Freedom´s just another word for nothing-left-to-lose

When he said he hired Kelly they got angry. “So it will be time for us to leave when a woman starts doing our work.”

He answered that this had not been a question for admission. Kelly was hired and she would take up work tomorrow.

 

Side by side they rode through a forest that they knew would open up onto a great plain a few miles ahead.  He watched her sitting in the saddle, relaxed and lost in thought,  pensive, like often. Even so she was dainty she was no sexy woman, not really attractive, mysterious could have been a description instead.

 A few weeks ago he wouldn´t have expected her to ride good, to have ever hold a gun in her hand. But he had been taught better. She was not only a good rider. She rode like a god. And as they told her to hit an empty tin with a gun, she hit it six god damn times. They had been really impressed and no one dared to laugh about her anymore. She earned the respect of the men.

When the sunset was bright red they unsaddled the horses and pitched their camp on the fringe of the wood. They changed their clothes into those they would wear tomorrow, for that they would not be too stiff in the morning. Only some minutes later they had lightened a fire for the night and still had not said a word. They sat down on the ground and she began to carve a rabbit out of a branch that had been lying on the ground. Only some minutes and you could already guess what it would be at the end of the night.

When he broke the silence and asked: “Where did you learn all that?” she gave him the short answer: “I grew up with the Sioux.”

As she fell into silence again he got up to get the whiskey. They enjoyed the still, only interrupted by the snorting of a horse, the rustling of the woods and some lonely  big cats moaning in through the night.

Then he remembered that there had been a message for her last night. “What´s new with you? Didn´t you get a letter yesterday?”

Suddenly she glanced up, put the half done rabbit aside and got up on her feed. “I need to go riding. What about you?” It was already dark and riding drunk and tired was already dangerous enough by light. “However”, he answered and followed her to the horses. “Steady now, steady my friend”, she whispered to her horse and got herself on the horseback without caring about a saddle. Until he could do the same she had already turned her horse around and was gone.

When he caught up with her she said: ”It came from my hometown. My mother died. And my father has sent me word that I must not return to my family after leaving without his admission.” “I feel sorry about that”, he answered with dismay. But when he looked upon her face he saw a smile on her lips and before she rushed of, she said with the passion of heart:

“I am free now”.