the backs. “Well, you and me, girl, we’re gonna draw cuts. Aces high. If I pull the high card I’ll shoot you where you sit and carve out your heart to bring back to your mama. I will not enjoy that part of this business but it is firmly stated in the terms of my commission. No accounting for rich folks’ morals—but I thank you for the warning on the matter of your mother and I will hew to it. If you draw the high card, we’ll walk off paces like gentlemen and you’ll have a mean chance at walking off clean.”
“How do I know you have not got a cold deck?” Snow White asks.
“If you want the shuffle of it, you may have it.”
Snow White looks over the cards real careful. The dude does not cheat. He does not have to. He knows he will get his whether he draws a two of diamonds or the King of Diamonds. It looks like a choice but it isn’t. Snow White shuffles; the cards spill from one hand to another like a red waterfall. For a minute she looks like a statue of Temperance or Justice, pouring red water between two cups.
Snow White cuts first. Takes her card and holds it. Passes the dude the deck to cut himself, nice and fair. He takes his and without agreeing upon it they turn over at the same time.
The dude lays down the King of Clubs. He smiles.
Snow White holds the Ace of Hearts.
Snow White
and Porcupine Contend for
a Buffalo
Snow White and the dude pace it off. The sky is bright and hot as the beginning of something.
Of course she cheated. Don’t be silly. Snow White spent half her growing years shuffling cards for no one. She can cut false and she can cut true but she wasn’t going to lose when it counted.
They stand in the green grass. Beneath them men are cutting apple rinds out of the dark and will be forever. Snow White’s got the sun behind her. It gives her golden ears like a doggy seraphim.
A crack and a whistle. Another one, almost on top of it, like an echo.
Wind picks up and it smells like rain.
What
Snow White
Said to Porcupine
to Bring Him
Out of His Hole
Sorry about your knee, mister.
And your shoulder, too.
Remember that, if you’re cogitating on coming after me again. I can shoot twice before you shoot once.
Also I will always draw the high ace.
I got no soreness on you, mister.
You wait here. There’s good black-tail in these mountains and I aim to help you even if you can’t see the help in it yet.
You’re gonna take a heart back to Mrs. H. A deer’s heart, which is the best I can do.
There is more blood in a deer than seems creditable.
Mrs. H is not my mother and you should not name her that.
She is a witch.
I do not know what witches want with hearts but it cannot be anything nice.
Take this heart and put it in a wooden box.
Give the box to Mr. George Button who is the valet and abscond yourself if you aim to keep living.
Forget your bounty. Take what you have already got and call it the bettermost part of luck.
Mrs. H is dreadful clever and will probably not be fooled. That is why you cannot get your scratch.
You will have to run away from her. Like me.
One thing I have learned about running away is that once you start there is no end to it.
I know you will have a hard sentiment about having your plow cleaned by a girl but if you think about it I am being as kind as anybody ever is.
If you get yourself back to the corral you can rustle up a sawbones from the boss-man and get yourself patched.
I am going to take your gun and your knife.
That’s about all I can do for you.
Snow White
Races Herself
Snow White hits the mountains with Charming underneath her, the dude behind her, a hot hurry on either side and a week’s wages in her pockets. A new knife strapped to her leg. A new gun on her back. She’s running again. Snow White never stops running. Her hands are still red. Blood don’t come off real easy. A space opens up between the shootout and Snow White.
It looked like a choice but it wasn’t.
Snow White burns the wind.
Part IV
Snow White Lives
With Forty Dragons
Snow White
Hits the Road
Snow White does not know it when she crosses over into the Crow Nation. It looks