exit, and Morris was under the coach.
He frowned. Someone was missing. He looked again, and then realized it was Reverend Howe who was gone.
“Where’s the preacher?” he asked.
Big Will pointed behind them.
“I reckon that’s him lying back yonder in the dirt.”
“The hell you say!” Shorty muttered, reached up into the seat where he’d been sitting, and came away with a gun.
“What you reckon to do with that?” Big Will asked, as Shorty started down the road after the rest of his passengers.
“Might have broke his leg,” Shorty said.
Big Will frowned. “Hell, Shorty, he ain’t no horse. You cain’t just shoot him cause he’s crippled up some.”
Shorty stopped, looked down at the rifle then shrugged.
“Reckon you’re right,” he said, and kept walking.
“So what you gonna do with that gun?” Big Will asked, as he fell into step beside Shorty.
Shorty glared, then spit. “If that woman pitches herself another fit, I might just shoot myself so’s I don’t have to listen.”
Big Will laughed. “She is a pistol, ain’t she?”
“It is women like her that makes me glad I’m a single man,” Shorty muttered.
“I wonder how come the preacher fell outa’ the stage?”
“Who the hell knows,” Shorty said, then pointed at Letty, who was now crouching over the downed man. “For all we know, she pushed him out and beat us all there to finish him off.”
“Why would you go and say that?” Big Will asked. “They act like they like each other just fine.”
Shorty shrugged then spit again. “Maybe he went and farted.”
Eulis came to with a finger up his nose. Startled, he gasped and sat up just as Letty rocked back on her heels.
“What the hell was you doin?” Eulis asked.
Letty frowned. “Your nose was all full of dirt. I thought you couldn’t breathe.”
Eulis groaned and then sneezed. Something that looked like mud flew out of his nose and landed on Letty’s skirt.
“Oh that’s just fine!” she said, and got to her feet.
The shift in her posture also shifted her bladder, reminding her of her urge. Without a word to Eulis, she turned and dashed off toward a grove of trees at the side of the road.
“Where you goin’?” Eulis called.
Letty stopped, then turned and glared at him while lowering her voice to a hiss.
“I need to pee,” she said, and then headed for the trees.
Eulis’s eyes widened. “Is that why you wanted me to stop the stage?”
She kept running without looking back.
Eulis staggered to his feet. The horizon was floating about a foot off plumb, and he could only see from one eye, but it didn’t stop his indignation.
“Damn it to hell, Letty… did I just fall out of that coach on my head because you needed to pee?”
Letty’s face was flaming. If she’d had a gun she would have shot Eulis where he stood. As it was, she didn’t have time to commit murder because pee was running down her leg. She was pulling up her skirts even before she reached the trees.
Boston Jones got a real good view of her bare legs and backside before she disappeared into the brush.
“Where’s she going?” Boston asked, and then wondered why the preacher was picking his nose.
Eulis snorted as a tiny pebble fell out in his hand, after which he started to sneeze.
“You okay, Preacher?” Boston asked.
Eulis wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve then looked up. He forgot about being gentle and turning the other cheek. It never occurred to him that a preacher probably wouldn’t be cursing, no matter what pain he’d be in.
“Hell no, I’m not okay. I can’t see outa’ one eye. I mighta’ busted my head. I got rocks up my nose, I can’t feel my lips, and all because she needed to pee.”
He started limping toward the stage when he saw Shorty and Big Will coming toward him.
“What happened?” Shorty yelled.
Still pissed at what happened, Eulis opened his mouth and shouted, even though the sound made his head feel as if it was splitting in two.
“She had to pee!” He pointed toward the trees. “Sister Leticia had to pee!”
In the trees, Letty was still squatting to relieve herself when she heard Eulis shouting. Then she heard what he was saying and cursed beneath her breath. Traveling was hell on women and that was a fact. A goat had tipped her over in Forney’s outhouse and all because she needed to go. Now she was forced to endure more public humiliation because of a perfectly natural bodily function. It just wasn’t fair. Men didn’t