Morning came slowly, Jessie felt like she hadn’t slept in a week. Starving and sleep deprived, she rode on. She was about 4 miles from Dodge City, when 4 cowboys rode up to her from the north. Great, just great. That’s all Jessie needed was 4 hot headed cowboys who think that they’re Romeos after her. “Hi beautiful! What’s a pretty little thing like you doing out here all by your lonesome?” One of them said as that got closer. Wooonnnnddderful Jessie thought. She simply didn’t look at them, and tapped Jasper with her spurs and loped away from them. “Hey! Don’t leave, Chase is just messin with ya!” one of the others said. “I don’t care” Jessie threw over her shoulder. Not thinking they would keep following her was the wrong thing to think. because they did, they followed her very closely. They couldn’t be more than a half mile from Dodge City. She could hear their laughs and hoof beats behind her. They caught back up with her in short time, she had to think of a new way to get read of them since ignoring them wasn’t working. “Alright boys, I have a challenge for all of you. We’ll have a little horse race, if I win, ya’ll will promise to leave me alone, and if you win, I’ll tell you where I’m from and why I’m out here all by my lonesome. The finish line is Dodge’s main street.” She told them and almost immediately Chase agreed but said “The race will just be between me and you” “Alright then, if one of you fine gentlemen will break out a gun and fire off a round, we’ll get this little race on its way” Jessie told them. “Fine Gentleman my foot” Jessie thought as the one who said that Chase was just messing with her pulled out a gun and fired one round off toward the sky. Jessie let Chase get about three horse lengths ahead before she let Jasper have his head and run. As she passed Chase she hollered:“The reason your mama named you Chase is cuz you’re always chasin’ and never winnin’!” If she had been given more time, she could’ve thought of something better but it worked. Chase never passed her again as she flew into Dodge City. All 4 of the cowboys were embarrassed and never even looked at her as they rode by. Chuckling to herself, Jessie rode down Main Street of the great Dodge City. It was huge compared to Great Bend, saloons and dance halls lined every street as did general stores, hotels, restaurants and all kinds of other stores. Horses and buggies were tied to hitching posts and people filled the sidewalks. Women and men of all shapes and sizes walked around, some looking like they had no clue where they were going. Tell the truth, Jessie really didn’t know where she was going ether. She had never imagined it would be this big, everything about it was huge. While riding slowly, Jessie saw things in the windows of the stores that had never interested her like dresses and big hats with colored feathers in the hat bands, and little porcelain dolls and toys that she had never had. One store as called Killerman’s Jewelry and More, that had pretty necklaces and such in the windows. Next to Killerman’s was a smaller building with a wooden sign hanging over the door that said “Aguilar’s Guns and Weapons” hmmm, wonder if that’s some of ol Jose’s folks. Maybe that’s where he took the guns that Jessie helped him steal. Having a good shotgun wouldn’t hurt Jessie thought to herself as she rode by. After she found her a place to stay tonight, she’d come back to Aquiler’s and buy her one. A hotel named Big John’s caught her eye, it looked like a nice place to stay, but so did Torrid’s back in Great Bend. Surely Dodge City wouldn’t be so hard on somebody when they carried a gun, after all from the looks off it everybody did carry a gun! Up in front of her, Chase and his 3 buddies appeared out of nowhere, riding along talking to people they passed on the street. But something up in front of them caught Jessie’s eye. An old man with a fuzzy beard and a floppy hat, was riding a little black donkey. They looked like they had been around the world and back together. Behind him, rode a girl on a slim horse. She couldn’t have been any older than Jessie, but from the hardness in her eye, she’d lived through a lot, just like Jessie. Chase had saw her by then and had rode up to her and was trying to talk to her, but she just gave him a good-to-hell look and rode on. Something about her reminded Jessie of herself, she smiled and thought Well maybe there’s a few girls like me around here. The old man rode by Jessie and soon the girl did too. As she passed Jessie, she glanced her way. For some reason Jessie smiled at her, and the girl smiled back. Jessie couldn’t help but turn around and look over her shoulder to see where they went, surprisingly, the girl was turned around in her saddle watching her too…..
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