| down, and did too, but made a fatal mistake and one of the cowboys shot him in the back. Uncle Tye made a grab for the murdering owl hoot but his partner clubed him in the head. Uncle Tye didn't see what happened after that, but mama did. Sometimes I'd see her sitting by the window and crying and I knowed she was seeing that night all over again. Uncle Tye woke up and found pa hanging from the livery stable beam. Them cowboys had beat him bad before string him up. Ma said the fight was all out of him but she made eye contact with him before he crossed over. She never said what passed between them in that second but somebody told me that she nodded to me in her arms and whispered, "me, too, sweet husband." Uncle Tye picked up Pa's badge and went after the killers but they got away. A soul can get lost in that country and the ground seemed to swallow up the trail. Uncle Tye eventually came came back, tired and defeated, but he never gave up. He took me and ma in. There wasn't much for a woman to do back in those days. Uncle Tye became Marshal Tye. Mama ran the bardello. No, she weren't a soiled dove but she shore kept the girls in control. I grew up in an atmosphere that I ain't ashamed of. From the girls, I learned of places I could only dream of, from Mama I learned to read and write since the townfolk wouldn't let "my kind" go to school with the nice people. Marshall tye, as I came to call him, taught me honor and respect. Over the years, I learned life from the cowboys and characters that passed through this saloon. Rowdy showed me how to shoot fast and accurate; Iron Mike taught me to stick to my beliefs; Brush Bill showed me calm and deliberate actions should always follow thought, not the other way around; Texas Slim proved to me that a wise man has to keep his own counsel sometimes and just shutup and listen; and Dodge Trinity ofen demonstrated his saying about attracting more flies with honey than with vineager when ever he smiled at the ladies. Yea, I learned a lot. I also learned the names of the cowboys that killed Pa, Jack Slaughter and Samuel Frankston. I never told ma or Sheriff Tye my secret for I knew someday, they would be back. |
