1st Draft......
Gabriel
Gabriel was worried about Ben it had been weeks since she heard from him last.
It was a short telegraph that the bell boy brought to her room, Ben had said that he should be back soon to get her.
Horseshoe Bend, was a nice little town, Gabriel wasn’t sure why or how she had got there, I mean she stepped on a stage one day in King Hill, with just a bag and let the stage take her as far as the few dollars she stole from Charlie’s stash take her.
Anything was better then being in the same house as Charlie, she was tired of his beatings.
At first she didn’t know better, barely a woman of 14 years when her parents unloaded her on Charlie and then they left to find their fouturne in gold.
At first Charlie was ok, he didn’t try anything with her, just treated her as a maid but when Charlie did little odd jobs around town and got paid he would drink, get mean and stare at her with this evil smile.
It made her skin crawl.
So she made a point early on to find a safe place to hide on those nights…
It was a little hidden spot at the base of a tall pine, two tree had fallen years ago and made a little boxed in place between them.
It was comfortable and hidden from the house, she could sleep safely under the stars.
She loved it there, but she only went even close to it when Charlie drank and no other times especially in the daylight, she never wanted him to find it, it was her spot.
One night Charlie was late.
Gabriel knew he was at the saloon drinking.
So she started packing up her bedding to go hide for the night.
Gabriel hadn’t even finished yet when Charlie came stubbling through the door.
She grabbed her bedding and tired to get past him.
“Where in the hell do you think your going”
“Out to check the hogs” Gabriel said
“With a bed roll?” Charlie replied
“Let me go” Gabriel managed to say as she try to twist away from him.
“Girl it’s time you started to be a woman” and he hit her..
Gabriel shivered in the darkened hotel room even after all this time it was like it happened yesterday.
She wiped away the tears that had formed and now ran down her cheeks.
In frustration she picked up the over turned rocking chair and sat down.
“That bastard took away something that I will never get back, something I wanted to save for marriage”….
Shoving those thoughts from her head she thought of Ben
She is with Ben now thats all that matters.
She had been working at the restaurant in town and making enough to keep her alive, and she enjoyed it.
Anything away from Charlie was like heaven.
Ben walked in one day with his hat in his hand asking for a table.
She gladly lead the handsome man to a nice table by the window and she was about to turn to pickup an order that was ready he asked.
“Do you have a boyfriend ?”
Gabriel felt herself blush from head to her toes
“No sir I don’t” she finaly got between a nervous laugh
“Husband?”
Gabriel felt a flicker of a flame
“Now sir, if I ain’t got a boyfriend, what makes you think I’d have a husband?”
It was Ben’s turn to go red in the face
“Well I …I”
“You just stop right there Sir, I’m not sure what kind of girl you think I am but I think I’ll find you another waitress” Gabriel replied
“Please Miss, I didn’t mean no harm” Ben blurted
Gabriel noticed the room had got quiet and she took a moment to glance around
Jimmy the owner had a shit eating grin on his face and besides that he was shaking his head, like he was enjoying it.
Gabriel glared at him and Lily, which was the other waitress.
Lily turned to face the other way but you could see her shoulder go up and down in laughter.
Gabriel turned back to Ben “See what you’ve done? Everyone is laughing at me”
Ben faked a cough/laugh into the napkin
“What you laughing now Gabriel asked”
“Miss I just wanted to ask you out for coffee”
Gabriel remembered this so well now, how at that moment he said that, she melted.
That all happened months ago, they had courted for few months as Ben worked for a local rancher and finally married..
She had been worried about the honeymoon night, she worried she wouldn’t be able to fulfill her duties as a wife..
But Ben was so gentle and caring that all the past thoughts of Charlie melted and they made passionate love all night.
She was happy.
Gabriel rocked back in forth as she went through her memories, finally settling on Ben’s Mom..
Ben’s mom couldn’t make it to the wedding as she was ill at home in Crouch, it was a little mining town up north where Ben was raised.
One day Ben recieved a telegraph that his Mom needed him, by the look on his face, I knew he needed to go and fast.
We only had a one horse so I stayed home, not knowing, I would never meet her.
Gabriel mopped the tears from her eyes and she rocked in the dark hotel room.
She liked to remember things as it was her way of keeping Ben close to her heart.
When Ben got back he was a mess, he had buried his Mom and we both weeped.
Ben was finally able to tell her about a Deed his mom had given them as a wedding present…It was a mining stake by Idaho City.
You could see the glow in his eyes.. And within weeks he said he needed to go to Idaho City to get their new life started and he would send for her as soon as he could.
Gabriel knew this meant the world to him so she agreed.
But that was weeks ago and her money was running out, soon she would need to move from the hotel to a boarding house and and get her old job back at the resturant.
Looking out the window she thought of the first days with Ben, his eyes in the sky attitude was contagious and she started dreaming of the mining stake that his Mother had given him on her death bed.
Ben didn’t like talking about that part of his life and she had passed before Gabriel had met her but she sounded like a fine woman.
The tree’s moaned outside from the wind that was picking up as the skies grew dark and heavy with rain.
It was nights like these that Gabriel missed Ben the most.
Lightening flashed in the distance and from instinct Gabriel started counting, one thousand one, one thousand two, boom .
Shaking her head from the trance she let herself fall in.
The rain starting pelting the window in a rhythmic fashion that almost lured her into another daydream.
A flash of Lightening again, only this was closer, Something caught her eye and Gabriel strained to make it out through the rain soaked window.
“A Man”
He sat on his horse at the edge of darkness between the bank and the land surveyors Office.
The glow of his cigarette lite the lower part of his hard driven face.
His face was covered with days growth of beard, it looked like he just rode in from the trail.
Gabriel thought “Why doesn’t he get inside?” he is going to catch the death out there.
Darkness fell again as the light from the lightening fizzled out and she lost sight of the lone cowboy.
Something was different about him, something menacing, something dangerous, but she couldn’t look away.
She strained to find the cowboy in the darkness, when the lightning struck again in the distance.
The cowboy was still there but this time he was looking up at her in the window.
Startled, Gabriel tripped over a rocking chair as she tried to get back from the window and fell to the hardwood floor.
“Shit she cried out”
She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to muffle anymore noise for what good it will do.
Bruised from the fall Gabriel slowly raised from the floor.
It felt like she had twisted her ankle “Dam luck” She mumbled
Gabriel slowly limped to the window.
Cautionally she moved the curtain back.
Lightning struck again in the distance and the cowboy was gone, franically see searched the street below, up the street, down the street…nothing
He had vanished, was he just her imagination?, maybe the rain played tricks on her?
But she clearly saw the red glow from his cigarette, how it glowed brightly when he inhaled, how it almost went out when he didn’t.
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