimed and stated, "Now what?"
"Pull the trigger." he instructed.
She pulled the trigger at the same time she closed her eyes. She completely missed the can. She peeked and found the air was filled with smoke and her ears were ringing loudly.
Jimmy stated, "Next time keep your eyes open."
"My ears are ringing." she complained.
Lou sat amused as she watched. She spent the last 3 weeks living with Sam who seemed to be able to navigate a strange world of the future with ease. She could drive a car, she could start machines to mow the lawn and would be called into the hospital in the middle of the night to operate on people in dire straights. Sam seemed invincible at times during her time in the future. But now Sam was in her time and she seemed more like a fish out of water. She had a hard time grasping how to do something basic as shooting a can off a fence.
Sam tried again with Jimmy helping to guild her through the process. She fired and hit the can through barely. She grinned, "I did it!" She looked up at Jimmy for a moment.
"Ya did it. Now, you got three more shots." he figured.
"But I thought the revolver had 6 holes in it." she recalled.
"Lou would have only filled 5 chambers." he assured her.
"She did?" she wondered for she didn't pay much attention when Lou loaded the revolvers.
Jimmy shouted over his shoulder, "Five shots or six, Lou?"
"Five!" she told him.
"Five." he told Sam.
She looked back over her shoulder at him. "Though my ears are ringing pretty good, I did hear her. You guys really need ear plugs. No wondered everyone was deaf back then." she mentioned to herself.
Jimmy remarked, "Aren't we a delicate flower."
She insisted, "The decibel levels are more than enough to cause hearing loss." She turned back towards the targets. "No wonder Lou had the T.V. up so loud." she muttered. She cocked the gun and fire the next shot hitting the target. Then she fired off the last two shots finishing off the last two cans. Please she smiled, "All done." She admitted, "That was kind of fun." She half turned and peaked out from around Jimmy. "Hey Lou! How do you reload this thing?"
"I brought you a possible bag but it might be easier to just get some paper cartridges from Thompson's store." she hollered back. "And you have clean that gun too."
Sam replied, "I think those metal cartridges the clerk showed us at the gun store would have been easier. We should have gotten that other gun."
All eyes fell on Lou for no one ever heard of metal cartridges before and they were curious as to the store Sam referenced. She replied to Sam, "We won't find them fancy cartridges out here nor any gun that looked like that one. The trick to firing a gun is having ammunition. It's not worth much with no ammunition."
"Kind of like a car with no gas, huh." she drew a conclusion.
"Kind of like that." she agreed hoping no one would ask her what her strange cousin was talking about.
Jimmy didn't know what they were talking about and figured it wasn't his business. However, a gun that metal cartridges intrigued him but it sounded like a one of a kind and thus useless out on the trail. He instructed, "Holster your gun and I'll show you how to break it down and clean it." He was certain she was a girl like Lou. Better yet, she was Lou's cousin and he found that she did remind him a lot of Lou. Jimmy adored Lou, heck he would have courted her himself if it weren't for the Kid stealing Lou's heart. To Jimmy, Sam was Lou's funny dressing cousin who had a bit more of an education than most and someone he would like to get to know better.
Short Time Late
Sam sat at the table in the bunkhouse and Jimmy showed her how to field strip the weapon and clean it. She complained, "This is kind of dirty."
Lou recalled how clean Sam's house remained. She understood that Sam was rather obsessed with cleanliness especially with some strange disease called COVID 19 that Lou never really understood that she heard about on the news. She recalled how Sam would scrub the dirt from under her nails and wash her arms up to her elbows. She glanced at Sam, "Folks get dirty here. You have to conserve water. You can't be washing all the way up to your elbows if ya ain't that dirty."
She replied, "I learned that in medical school and I kept the habit up at home. When you operate on people, you need to be very clean or infection can set in."
"Ya ain't gonna be doing much operating out here." Lou figured.
Kid sat beside Lou and countered, "I don't know. We can use a good doctor here at the station. How many times of one of us been hurt?" He glanced at his friends.
Ike nodded in agreement.
Billy added, "We could use a good doctor on the runs too. Out there on a run! No doctors! We could have one right there with us on our runs. We could use that." He looked at his friends for agreement, "Heck…we could use a doctor in every station house."
Kid had to agree, "We could use that."
Lou took the barrel of the gun from before Sam and she began to clean it.
Sam asked, "You're helping me?"
She mentioned, "You need to protect your hands. You know how to operate on folks and how to remove a bullet. None of us can do that. I'm not sure Teaspoon can do that."
Jimmy agreed, "Not many out here can pull lead from a wound." He then grabbed the parts before Sam and started to clean as well. "Lou says you need to protect your hands, then you need to protect your hands."
"Now I feel useless." Sam complained with a sigh.
The door swung open and Teaspoon stepped inside with Rachel behind him as he was informed that Lou's cousin was at the station and looking for work. "Boys," the Marshal greeted.
Sam's eyes settled on the man. He was dressed like a character from a western movie to her estimation. For that matter so were the riders.
Teaspoon removed his hat up entering and his eyes settled on the newcomer. He paused for a moment and sized her up. "You must be Lou's cousin." He stated. He noticed Lou and Jimmy cleaning a revolver but didn't think much of it.
Sam rose to her feet and approached the man with an open hand. "I'm Sam Ca…McCloud." she corrected herself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Marshal."
He graciously took her hand, "And it's my pleasure to meet you too." He was pleased at the grace and poise presented before him. Lou's cousin seemed well spoken and made eye contact. Those were signs of a good upbringing to Teaspoon. "I understand you are looking for work."
"I need a job and place to stay." she admitted.
He asked, "You good at riding?"
"I can ride." she glanced at Lou who was a far superior equestrian. "Lou is a lot better than I am though."
He asked, "You can shoot?"
Jimmy spoke up, "I'm teaching Sam to shoot."
Teaspoon shifted his weight in thought. "Other than being Lou's cousin is there a reason why I should hire you?" She didn't know how to shoot and admitted Lou was a better rider. He wasn't sure how qualified the new rider was.
Kid spoke up, "He's had some medical school, Teaspoon. He knows some doctoring and well…" he glanced about the table, "we can use a doctor."
"You a doctor?" he asked her.
She nodded, "I'm a doctor."
"What kind of doctor?" he wondered.
"E.R. room surgeon." she replied.
"E.R.?" he questioned the term.
"Emergency Room!" she explained. "The room in the hospital where they bring injured and real sick patients."
"You can operate?" he questioned.
"Yes," she nodded.
He glanced at Ike. "You look at that boy yet?" he motioned.
"I did." she confessed. "Scare tissue near his vocal cords is preventing him from talking. If I had the proper facility, I could remove that tissue and he could talk after some therapy. His vocal cords would be weak from not being used so…it wouldn't be instant."
Her report was sound to Teaspoon's estimation. He decided to do one more test. He strolled over to his chair at the head of the table. He kicked his boot and took the sock off and then placed his bare foot up. "What ya think of this, Doc?"
Sam wasn't repulsed by the move. Matter of fact she rather used to it. She came over to his foot and examined the big toe. She concluded, "You have an ingrown toenail. I can fix it if you want."
"By all means," he motioned for the toe was bothering him relentlessly.
"Where did you put my bag, Lou?" she wondered.
"On my bunk," she replied and stood to retrieve the medical bag. She soon handed the bag to Sam and then sat down to watch the good doctor fix Teaspoon's big toe.
She opened her bag and retrieved a few alcohol swabs to disinfect the toe. As she worked she soothed her patient. "This will be uncomfortable. Not much I can do about that." She took a tool and dug out the toe for the thick skin. She used a large nail clipper to clip the extra and in short time had completed the job. She grabbed some ointment and a large band-aid and squeezed the tube of anti-biotic onto the pad of the self adhesive band-aid and then wrapped it around his toe.
Teaspoon asked, "What is that sticky thing you put on there?"
"A band-aid." she reported. She gathered a few large band-aids from her kit and the tube of Neosporin and handed it to Teaspoon. "Change the band-aid every day and squeeze a little of this stuff on the it. It's an anti-biotic ointment."
Teaspoon sat befuddled at the band-aids and tube of ointment. He cocked a eyebrow, "I guess we can use you after all."