By Mette
"Jimmy, you got them rings?" Teaspoon said while entering the bunk house. For once there were no noisy riders laughing, arguing, eating, or any fighting going on in the room. The only person present was Jimmy - pale as a sheet he stood on front of the mirror and tied a necktie with fidgety movements. He was wearing dark pants, a newly ironed white shirt and a new black jacket with a white handkerchief in the chest pocket, all together a rather unusual outfit for a man who usually wore rough trousers, leather jackets and worn-out dusty shirts.
"Yeah, they're here…" Jimmy drew a small wooden box from his pocket and carefully handed it to Teaspoon. The elder man opened the box and took a look inside. On a soft piece of lavender blue cotton lay two golden rings closely snuggled together. The smallest of them had a tiny white diamond inlayed, and catching the beams of the morning sun in the room, it sparkled and glittered in the colors of a thousand rainbows.
Teaspoon picked up the rings and held them close to his eyes to see the tiny identical words engraved: L. and J. Forever Love. Ride Safe.
"Sure 're nice rings. Where did ya get' em?" he asked, weighing them in his hand with the experience of only a goldsmith or a man married many times. Solid gold it was.
"Seneca, last time I went there" Jimmy answered in a distant tone, still fumbling with the tie around his neck. Every time he tried to tie it, the black silk fabric slipped through his fingers like a slippery eel and fell on the floor.
"They must have been expensive….What gambler did you have to break to afford them?" Teaspoon was still examining the rings in the box.
"Them all, the bank too!" Jimmy dry voice told that wasn't in the mood for jokes, he was way too tense. The hour of the church ceremony moved closer and even though he didn't feared that she might leave him at the altar, his stomach was still filled with the wedding jitters. He wrapped his hand around the tie, like it had been the rope which held a foal, and swung the black material around his neck, only to get the other end in the mouth. Almost out of patience, he spat it out and began over for the hundredth time.
"Sorry, son. I forgot what a nervous wreck you are at this state. A man don't get married for the first time more than once!" Teaspoon returned the rings to the box and stuck it in his pocket. Then he crossed his arms and thoughtfully studied the young tie-fighting man in front of him. He had grown so fast - the cocky young boy with the explosive temper and the short fuse was forever gone and had been replaced by a grown man. The flamingly hot temper he had never seized to get rid of though, but he had gained the ability of controlling it. "What a man you've become, son!" Teaspoon thought while watching him, with a warm feeling of pride in his chest. It would take quite a woman to be a match for him. But who else could it be than the one he was marrying today?
"Do you need some piece of advice for…" Teaspoon waved his hand in the air in an insecure movement.
"No thanks. I think I am able to walk down the aisle alright!" Jimmy cut him off in a gravelly voice. He had finally got the tie tied and now looked unsatisfied at the miserable result in the mirror. The neckline of the shirt was crumpled and the knot of the tie was wry and it looked all but festive. In fact, it look like a snake had chosen his neck as the place for its struggle with death.
"Noo, that wasn't exactly what I meant, it was more like, … you know … after …" Teaspoon coughed slightly; he didn't really know how to put it. The subject was a rather tender one but he felt it his duty to distribute information of some aspects of married life to Jimmy.
"Oh, no" Jimmy realized what the elder man was hinting at and suddenly blushed, a dark red tone across the face and all the way down his neck. "I think I can handle that as well…" Despondently, he released the tie and threw it at the bunk, annoyed in hurt vanity, and then turned at the door.
"We better get going" He left the room in a long stride and didn't look back.
"Yep, you've got a knot to tie, son! And it ain't on that black silk thing there!" Teaspoon sent a mischievous glance at the abandoned tie on the bed before closing the bunkhouse door.
"I ask Thee, Mary Louise McCloud. Do You taketh this man to be your lawfully wedded Husband from this Day forward, for better for worse, for richer and poorer, through Sickness and in Health, till Death do You part?" The bald minister pronounced every syllable distinctly in a stately voice.
"I do!" Lou's voice was loud and clear against the church walls, there was absolutely no doubt in her voice. Jimmy turned his head slightly and looked down at her face behind the thin lace veil, a tiny tear of joy pulled its glinting way down her cheek. She smiled affectionately up to him and with a gloved finger wiped the tear away. In less than a minute they would be pronounced husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Hickock, and nothing could ever separate them. Nothing.
Jimmy sighed and squeezed Lou's hand. God, how he had longed for this moment! Together forever - they would wake up together in the same bed morning after morning, for all eternity. Was there anything more right in this world than this?
The bald minister turned to Jimmy. "Then I ask Thee, James Butler Hickock. Do You taketh this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife from this Day forward, for better for worse, for richer and poorer, through Sickness and in Health, till Death do You part?" Finally, the moment had come.
"I do." The two words just popped out his mouth, easy and painless like he had done nothing but get married his whole life through.
"The rings, please." The minister asked and Teaspoon left his chair and approached the couple majestically, the open wooden box in hand. Jimmy carefully lifted the smaller wedding band ring out of the box and reached for Lou's hand. The ring slipped easily down her slim finger and from a light snuffle he knew that she was almost in tears. She admired the band for a moment, then she took the other ring and gently let it slide down Jimmy's finger. He felt a thrill as the cold shining metal touched his hand and tied them together.
"Then by then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride, sir!" The gentle bald man did an encouraging movement with his hand.
Jimmy carefully removed Lou's white veil and looked at the beautifully featured face he loved so much. Tears were rolling down her cheeks but a delighted smile lay on her lips. He bent forward, kissing her, slowly, because he knew that they had both dreamed of this moment for a long time and they both wanted it to last infinitely. Finally their lips met in a short kiss, then a longer one, dwelling in their sweet happiness, lifted from this world and tied in their own, only consisting of lips, happiness and arms around waists.
"…. - wake up, Jimmy, wake up!"
"What?" Jimmy lifted his head from his bride and looked at the minister in total confusion. He had a pretty clear idea that these commanding words weren't part of the ceremony. But the minister continued to demand of him to wake up and suddenly his voice changed into a impatient girl's voice.
"Wake up, c'mon now! You are snoring worse than a dog that's come down with the cold!" The penetrating voice finally reached his conscience and he sat up with a start. For a long completely ignorant moment, he had no clue to where he was, then he recognized the bunks, the table and the barn outside the window. He was in the bunkhouse, lying on his bunk all dressed in dusty clothes. The owner of the persistent voice laughed at him with a large grin, of course it was Lou.
"Hi, you snore so the roof might fall down! You just came home from Seneca, remember? And you just wanted to sleep! Well, that's alright with us, but you don't have to drive pigs to market, right? There are other people in here!" She gave him a friendly pad on the shoulder and walked back to the Kid sitting at the table.
"Oh…alright…" still confused over the sudden change of scenery, Jimmy brushed the hair away from his eyes and yawned. Instinctively, he looked down at his hand - just checking. The ring was gone, or rather - it had never been there. It had all been a dream, realistic and reliable though, and bitterly sweet, but still nothing but a dream.
Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he watched Lou and the Kid snuggled together at the table, giggling at an internal joke only they knew. A pain hit his chest, harder than he thought possible. It would never happen - the feeling of a golden wedding band of his finger and the sight of the other band around Lou's finger… It was not for him to be the one to walk down the aisle by her side, not now, not ever. There were too many loose ends out there, too much insecurity in his way. The life that she deserved and should have, it was not for him to give. The sudden realization froze the blood in his veins and he got up from the bunk. It was not that he hadn't known this for a long time but he had never dared accepting the fact. There was only one person who could give Lou the life and security she required. And it was not Jimmy.
With a sigh, he left the bunkhouse and shut the door behind him, not looking back.
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
The Way Station
Campfire Tales
