Town

A crudely lettered sign reading “TOWN” marked a narrow road just off the main trail. The sun barely gave light to an entrance to a road that led downward to a ghost town at the bottom of a small canyon. The newly erected sign was surely seen as a welcome to westbound wagons in need of a place to rest and replenish supplies before continuing their long journey.  It was not.The new residents, of Town, were the Suggs family. The head of the family was Pa-Dad, who led and ruled with an iron fist, his four sons, a daughter, and Mammy. The male members of the family were crack shots with their fifty caliber rifles. They were ruthless, raping scavengers, murdering and taking from those crossing the Texas Plains by wagon. During one of their murderous attacks Pa-Dad let his horse fall on him and break his leg. This forced Pa-Dad to rethink how to continue their prospering evil ways. The result was their new residence and the sign.What Pa-Dad didn’t realize was how quickly the sign would work and who and what it would bring in. Before he was ready for it, ‘pilgrims’, as he liked to call them were coming in faster than he could shackle or shoot them. And he was finding out that even the best laid plans of mice and men can really get out of hand. His biggest problem was not secondhand stolen money, a retired sheriff, an English countess and her escorts, the daughter of a gunslinging marshal, the woman who escaped one of his raids, or those involved in the previously stolen double eagles numbering in the thousands... it was Kenneth Luker. 3