Part
three - My baby don't care for me
Bella Torres didn't think that Chakotay, cousin on her mother's side - she was part Indian, but let everyone know she was all Mexican, just in case she needed to blame some mixture in her blood for whatever particular ire overran her heart - would clamp his enormous fingers round her thin neck and squeeze the life out of her. She choked delicately first, moved her body so that Pianoman "Pig" Paris, otherwise known as Kid Paris could see, sympathise and rush to her aid and release her from the evil clutches of her own blood cousin.
It was not to be, as Kid Paris hovered near his honky tonk, tried to open his mouth and offer the outrage Bella Torres needed and instead, remained gaping like a fish. All the time, Chakotay's free hand had been hovering near his holster just in case Pock Face decided he still needed to make a statement through the voice of his pistol. Instead, that man gaped as he saw a gun pointing at him and in Double QuickTime, the hat was released. His hand through which a bullet bore a hole and then lodged in the wood of the right door of Sandrine's double doors, whipped away and the next second, he stumbled out the saloon like a drunk. He must have been drunk too, because all everyone could hear when Pock Face left the floor board of the porch was a loud splash. The horse trough being good enough to cool his temper, they did not see him again for a while.
So Bella closed her eyes and feigned a faint.
That got Chakotay's attention and a whole lot of patrons in the saloon. She sank to her knees, and the sudden shock of going limp caught Chakotay by surprise. He released her, didn't look penitent and declared that she should know better than to catch him with that trick. Bella rose to her feet, rubbed her neck and asked in a plaintive voice that didn't sit well on her, "I can't tell you more than these pigs here..."
"So?"
"She was headin' for Echo Creek."
Chakotay laughed. He laughed so loud and hit his hand on the counter while doing so, that the glasses shook as the counter vibrated.
"She'll be back."
"What?"
"You heard me. She'll be back. She will never escape me, Bella."
"But - but we heard you gone and won her in a poker game."
A gasp went up from Pipe Gantry, Anonymous Cowboy and Kid Papa whose hat fell off as his tried to scratch his scalp just above the ear. Pock Face was long gone, so nothing was heard from him. Kid Paris, duly settled back at his honky tonk, started playing something no one had ever heard. They had never heard most of his others songs, but this sounded like the musician must have had some problem with his stomach, or som'thin'.
"It's none of your business," Chakotay hissed and Bella jumped back before he could wring her neck again.
"But - but - "
"Nothin', you hear me?"
"Fine. I'll just let my imagination do all the work and I'll tell - "
"By the spirits, Bella! I should have throttled you when you came out of your mother's womb."
"Oh, you wouldn't do that, now, would you? You're my favourite cousin of all cousins."
"That be nearly the truth, but I'll take it."
"Thank you..."
Tuhbe was mopping up behind the counter. Sandrine would come in tonight and look at the mirror and tell Pock Face he'd spend a few days in jail and make the sheriff happy because the old goat would have company at least during the night, if Pock Face Minus 2 Pimples didn't pay up. Meanwhile, the mirror would be fixed. That way Chakotay, staring at the reflection, could see easily who pushed the double doors and know when a certain golden haired virago made her entrance. When the counter had been swabbed clean, everyone in the saloon had gone about their own business and Bella had gone and seated herself on a chair next to Kid Paris and Pipe Gantry laughed all the way to his companion's woman's house to claim his reward. Kid Papa just puked his Ghost Pee over the table at the far end of the room - he was only seventeen and green about the gills - when Chakotay walked to the doors of the saloon and retrieved his dagger, sheathing it who knows where..
He returned to lounge against the counter, slapping his palm on the surface and looking as if Tuhbe owed him something.
"I believe I ordered cider."
"Mr - uh...Fleetfoot - "
"Chakotay."
"Mr Chakotay, I do not know what you mean when you say cider."
"You like fruit, Tuhbe?"
"How'd you know my name?"
"Tuh be or not tuh be..."
Tuhbe smiled from ear to ear.
"I like fruit."
"Cider."
"It's apple wine!" yelled someone on the far side of the room.
Tuhbe, who once dreamed of being a Shakespearean actor and who loved to quote from his plays, shaped his mouth into an "O", and gave a deep nod of understanding that accompanied the "O". Then he turned to the shelf which by this time had been restocked by Tuhbe's side-kick, the Barman's Help. Tuhbe's eyes scanned the shelf and a few seconds later, along with a whoop of delight, he presented Chakotay with a bottle of "High Valley Apple Wine".
"I'll take the bottle," Chakotay Fleetfoot said and grabbing a glass from the counter, he made his way to a table close to the piano. He looked pointedly at Bella Torres, his cousin on his mother's side, then sat down at the table.
"You're staying in these parts, Chakotay?" Bella Torres asked him, but she remained fixed to her chair close to Pianoman Paris just in case Chakotay got it into his head again to wring her neck again.
"You let your mama know where you are?" he asked, ignoring her question.
"I don't talk to her no more. Besides, I like it here."
"That be so. Your mama wants you to come home."
"You're staying in these parts?" she asked again. This time she rocked when Chakotay banged the bottle down hard on the table. He had already gulped down one glass of cider and was about to raise the glass again.
"I'll stay."
"Then you can watch me perform."
"That's what you do here? You don't..." he started, then looked to where Annika Hansen had changed her partner for a new one, edging ever closer to Chakotay's table. Maybe Annika thought that being near to the man in black, might improve her chances of an acquaintance with him. So she breathed heavily past her partner's ear. It looked gross, that's what Kid Papa would have said had he seen what Annika Hansen was trying to do, but as he was still busy cleaning up his puke, he missed the little charade. Annika was licking off her new beau's ear, like a cat with spikes on her tongue, but all the time she kept her eyes on the prize, which was the man in black, also known as Chakotay "Angry Warrior" Fleetfoot.
"What did you say, Chakotay?" Bella reminded him, since Chakotay was looking at Annika with amusement. This time Bella Torres moved forward, pulled Chakotay's Stetson off his head to get his attention. "What did you say?" she asked again. But maybe Bella Torres should have left Chakotay's Stetson on his head, because all that hair that was hidden under it and that everyone who knew Indians and who knew that their hair was always long and sleek and black with no lice - that be courtesy of the Traveling Medicine Man With no Hair who had advice on hair for everyone except for himself - fell about his shoulders.
Annika Hansen left her partner's ear and gasped out loud. Chakotay left his Stetson on the table, gulped down another glass of cider and looked straight at Bella Torres, cousin on his mother's side.
"You dance in this joint? You good?"
"I am," she said with a smile, and stood up, did a pirouette or two and flounced her skirts about her like a child showing off her new Christmas dress. "I am very good."
Annika Hansen pouted once more when Chakotay ignored her and continued to finish off the bottle. One look at Tuhbe Shakespeare Truman, and he sent his side-kick scurrying for another bottle to Chakotay's table. Bella Torres looked at her cousin and everyone could see how worried she was. She had a look that said Chakotay had better stop drinking, or he will soon land in the horse trough just ready and waiting for him. But what the others didn't know that Bella Torres knew about her cousin, but was not willing to admit, hence her worried look to divert the onlookers, was that Chakotay could take his drink. He never liked drinkin' much, but his body was very tolerant to toxins like alcohol. What did the others have to know what she was thinkin'. Chakotay sat there and started on his second bottle while the others got on with their business of flirting, touching where the hands go too public to mention in front of Kid Papa, and playing poker and winning other men's women. There were four brothers sitting in one corner, very quiet like, who peeped from under the brims of their hats, and then dropped their chins on their chests to sleep again after being disturbed when Pock Face shot the mirror and Chakotay shot Pock Face.
"Hey, Kid!" Chakotay shouted at Kid Paris.
"Yeah?"
"Play something."
"I am playing something," Kid Paris replied and suddenly everyone
seemed to wake up and become attentive again.
Even Annika who was biting her partner's ear, stopped that particular occupation just to hear or see what was going to happen. It must be said that Annika never went to bed without securing a promise from any man she approached and by the next night he would be warming her bed, or she would be warming his bed.
While Bella Torres knew that deep down Chakotay, her cousin once removed but sometimes too close for comfort like when he used to tan her hide when she was little, was really hung over a woman, she could not imagine that he could be hung over a woman like Calamity Janeway. It seemed to her unlikely. Chakotay was most times gentle like, but she was not going to tell anyone that. The thing was just: If anyone could tame Calamity Janeway, her cousin Chakotay be the man to do the honours.
So Bella kept wondering what went wrong, and how Calamity Janeway got to be Calamity. That one could outspit a cobra and shoot its tongue off at fifteen paces. Bella didn't want to see what Calamity Janeway would do with her cousin Chakotay, since she's already seen what that wildcat could do with any man who came within one pace of her. Everyone had seen how she cleared Pock Face of one of his pimples; everyone knew she could have done more that day, but she wasn't going to help him - Pock Face, that is - with his particular plight; she'd be doing him a favour. Well, it wasn't just that Calams shot off the man's pimple; she did so while her back was turned to him. And Chakotay "Angry Warrior" Fleetfoot, he of the fleet foot, had just done the same thing, only, he was looking at her, Bella Torres of Sandrine's Triple S Lounge, while doing Pock Face a favour. Now, Bella Torres, knowing what Calamity Janeway could do with her guns and knowing what her cousin Chakotay could do with his guns, was faced with a serious dilemma.
"Hey, play something!" Chakotay's voice thundered. Kid Paris rocked up in his chair and played a very fast tune which no one knew.
The dilemma of Bella Torres was this. In a war of the Fleetfoots and Janeways, she would be faced with taking sides. She could take her cousin on her mother's side's side, for the reason that he was a blood relation and she would not like to see him beaten in a war of whatever weapons they chose and betray him by taking someone else's - a woman at that - side. She could take Calamity Janeway's side because Calamity Janeway was a woman and women - if she didn't include Annika Hansen on account of the loose life she led - always stood up for one another against the varmints that dwelled in Goose Creek, Wyoming, and Echo Creek, Montana, and Dodge City and every other city, even Boston where she heard women could become doctors and scientists and writers. Yes, Bella Torres was a sister in the struggle with Calamity Janeway against them varmints who could never hold their liquor - except Chakotay - and keep their rods jammed inside their trousers and who were all pigs, if they asked her and Calamity. Look at Kid Paris. Maybe she could go to Echo Creek too and practice sharp shooting so she can shoot Kid Paris's peepee off. But then, that be an investment she'd not want to get rid of since Kid Paris was going to marry her, only he didn't know it yet. For now, he was a pig.
That was why Bella Torres sat on the edge of her chair and experienced the pain of divided loyalty. Her heart ached for only a moment, then she decided if the outcome was even, that be good enough for her, whatever method the Fleetfoots and Janeways chose to settle their differences.
She hoped they would talk.
"Hey, Kid."
"What!"
"Play 'My baby don't care for me'..."
*****