October Word Challenge Submission

Peacemakers Fan Fiction http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/peacemakersff
October 2006
50-Word Challenge
Nightmares and Dreamscapes (*see note at bottom)
by Aimee DuPré
© October 31, 2006
“And a Very Happy Halloween to You!”

Katie Owens rubbed her horse’s muzzle, as soft as velvet. Together with Larimer Finch, she had ridden out here to the lake to do some fishing and enjoy the peak of the fall foliage.
At least Detective Finch didn’t continually bother her about why she had never become some man’s wife. He seemed to understand things one would not expect, although she had to laugh as he attempted to ride his horse English style on a Western saddle.
She discreetly pulled and tugged at a metal stay in her corset that poked her right in the ribs. There certainly was a lot of frustration involved in being a woman these days, and she probably should never have worn the silly thing knowing as she did that it would never impress the stoic detective. In her view, women were at least equal to men and should be treated as such, and Lord knew no man would ever be caught dead in such a binding device around his waistline!
Meanwhile, back in Silver City, a stranger dressed in black, his hat pulled down obscuring his face, walked the wooden boardwalk from Isaac’s stable towards the Owens Mortuary. He was, in the broadest sense of the term, a desperado, although it was an out-of-date expression in the modern society of 1889. Who would think that technology could make such changes in the west? It was a ripple effect, causing multiple unintended consequences.
“Undertaker?” he called as he rapped on the locked glass-windowed front door of the funeral home.
After getting no answer, he went to the Owens’ house and tried the kitchen door, which was unlocked.
Silver City’s resident had yet to feel the necessity to keep their house doors locked. U. S. Marshal Jared Stone had crime under control in the growing little mining town that was prematurely attempting to be a big city. He and his sidearm could both be called peacemakers, and he had been able to convince most business owners to lock up when they were absent. A fight seldom lasted very long while the marshal patrolled the city streets.
The new arrival took his unwelcome position in Katie’s unoccupied house.
Meanwhile, Finch complained of the poor fishing in the lake, although he was appreciative of the opportunity to take a break from investigating and solving dangerous crimes. Suddenly, Katie lunged for her fishing pole as a largemouth bass threatened to take hook, line, sinker, pole and all to the bottom of the chilly depths.
“The Chinese word for crisis and opportunity are the same,” Finch told her, quick witted as always.
“I will be sure to check Marshal Stone’s new Chinese dictionary when I get back to town,” Katie replied, just to tease him.
Finch continued, “Katie, I have been meaning to ask you, is the mortuary a burden to you? You know, I could help you with the embalming chemicals, as I know quite a bit about apothecary. I have this project I am working on. I am developing a light sensitive film material much like Kodak’s, only having a backcoated layer which is then sufficiently subjected to antistatic treatment.”
“I will warrant an invention like that would be welcomed technology,” Katie said, unsure of why the film would need to be antistatic and not wanting an hour-long lecture on the matter.
Soon, skies that might threaten an early snow drove the two carefree fishing companions back to Silver City.
A terribly rank smell coming from the embalming/autopsy room nearly overcame Finch and Katie when they arrived at the funeral parlor. Loyalty took precedence over safety as Finch pushed ahead of the young woman to enter first.
“I believe some sort of a message has been left,” he said as he saw a dead rat on the autopsy table. Kneeling down, he picked up a bloody metal file that had been dropped on the floor, and he determined it to be a rasp used in the shoeing of horses, although that would not explain the blood.
The two handpicked forensics experts were baffled by this evidence.
From his hiding place in the storage closet, the stranger dressed in black took aim with his firearm. His methodology was not sophisticated, but it was quite effective.
Just then, the telephone rang out – two long, one short – which meant Katie’s number on the party line.
He had missed his opportunity, and his chance to mete out his revenge might never come again!
The Mayor had telephoned to tell Katie to beware of Halloween pranksters.
“I think I have already had experience with one,” she told him.
“Holster that weapon!” Marshal Stone roared from the doorway, startling both Katie and Finch.
He purposefully walked to the closet door and threw it open to reveal the man he had followed from the stable – the man who had killed Isaac with the rasp that Finch had discovered.
The murderer’s knee sought Stone’s groin and missed as the lawman disarmed and slammed the stranger to the floor. His low-fitting black hat was knocked off his head to reveal the face of Will Johnston, the boy who was supposed to have been hanged in Central City for the murder of Cole Hawkins.
“Saddle up and get on out of here,” Stone told him, “’cause this is the last Halloween prank you’ll be pullin’!”
Katie gave an audible gasp, scarcely believing either Stone’s leniency or the fact that somehow the young man had escaped his fatal destiny.
With a start, Katie Owens awoke from her afternoon dream drenched in sweat and trembling uncontrollably.
As she slowly recovered her composure and her heartbeat returned to normal, she looked outside to the hitching post where she saw both Finch’s and Stone’s horses patiently awaiting their return from their all-too-infrequent afternoon repose in The Velvet Cushion.
Maybe, she thought, it would be smart to start locking her doors when she was gone – or even when she laid down for a nap. Her faithful friends might not always be around to protect her, especially from nightmares and dreamscapes*.
It didn’t take much to convince her that this was the wisest thing to do – not after such a frightening Halloween nap.


* Private joke – Nightmares and Dreamscapes was the most recent Tom Berenger TV sighting. He starred in The Road Virus Heads North. – A.D.