Chapter 13

Buck soon returned to hand off the pouch to Ike who took off like a shot on the run. He was guarding his left arm as he brought the horse to a halt and slid down in obvious pain. Rachel noticed he was hurt as she observed. Kid stood by to assist as Buck dismounted the horse.

Kid asked, "You okay?" he gathered the reins for Buck.

"I'll live." he winced in pain.

Kid noticed blood on Buck's left sleeve and a bandana tied around the arm like a bandage. "Better have Doc look at that."

Rachel noticed the blood went to the bunkhouse. She called inside, "Doc! Buck needs you."

Sam quickly grabbed her first aid kit and went for the door with the riders in tow. They all came to see what happened to Buck.

She approached, "What happened?"

He replied, "I've been shot."

Jimmy demanded, "Who?"

"I don't know." he replied an bit confused. "It came out of nowhere. I didn't hear a shot. It took a chunk out of my arm. It nearly knocked me off my horse. I've been grazed before but nothing like this."

"Let me see," Sam pleaded.

He untied the bandana and with some help managed to remove his arm from the coat sleeve. It was a gruesome wound with a gapping hole as if a chunk of flesh was just missing.

"That ain't no graze." Jimmy stated concerned.

Sam stated, "This is a graze." She examined the wound, "Looks like a high powered rifle shot. I treated something like this before during hunting season. Let's get you cleaned up, Buck."

Lou asked, "High powered rifle. You mean like something from your time?"

"That's what it looks like." she nodded. "Some hunting rifles can take a moose from a mile away." She placed a large bandage on the wound and grabbed Buck by the arm. "Come on. Inside!" She led him inside the bunkhouse as the riders followed with Rachel.

She sat Buck down at the table and used a pair of scissors to cut the sleeve of his shirt to expose the wound.

Buck repeated, "How come I didn't hear the gun shot? I just felt the hit. There was nothing around that I could see."

"That is a mystery." Kid agreed looking to the other riders.

Rachel asked, "Do you need me to get anything for you, Sam? Boil some water?"

"There isn't much skin left to close. All I can do is keep it clean and let it fill back in. You will have a nasty scare, Buck."

"I can live with the scare." he assured her. "I just can't figure out how this happened. There has to be a shooter. Bullets just go flying through the air without being shot. Even from far away, you can hear it."

Rachel added, "Hitting you from a mile away and moving on horseback is a heck of a shot, Buck. I don't know anyone who can make that kind of shot." She looked to the boys.

Jimmy agreed, "That would be nearly impossible. Had to be a stray bullet."

Sam shrugged, "Not if it's a drone or computer guided."

He asked, "They have the ability to make that kind of a shot in the future?"

"Military does." she nodded. She began to clean the wound, "This is gonna hurt a bit. I don't have anything to numb it with."

Rachel stated, "I'll get the bottle." She went for the door when Sam called.

"What bottle?"

She paused and replied, "A medicine bottle we keep on hand for bad wounds for the boys. It's an elixir."

"What's in it?" she asked.

"Cocaine." she replied. "It will help with the pain when you disinfect that wound."

She sat beside herself as Rachel left to get the bottle. "I have to give my patient cocaine when if I was in a hospital all I would need to do is numb it."

Buck stated, "I can take the pain, Doc."

She shook her head, "Scrubbing this is going to hurt. You are lucky it didn't hit a major artery. There is a lot of damage to your arm." She dug out a special set of glasses with a microscope attached to the lenses and looked closer at the wound, "You have a tendon I will have to reattach. It's gonna bleed more."

Jimmy stated, "I'll get the tourniquet." He walked out of the door to go to the house to help Rachel get some medical supplies.

She squinted, "Tourniquet! I hardly ever have to apply one of those."

Kid stated, "Got to control the bleeding somehow."

She let out a deep sigh, "I need an E.R."

Short Time Later

As Sam and Rachel tended to Buck's wound the riders stepped outside to give them room. Lou decided to confront Jimmy about Sam. She walked up the fence he was leaning against in thought.

"Can we talk?" she asked him.

He turned his head and gave a smile, "What is it, Lou?"

"What did you do to Sam this morning?" she asked nearly accusing.

He assured, "I was just teaching her to shoot. She starting the flinch. She doesn't like the noise. That's all."

"You didn't try to…you know…" she motioned.

He shook his head, "I didn't."

"Then why did she nearly sit on my lap when you sat down this morning?" she wondered.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself. I thought maybe I smelled." he confessed.

"You fancy her." she figured.

"I do." he admitted. "I would never do anything like that to her, Lou. You know that. I thought she fancied me. Especially the way she turned her head and blinked those big brown eyes at me when I was teaching her to shoot the other day. I don't know what I did, Lou. Maybe in the future they court differently than we do?"

Lou stated, "They don't seem to court at all in the future. I heard lots of folks have children and live together without ever getting married."

"What am I supposed to do to court her, Lou? What do they do where she is from? Any ideas? I would like to get to know her." he confessed. "I just can't figure out what I did wrong."

She recalled, "When I was in the future Sam took me to eat out a few times. We went shopping and we went to a concert with music. She likes music. Maybe she would go to the church dance coming up. Might help her."

Jimmy asked, "How will it help her?"

She explained, "The music they listen to is something called 'rock' and it's terrible. Maybe at the church dance she can hear some sensible music. They all listen to terrible music."

He wondered, "What is rock?"

"I'm not sure but whatever it is…it's not music." she declared.

Next Day

Jimmy woke up determined to find some way of gaining Sam's affection. He didn't wish to scare her and come across as being arrogant. He decided he would ask her a simple question and see what kind of response he would get.

He found Sam kneeling on the porch of the bunkhouse with an odd contraption laid out. It was all black in color and looked very reflective. It was the size of a book but seemed unfold like pages. He then spied her connecting a wire to the contraption and then plugging the wire to a small box looking device. He had no idea what she was doing. "What's all this?" he asked.

She looked up from her position and smiled, "I'm setting up my solar bank to charge the power banks for my phone and stuff I brought."

"You are setting up to do what?" he asked confused.

She explained, "It's a charger that can take sunlight and turn it into energy to charge my things."

"Huh," he had no idea how any of it worked.

"The more sunlight the solar panels get the better it works." she added as she positioned the array.

He watched, "Okay." He still had no idea what she was talking about.

She stood up from her task and retrieved her cell phone. "I just used the power bank to recharge my phone and now I'm recharging the power bank." she explained.

"Still Greek to me." he told her. "I was talking to Lou and she was telling me about this kind of music your all like in the future. She said it's called rock."

She grinned, "Lou hates it."

"What is it?" he wondered.

She suddenly looked at her phone and Jimmy thought perhaps she was ignoring him. She swiped the screen and then tapped it a few times. She then stated, "Stay right there." She walked into the bunkhouse leaving Jimmy alone on the porch. He waited for just a moment and she emerged with a small round contraption. "Wireless speaker." she held up a device the size of a small music box. She placed the speaker down and tapped her phone again. Out of the device he heard the beat of a drum and then a loud booming voice started to sing.

"Rise up gather around, we're gonna rock this place to the ground." the voice blared.

As he listened to the music start he watched as Sam seemed to just sway with the fast beat. She started singing with the music and truly knew the song by heart.

"I want rock and roll." she sang aloud.

Jimmy found his toe tapping to the beat. He couldn't understand why Lou hated the music so much. He rather enjoyed it. It was certainly different. Refreshingly different to his estimation. He found himself nodding to the tune and then watched as Sam gently placed the phone down and started to hop about and do a freestyle dance in front of him. He started to mimic her moves and found he was having fun. It was a crazy kind of dance with no steps or even reason but he found it enjoyable.

Suddenly, Rachel and the riders emerged from the bunkhouse. She stood gasping, "What is all that noise?"

Lou picked up the phone and stopped the play list. She gave a disappointed look to Sam.

She looked at her grandmother, "Hey! I was listening to that."

"This is not music." Lou insisted for she really hated rock and roll and found it annoying.

She grabbed her phone back, "You like Air Supply." she reminded her.

"That's the only one I like." she agreed for she did like romantic music.

Sam teased her and brought up the song on the play list. The song started to play over the speakers as Sam sang along rather mockingly.

"I'm all out of love. I'm so lost without you…" Sam dramatized and sang.

Lou crossed her arms and gave an annoyed look, "Are you done?"

"Almost." she laughed. She paused the play list and looked at the audience.

Kid looked about, "What is all this?" he asked.

"My solar charger." she told him.

He stood baffled, "What does it do?"

"It keeps my phone, the speakers and those walkie talkies going." she explained.

Billy asked, "All that noise came out of that little round box?"

She nodded, "Yup! I have the music downloaded on my phone and use blue tooth to play it on the speaker."

"What's a blue tooth?" he looked about for this said tooth.

"Never mind." she dismissed. "Just don't touch my equipment."

Kid asked, "Just what was that awful noise?"

She replied, "It's music. You didn't like the love song?"

"The first noise." he corrected. "The second one I didn't mind."

"Rock of Ages." she cheered. She motioned, "Jimmy liked it."

He shrugged, "It wasn't terrible."

Kid stated, "It was terrible. That was not music."

She rubbed her forehead, "Great…they are both sticks in the mud." She sounded disappointed, "And I thought you were the cool one." She rolled her eyes.

Kid gave a displeased look.

Rachel asked, "You mean people in the future listen to…Rock…of…Ages. That is what you call music."

"It's rock and roll." she nodded.

Rachel figured, "You really need to attend the church dance, Doc."

Lou beamed, "Yes!"

"What do they play at the church dance?" she wondered.

"Music," Rachel assured for she too was not impressed with rock and roll.

Sam turned to Jimmy, "Did you like the rock and roll?"

He did enjoy it but didn't want everyone to think he liked music from the future that everyone else seemed to hate. He shrugged, "It was okay."

"But you were dancing to it." she countered.

"I was just doing what you were doing." he told her.

She pondered as she found none of the riders seemed to like rock and roll. She declared, "I bet Teaspoon will like it. He's pretty cool."

Rachel stated, "I do not understand why you keep referring to temperature."

Lou explained, "It's their slang. It means neat." She smirked at Sam, "And yes, Teaspoon is pretty cool." She used the slang to prove to her granddaughter that she was not a stick in the mud.

"Wait until I figure out what your slang is." she warned.