Jan 2022 - Starter Sentence (What happened ?)

Hello and a very Happy New Year to one and all...

So begineth the 15th year of challenges... And, I thought we would start with a Starter Sentence (not had one of those for ages)


Flex your typing fingers and...


"Another year almost over," sighed Hannibal Heyes. "What happened to all those good resolutions we made last New Years' Eve, Kid? What happened?"

Outlaw days :)

“Another year almost over," sighed Hannibal Heyes. "What happened to all those good resolutions we made last New Years' Eve, Kid? What happened?"

They were sat in the largest saloon in Gobbler's Gulch, drinking in the corner keeping a careful eye on their gang, making sure that their behaviour remained simply boisterous rather than destructive. The population of the small town were very willing to turn a blind eye to where exactly their outlaw visitors got their cash from, because much of it was spent freely in most of the establishments in town. But Heyes didn't want to risk changing that by his men causing too much property damage or creating problems that the sheriff couldn't ignore easily.

The Kid glanced over at his partner and after taking a large gulp of beer said. “Well, Heyes, us holding up that train on January 2nd, kinda broke the going straight resolution right off. And settling down ain't exactly an option when we're robbing... I ain't sure I remember most of the rest of 'em.”

Heyes laughed and took a drink out of his own glass. The night was a little blurry for him too, both of them had been high on adrenalin from a string of successful robberies. They'd happily spent their ill-gotten gains freely on alcohol and whatever else they fancied. Just after two am they'd ended up stumbling to their hotel and waking up a few hours later fully dressed on the floor of their room. The next day had been spent in the pleasant company of willing girls with more freely flowing alcohol. “Think we oughta try again this year, Kid?”

When there was no answer, he looked up and followed his partner's gaze to a very pretty saloon girl waving at him-Rosie, Heyes thought her name was. She was one of Kid's favourites, tall and brunette, with curves in all the right places and a warm husky laugh that sent heat to all the right places too.

Kid finished his drink and stood with a grin. “Ain't rightly sure there's much point, Heyes. I  ain't ready to settle down and the money is mighty welcome.”  With that he went to join Rosie at the bar. She was soon on his lap wearing his hat and Heyes realised that barring an emergency situation, he'd lost his partner for the night.

Heyes watched them for a few minutes, wondering if he should go join one of the many games in progress, but when one of the other girls came over- a slim hipped redhead with an alluring smile and a come hither look on her face, he decided that could wait till later. He grinned at her as she slid an arm round his shoulders. “You're looking a little lonely there, Heyes, which don't seem right on New Year's Eve.”

“Well, I'm guessing you got an idea or two about how to solve that little problem, Kitty.”

“You could say that.” The girl winked at him and Heyes let her lead him towards the stairs at the back of the saloon. Yes, poker and resolutions could wait a little longer. Wasn't like they had to be anywhere else but here till at least the day after next.

Resolutions
January 2022 Challenge

“Another year almost over,” sighed Hannibal Heyes.  “What happened to all those good resolutions we made last New Year’s Eve, Kid?”  What happened?”

Laughing, Curry leaned back in his chair near the fire in the leader’s  cabin of the Devil’s Hole Gang.  Only Heyes and Curry had decided to winter there.  In the fall, they had repaired the roofs of the cabin, bunkhouse, and storage shed.  A warmer barn was constructed for their horses.  Supplies were laid in to keep four people until late spring.  Heyes intended to plan out some bank and train robberies for the spring when the rest of the gang returned.  Curry was recovering from a bullet wound in his left shoulder on their last job.

“Well, Heyes, we were very drunk when we made those resolutions.  Very, very drunk.”

“Still, what happened to them?  They were such great resolutions!” Heyes exclaimed as he walked over and retrieved a bottle of the good stuff Preacher had given them for Christmas.  He poured them each a generous serving.

“You still got the list we made?”  Curry downed his drink in one swallow.

A look of surprise remembrance graced Heyes’ face.  “Yeah, we did make a list, didn’t we?”  He stood and pulled up a loose floorboard.  “Here it is,” he announced with a flourish.

Curry grabbed the paper from Heyes and watched him refill both glasses.

“Heyes, you wrote this list.  You’re goin’ have to read it.  Looks like chicken scratch.”

Sitting in the chair next to Curry, Heyes’ long brown hair flopped into his eyes.  “Should have got a haircut before winter came,” he mumbled to himself.

“Come on, Heyes, let’s see what happened to our resolutions.  What’s the first one say?  I can only read the word mash.”  Curry squinted at the words as he took another drink.  

Squinting himself, Heyes studied the first entry.  Suddenly, he smiled.  “I got it!  That’s not mash, it’s bath.”

“Bath?”

Yeah, number one is ‘Make sure Kyle gets a bath every month.”  

“Well, that didn’t happen.  Doubt if he had more than two all year and that includes the time he fell off his horse crossing the Smiling River.”

Heyes’ throaty laugh filled the room at Kyle’s impromptu bath in the river.  “Well, should we try again this year?  Make it a resolution, again?”

“Nah.  Let’s leave that up to Wheat.  He’s the one that spends most time with Kyle.”

“Where you goin’, Heyes?” Curry asked as he tried to decipher the second expiring resolution.

“Getting paper to write our new resolutions.  And we’re almost through that bottle of whiskey; getting another.  Sure goes down easy.”

Finishing what was in his glass, Curry stoked up the fire.  They resumed their places at the table.

“Number two says to paint the leader’s cabin red.  No, red is crossed out and it says blue,” Heyes read.

Curry sipped his whiskey this time.  “Well, that resolution didn’t happen.”  

“Nope.  It’s still gray and looking like it needs painting.  Just like a year ago.”  Heyes sighed.  “I remember we almost came to blows about what color to paint it.”

“Who wanted red and who wanted blue?”

“Danged if I can remember.  But I do remember you were about to draw your gun to defend your choice,” Heyes remembered.

“’Til I remembered I wasn’t wearin’ it.”  Think we can leave that one off our new list too.”

He pulled the paper to him.  “I can read number three.  It says, ‘Avoid gettin’ chased by posses.’' Curry sounded triumphant.  

Another deep laugh followed from Heyes.  “Well. that one got busted early.  Can’t even count how many chased us this year.”

“Only one caught us though.”  Curry turned serious.  “I was scared.  Thought we were goin’ spend the next twenty years in prison for sure.”

“Me too.   That sheriff knew what he was doing.  I couldn’t figure a way out of that jail.”

“Good thing that waitress who brought our meals had a brother who died in prison.”  Curry was thoughtful.

“And she was susceptible to that Curry charisma,” Heyes teased.

“Leastways she smiled at the deputy and stole his keys and slipped them to me under a napkin.”  Curry smiled.  “She was sure cute, in a bubbly sort of way.  Hope she didn’t get into too much trouble.”

“No trouble at all unless you call marriage to the deputy trouble.”  Heyes chuckled.

“Well, do we keep that resolution on our new list?”  Curry questioned. “Mighty hard to keep,”

“Best we keep that as a maybe.”  Heyes looked at the list, again.  “Visit Silky, Soapy and Clementine.  We didn’t keep that one, either.”

Wistfully, Curry nodded.  “Too many posse chases to do much else besides robbin’ and runnin’.  Didn’t get to see a one of them.”  

“Another maybe for next year?”  Heyes was already reading the next item.  “Find a gang member named Animal?  Did I read that right?”

“Yeah, Heyes.  That was your idea; thought it would make people scared of us or some dumb idea.”

Looking hurt, Heyes avoided looking at Curry as he swept his hair back out of his eyes.  “We don’t need to keep that one.  And I was pretty drunk when we made that list.”

“Can’t read the next one, either.  Heyes, why don’t you make a resolution to write so people can read it.”

Ignoring that request, Heyes read, “Save some of our money.  How much money you got, Kid?”

“About three hundred dollars.  But only because I really ain’t been into town since our last job.  I was hurt and then the first snow came earlier than we expected.  Would have spent it on some celebratin’ and a few ladies at the saloon.  How much you got?”

“Five hundred and eighteen dollars and fourteen cents.  Had a nice run at the poker table a couple of weeks ago.  And like you, didn’t get a chance to spend it before winter roared in.  Less even than we had last year at this time.”.

“Heyes, we ain’t good at saving money.  Not like our mas were.  They thought before they spent even a penny.”  Curry’s memory of their mothers made his voice wistful, and the drink made him melancholy.  “Maybe we should put something on our list that would make them happy?”

“What, like plant a flower garden in Devil’s Hole?” Heyes asked, thinking of the bright colors of his ma’s perfectly pruned flower garden.

The cousins looked at each other and slapped the table in laughter.  When they stopped, Heyes silently read the last item on their list.  “Oh!  That would make them happy.”

“Heyes?”  Curry leaned over to read the last resolution.

“Maybe this is our only resolution for next year?” Heyes asked thoughtfully.  

“Yeah, at the first opportunity,” answered Curry, all traces of laughter gone.  He touched the healing wound on his still stiff shoulder.

Heyes picked up his pencil and on the blank paper he wrote:

New Year’s Resolution for Hannibal Heyes and Jedediah Curry

Get outta this business.

New Year’s Resolution

"Another year almost over," sighed Hannibal Heyes. "What happened to all those good resolutions we made last New Years' Eve, Kid? What happened?"

Kid Curry looked down at the one crumpled one-dollar bill, 2 quarters, one dime, thee nickels and six pennies in his open palm, one dollar and eighty-one cents. It hadn’t miraculously multiplied since he counted it out and reported his entire wealth to his partner. Between the two of them, their combined liquid assets totaled three dollars and four cents. They were once again bordering on flat broke.

“Is this one of those rhetorical questions, Heyes? ‘Cause if it isn’t, I gotta an answer. Like most New Year’s resolutions, they got washed away by all the alcohol we drank on New Year’s Eve and forgotten during the hangover on New Year’s Day.” The blond replied as he shoved his precious few funds back into his pocket. Kid blew on his fingers to warm them up before pulling on his inadequate thin riding gloves for a Wyoming winter.

“Nope, that ain’t it. I got drunk as a skunk last New Year’s Eve but you sure as hell didn’t. I won a pile of money at that fancy cat house while you were watching our backs. That is until you were flat on your back but still sober.” The brunet smirked before continuing, “So, you can’t blame a hangover for neglecting to save some of that money in a safe place for later. We resolved to not to let money flow through our fingers like water since it’s much harder to come by now that we went straight.” Heyes’ voice contained a faint note of disapproval or was it accusation.

The Kid pulled his dark bay up short. His hunkered-down-into-his-sheepskin posture straightened and he shot an incredulous wide-eyed glance sideways at his partner. “You’re not blamin’ me for us havin’ next to no money! In the first place we don’t have the near the same amounts of money flowin’ through our no longer larcenous fingers. In the second place…” His breathe was crystalizing in the frigid air as his indignation tumbled out.

The older partner looked back over his shoulder as his chestnut plodded on carefully along the slushy road and interrupted, “sometime we have. We’ve had some good paying jobs, not many, but some and that’s not counting the poker, which I, and come to think of it even you, do pretty well at when we have enough of a stake to get into a worthwhile game. Hmm…” The black hat was pulled lower down to cover more of the ears as Heyes turned back to look where he was going. His brown eyes lost focus for a moment and his lips pursed as his mind chased a thought, or two. “Hey! Why haven’t we become professional gamblers? It sure is easier on the back and pays better, too.”

Curry caught up and shook his head and rolled his eyes at the question. “Well, I don’t think the governor will be impressed with professional gambler as a respectable occupation. We’re supposed to be working at honest jobs for a livin’ and poker isn’t work for you, it’s play.”

“We both play an honest game, always. I don’t need to cheat. I worked hard to get as good as I am and I worked hard at teaching you everything you know about the game, even if you don’t always use it.”

“I know that, Heyes, but not everyone you play against does and that can and does cause us a problem when you’re accused of cheatin’. And you know how it usually goes, so no, right now, professional gambler isn’t an option. Maybe when you get your amnesty.”

Heyes sighed.  “When we get our amnesty, Kid, our amnesty,” he corrected.

The two partners rode silently side by side down the rode to Porterville. Each grateful that Lom had invited them to spend the time around the Holidays at his home. At least there would be a good friend, a warm place to sleep for them and their horses and home cooked food at the end of their current journey through the frosty Wyoming countryside.

“Kid, getting back to last year’s resolution about saving money. What happened about that?”

“Huh, wadda you mean what happened? Poor payin’ jobs, havin’ to skip out town before gettin’ paid, losin’ our gear when our mode of transportation had to change suddenly, not findin’ jobs, havin’ to pay for rooms, board for the horses, and food all the time since we don’t have Devil’s Hole no more…”

“I get it, Kid. No, I mean that when we was robbing after each job before the take was divided up among the gang there was a cut kept out for overhead.”

“Yeah, but like I said we’re not at Devil’s Hole.”

“But we should be doing kinda the same thing. After each time we get paid or win big at poke, say over a certain amount that we agree to, we should put a portion of that away to save for later when we need a little money to tide us over. Put it somewhere safe where we could get to it.”
“Safe? Where?”

Heyes brow furrowed as he thought. He rather liked his idea, maybe this New Year’s Eve they could make the same resolution and actually keep it. His eyes lit up. “That’s it, Kid. We put it into a safe.”

“Need I remind you, I just said, we’re not a Devil’s Hole anymore and even if we were, we didn’t have a safe.”

The safe-loving partner smiled to himself and he nudged his horse to move a little quicker.

Curry followed. They wanted to reach Porterville before dark and the road, while slushy wasn’t icy, which it was sure to become as the day went on and the temperature dropped. He glimpsed the self-satisfied smile and excited expression on his partner that usually signaled a plan forming. The Kid started to get a tiny bit nervous when Heyes talked about safes now that they are chasing the elusive amnesty. “Whatcha thinkin’ partner?”

“I’m thinking we don’t have a safe but the Porterville Bank has a safe. We should open a bank account.”

“What! We robbed the Porterville Bank safe. The gang robbed the Porterville Bank safe.”

Heyes raised his black gloved hand and waved Kid’s remarks away as not important. “Nobody got any money. They got a new improved safe. And the best bank robbers in the West, us, have retired.”

“How are you plannin’ on opening a bank account. I can just see it now. Hello, Mr. Porter or maybe Miss Porter, I, Hannibal Heyes, would like to open a bank account in your bank because I know it won’t be robbed since I’m not doin’ that anymore. Our three dollars and four cents will be safe.” Curry chortled at the vision in his head.

“I’m working on a plan. Just you see, after the New Year we’ll be saving money.”

**********ASJ**********

Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry stood in the cold light of day, watching the Porterville Bank. It was the first business day of the new year and there was a steady stream of bank customers coming in and out of the establishment.

Heyes gave his partner a little push towards the familiar building. “Come on, stop looking so nervous. We have a legitimate business reason to be in there. Remember you agreed that saving some money for the proverbial rainy day was a smart idea.”

Curry took a few slow steps towards the bank before hesitating and stopping in his tracks. Blue eyes traveled rapidly between the bank and Heyes, indecisiveness clearly showing on his face.

“With those temporary jobs Lom got us last week, you at the mercantile and me at the hotel, along with the poker winnings, which were pretty good, considering it was the holiday time and saloon traffic isn’t what it usually is, we have more than enough to take a cut for savings. You agreed. Besides what are you nervous about? We’ve been in this bank before as employees. They know us there.” Heyes exuded self-satisfaction and his brown eyes shined with anticipation.

“Maybe because you look like you do right before you get set to open a bank safe in the middle of the night.”

Heyes laughed as he tugged his reluctant partner along. “I promise we are putting money into the bank and I won’t go over and caress the new Brooker 606.”

The partners crossed the threshold.

Mr. Bellgrahm, Assistant Bank Manager, looked up from the paperwork laid out on his desk at the two men sitting across from him. Mr. Brown the teller who brought them over introduced them as former employees and friends of Sheriff Trevors. His eyes narrowed skeptically at the notion that Miss Porter, Manager of the Porterville Bank would hire men looking they way they did. It was not so much a disreputable appearance but the aura of a vague dangerousness. Or maybe not so vague as his eye caught a flash of light glinting off the blond’s tied down gun in a well-worn holster.

“Well, yes gentlemen if you have the required initial minimum deposit of ten dollars, we can certainly open an account for you. Let’s just complete the paperwork I have here.” Bellgrahm studied the potential customers, wondering if they did indeed have ten dollars.

Heyes nodded his affirmatively and fished out a roll of bills from his pocket. He peeled fifty dollars off and laid it on Mr. Bellgrahm’s desk with an air on nonchalance, indicating such sums were not unknown to him.

“What name is to be on the account? Are you each opening an account?”

Kid spoke up, “We want both our names on the one account. Uhhh, our jobs are sometimes dangerous or risky and well you never know.”

Heyes leaned over the desk to peer at the forms as he continued smoothly. “Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones. As Thaddeus was saying there might be times where one of us is unavailable and the other will need to access the account.”

Curry was covertly examining his surroundings and thought he caught movement of blinds out of the corner of his eye at the window of the Manager’s enclosed office. He turned his head to check.

“Alright, a joint account it is. Do you have documentation for who you are? I’ll need to see that.”

The partners shared a quick look, well we could go over to Lom’s office and get our wanted posters for you. But then they wouldn’t have out aliases on it.  “What kind of documentation do you need. We don’t exactly carry a lot of papers around on us. The nature of our business, you see,” Heyes offered.

Bellgrahm frowned and pushed back a little into his chair as he wondered what exactly the two men did to earn a living. “I’ll also need your address. Perhaps you have a letter or bill with your name and address on it.”

Now, Heyes frowned. “We move around a lot, don’t really have a permanent address. People usually get in touch with us through our friend, Sheriff Lom Trevors, at the Porterville Sherriff’s office.”

“Surely you must have a post office box for your mail. That would do for our purposes.”

The dark-haired man’s face took on a thoughtful expression before brightening. “A post office box, of course. Excuse us we’ll be right back. Come on Thaddeus,” he stated as he stood up suddenly and lightly slapped his friend’s arm.

“Thaddeus! And Joshua!” Caroline Porter rushed out of her office. “How good to see you again? Are you going to be in town for long?” She effusively greeted as she came to stand next to Kid.

“We’ve been in town for the holidays, which were a little less merry without renewing our acquaintance.” Kid’s blue eyes sparkled and his smile dazzled down at the bank manager, while he ignored Heyes’ rolling eyes.

Miss Porter blushed prettily. “Perhaps, we can remedy that situation? I’ve been helping my father open our new Branch at Salt River and then with the holidays. I just haven’t been in town much lately.” Her eyes flicked to Bellgrahm before turning more fully to the assistant manager to elaborate. “Thaddeus, I mean. Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith are banking security experts. They foiled the bank robbery we had when they were here working when I first took over as manager. Oh, I’ve got a wonderful idea. Now that you’re here, are you available to evaluate the security of the Salt River Branch? I’m sure, Mr. Smith, you would be interested in our brand new safe. We went with a Magna Lock instead of Brooker for a change.” She laid her hand on Kid’s blue sleeve and once again looked up into that adorable boyish face and incredibly blue eyes. “Maybe we can discuss this over dinner?”

Bellgrahm’s eyes cast daggers at Mr. Jones and it was a moment before he erased his incredulousness and hostility from his face and composed his visage into a neutral business expression. “Caro… Miss Porter did you forget you already have a dinner engagement tonight?”

“What? Oh, of course I didn’t forget our dinner tonight. I believe I didn’t mention a night for the dinner to discuss security arrangements.” Caroline Porter felt slightly chagrinned. After all Peter Bellgrahm was a nice enough looking man, intelligent, shared her intertest in finance, and was considered an all-around good catch. But still…

Heyes, having noticed Bellgrahm’s reaction play across his face and he was sure his partner did too, didn’t need the complications Kid’s flirting might cause in the town he wanted to establish a respectable presence in, quickly responded. “We’d be glad to Miss Porter but unfortunately business calls and we’ll be leaving town early tomorrow morning. We can discuss your proposition next time we’re in town. After all, we’ve decided to open an account in your very professional and safe bank.”

Curry flicked his eyes to Heyes. Message received. Tone it down.

“How wonderful. I’m sure Mr. Bellgrahm is talking good care of you.”

“Yes, he is. We just have to step out for a few minutes and will be right back to conclude our business. We’ve just got to check our post box to see if there anything to verify who we are.”

Caroline Porter smiled as she informed her assistant manager. “I’ll verify that they are Mr. Thaddeus Jones and Mr. Joshua Smith.”

“Yes, Miss Porter.”

Heyes was half way out the door with Curry trailing behind him, “Thanks, be right back with our address.”

Kid hissed at Heyes as they passed through the large doorway, “We don’t have a post box. Heyes, we don’t have an address at all.”

“Not yet Kid but we will. Come on the stage depot and post office is only down the street.”

An hour later Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry strolled out of the Porterville Bank, the proud owners of their first bank account with fifty dollars in savings.

The older partner slipped the key of their brand-new post-office box and a signature card from the bank into the pocket of his brown jacket.

“We’ll just give Lom this key to the post box for safe keeping and have him fill out the card for him to act as our agent for sending and receiving funds, if needed. He can drop it off on his rounds sometime.” Heyes stopped on the bank stairs and gave a satisfied nod to his friend, this was one New Years resolution that was kept.

“Well Kid, we just took one more step to respectability and a future.” Heyes slapped his partner on the back.

Curry half turned to glance back at the bank before cutting his eyes towards his friend. “If we have a future.”

A full dimpled grim appeared and brown eyes lit up with optimism. “We do, we have a future and it is going to be a good one.”