Morgan sighed and looked around before he leaned a little closer. "I used to be a lawman...Me and my brother decided that getting shot at while trying to keep the peace was not a recipe for a long life, so we gave it up..." Morgan took another drink of his beer. "...problem is, I can't stop sticking my nose in where it's not asked for. Call it a character flaw, I suppose. One I am trying to fix."
"Lawman huh? Oh, I'm quite familiar with those. Been arrested enough by 'em," Caroline grinned.
"If what you did earlier is a character flaw, then it's one I hope you don't fix. Those two young ladies were unjustly attacked and those men deserved what they got," she hoped he understood that to be a compliment.
She now did her job and asked in a not so subtle way for him to buy her a drink. He complied, like 99% of the men she asked.
"I suppose the least I can do is help you do your job, little lady..." Morgan looked up at Ralph and gave a nod at the woman beside him. "One of whatever she usually has, thanks."
"You got it," Ralph reached under the bar to bring out a half-filled whiskey bottle then poured a shotglass of it's contents.
Caroline smiled as she reached for it, "Thanks hon, appreciate it."
She then held it up long enough to make a toast, "Here's ta lawmen!" Then she downed it without any seeming effect.
Actually it was colored water from a special bottle Ralph kept under the bar. Caroline liked her alcohol alright but one could never remain standing the length of a shift if every drink she was expected to down was real. She learned this old trick young.
"So got any plans to stay around here then? As towns go, and I been in more'n my share, Kalispell is a decent sorta place."
Morgan smiled at her comment about not fixing his perceived character flaw...He watched as she toasted him with her shot and he returned the nod with his beer. Both drank in silence before she continued with her questions, but this one was a good one to Morgan's mind.
"So got any plans to stay around here then? As towns go, and I been in more'n my share, Kalispell is a decent sorta place."
Morgan nodded. "Except for that welcome in the street, it does seem like a nice place. Right now I'm staying at the Hotel, but that can't continue for long. I need somewhere a little more affordable for the long term."
Caroline asked about if he had any plans to stay on in town.
Morgan nodded. "Except for that welcome in the street, it does seem like a nice place. Right now I'm staying at the Hotel, but that can't continue for long. I need somewhere a little more affordable for the long term."
"The hotel? Damn, that's for swells. I ate there a few times, not that I paid for it as my dates did, but food sure is expensive there. The local diner is cheaper. Now as for a place to stay..."
She snapped her fingers, "We got us a boarding house in town. The Wigfalls widow runs it. I been told the prices are fair. It ain't no hotel but you get a room with a bed."
A disembodied voice squeaked from nowhere, like a spirit at a seance: "Reckon the Wigfalls will have their hands full with Heck being shot, but I know a place you could live near-nuff rent free: but you'd have to be a pretty brave feller to stay there: it's haunted! And what's more, by a ghost!"
Those who turned their eyes in the direction that the voice seemed to be coming from, eventually saw a pair of scruffy, clumpy boots and a skinny rump in a calico dress back out from behind the far end of the bar. It was Sally, who'd been cleaning something up off of the floor. She clambered up off her knees and picked up her bucket of water and her scrubbing brush.
"Dunno what that was, Mr Flandry" she addressed the barkeeper "... but I got most of it up. D'ya want me to fetch some more clean glasses?"
A disembodied voice squeaked from nowhere, like a spirit at a seance: "Reckon the Wigfalls will have their hands full with Heck being shot, but I know a place you could live near-nuff rent free: but you'd have to be a pretty brave feller to stay there: it's haunted! And what's more, by a ghost!"
Morgan's head tipped back at the last part of the lady's comment. "Haunted? By a ghost, you say?..." Morgan cut his eyes over at Caroline to see if this person was legitimate or one of this town's "characters". Every place had them, and Morgan had no problem with them, but he knew than to take advice or recommendations from these people.
Sally had just mentioned something to Ralph but then addressed the newcomer.
"Reckon the Wigfalls will have their hands full with Heck being shot, but I know a place you could live near-nuff rent free: but you'd have to be a pretty brave feller to stay there: it's haunted! And what's more, by a ghost!"
"Ghosts, didn't ever hear about any ghosts in this burg?" actually Caroline had never seen in a ghost and thus did not believe in such things. She needed proof.
Morgan had looked her way so she quickly introduced the young miss, "Oh this is Sally, she works here in the saloon. Clean up and such."
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows" - Helen Keller
Morgan's head tipped back at the last part of the lady's comment. "Haunted? By a ghost, you say?..." Morgan cut his eyes over at Caroline to see if this person was legitimate or one of this town's "characters".
"Ghosts, didn't ever hear about any ghosts in this burg?" actually Caroline had never seen in a ghost and thus did not believe in such things. She needed proof.
"Really?!" Sally queried with a note of surprise in her voice "Why, Miss Mudd told me this place is haunted - by an old lady who always sits in the corner, just over there!" she pointed to an empty seat in a dark corner which, to be fair, didn't contain an incorporeal geriatric but which, oddly, no-one ever seemed to care to sit in, even where the place was packed.
Morgan had looked her way so she quickly introduced the young miss, "Oh this is Sally, she works here in the saloon. Clean up and such."
"Hello" Sally said "Now, this place I'm talking about, it used to be the Christian Women's refuge, but one of the ladies who ran the place got 'tacked by this feller last year and she got stabbed right through the lung, just like Heck Wigfall got shot though the chest today, but she lived to tell the tale so let's hope he does too, and you'd need to ask her because she... OH!" Sally suddenly looked like she had just seen a ghost.
"That's her passing the window right now! Gosh! That's Kismet!" Sally pointed "Hold on, Mister Thingumy-jig!" she yelped and ran out through the swing doors, reentering almost as they swung back, but this time steering a clearly blind girl, her eyes bandaged and a stick in her hand, toward the lanky gunslinger. As she did so, Sally pointed to her own eyes and urgently mouthed the words 'She's Blind!' to Morgan, like that wasn't obvious.
"Mister Thingumy-jig, this is Miss Grimes" Sally said out loud.
The blind girl stuck out a hand in no particular direction.
"Hello Mister Thingumy-jig, please take my hand, I can't see yours." Frances virtually commanded. She liked to get the elephant in the room out of the way as soon as possible when meeting a new person. Frances sniffed the air a little and heard the click of high heels on the bare floorboards. "Hello Caroline" the blind girl smiled genuinely, showing the wide gats in her unusual cleated teeth.
@[Anyone]
Morgan had to say this town certainly had its share of odd characters. He had not even been here half a day and he had met quite the assortment.
He reached out and took the hands as commanded. "Here you go, little lady...now what can you determine by me doing as you asked?"
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows" - Helen Keller
He reached out and took the hands as commanded. "Here you go, little lady...now what can you determine by me doing as you asked?"
"Is he going to meet a rich, beautiful woman and fall madly in love?!" queried Sally, excitedly.
Frances laughed as she took Morgan's preferred mitt.
"I'm shaking his hand, not reading his palm!" she pointed out.
Her head tilted up "I can tell you're tall, obviously. You smoke cigars but don't over-indulge in intoxicating liquors..." her nose told her that "And..." her face clouded maybe a little "I feel you're not a soft man... no... actually you are quite hard and unforgiving when you have to be... but I think you're pretty much on the square, Mister Thingumabob" she smiled again. He maintained his silence. "You don't talk unless you have to... you don't like noisy company, but nothing much scares you... apart from..." she let go "... young ladies who hold your hand for far too long"
Sally was agog, feeling like she was watching a supernatural mind-reading act, rather than a bunch of guesses.
"Is... is she right?" she asked Mr Morgan, wide eyed.
Caroline chuckled.
"No offense, Frances, you know I think you a dear, and no offense to you, Mr. Morgan, as we just met but hell..........I coulda guessed some of those myself."
And as for one chair no one sat in...............
"There ain't no ghost over there, you wanna know the truth of it. Damn chair is near broken and we haven't got anyone in this saloon with the slightest knowledge of carpentry so never got around to fixing it. On the few occasions a customer wants to go sit there, even some of the regulars warn 'im, it'll break if you lean back wrong," Caroline now gave the more realistic take on that piece of furniture.