CHOICESCHOICES
As Teaspoon headed back into town he made a note to himself to tell Doc Danes about the ailing woman and have Rachel take a basket of goods out to the encampment for the family. By the time that he had returned to his office, Barnett Bridges, his deputy was waiting for him.
“Howdy, Teaspoon.” Barnett said, turning away from the cook-stove with two steaming cups of coffee. “ Seeing how you hadn’t started any coffee, I made some of my Ma’s special brew.”
Teaspoon took the mug warily. He had been warned many times by the riders’
to never drink any of Barnett’s specially brewed coffee for fear of death.
Feeling Barnett’s expectant eyes upon him, Teaspoon raised the cup slowly
to his mouth and took a drink. He winced as the foul tasting liquid touched
his tongue and had to
swallow quickly for fear of spitting it out all over himself. “That sure
is powerful coffee, Barnett.”
Pleasure filled Barnett’s face at Teaspoon’s comments. “ I knew you’d like it, Teaspoon. Everybody does once they taste it!”
“You’re welcome, Barnett. I suppose I should start in on this mess
cluttering my desktop.” Teaspoon said, seating himself behind his desk.
He set the mug of coffee onto the only clear space on his cluttered desk and
set to work sorting through the mound of paper piled on top of it.
Barnett drank the last of his coffee down and began to straighten up the office. He emptied the trash cans, emptied and cleaned the spittoon, then began dusting the office. Teaspoon continued sorting through the paperwork on his desk, hoping that the headache he was starting to get was because of his deputy’s off key singing and not his coffee. When Barnett began to furiously sweep the floor, raising his voice in a terrible rendition of “My Darling Clementine,” Teaspoon’s nerves couldn’t handle it any longer.
“Barnett, can’t you find something less noisy to do? I know, why don’t you go patrol?”
“By myself?” Barnett said in surprise. “ I thought you told me you didn’t want me to do that again, after I arrested Mr. Polosky for breaking into his own store.”
(Damn, I forgot about that.) “That was a long time ago Barnett. I’m sure you won’t make the same mistake this time.” Teaspoon told him.
“Okay. I’ll go right now.” Barnett said, setting down the broom and heading out of the office.
“Take your time.” Teaspoon muttered quietly. “A long, long time.”
