Hi everyone!
I had a crazy busy weekend, and then went to the Del mar Fair and got quite a lobster burn! Youch!
Anyway, with the passing of Michael Jackson I watched lots of tributes and we watched our DVD of his music videos, and I wasn’t really feeling the Comedy Tonight topic, so I ended up thinking… Flash Fiction… Murder in 250 words or less!!!
You’re not really surprised are you?
Anyway, adding in the topic of a bread basket, and a music icon, I did a bunch of research and came up with a music icon from the 1890’s and a gunslinger with an itchy trigger finger… 🙂
Lisa
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Gunslinger’s Gold – By Lisa Kessler
Cal Black stormed through the hinged saloon doors with an itchy trigger finger and a stare that could kill a man.
“Where is Paco?”
“Paco?” The bartender shrugged. “I don’t know any Paco.”
The patrons in the dusty west Texas bar went silent. Cal’s cheek twitched and his eyes narrowed.
Dan Quinn’s latest ragtime tune was the only noise scratching out of the tiny phonograph on the corner of the bar. In the blink of an eye the phonograph exploded, Cal’s pistol barrel smoked, and the room reeked with the scent of gun powder.
“Always hated that song.” Cal holstered his pistol and eyed the sweaty bartender. “Let’s try this again, all right? Where is Paco?”
“Leave Paco alone!”
Cal spun around to find a senorita with fire smoldering in her dark eyes. “Why is a pretty lady like you protecting pond scum like Paco?”
She raised her chin in defiance, in spite of Cal’s hand moving to his holster. “Paco is my brother and he did nothing to you.”
His fingertips brushed the smooth walnut grip of his pistol as he crossed the room to stand in front of the curvy woman with hate in her eyes.
“I had a bread box full of gold, Senorita,” he growled. “This morning it was an empty box.”
“Paco didn’t take your gold, gunslinger.” A gurgle escaped his throat, and his eyes widened in surprise as she buried her knife in his abdomen. “I did.”
THE END
Dan W. Quinn (1859 – 1. November 7, 1938) was one of the first American singers to become popular in the new medium of recorded music. Quinn was a very successful recording artist whose recording career spanned 1892 to 1918. Quinn recorded many of his hits in the legendary “Tin Pan Alley” of New York City.