Cowboy Girl Annie (6 page)

“
I don't know, and I don't care. We
just better be more concerned about keeping anyone from collecting
that money on our heads,” scolded Skinny Jake.

They came up behind a man that
staggered one way then the other as he took drinks from a cheap
bottle of wine. His trench coat was grimy with accumulated layers
of dirt like he was used to rolling on the ground in a fit when
he'd had too much to drink.

Annie wrinkled up her nose when she
got a whiff of the bum in the stiff breeze coming at her. He
smelled like a wet dog that had been due a bath ages
ago.

Jake speed up to go around the
drunk, but Cowboy girl Annie had a bad feeling about that slow
moving man. He looked familiar somehow.

She held her arm out to stop Jake
and slowed down, hoping she was wrong. Maybe the man would move on
ahead of them or hopefully just fall down and pass out.

Jake stopped when Annie's arm came
out and gave her a curious look.

Suddenly, the bum wheeled around and
aimed a gun in their direction.

“
Hey, what are you up to?” Annie
squealed as she stopped pushing her cart.

“
What you pointing that gun at us
for?” Jake asked in a panic.

“
Yeah, we don't have anything to
steal but our junk,” Annie said. She intended to play dumb about
the bounty money. Maybe the bum was just out to rob them for
drinking money. “We're in as bad a shape as you seemed to
be.”

“
Oh, but wasting you is worth the
bounty on yer head, and I can always use money,” the bum
slurred.

“
Is that so?” Now she remembered
where she'd seen the bum. It was in the back yard of the shelter
house. He was in the middle of a shoving match with some of the
other homeless people. “I'm here to tell you that money might be
kind of hard to earn.” Annie quickly pulled her pistol out of her
blue jean jacket pocket and fired. She hit the man in the upper
right arm. He swore as he dropped his gun and grabbed his bleeding
arm.

“
Run Jake like your life counts on it
cause it does,” Annie said as she bolted away from her cart and way
out around the wounded man.

Behind them, she heard a barrel
scraping on cement or a trash can skitter. She wasn't sure which,
but she hoped the bum had passed out and flopped down on the
ground. She turned around to look and walked backward a few
steps.

The drunk had retrieved his gun and
was sighting down on them.

“
Duck, Jake,” Annie shouted as she
stepped up behind him and knocked him to the
ground.

The bum's gun exploded just before a
burning agony punched Annie in the shoulder. She fell beside Jake
and turned loose of her gun.

Jake got to his knees, grabbed the
gun and shot the drunk. The fellow fell like a sack of bricks and
laid still.

Jake stuck the gun in his pocket as
he leaned over Annie. “How bad you hit?”

“
I got a hole in my shoulder. I think
the bullet went clear through. Sure hurts like the dickens,” Annie
complained.

“
I bet it does. What were you
thinking, Annie? You shouldn't have got in that fellow's way. He
was aiming at my back not yours,” Jake scolded. “You took that
bullet for me.”

Annie's breathing was labored. “You
don't think I'm stupid enough to get shot for a stranger, do you?
We were suppose to watch each other's back you said, and that's
just what I done. Besides, I'm growing real fond of you like I
said, and I don't want you killed. You wouldn't be no fun in that
shape.”

“
Well, that works both ways. I don't
want you dead either,” Jake said tenderly. Gathering her in his
arms, he hugged her to him.

When Jake moved her, the throbbing
pains made Annie groaned instead of laugh. “Can you help me up? We
got to make it to that storm ditch to hide before anyone else spots
us. You killed that bum. We surely don't want to be anywhere around
when the cops find his body.”

Jake looked around. The vacant store
fronts remained dark, but that didn't mean much. The windows just
might have eyes anyway.

He warned, “The cops are pretty good
at figuring out who shoots a guy. Hiding ain't going to do us much
good when they find out about this and come looking for
us.”

Annie shook her head. “This side of
town is full of desperate people in a place filled with violence,
drink and diseases. They are all just like that dead man. They
might try to kill us for the bounty, but those folks are used to
minding their own business when the cops are around.

Besides, you might as well relax.
The cops aren't going to be looking at us. The pawn shop owner I
talked to said my gun was used in a murder before I found
it.

When the cops check the bullets in
that drunken bum they're going to match the bullets taken from the
last person that was shot with that gun. They have to find the gun
first to figure out who did the killing,” Annie said smugly then
groaned in pain.

“
Reckon it won't take the cops long
to put two and two together when they find the gun on you. Tell me
the honest truth now cause I don't want to hear no lies. Annie, did
you kill someone to get that gun?” Jake asked.

“
Nah, I found that gun throwed in the
BBQ dumpster just like I said,” Annie declared.

As tight as she held her shoulder,
blood still seeped through her fingers and dripped to the ground.
“Now help me to my feet,” she ordered. “I'm bleeding bad. I could
leave a trail for the cops or Big Ed's goons to follow.”

Jake stood and reached down under
Annie's arms. He lifted her to her feet. Annie's knees felt like
they were going to buckle. “I hate to ask you this, but I'm plum
tuckered out right now and bleeding bad. Do you know anyone that
can dress a gun shot wound?”

“
I might. Lean on me until we get
there,” Jake said, putting his arm around Annie's
waist.

Chapter 11

Annie wasn't sure if she was walking
with Jake's help or if he was dragging her. She tried to keep her
eyes open and fought to keep from passing out so Jake wouldn't have
to carry her.

She knew they walked through vacant
lots, around old buildings and through unkempt back yards, but how
she sensed that was the case was a mystery. Everything around her
was a blur.

It seemed to Annie like they walked
half the night, but it might have been thirty minutes with Jake
half dragging her. Her mind was in a pain filled haze most of that
time.

They stopped in front of a shack on
the edge of the slums.

“
We're here, Annie,” Jake said
quietly.

He knocked on a house door covered
with peeling white paint. No one answered. He doubled up his fist
and hit the door several times as he barked, “Sofie, I know you're
in there. Open up and let me in. It's Jake.”

They heard an angry, sleepy voice
spewing grumbling sounds and shuffling feet dragged across the
floor. A light came on. It shone through the window by the door and
lit up a square in the front yard. The door swung open
fast.

“
What you want, Skinny Jake, and it
better be good since you interrupted my night's beauty sleep,”
barked a fuzzy haired, middle aged woman, in a ragged, bright pink
housecoat and hairy pink slippers. She looked like she'd stuck her
finger in a light socket. Every bit of her gray hair stood straight
up.

“
Aw, Sofie, I wouldn't bother you if
it wasn't important. My friend is gun shot. We need to get her
fixed up without a doc. You get me?” Jake asked.

Sofie stuck her head passed the open
door to look up and down the seemingly empty street. She reached
out and got Jake by the coat sleeve to jerk him inside. “All right,
but it's against my better judgment. Helping you out could bring
big trouble down on me if you did something crooked the cops want
you for. Get in here quick before someone sees you.”

Once Jake and Annie were out of the
way, Sofie slammed the door.

Jake cringed as he glared at Sofie
over his shoulder. “Did you have to make enough noise to wake up
the whole neighborhood and let them know we came
visiting?”

“
I always slam that door. Keeps the
rats scared off. Nothing worse I hate than a gnawing rat in the
house with me,” Sofie grumbled.

Jake eased Annie into a chair at the
kitchen table with a green Formica top and rusted chrome legs. When
he let go of her, Annie slumped forward until the table stopped
her. “This is my friend, Cowboy Girl Annie,” Jake
introduced.

Sofie's house shoes shushed as she
slid her feet fast to get around the table to stare at Annie. She
grabbed the electric cord attached to a bare bulb dangling over the
table and aimed the bulb at Annie. “How about that? I've heard
about this one, but never thought I'd lay eyes on her.” Sofie's
eyes narrowed. “Say, who is after you?”

“
You probably shouldn't ask,” Annie
said between gritted teeth.

“
Yeah, I sure should. I want to know
who to dodge if the word leaks out I doctored you,” Sofie
groused.

“
The word wasn't going to leak out if
only us three knew about it. That's unlikely now if all the other
windows around the neighborhood has eyes since that you woke the
neighbors up. Big Ed is after us so he put a bounty on our heads,”
Jake whispered, backing up to look in the dark living room. “You
here alone?”

Sofie grunted. “Now is a poor time
to ask. Yip, I'm here alone. Lady, couldn't you have upset someone
else besides that scalawag? No critter meaner than that brute, Big
Ed.”

“
At the time, I was feeling mean too,
and he was the only one handy to pick on,” Annie said, trying to
grin. She grimaced instead. Her eyes rolled up in her head. She
passed out, and her head dropped to the table.

“
Well, she went down for the count in
a hurry, huh? Help me get her jacket and shirt off so we can get a
good look at the wound,” Sofie ordered.

“
She's lost an awful lot of blood,”
Jake said, pulling Annie's good arm out of the denim
jacket.

Sofie's left eyebrow went up.
“Golly, Big Ed meant business, but looks like the bullet went clear
through and came out the back. That's a good thing. I won't have to
waste time probing for a bullet. Now if I can just get the bleeding
to stop, get a bandage on her and if she don't get
infection.”

Jake frowned. “That's an awful lot
of big ifs.”

“
I know it ain't none of my business, but what did
she do to Big Ed to cause him to shoot her?” Sofie
asked.

“
He didn't shoot her. He put a bounty
out on our heads, and a drunken bum tried to collect. Annie saw the
man aiming at my back and she stepped in the line of fire. Sofie,
that bullet was meant for me. I owe Cowboy Girl Annie for my life,”
Jake explained.

“
All right then. The woman has grit.
I'll give her that, but you still haven't answered my question. How
did she make Big Ed mad?” Sofie persisted.

“
Annie got him arrested so he's
probably still in jail. It was some whiskey sop that tried to
collect the bounty and nailed Annie,” Jake said as he tossed the
bloody jacket in the closest chair.

“
The whiskey sop get away?” Sofie
asked casually as she gently removed Annie's
blouse.

“
Nope, he's molding in the dark a
mile away, waiting to be discovered.” Jake frowned, wrinkling his
forehead. “Problem is plenty more like him is looking for
us.”

“
I don't want to know any more about
that there dead fellow. Less I know the better I like it. I'm here
to tell you getting arrested must have got Big Ed plenty steamed,”
Sofie warned. “I cain't do no more to this gal
here.

Help me move her to the living room
couch so she's flat while she's passed out. Easier for me to work
on her, and she can stay there until she can stand up. No need
moving her but this once that way. Like you said, she's lost a
bunch of blood. Maybe too much to live no matter how good a doctor
I am.”

Chapter 12

Annie jerked in her sleep. A serge
of pain brought her to consciousness. She groaned as she opened her
eyes. A strip of dirty white wallpaper on the ceiling hung down
over her like sticky fly paper.

Annie moved her head to look around
her and grimaced from the pain. The walls were covered with faded
stripes of flowered wallpaper.