Incidentals

by Kathy Knudsen1

Every episode has both major and minor characters and sometimes there is more to a minor character than meets the eye. Each Chapter will be about one such character. Not all chapters will fall in the same order as the series episodes, and likely one or two episodes will be skipped over (i.e. Return to Devil's Hole because I never watch that one).

17. Chapter 17

Lurene (From Smiler With a Gun)

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"Ebenezer!"

"Coming right up, Lurene."

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That's my job, to milk every last nickel from every last cowboy that walks into the place. Ebenezer cuts me in on a share of his profits. I'm good at my job, and sometimes it ain't easy. I'm sure you could see that from them two nice looking fellas that came in here looking for Danny. Now even I couldn't drink like that all day long and still be standing in the vertical at the end of the day. Ebenezer knows how to slip me tea instead of whiskey, but he puts a few drops of whiskey in my glass just to hide the smell of the tea.

Oh my Danny, I do miss that man. I'll carry the guilt of his death to my dying day. He had promised to come back for me, you know. The fact is, I only knew Danny Bilson for a few weeks, but in that short time that I knew him, he was always true to his word. So when he said he'd come back for me, I knew he meant that.

Danny had showed up in town with a bankroll of money. He said he'd been mining for gold in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and had struck it rich, and now he was looking to settle down and was scouting towns to start up his own saloon and maybe even a hotel along with it. He told me I'd fit right into that plan of his, so when he said he'd come back for me, I knew he was tell me the honest truth. That was Danny, honest as the day is long.

Oh, Danny was such a sweet talker, too and we hit it right off the first time he came into Ebenezer's place. He spent hours sweet talkin' me. But he wasn't a drinker. He'd pay for a round for the two of us, but he always slid his glass across the table to me. Well, if I had drunk ten shots of whiskey, I'd have been flat on the floor for days. Ebenezer could see what Danny was doing, but he couldn't stop him from doing it and I had to keep the drinks coming cause that's what Ebenezer pays me to do. So Ebenezer just started serving us both glasses of tea, but charging Danny for whiskey. Funny thing is, I think Danny knew Ebenezer was serving tea, but he didn't care. Like I said, my Danny was quite a man.

Well, when them two cowboys came in looking for Danny, I was careful at first. But they was polite and real clean cut looking, and when that blond one said he and his friend operated just outside the law, well, I figured they must be alright and didn't mean Danny no harm. So, I told them where they could find Danny and they promised to remind my Danny that he said he'd be coming back for me.

Well, I didn't think nothing more about it until about a month later when some young cowboy comes into the place and told me he was from Matherville. When I asked him about Danny Bilson, he told me Danny was dead but he wasn't real quick to provide details. So, I had Ebenezer start speeding up the rounds of drinks to get that cowboy good and drunk and it wasn't long before you couldn't get the fella to stop talking.

He told me Danny had called a man out and when he described the man, I knew right off it was that blond cowboy who had come in with his friend about a month ago. That fella wore his gun low on his leg and tied down and I should have known he and his friend weren't lookin' for Danny just to give him a message like they said was their intention.

The cowboy said Danny was the one who did the callin' out, but I find that pretty hard to believe. My Danny weren't the type to go looking for trouble. He was friendly and ambitious and always smiling, and he treated me like a real lady. No, it couldn't have been Danny that called the other one out. It had to be the other way around.

But I can't stop thinking that if I hadn't told them two cowboys where to find my Danny, he'd likely be alive today. He wouldda come back for me too 'cause Danny wasn't one to go back on a promise. Now, I know I didn't know Danny for very long, but I could read him like an open book, he was just that honest. A charmer is what he was.

Yes sir, Danny was a rare breed, the kind of man you just don't come across too often. And I can't help thinkin' just how different my life would be today if Danny hadn't been shot down in cold blood. So like I said, I'll carry the guilt of Danny dying till I take my last breath on this earth.

Oh Danny, I do hope you're looking down on your little Lurene and knowing just how much I miss you.