Opposite Numbers

It was a cold and windy morning when the express rider left the station with the mail. The air was filled with drizzle and a heavy scent of moisture came from the wet grass. Only a dim light was allowed from behind the dark grey clouds who rushed over the sky as if their only mission in this world was to catch up with the young rider that rapidly laid mile after mile behind him through the rocky landscape.

Jimmy felt an icy shiver running down his arms and legs and he tightened his light brown duster around his broad shoulders and for the tenth time regetted that he had forgotten his gloves in the bunkhouse. He tried to tuck his half frozen hands into the sleeves but it only made it difficult to hold the reins and did not really keep the bitterly cold wind outside.

The graceful palomino horse rode a steady trot along the muddy trail, knowing all the roads around Rock Creek by heart. Jimmy was deeply absorbed in his own thoughts and concerns when suddenly a gunshot split the cool air and a loud yell came from further down the trail.

He speeded the horse into gallop and almost flew down the slippery road, his hat hanging behind his neck on a string and his long brown hair dancing wildly in the wind. He knew the stagecoach would drive through here at this time of day and a certain bend in the road had always made it an easy target for assault.

When he came close to where the shot had been fired he led the horse up the slope and held the steed behind some trees, from where he had a view over the scene without being seen himself. His guess was right, the stage was under heavy fire from a crowd of men behind it. The choppy coach driver knelt behind one of the big iron wheels and returned the fire with a long riffle, aiming poorly and hitting even worse.

From inside, the fire was also returned and suddenly the door opened and a young woman in big green hoopskirts and with a small silver gun in hand rushed out, miraculously enough without being hit, and threw herself flat against a big rock where she would have a better aim, but also was far more vulnerable to the attackers than inside the stage's protection.

She quickly sat up, fired once and ducked behind the stone again. One of the robbers, a short fattish man with a big beard, screamed in agony as her bullet hit him in the hand and caused him to fling his gun in the creek.

Jimmy didn't think twice when he saw this scene. He kicked his horse and rode down the hill while shooting and yelling. He hit one of the men in the chest, the man stumbled but got up again and screamed at his gang: "It's Wild Bill Hickock, let's get out'a here! " He clumsily made it to his horse and took flight into the wastelands. "You are a coward!" one of the other men cried after the escape, but he hardly finished the sentence before Jimmy sent a bullet through his leg and he fell, screaming like a pig, in a pool of mud.

When he reached the trail, Jimmy jumped off his horse and half ran, half creeped to the rock where the woman sat, her big garnment already muddy and dirty but she didn't seem to care where she knelt down. She sent him a cheerful smile, revealing a white row of perfect teeth. She did not look the least bit frightened, considering they were in the middle of a gunfight. "Do you need a hand, Miss?" Jimmy couldn't help asking. Her hair was flaming red and her eyes sparkled bright and green in her face as she halfway got up and sent the biggest of the attackers back with a shot in the shoulder. He walked a few unsecure steps and fired a shower of bullets closely over their their heads before he mounted his horse and spurred it so hard that it screamed. The woman's face became twisted with pain as if she felt the horse's wounds. "Don't hit the horses" was all she said to Jimmy before she quickly sat up and pulled the trigger again. This time she hit the hat on another escaping man so it flew off. He kept panically fleeing though and was soon out of range behind the trees.

One man lay still on the ground not far from the stagecoach, face in the muddy soil and Jimmy assumed him dead. The remaining three men kept firing their guns at Jimmy and the woman, but their shots only hit the protecting rock in front of them and richochetted in the air.

A clicking noise from the woman's silver gun informed her about its emptyness and when Jimmy met her eyes he saw they were bottomless with fear and panic. She was like paralyzed by the clicking noise and not knowing what to do. "Here, take mine!" In a spur of the moment, Jimmy unholstered the other ivory Navy Colt still hanging in his belt and handed it to the woman. She smiled gratefully and whispered a quiet "Thank you" between her lips. Jimmy had no idea why he did it, normally he never lent his guns to anyone and especially not to a complete stranger, it was against all he believed in.

"Cover me!" she stood up in her full height, blew a corkscrew curl off her mouth, and fired at the men with both hands on the gun. The recoil was stronger than she expected and she stepped a little backwards. "Damn it, woman! Get down here you crazy…! You'll get killed!" Jimmy cursed and pulled her sleeve.

"No, do it like this!" She looked appealingly at Jimmy and with a steady hand and a concentrated look in her eyes shot a number of bullets in front of the three men, not hitting them but the dirt between their feet so they had to make an awkward dance backwards to avoid being hit. Jimmy could see the way she aimed meant that every shot landed exactly where she planned it. He stood up too and shot in the same way and together they forced the robbers off the trail. Wildly, they ran into the woods and dissapeared.

When the men were out of range, Jimmy turned towards the woman who leaned against the rock, short of breath as she rubbed her forehead with a triumphant smile. With expert movements she cleansed and reloaded his Colt and then handed it back to him. She continued the process with her own derringer, rubbing the silver stock till it shone and she could see her own reflection in it.

"You are quite handy with them guns, miss," Jimmy said with ill-concealed admiration in his voice. He was not sure he'd ever seen a woman shoot as well as she did. Hell, she was almost as good as himself…

"Thank you, sir. You are not entirely without skills yourself!" she said with a strong Irish accent and with a wry smile let him know that she made an understament. Her curly red hair was in an mess and her tiny hat with a green feather had fallen half down her beatifully featured face, which was streaked with gunsmoke and mud.

As she hastily tried to brush the dirt off her emerald green hoopskirts and arrange the lace, Jimmy caught a glimpse of her white pantalettes underneath and he felt his pulse quicken for a moment. He had a trained eye for female beaty but this woman had something more around her that just an ordinary ladylike sweetness. She had something sturdy and resolute in her nature which only comes from a rough life and harsh experiences. She looked like she could survive an earthquake and still look attractive.

"Excuse me, I have to get my niece, she is so scared" For the first time, Jimmy now heard the sound of a child crying in the wagon. The woman brought out a sobbing and shaking little girl about three years old in her arms.

"It's alright, Sinnead, nobody's hurt. You can stop crying, my love." The young woman sat down at the stairs of the wagon and closely tugged the shivering girl who was scared senseless.

She stroked the girls curly golden hair with devotion and love and whispered calming words in her ears, still holding the gun in her left hand. Jimmy could barely hear the words and any less understand them but he guessed by the soft and melodios tone it was Irish.

"We better be going now, ma'am" The driver said and climbed back on the box.

"Can't we wait a moment, my niece is very frightened," She began rocking the child and smiled over her head at Jimmy.

"It was very kind of you to help me there, sir. I was running out of bullets so I'm afraid I couldn't have managed all of those men alone! And he wasn't much help," she added the last sentence wispering and send an eye in the driver's direction. "How can I ever repay you?"she continued.

"You don't have to. Saving pretty ladies in trouble is a part of my daily job!" Jimmy tried to make a joke out of it and she laughed.

"And what is your daily job then? Prince on the white horse, maybe?" she said flirtingly, and smiled.

"No ma'am, My horse is brown."

She giggled and Jimmy felt his heart pounding against the walls of his chest.

"Well, to be honest, I'm just a rider for the Pony Express" Jimmy cleared his throat and tried to come up with something brilliant to say before they parted. Without really knowing why, he did not want to say goodbye to this woman already.

"I never seen a woman shoot that good, where did you learn that?"

She shrugged and got a distant look in her eyes. "I was born and raised in Ireland - there is a civil war, you have to learn how to survive …" She sat for a moment lost in thoughts.

Jimmy remembered with a shudder the dreadful look in her eyes as her gun clicked and he watched her carefully. He knew that feeling all to well, the wordless fear when the bullets ran out and there was nothing left. She was the kind of person who could only feel safe next to a loaded gun, just like himself…

Then her eyes came back to the present again and she asked the question that Jimmy had hoped she wouldn't ask: "Who are you, since those men ran off the minute they heard that name, Wild Bill Hickock?"

"My name is Jimmy Hickock, and I think it was a misunderstanding. I'm just a rider for the Pony Express…"He escaped her investigating eyes and drew circles in the dirt with his boot.

"You already told me that," she smiled and tried to keep his glance caught.

"Then perhaps you can tell me your name, Miss?"He looked at her again and she suddenly blushed.

"Oh, where are my manners? Yes of course you may know my name. I'm Gwendoline O'Cavanaugh and this is my niece Sinnead Loreen O'Cavanaugh" she said, pronouncing the names quickly in pure Irish and Jimmy only caught the half of it.

"Ah, good Irish names!" he said with a chuckle.

"That's right, for we are good Irish girls!" Jimmy couldn't help laughing a little. Her accent was really cute…especially when she flirted. She cuddled her niece's hair and the girl turned around and sent Jimmy a shy litte girl-smile before she turned her face deeply into the woman's hair.

"Ma'am, you better get in that wagon again, I have a scedule to stick to!" The impatient driver interrupted their flirting and the woman got up with a sigh.

She placed the little girl inside the coach and offered Jimmy her right hand and a charming smile. "Goodbye and thank you ever so much. May the almighty God bless you, sir" she said and hating himself for it, Jimmy felt his knees turn into jelly when he felt her soft and warm hand in his own. Her eyes were green with a slight touch of yellow, and her lashes were long and black as coal. He had never been good at resisting a beatiful lady's charm.

"Thank you. I hope we meet agai-" Jimmy was interrupted by a loud gunshot, and a second after saw the smoke coming out of the woman's silver gun. Behind his back, he heard the dull sound of a man falling to the ground and a moan. She had shot the only remaining robber so quickly that he had hardly seen her raise the gun and pull the trigger.

"He got up again and he aimed his gun at you. If I hadn't hit him he would have killed you, he was close enough for that. I only hit him in the arm, though" she said halfway excusing the action, and giggled when she realized that she had used her left hand for shooting the man and her right hand was still in Jimmy's.

"I guess his coward friends will pick him up after we're left" she swung the gun a little back and forth, then she putted it in a purse inside the wagon.

"Oh…"was all Jimmy could say, looking at the moaning man some yards from them. "You saved my life, Miss... Thank you!…"Amazed, he turned towards the woman and stared gaping at her.

"Are you allright?" she said in a concerned voice and took his hand again. "I think so…I'm just impressed - I don't know if I could shoot as fast as that! I guess I owe you …" He smiled sheepishly and she squezed his hand softly.

Suddenly, she stood on tiptoe and gave him a light kiss in the cheek, soft as a snowflake and warm as a sunbeam and all too brief. Jimmy blushed deeply and every thought left his brain.

"No, you don't, because you saved my life before, remember? We are even! Goodbye now, Jimmy Hickock!" she entered the stage and shut the door. "Thank you, I'll never forget…"

What she never would forget dissappeared in the noise from the wheels when the stagecoach started driving again and quickly turned around the bend in the road.

"Wait, I-" Jimmy ran a few steps behind the wagon before realizing it was no use. He could get his horse and catch the wagon but he had to be in Blue Creek by noon and this episode had made him rather late. With a resigned sigh, he mounted his Palomino and rode in the opposite direction. Some things aren't meant to be….

It rained all day long and in the late afternoon, the main street of Rock Creek had turned into a mud bath. Teaspoon Hunter, marshall of Rock Creek and manager of the Pony Express, swore aloud when he almost slipped in the middle of the street. With more careful steps, he entrered Rachel Dunne's house and took a look over the room. Most the Express Riders were in there, impatiently waiting for Rachel to bring their them supper.

Noah, Cody, the Kid, Jesse, and Jimmy sat gathered around the long table fighting over a card game they had lost control over. Their argument was hopefully meant in a friendly way - but to a outsider it sounded like their storming and ragging would turn into murder and rare bloodshed any minute. Noah and Cody accused each other of cheating and soon after the wildest mutual accusations flew through the air. When Kid and Jesse tried to cool them down, Noah and Cody turned against them and soon all four boys were busy nagging at each other.

Jimmy just sat at the table, not participating in the fight. He hadn't even wanted to play cards in the first place and now his mind wandered off as the others shouted and yelled over his head. His thoughts were far away from this room full of bawling people, more precicely his thoughts had gone to a certain bend in the road a couple of miles outside of Rock Creek where the stagecoach had been under attack this morning. He kept seeing Gwendoline O'Cavanaugh in front of him, with a smile she held his hand and kissed him on the cheek…

Teaspoon mumbled some reassuring words at the yelling boys, obviously in vain, and put his hat on a chair. He began tidying his face before supper but then he suddenly raised his voice and said aloud and bubbling through the soap, "Oh, Jimmy. I should tell you hello from a certain young lady I met today. Guess who!"

Jimmy barely managed to hide the shock he got and he dropped his cards. He immeadiately knew who Teaspoon was talking about and for a second his heart jumped with joy. Was she in town? Was she going to stay?

He regained control over his appearance in a second, though, and slowly looked at Tespoon - knowing that if he did it too fast he would look more interested than he intended. He didn't want the entire room to find out what had happened or who he had met - even though he had a feeling it was all going to be reavealed soon.

"No, I can't guess who you met, sir."

"Well, I think you met her today. She's pretty as a picture, redhaired and green eyed, and she speaks the language of the green meadows of Ireland… can you guess it now?" Teaspoon asked cheerfully, a little surprised of the sudden touch of poetry that hit him. He rubbed his face with the grey towel which was rough from being washed too many times.

"No, sir." Jimmy lied through his teeth, sounding extremely uninterested and tried to repress the red color that forced its way across his face. He had spent the rest of his run to Blue Creek and all the way back thinking of the Irish woman and all the wise things he could have said to her. Again and again, he had visualized her in front of him until he like a fata morgana believed to see her.

Now, he began dealing the cards again, moving the hands as swiftly as a professional gambler, trying hard to ignore Teaspoon. He did not want the rest of the room to know about Gwendoline. If he told about her the magic would be ruined.

"Nah, you've got yourself a girlfriend, Jimmy? We didn't know that!" Cody teased and balanced his chair on the two back legs. A vein showed in Jimmy's forehead and he felt a strong urge to push Cody down on the floor but he didn't.

"I don't know what the man's babbling about!" He hissingly denied through his front teeth, though well knowing. He could still feel her warm kiss on his cheek, the sweet fragrance of her hair, and the soft palm of her hand against his own. His hands shook slightly as he delivered the cards in high speed.

Teaspoon patted Jimmy's head while passing him on his way to his seat. "Well, son, this lady explicitly mentioned your name. She stays at the hotel with her niece and I met her just outside earlier today. When I told her I was the manager of the Pony Express she began praising you - about how you saved her life this morning when the stagecoach was being attacked… Are you sure you really don't know her? Her name is O'Callaghann or something." The wooden chair moarned a complaining sound when Teaspoon dropped down in it.

"No, it's O'Cavanaugh, Gwendoline O'Cava-" Jimmy stopped in the middle of the word when he realized he had fallen into the name trap Teaspoon had set up for ham.

The older man burst into a deep laughter at the end of the table, amused, and Jimmy looked annoyed at him. No matter how highly he thought of his old friend and mentor, he sometimes could be a real trial.

"Um - Hickock, maybe you better stop dealing them cards - we're only supposed to have five each and now I've got nine …ten …eleven …" Noah looked almost helpless at the cards that kept flying across the table.

"Yes, who is she, Jimmy? What happened?" Lou, who had been sitting in the corner cleaning her muddy boots, joined them at the table.

"All right all right, I confess!" Irritated, Jimmy threw the rest of the cards in a messy pile in the middle of the table. "I admit that I met her this morning and I helped her out of some troubles, with the stagecoach and some robbers. But she would have done just fine without me, in fact she saved my life! One of men would have shot me in the back if it hadn't been for her. But I really don't know her more than that! I didn't even know that she stayed here!And that's all there is to it!" He ended harshly with a sour expression.

"No offense, Jimmy! But she sure acted as if the two of you knew each other when I met her on the hotel porch." Teaspoon said and poured himself a cup of coffee. "As soon as I mentioned the Pony Express, she told me to send you her regards. She sure is a pretty thing - even though I'm not sure I have ever seen hair in that color before…"

"Great, you also made a pass at this girl, Teaspoon! Then our poor unlucky Jimmy has no chance what so ever!" Cody enjoyed himself, he loved making fun of the others and especially Jimmy who had such a flaming temper. "Teaspoon, could you tell me again what she looks like?" The blond rider tipped his chair down on all four legs and interested, leaned towards Teaspoon.

"Oh god, I'm so sick of you people! Don't you have anything better to do than gossiping and discussing other people? I hate it!" Jimmy got up in jump and headed for the door in a hard stride, his boots almost made marks in the wooden floor.

"Eh, Hickock…" Teaspoon began very innocently and Jimmy turned around with misgivings, waiting for Teaspoon's next move. He knew it would come, he knew that tone. "Eh, I've invited her and her niece over for dinner tonight, they'll be here in half an hour." The greyhaired man continued in a low voice, smiling shifty and intensely staring at a nail root on his thumb.

Jimmy got dizzy inside and hoped that he misheard Teaspoon. Typically, the older man only wanted to help Jimmy get over well known bad luck with women, but inviting strangers to dinner wasn't going to help. Not even if the stranger was pretty and charming as this Irish woman… Cody or Noah would probably get her anyway…

"And why did you do that, if I may ask?"Jimmy said calmly, trying to hide his anger. I can't do it! the thought ran through his mind. He would love to have dinner with her, that's for sure - but alone and not with the rest of the Pony Express… He would just sit there and look like a fool while Noah and Cody revealed their charming sides.

"Well, -" Teaspoon said hesitatingly, still having fun but he did not want to wake Jimmy's anger. It could be a terrifying thing. "She seemed rather nice, and she doesn't know anybody in town yet - and this place could certainly use the company of a civilized lady…more" He quickly added the last word and looked at Rachel who in the same moment entered the room not knowing what they were talking about. "I want you boys to act your best and be polite. Try'n hide the fact that we are actually wild and impolite barbarians out here. And don't stare!" Teaspoon finished and sent the boys a strict look.

"With all due respect, sir, the only impolite barbarian around here is you - inviting people to dinner without asking the rest of us first!" Jimmy slammed the door hard behind him so the windows rattled.

"Looking good, Jimmy!" He was startled by the words and spun round from the mirror. He hadn't heard Lou enter the bunk house.

After leaving the others, Jimmy had walked around angry for a while, kicking hard at every blameless stone he met on his way to the stable. Due to the never ending rain, he had realized he would get soaking wet in no time and instead he went to the bunk house where he changed his clothes.

When Lou came in, he was busy combing his long hair in a way so it didn't look too combed. Unfortunately he couldn't see more that a quarter of his face in the broken mirror and that impeded the process.

"Damn, you scared me Lou! New game of your's - sneaking up on people?"

"Nope. New game of mine - meddling in Jimmy's affairs! What's she like?" She asked couriously.

Jimmy looked into the mirror again, sighed, and lowered the comb. "That's not a new game, Lou, that's an old one. And it's really not your business."

"Is she sweet?" She at down at the bunk, not wanting to leave until she got the story.

"Just…go away! I'm in the middle of something here!" He sighed and began fighting with his hair again. It was very ruffled, and tufts got stuck in the comb all the time. Every move with the comb made him pull faces of pain.

Lou couldn't help smiling. "You really nervous of meeting her again, ain't you? Come on now, tell me about her! I won't go until you tell me!" She pulled her feet up and leaned against the wall..

Knowing how stubborn Lou was, Jimmy finally surrendered and told her what had happended by the stage in the morning, a bit more detailed than he had told the others but still leaving out the part where Gwendoline kissed him. That was really too personal…

"So do you like her?" Lou asked after he finished. The little edgy feeling growing in her stomach was inaudible in her voice. No doubt, she would be happy for Jimmy falling in love again and moving on after their little...thing on the way to Fort Laramie and the hanging of Elias Mills some time ago. It would definitely take away some of the guilt she always felt when she caught him staring at her with a kind of lost look in his eyes. Whenever she and Kid kissed in Jimmy's precence she felt his pain like a sting in her chest. She would give her right arm to see him happy again. But there was no easy way out of anything for Jimmy. For him, falling in love had never meant perfect idle and joyful times - practically the opposite. She had seen it go wrong too many times…

"Do I like her? Hard to say, Lou." That was a lie. "She's pretty, but I don't know her that well. I can't say if I like her or not…" Another lie. He knew Gwendoline O'Cavanaugh well enough to have been thinking about her the entire day, and well enough to feel a fearblended excitement over the fact that she was in Rock Creek and they were going to meet again. He knew her well enough to have rescued her and to have his life saved by her, well enough to have been kissed by her. He definitely knew her well enough to like her. And he did…

To be continued…Chapter III

Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author

The Way Station
Campfire Tales