Role Reversal
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Hannibal Heyes carried two glasses of beer to the table where Kid sat pouring over the page of a small notebook he had purchased that morning, a brand new number two pencil in his hand.
"Heyes, how does this sound?" Kid asked. "The bright sun promised a warm and sunny day."
"Sounds fine. What is it, a weather forecast?"
Kid placed the pencil between his ear and his head and reached for his glass of beer. "Nope," he said, wiping the white foam from his upper lip. "It's called Revenge."
"What's called revenge? You're not trying to write a dime novel, are you?"
Kid shook his head, but his face literally beamed with excitement. "Watch this," he said and pulled the pencil from above his ear, leaned over the paper and read aloud as he wrote. " Kate stood on her tip toes and peered over the top of the bat wing doors."
"You writing a story to get back at Kate?" Heyes asked.
"Just go look out the doors."
A perplexed look crossed Heyes' face but he got up and walked across the room to look out into the street. His jaw dropped nearly to his chest when he saw Kate, standing on the outside of the doors and looking in. When she spied Heyes, she waved her hand in a rapid motion to summon him to the door.
"Kid, how did you do that?"
"Just keep watching the door," Kid replied and scrubbed his eraser across the words until they vanished from site, as did Kate."
"How did you do that?" Heyes again asked emphasizing each individual word..
"Come on back over here and I'll explain."
"Oh, this ought to be good," Heyes said and returned to the table and sat down. "Okay, start explaining."
"Well, I didn't get one wink of sleep last night cause Kate must be trying to come up with a new story. First she had me suffering from Salmonella..."
From that chicken dinner story?"
"No, that was Rachel741...They sure do give women funny names in Kate's day."
Heyes nodded, still feeling quite confused. "Those two do like to put you in a lot of bad situations," he replied.
"Well anyway, Kate must have decided not to go with that story cause my belly quit protesting as quick as the bat of an eye. Then she started to send me down the Colorado River on a raft with no rudder and no paddle."
"I can see where that one was headed."
"Well she must have erased that one too, cause the next thing I knew I was facing down a posse with only four bullets in my gun belt."
"Where was I in all of this?"
Kid frowned. "You know she and that chicken writer don't like to write you, Heyes."
Heyes nodded. "That's often to my advantage."
"Really? Last I heard, Other Rachel, the one that worships the ground you walk on, has you drowning in an outdoor mud bath. Heyes, all three of them woman need help," Kid said tapping his finger against his temple.
"I think you have a very valid point there, Kid."
"Uh-uh. Well while Kate was playing musical chairs with a hurt Kid story, it occurred to me that two can play at that game," he said with a knowing smirk on his face.
"You mean...?" Heyes asked, both understanding what Kid was telling him, and amazed that his partner had come up with such an idea. "He-he," he chuckled. "Revenge is sweet when served cold."
"Cold!" Kid nearly shouted. "Kate dipped her foot in the ice cold bathtub and watched her toes slowly turn blue."
"Kid, what happens when Kate shows up here?"
Worry lines crossed Kid's brow. "What do you mean?"
"We just show up at her place unexpectedly. What happens if she does the same to us?"
Kid thought for a moment. Then, with a sudden jerk, he picked up the pencil and quickly erased the entire sentence involving the cold bathtub.
"She's more experienced at this than we are, Kid. She knows all about the pen being mightier than the sword."
"Kate suddenly felt very affectionate toward the two outlaws," Kid quickly scribbled onto the paper.
"Might want to reword that, Kid," Heyes said, reading the sentence from an upside down angle.
Kid thought for a moment. "former outlaws," he wrote.
Heyes winced as outlaws was not the word he was concerned about. "Maybe erase affectionate and replace it with...brotherly."
Kid reread the sentence and made the correction Heyes had suggested. "But I want to get even with her, Heyes. I don't want to be nice to her."
"You do realize that you catch more bees with honey, right?"
"You wanting me to have her attacked by bees? Heyes, even I ain't that mean, and so far anyway, neither is Kate. Besides, I think the saying is more flies with honey."
Heyes sighed heavily. Sometimes Kid could be a little on the dense side. "No, I mean if you be nice to her, maybe she'll be nice to you. And, if that goes well, maybe she could convince the two Rachels to be nicer to you, too. Oh, and I was trying to make a point, Kid."
Kid took a gulp of his beer and gave this idea careful consideration. "Nah, that would never work. All three of them knows what sells stories, and being nice to me don't sell stories."
"Now Kid, there's lots of writers out there that write very nice, uplifting stories about us, or rather about you, and lots of people love those stories."
"Heyes, if I can't get me a bit of revenge, then this writing nonsense just ain't worth doing," Kid replied.
One of Heyes brilliant ideas began dancing about in his head and a smile spread wide across his face. "Kid, I've got the perfect idea for revenge that not one of those writer's will be able to retaliate against."
"What's that Heyes?" Kid asked eagerly.
"Give me your pencil and paper," Heyes told his partner.
Kid slid the pencil and paper across the table. He peered at the notebook as Heyes wrote, but was unable to decipher from an up side down angle. "Make sure it's readable, Heyes. You know you can't even read your own writing."
Heyes finished putting his thought on the paper and slid the notebook back to Kid to read.
Kid read the single sentence and laughed heartily. "Ah, Heyes, this is perfect," he exclaimed.
"Kate and the two Rachels suddenly found themselves with writer's block."
"You just left out one important word," Kid said, picking up the pencil and squeezing a single word in between the words 'with' and 'writer's.'
"Permanent."
"You're right Heyes, revenge is sweet, with or without your old bees and honey."
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Author's Note: Thank you to both Rachels for allowing Kid to vent his opinions. I must admit, he had some reservations about going public with his thoughts, and asks that any retaliation be directed toward his partner, "the other fella.".