Happy hour

[i_got_vision]

You know who's tanned and well-rested and enjoying life even more than usual--and 'usual' for him is pretty damned good, except when being chased by Pinkertons? This cowboy right here.

Butch Cassidy at the bar, taking a break from escorting the loveliest mechanical lady in all of Galveston. It sure beats working for a living, doesn't it?

Specials
Whiskey

Why mess with the classics? (He'll make other drinks on request, but he can't necessarily spell them, so the sign stays as it is.)

[open all night!]

Comments

[i_got_vision]

"Denver and San Antonio are the biggest I've been to," he says. "Beyond that, it's places like Telluride, Laramie... and a lot of small towns, back in my horse-racing days. You know, two streets and a store."

[52_dropoff]

"Denver's pretty nice in my time. Weird weather, and hard to breathe in, but nice."

[i_got_vision]

"We went there on a sort of vacation--my friend's girl, she's a teacher, and she doesn't get a lot of excitement in her everyday life. She doesn't get to travel. So we went there to see the sights, not for business."

And they'd had a great time. It was nice, they should do it again.

[52_dropoff]

Yes, this is all sounding familiar. Assuming that William Goldman didn't make stuff up. And given that Goldman once said "no one knows anything," how can you be sure he didn't?

"Aren't the mountains amazing?"

[i_got_vision]

"We took a train," he says. "They got lines that go right along the mountains, and you can ride in the open car and see everything. It's beautiful out there. Pictures don't do it justice."

[52_dropoff]

"I don't know if any trains still run that way. But the highway from Salt Lake City to Denver goes over the mountains. I drove it the once. Harrowing driving, since if you look at the scenery, you don't see the road. But worth trying that one time." After that, he was content to fly.

[i_got_vision]

"I've ridden horses in the mountains," he says. "Not exactly that stretch of mountains, but mountains all the same, and I can tell you, I'd rather take the train. Less worry about falling, and you're level enough to have drinks and sandwiches in the dining car. Can't do that on a horse."

Not so leisurely, anyway.

[52_dropoff]

"I'm not good with horses. I have a friend who was determined to teach me to ride. It didn't take." Sallie is probably still laughing about it.

[i_got_vision]

"What happened?" he asks. "Just don't like horses, or... they sense that you're nervous and don't do what they're supposed to? You just need to show them you're in charge. And be willing to fall."

[52_dropoff]

"Like I say, I am a city slicker. Horses are things I saw in the movies, or occasionally at race tracks. I had no problem with falling, but the rest...I'd say you got it right in one.

"I suppose I could have kept trying, but Sallie never pressed the issue." Though he bets that Splinter probably knows how to ride, and that must please her.

[i_got_vision]

"It's a good thing to know how to do, just in case you need it someday," he says. "I feel that way about a lot of things--you never know what's around the corner, and sometimes it's the difference between living and not. But on the other hand... everybody doesn't have to be good at everything, and if you don't have horses around anymore, that's probably space in your head you'd be better off filling with learning some other thing."

[52_dropoff]

"A good attitude to have, I think. Education is good, but sometimes too broad an education just leaves you with a lot of pieces of useless information." He would admit that he has too many pieces in his head by now. "Though it is still possible that I could end up someplace where horses are the main mode of transit." Like a world rebuilding from an alien invasion.

[i_got_vision]

"I've picked up a lot of things over the years," he says. "But being out there on the trail, or on my ranch by myself, I've got to be able to do a lot of different things. Anything that might come up. I'm particularly good with horses, since I used to work with them professionally--and still do, to get from one place to another, or helping out in the stables here. But I know a lot of things, just in case."

[52_dropoff]

"These days you bounce from place to place, I guess. No more ranches?"

[i_got_vision]

"I got one in Wyoming, but there's not much to it. I've raised horses there, and there's a fella there looking after the place for me, but it's never amounted to much. And then the place in Utah, but that amounts to even less, mostly just a safe place to stop when I'm on the road. Sometimes I sell horses, sometimes I find work on other ranches, sometimes I just travel."

[52_dropoff]

"I never thought of Utah as a safe place." Nothing against freedom of religion, but when that freedom is only for your own religion, it's a bit unnerving.

[i_got_vision]

"Well, I wouldn't go up to Salt Lake, or out to where my folks live--some people like worrying about other people's business, more than they have any right or need to. But my place is nowhere near there. Not a lot of neighbors."

And the ones there are? Fellow outlaws. They get along just fine.

[52_dropoff]

"Your parents are from there originally, or moved there?"

[i_got_vision]

"They're both English originally," he says. "My mother's from Yorkshire and my father's folks came from Manchester. Their families got caught up in the big wave of conversion, over there, and they came to Utah. All those big promises about a beautiful new world."

Religious fervor hadn't lasted very long, at least not for his father.

[52_dropoff]

"But you don't subscribe to Mr. Smith's brand of faith now?" Charlie doesn't subscribe to any brand, but this particular one is definitely no favorite.

[i_got_vision]

"Well..."

He shrugs. "There's things I like about it--you're supposed to treat people decent, and that can't be a bad thing. But you get that in most other religions too, I think. And there's plenty of things I don't agree with. Not that fond of church hierarchy. And plenty fond of bourbon."

[52_dropoff]

"Try being Catholic for a while. No ban on drink - not that I care for it, mind you - but plenty of things wrong with it. I prefer to avoid religion in all forms, and they helped inspire that." Fifteen years with the nuns in the orphanage will do that to you.

[i_got_vision]

"My pa bought some property," he says. "We worked that land, but some other fella said he was the rightful owner of it--and because he was more of a tithing member, the elders sided with him. I've never been back, and the money I would've given, I give to people who need it more."

By losing at cards, most often, but the point stands.

[52_dropoff]

"I thought everyone was supposed to tithe the same amount. 10 percent is 10 percent, right?" He's not sure why he remembers that fact. Maybe some bible studies sank in.

[i_got_vision]

"It is," he nods. "But ten percent of a thousand's a bit more than ten percent of a hundred. My father's worked hard his whole life, honest work, but sometimes hard work's not enough. Sometimes the weather's bad and the crops fail."

And maybe the elders missed the story about the widow's offering.

And maybe his father could've gone to services more often, but what's fair and right should be the same either way.