Generations in Agony...Texas: Chapter Twenty-nine

29) Bad news…

Henry Entwhistle stared at the telegram with disbelief. He gulped, then got up and went to the small washroom in the back of the office, where he puked his guts up, including Mildred’s latest pork chop special. An un-chewed black-eyed pea stuck in his nose, which only made matters worse for Henry. Hands shaking, he picked up the phone and dialed Milo’s office.

“Hello?” Milo sounded like he was eating.

“It’s Henry…Ty Stump’s getting out of prison in the morning. What do we do?”

Milo felt his indigestion boil up. He spit his egg-salad out into the waste can by his desk. “Shit…”

“He’s probably gonna come after me, don’t you think, Milo?”

“Hell, Henry, you wasn’t the only one responsible for getting him locked away. I can’t believe they’d let a dangerous criminal out like this.”

“According to the telegram, it’s a done deal,” Henry’s voice cracked; he sounded like he was about to cry.

“Easy, Henry…” Milo knew already that would do no good. If Henry got nervous, there was just no stopping it. It galled Milo to no end that the town’s lone lawman was a complete coward, but no one else really wanted the job. There were sixteen men in town, and four that were in graves, that had finally captured Tyrone Stump, who was Milo’s cousin on his great aunt’s side; he was also the nephew of the town’s preacher, Angus Stump, who had also been on hand to bring down Ty. The boy had lost his mind and gone wild; he had run all over the Pecos Basin shooting up stores, robbing everyone and every business he could get to before they had gang tackled him as he ran past the post office on Main Street. Henry, just a kid out of high school with few prospects back then, had been coming out of the barber shop at the time and Ty had run over him, knocking Henry flat, but it had made Ty stumble, none-the-less. That had allowed the sorry excuse for a posse to gang up on him and finally subdue him. The former constable, Big Jim Whitaker had died of a heart attack later that night; the excitement of the chase had been too much for him, everyone supposed. But that had also counted against Tyrone.

The sad fact was: that most everyone in town felt bad for Ty. No one wanted to see one of the town’s kids end up that way. But the law is the law, and there was little choice to be had. Even Angus had preached up a big sermon the following Sunday about the evils of turning away from the law: God’s law as well as man’s, something about ‘render unto Caesar’ Milo seemed to recall.

He picked up his phone to call Angus and Kick. Word was going to have to get around, especially to all the remaining members of that long ago posse. If Ty Stump was coming back to town, things might get all shaken up again. And here Milo had hoped to just have a few years of quiet prosperity after the whole Jesus incident a few weeks ago.

~
That night at CiCi’s house…

Solo sat at the table with his napkin on his lap. “It looks great, CiCi.”

“Well, it’s just a roast. I was going to do some barbacoa, but I never could stand the idea of eating a cow’s face.” She shivered and looked like she had just sucked a sour lemon.

Solo chuckled.

“Did you hear the news?” She said carrying the rice in and setting the bowl on the table. “Ty Stump is getting out of prison. The whole town is talking about it.”

“Who’s he?”

“That’s right, you weren’t around then. He’s Angus Stump’s nephew. Some think he could be his son, really, but Angus never acknowledged him. He went crazy about fifteen years ago and went on a wild crime spree, shooting up places, robbing, high-speed chases and all that. They finally caught him here in town.”

“Must have been exciting,” Solo shoved half a tortilla full of beef into his mouth.

“It was all anybody talked about. I had just come here then. Can remember that very well. My father would not let me leave the house until they caught him and we could not go out at night, because Ty had already broken into several places. Just about everyone was keeping their guns loaded, just in case he crashed into their living rooms. It was pretty bad, at the time.”

“Bad hombre, huh?”

“Well, who knows now? That was fifteen years ago. Maybe he found God while he was inside.”

“Happens to a lot of men that way,” Solo continued to shovel in CiCi’s food. The woman could cook quite well. So far, all he had done with her was spend time, eating and talking things over. He had made no moves to sleep with her, yet. Hope still floated around his heart. She was beautiful, and just sitting across from her reminded him of why he had used his powders on her, back when she was even younger. The guilt of it forced him to leave New Mexico for Chicago, where his life had turned and he had ended up working for Doyle. He knew many men who had spent time inside, but Solo had always been too smart for that.

Besides, he had enough to worry about with Doyle’s men, and when the next attempt on the Doc would happen. Thankfully, Doc and Carla had taken his advice and left town. Although Solo had given them some suggestions, he did not care where they went, so long as they were not around when the final confrontation happened.

“Are you going to go back to Doc’s house tonight?” CiCi looked at him with big eyes. Solo saw the message in them. As he hoped, she was beginning to think of him as a protector now. He nodded, still chewing rice and beans and pico.

“If you want…you can stay here, tonight.” CiCi looked away, not wanting to see the look on his face when she made the offer.

“I do want that, CiCi. But I have things that I must do. I’m responsible for more than myself now. I intend to carry that responsibility out to the end.”

Her face drew into a mask of worry. “I don’t want you to get hurt…or killed, Solo. This…this thing between us. I don’t know where it will go, but…I know I don’t want you to go away, for any reason. Not until…”

Solo placed his hand over hers. “We’ve talked about this, CiCi. I want this very much. But, I can’t come to you until I’ve found at least a little redemption. I would be no good to you otherwise. Please, you must allow me this.”

She nodded, but did not trust herself to talk.

~