Scareship_Issue8

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her up from the tips of her stubby, reddish-brown toes to the frizzy ends of her wild black mane. Sunny once had a feller by the name of Gilmore whom she recalled with a particular fondness, and, since the infant’s blanket was emblazoned with that “G. Gammes”, she named the child Gilmore, Gammes’ son. And that boy, Gilly Gammesson, he grew hisself up pretty quick amidst the tumult of Rook. At the age of 8, Gilly was standing in the middle of the road, chucking cow pies up into the wind, when a funeral procession came upon him. The mortician’s man came and shooed the boy out of the way, so the mourners could proceed. Irritated at the interruption, Gilly stood aside and, when the hearse came by, noted “I ain’t never gonna be shut in no box forever.” Sid Uhry, the saloon keeper, was standing nearby and said, “You don’t plan to be buried, young master Gammesson?” “No sir… in fact, I don’t plan to die a’tall!” Sid jes’ laughed. “You are a mad one, young Gilly!” And “Mad Gilly” the town took to calling him that day. And since that was what they called him, then that was who he was. By age 15, Mad Gilly already knew how to hold his liquor, deal from the bottom, fight dirty and shoot the eyes out of a buffalo nickel. Handsome and a charmer, he was liked by folks, but not well liked. Point of fact, he was more feared than fancied. After all, his mama was a witchy half-breed whore and he was as strongheaded as a mule on loco weed, and twice as dangerous, without the good sense to be afeard o’ fearful things. That’s when Gilly had his first showdown with Bull Evans, necessitating the boy’s leave-taking of Rook. Bull had tried to jail young Gilly for public drunkenness, conducting the arrest with his usual ill temper and bad manners, but Gilly expressed his objection to Bull’s demeanor by pulling his Colt and shooting Bull in the head. Looking back, I can see why some thought Gilly may have overreacted a bit, but he was a boy of high spirits. Afore Gilly lit out of town, Sunny gave him a special stone necklace that she claimed had Humbabian powers. He guffawed, 36
ut put it on nonetheless. She told him to go to Humble’s Wood and find Trapper Dugan. He was the kind of a feller who could be helpful at a time like this. Gilly, not having anywhere else to go and, whatever else he was, still only a scared boy, took Sunny’s advice and disappeared into the woods afore Starr’s other gunmen could find him. Little did Gilly know what he would find waiting for him out in that forest. The Coming of Inky Dugan By the time Gilly came strolling through the woods on that troubled day, Trapper Dugan had already moved on from the environs of Rook and was nowhere to be found. He had, though, left something behind him... a son, left in the care of a Humbabian squaw. Now whether she was the child’s birth mother or only his wet nurse no one knows for sure, but she was all the mama that boy would ever know. Before departing, Trapper Dugan had dubbed the boy “Inky,” for the jet black hair that covered most of the child’s body and the deep set eyes that sat in his head like bottomless blue-black pools of tar. And that boy, Inky Dugan, he was raised a Hum. At the ripe ole age of 12, he was left in the woods by his mama to fend for hisself, as was required by the Humbabian warrior’s rite of ascension. She let his hand drop and Inky walked into those woods without a backward glance, and he never returned to the tribe thereafter. Whether that filled the squaw’s heart with pain or relief is unknowable, but I’d be acknowledging the corn of it to guess it was both. So now here was Gilly, on the run, spotting a figure hightailing it across Humble’s Wood. At first he thought it was a grizz, but then he realized that it was a man what gamboled amongst the thickets, and so he hailed him. “Oyo, Mr. Dugan!” shouted Gilly, thinking the feller to be Trapper Dugan. 37
Page 2 and 3: scareship.com | scareship@gmail.com
Page 4 and 5: Spain held a lifelong fascination f
Page 6 and 7: which lay about four gunshots from
Page 8 and 9: “You will get nothing worse,” p
Page 10: about before me, some loading their
Page 13 and 14: a ghost. I picture you listening at
Page 15 and 16: * * * Someday, soon it must be, the
Page 17 and 18: At the Center of the Controversy by
Page 20 and 21: “The Edge” copyright © 2012 by
Page 22 and 23: shimmer across the horizon, camoufl
Page 24 and 25: “You don’t see,” says the sna
Page 26 and 27: a Chinese elm. I push my eyes with
Page 29 and 30: “Mad Gilly & the Were-Bear” cop
Page 31 and 32: “For what? Killin’ ya? Ya ain
Page 33 and 34: maternality of the local whores and
Page 35: But Newt and Izzie surely made an u
Page 39 and 40: uilt a fire and started in on seari
Page 41 and 42: his hand at wrangling and rustling,
Page 43 and 44: The Were-Bear Strikes Gilly may hav
Page 45 and 46: Inky smiled and pointed at the ston
Page 47 and 48: “It’s a long story. Just do it,
Page 49 and 50: Uhry at the bar. Their eyes locked.
Page 51 and 52: swear to you, on that night the Bul
Page 53 and 54: loody result, which Gilly stumbled
Page 55 and 56: “So what happened to my boy, then
Page 57 and 58: Inky Dugan Goes Home Gilly and Hors
Page 59 and 60: Well, that’s mah story anyway, an
Page 61 and 62: Surprisingly, his newly acquired F
Page 63 and 64: Year’s End by Kay Chronister “Y
Page 65 and 66: Em says she can see the moon and sh
Page 67 and 68: She frowns too, thoughtful. She mak
Page 69 and 70: “What if they don’t?” “They
Page 71: “Last night?” “No, the rest.
Page 74 and 75: Park. City sounds drown out their h
Page 76 and 77: huh? Come out, come out.” No resp
Page 78 and 79: a light on in a building, many floo
Page 80 and 81: he’s not likely to need—a lawn
Page 82 and 83: vegetables and salad. Fresh fruit:
Page 84 and 85: coworkers are occasional, and he ha
Page 86 and 87:
Outside, he arranges the ear phones
Page 88 and 89:
Probably a waste of energy but he d
Page 90 and 91:
of chocolate milk, and is on his wa
Page 92 and 93:
Tonight is crazy as always: lots of
Page 94 and 95:
The streets, the subway, the street
Page 96 and 97:
within. She associates all of them
Page 98 and 99:
and relieved. When she finds out it
Page 100 and 101:
“But it was strong enough a feeli
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stands behind her. He means her no
Page 104 and 105:
aloneness and stabbed him deeply. H
Page 106 and 107:
Contributors Kay Chronister (“Yea
Page 108:
found online at http://www.brittany
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