“Well, I should say it hurts,” Billy said. “It’s a wonder you can even see out of them. What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you get into a fight?”
“I don’t know,” Cletus repeated. “I must have. But I don’t remember anything about it.”
“Where did you spend the night? Do you at least know that?” Billy asked.
“Yeah, I know that.”
“Where?”
“In the jail,” Cletus said. “I spent the night in jail. What about Deke and Lou? Where are they?”
Billy shook his head. “I don’t know, I haven’t seen them this morning. Did they get into a fight, too?”
“I don’t know.”
Billy sighed. “Look at you. You are so damn drunk, you don’t know anything.”
The waitress brought a plate of eggs, potatoes, and fried ham to set before Cletus. Cletus looked at his breakfast stupidly for a moment, as if having difficulty making his eyes focus. Then he smiled.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, grinning. “I was sittin’ here waitin’ on another drink, but I must’ve ordered breakfast.” His face paled as he looked at the food, then he pushed it away. “Why’d I order breakfast? I can’t eat this shit,” he said.
“Give it to me, I haven’t eaten yet,” Billy said.
“You can eat it?”
“Yes, I can eat.”
“How can you eat it?”
“I can eat it because I’m not hungover from a night of drinking, fighting, and who knows what else you were doing.”
“Oh yeah, I forget,” Cletus said. “You are the good boy of the family. Pa thinks me and Ray should be more like you. Tell me, little brother, do you think I should be more like you?”
“Would it do any good if I said I thought you should?” Billy asked. He cut a piece of ham and stuck it in his mouth.
“No, it wouldn’t do no good a’tall,” Cletus said. “Besides which, I got me a score to settle with Marshal Calhoun.”
“What score do you have to settle with him?” Billy raked his biscuit through some egg yellow, then took a bite.
“I don’t know.”
“That doesn’t make sense, Cletus,” Billy said. “You say you have a score to settle with Marshal Calhoun, but you don’t even know the reason?”
“I’ve got these here two black eyes!” Cletus shouted. “Ain’t that reason enough?” Cletus’s voice was so loud that a few of the others who were eating their own breakfast looked around nervously.
“You’re making a scene, Cletus,” Billy cautioned.
“I don’t care. This here thing with Marshal Calhoun and his two brothers has gone far enough. I’m goin’ to stand up to them today. Are you goin’ to stand up with me? Or are you goin’ to turn tail and run?”
“What do you plan to do?” Billy asked.
“It don’t matter what I plan to do. What I want to know is, whatever I do, will you be there with me?”
“I’m your brother,” Billy said.
“I know you’re my brother,” Cletus said. “That ain’t the question. The question I’m askin’ you is will you be there with me?”
“I hope it never actually comes to that, but it if does, yes, I’ll be with you.”
“What if it actually comes to gunplay? Would you be there to back me up?”
Billy sighed. “Yes,” he said. “Like I told you, you’re my brother. If it comes to gunplay, I’ll back you.”
Suddenly, the anger left Cletus’s face and he grinned broadly. “I was hopin’ you would say that,” he said. “Just knowin’ I can count on you makes me happy. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“We’re goin’ home,” Cletus said. He laughed. “If Calhoun and his brothers want to have a shootout, why, they can just have it amongst themselves.”
Billy laughed happily. “Now you’re making sense,” he said. “Come on, I have a buckboard parked just down the street.”
“A buckboard? Where’s my horse?”
“It came back to the ranch last night,” Billy said.
Kathleen Garrison stood at the front window of the CNM&T office and watched as Billy drove by in the buckboard. Billy’s brother, Cletus, was sitting in the seat beside him, his head hanging forward as if he were asleep.
She wondered if Billy would glance toward the window, and when he did, she felt a little thrill pass through her. She waved at him, and she saw the small smile play across his face as he nodded in response.
