I DO NOT OWN BILLY THE KID OR HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS. SHOUTOUT TO PHOWARD FOR THEIR SUPPORT. THEIR OC'S SHAW ELDRIGE AND JESSA GEORGE WILL BE IN THIS STORY, BUT THEY WILL ONLY BE MENTIONED. I DO NOT HAVE THE TALENT TO WRITE EITHER OF THEM THE WAY THAT PHOWARD HAS.
McCoy farmland. Pikeville, Kentucky. The next day.
Billy wiped the sweat from his brow as the Kentucky sun beat down on him. The McCoy family owned 50 acres of good, strong, North American tobacco. All the McCoy men were split off into teams to manage the long rows of tobacco. Billy was with Tolbert and Pharmer in the upper rows of the crop while Randall and Jim worked the middle rows; Calvin and Bud were taking care of the lower rows. Billy had smoked plenty of tobacco in his day, but had never actually cultivated it. The middle McCoy boys showed Billy how to properly pick off the tobacco leaves and lay them out to be dried later. As the men picked, it was Pharmer who eventually broke the silence.
"So Billy, where is you from?" he asked me trying to make conversation to alleviate the tediousness of picking tobacco leaves.
"I was born in New York, but I ended up moving to some shit hole in Kansas named Coffeyville when I was a boy." Billy explained, remembering the decision that had caused all of the troubles he had faced in life.
"Why in the Hell would ya leave the big city fer Kansas?" Tolbert asked, the thought that city slickers would willing leave all the comforts of city life for the wild west was a hard one to comprehend.
"My da worked his hands to the bone in the city at a meat packing plant, but we was still living in poverty." Billy explained as he picked off a few more tobacco leaves. "My ma heard all sorts of stories about the west and how it was chock full of high paying jobs."
"I take it yer mama got swindled." Pharmer figured as Billy nodded as he felt pity for the woman who raised him. She'd had so much faith in the American dream and in return she'd lost her husband and got saddled with that son of bitch Henry Antrim who'd two timed her without remorse and treated Billy and his brother like burdens.
"Eh, I like living in the Tug River valley just fine; except for them filthy Hatfields." Tolbert remarked as he and Pharmer both spit in the dirt.
"Who are the Hatields?" Billy asked curiously.
"A bunch o' lying cheating murderers who hate us McCoys." Tolbert snarled as he ripped the tobacco leaves off the plant.
"Devil Anse Hatfield and Poppy was in the war together." Pharmer said angrily, referring to the war between the states. "Hatfield deserted the Confederate army so he and his family could make profits loggin' while Poppy spent 2 years in a Yankee prison camp."
"And if that aint bad 'nough, his brother Jim Vance murdered our Uncle Harmon in cold blood because he fought fer the Yanks; Vance got 'im when he was too drunk to 'fend his self." Tolbert growled as of the ugly affair had happened yesterday.
"Sounds like this Hatfields is cowards." Billy said in disgust as he kept picking tobacco leaves. The way that the McCoys were talking about them, it reminded Billy too much of the House and the Santa Fe Ring. Devil Anse Hatfield and Jim Vance seemed like they'd get on real good with Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan; breaking their oaths, gunning down anyone who got in the way of something they wanted.
"All right boys, we're pausing for lunch!" Randall annoucned as everyone heaved a huge sigh of relief as the McCoy men made a mad dash for the wagon where their lunch pails were waiting for them. Mrs. McCoy had also made a pail for the Kid which contained cornbread, beef jerky, and a small canteen of water. After getting their grub, Billy sat down with his tobacco picking partners and dug in.
"Can I ask you two a question?" Billy asked as he bit off a chunk of cornbread.
"Ya just did." Tolbert snarked as he gnawed on his beef jerky.
"Randall said that he had a daughter named Roseanna that was dead to him; what did she do?" Billy inquired innocently.
"It aint none o' yer business." Tolbert spat angrily before Pharmer could answer.
"She gave up her virtue to Johnse Hatfield." Jim McCoy said as the 3 turned to see him walk over to them.
"A regular Romeo and Juliet, huh?" Billy remarked with a grin.
"Nope, Johnse didn't love her none, just wanted to say that he bedded the daughter of his pa's enemy." Pharmer declared as he talked with his mouth full of food.
"He's a filthy skirt chaser, he tells girls he loves 'em and acts polite as pie; but once they've done the trick, he drops 'em like a hot tater." Tolbert added angrily as the memory of his sister being defiled by a Hatfield still made him see red.
"Even worse, Johnse got Roseanna kncoked up and then he abandoned her because hisnpoppy told him to." Jim said as he spat on the dirt in anger.
"That ain't right, abandoning the ma of your baby; if Johnse Hatfield were a decent man, he would married her and provided for his child." Billy said with a look of disgust. Now Billy the Kid was a ladies man and he loved chasing skirts as much as the next fella, but he had morals and he would never abandon a girl he'd knocked up; his honor wouldn't allow it.
"Well, them Hatfields aint decent, good thing you is, Billy Duff." Pharmer said with a nod of respect that Jim shared. Tolbert said nothing as he kept eating; pissed rhat his meal had bene spoiled by his sister's disgraceful behavior.
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