CLARA AND JAKE: A SHORT WESTERN LOVE STORY BY RAY RAMOS

Clara Rule had Jake Redskon in her rifles sights. He was on horseback, riding slowly toward her small cabin. As he silently made his way, she thought back to the time when he first rode into her life. He had charmed her with his kindness, it was just what a prairie widow had needed, and a man… she thought like him. Jake surprised her one morning when she opened her cabin door, he was sitting there on his horse. A horse that he sometimes, called Pegasus, and other times he called brother. Then other times, he would  refer to the horse as; my brother Pegasus. That morning Jake, smiled and tipped his hat and asked for a cup of coffee. That’s how it all started with him. The next thing Jake Redskon was chopping her wood, and then giving Clara kind words that soothed her heart. Then one day a kiss, he pulled her tight and Clara thought she felt devil’s pitchfork itself poking out at her. She couldn’t help what came next and then all those other things that her would do to her; the things she began to enjoy. Sometimes they would even do these things outside of the cabin, and in the bright sunshine… with Jake, Clara had no shame in her desires, and she loved him. She gathered by his colt revolver that he hid in his leather saddlebag that he some kind of, as the Mexican called them;  a pistolaro. But in the weeks he lived with Clara, Jake never showed her sign of treachery or violence, except when he would playful smack he small bare bottom during one of their moments. They were the best weeks of Clara’s adult life she thought. Then one morning, she woke to find Jake had left, long before her rooster had woken. He left her a note that said, “Clara, This is best. Thank you for your kindness and coffee. Jake.” Just like that, he had climbed up on his damn horse and rode off. Clara again found herself alone. For weeks she prayed that he would return, and at night she would lay there and imagine him with her. Some nights Clara would lay her hands on the places of her body that Jake favored, and think of him.

And there Jake was on his horse. With her finger tight on the rifle trigger, she thought for a moment she’d shoot them both… him and his damn horse. Clara watched him ride closer. She could hear him and his horse breathing. But never lowered the rifle, even though her arms were cramping painfully. Jake was now finally close enough to where she could look in his eyes. He was caked full of prairie dust, it made his black hair look white.

“You bastard Jake!”

Jake barley lifted his head. He tried to speak, and then tumbled of off his horse and hit the hard red clay ground. Clara set down her rifle and ran to Jake’s still body.

“Jake! Jake! Wake up damn you! You didn’t ride all the way out here, just to die I front of me! You’re not that cruel of a man?!”

Clara rolled Jake over on his back to inspect him. There was a hole in him; he’d been shot in the side. His blood was dried up and crusted on his shirt. Clara checked the rest of him; she even grabbed his area between his legs just to see if he was all there. She worked her hand there for a moment to try and get a rise out of him. It was limp like the rest of him. “Damn you Jake! I need all of you workin’ proper!”

Clara was originally an Easterner; her body was slender, but not rawboned. For her size she was strong, and she used all of what she had in her, to drag Jake into the cabin. “You got some nerve comin’ here shot up, before I could shoot ya myself,” Clara said.

Clara somehow got Jake over to her bed, where she undressed him and tended to his wound. It was a gunshot wound as far as she could tell; the bullet seemed to have traveled clean through what extra fat he carried on his side. She poured some whiskey on his gunshot and cleaned it best she could. Jake started to stir a bit, but his ramblings she still couldn’t understand. As it grew to night, Jake was starting to shake and tremble. All Clara could think of doing was to take off her thin dress and to wrap herself in the wool blanket. She used whatever warmth she had in her thin naked body to keep Jake warm. During the night, Jake started to speak, at first she thought she was imagining that he was saying, “Clara.” But she wasn’t, in his fog, Jake repeated and called out her name, until there was no doubt in Clara’s mind that Jake must have been returning to her. She figured that Jake’s bullet wound was the cause of an unlucky encounter on his way to see her. Clara laid with Jake Redskon for three days and three nights before he was fully aware that he’s made it to Clara’s little cabin.

 “Where’s my brother Pegasus,” were the first words out of Jake’s mouth. Jake looked over at the lovely yellow haired prairie girl. Clara put her hands on her hips, “Don’t worry about him, he’s doing a lot better than you. That’s for sure.”  

“Hot damn, you know I was almost robbed by a highwayman on my way to pay my respects to you,” said Jake.

“Almost robbed? He almost killed you.”

Jake gave Clara a little smile.

“We’ll, I didn’t almost kill him.” Jake winked at her.

But, Jake removed his smile when he saw that Clara wasn’t smiling back at him. Maybe she was mad that he wasn’t dead, he wondered for a brief moment.

“You left me Jake. You left me here with a broken heart, after you had your way with me, and taught me all of those nasty things that them saloon girls like to do.”

“I’m sorry Clara. Yes, I did leave… you got me dead to rights on that.

Jake couldn’t take the stare down from Clara, and looked down at the wool blanket.

“I left that night… well, because I didn’t think I could stay in one spot. I’m a man with a horse who can fly.”

“Jake, Pegasus is just his damn name. No horse can fly.”

“Well, when he wants to, he can get pretty high up there.

Jake looked at Clara and scratched is head.

“And when did you start talkin’ like a saloon girl, Clara? ”

“Maybe, after you taught me all them saloon girl tricks you like so much?”

“Can I finish my trial, Clara?”

“Go ahead Jake.”
Well, after I left… I was truly missing you. I thought I could cure that feelin’ with beer and whiskey and…”

“Other women?”

“Well, now that you mention it… I tried that too. But the truth was nothin’ worked. You can ask my brother Pegasus, I’m sure he was sick of me bellyaching’ about how much I missed you… because one day, he just headed us back in the direction to your place. And here we are.”

“Oh, so it was the horse’s idea?”

“Well, not all of it, darn it!”

“And how did you get shot?”

“Well like I said, this highwayman got the drop on me, down by the Three Creeks. I didn’t care to kill the man, and I was most obliging to that low prairie dog.”

“You were?”

“Well, I was… that was until he wanted to look in my saddlebag. I told him, he could have whatever he wanted; except my horse, clothes, gun and my fancy wrapped gift in my saddle bag… which is for you. Well Clara, it seemed he wanted just about everything I said that he couldn’t have. So we drew on each other. And now he’s much worse off than me.”

“Is that so, Jake Redskon?”

“Well, that is… if you don't see it in your heart to leave with me?”

Clara gasp.

Jake new that was a good sign; Clara would gasp like that when he would tell her of all naughty things he wanted to do to her naked body.

“That was the problem, it me staying put… but you coming with me. And being my partner…that’ll work," said Jake.

“What kind of partner, Jake?”

“Well, the kind that kiss in the moonlight and such. Do you think you could fancy that? I know you’re leaving your fancy cabin behind and all,” said Jake.

“Do you love me, Jake?”

“Well hell, I got shot didn’t I?”

“What does that prove?”

“Well, I got shot because that fella was gonna rob me of the look on your face.”

“Jake, what are you talkin’ about?” Clara said.

“When I give you that fancy wrapped box, with that pretty gold ring in it”

Clara smiled and ran to her pistolaro and kissed him long and hard, just to remind him what he'd missed. Clara knew for sure now that Jake had been coming back for her, and she’d have no problem leaving her cabin behind to be his partner… life with Jake was going to be a damn adventure.