Hallelujahpart 3by Norman A. Rubin |
Table of Contents Part 2 appeared in issue 141. |
The hand slipped from his shoulder and grasped lightly the fingers of his right hand. Jeb looked at the angelic sighting who looked like a rather delightful lady in his eyes dressed in a ‘o-me-gosh' frilly dancing costume with a very low decolletage that left nothing to the imagination. Jeb wasn't interested in looking at the careworn features of the lady nor of her past youthful body but his eyes were centered on the half hidden twin orbs and the peeping rosebuds.
Like a sheep led to slaughter Jeb allowed this angelic beauty to take him by the hand and lead him upstairs. Her soft fingers entwined his and he felt something strange happening between his legs. The bulge on the top of his denies grew and hardened which embarrassed the innocent laddie.
The mixed light tripping and the heavy boot treads wound around a corridor to a room at the very end. Jeb, slightly bent to cover his embarrassed state, waited patiently as the dancing lady inserted a key and invited inside to a dimly lit room.
"Make yerself comfortable, dearie,” chirped the dancing lady as she relocked the door.
But Jeb just stood with an open mouth unable to comprehend his situation. His eyes got accustomed to interior and he noted that three gals of the same profession shared the room. Small ornamental perfume flasks and powder boxes were set on a small dressing table, some slightly open; the containers let their fragrant odours to mix in the tiny room. The interior was to his sight one of the feminine genders by the dainty things spread on the decorated bed covers and hung on nails tacked on the walls.
When Jeb turned towards his angel his mouth gaped as he stared, "Oh-me-gosh, she be starkers!”
True to his sight the missy was bare to her skin from the top of her dyed red hair to the top of her black stockings. The blessed dimness hid the sight of flabby flesh with drooping breasts and wide, round buttocks. Yet to Jeb it was a delightful yet sinful sight.
Before he was able to uphold his righteous conviction, the dancing lady had opened the buttons to his denies, and pulled out his hardened prick. The words 'oh-me-gosh' didn't form when, with a not so gentle shove, Jeb was pushed upon a bed. He heard his boots being dropped on the floor followed by his denies and long underwear. He felt cool in the bareness of skin below his shirttails. The dancing lady placed herself at the side of his flesh. Strong hands spread his legs apart and hungrily grasped his ready tool.
Then he felt the weight of the woman on top him; A thrill surged through him as he was introduced to the pleasures of physical love. He heard pleasurable groans from the missy as his prick entered the depth of her fruitful garden with her pulsating movements. Jeb didn't need to be taught to grasp the ample buttocks when the flush of sensuousness gripped him, which was quick, off course.
The creature uttered no words of affection or endearment as she lifted her weight from atop Jeb's body. With a slight groan she pulled herself from the bed. She took a deep breath as she stood and looked down at the Jeb.
"That be some good swive. ’Twas real smooth and creamy. Jest make yerself comfortable a bit till I get freshened up.”
Jeb did as he was told. He sneaked a peek through his eyes and sinfully watched as the filly washed, perfumed and powdered her aging body. His eyes quickly shut as the lady turned in all her glory to retrieve her costume and dress.
Then his delightful angel appeared at his side, dressed and perfumed, holding a shot glasses of a potent drink. He was urged to sit and to drink the whiskey together with her glass of cold tea. The lad had never tasted such hard stuff and he stuck to his righteous belief against the evils of drink. When the dancing lady turned momentarily he emptied the glass on the floor.
Then upon soothing words to rest a bit and have a bit of shut-eye, Jeb, in all his innocence, imagined it to be part of the love game and he obeyed the slightly hypnotic calling. He closed his eyes drowsily and relaxed in the ecstatic feeling of the sensuous coupling. His eyelids were partially closed when he heard a sweet voice calling him. The initiated pretended sleep, "Don’ wanna spoil the fun!” He just watched the dancing lady's soft movements about the shadows of the room.
Jeb continued to pretend to be asleep as he watched as the dancing lady rifled through the pockets of his denies and take out his poke of bills and silver cartwheels. The lad was a bit put out by the lady's action, but he remained quite still.
Then as he looked with a half opened eye the dancing lady went to a small commode against the wall, pushed it aside, opened a small compartment in the back and put in the sack of money. Quietly she replaced the commode and tiptoed out of the room flinging a whispered phrase, "So long sucker!”
"I'll be durned. She suckered me wit' all thet lovin',” he exclaimed as he heard the close of the door.
Jeb Stuart waited a few moments before he jumped from the love nest and quickly dressed. Then he went to the commode at the side of the bed and pushed it from the wall. He opened the small compartment and fished inside grabbing three small pokes, a gold watch and a few bills. He was unable to discern which sack or currency was his rightful property so he jammed the lot deeply in a pocket.
The door was unlocked when Jeb tried to turn the knob. The door opened easily and with the swiftness of foot left his initiation site. He tread carefully the creaking boards when he heard the lady of the night returning, together with two hefty goons. Fortunately the door of another hotel room was slightly ajar and he entered. He pressed to close the door when he was greeted by honeyed words of invitation.
"That's a good little boy. Now close the door and come to me and...”
* * *
"Don't know where you disappeared,” Ebenezer spoke harshly as they drove along the trail. "Had a nice filly lined up. A real cutey she was. Could have taught you a thing a two about the feminine critters.”
Jeb simply let the words fly as he urged the cantankerous mule forward. A smile was on his face when he remembered his second lesson in the art of courting. She was a widow returning east after the burial of her man and when the sight of the handsome strapping youth reminded her of her loneliness. Her room was well lit and Jeb enjoyed the sight of slim young woman who bared the white of her sensuous flesh to him. And the young man, now versed in the art, didn't leave a stitch of cloth on his body when he sided her on the white of the sheets.
Ebenezer looked at the dreamy-eyed and issued forth a comment, "Stop yer silly dreaming and pay attention to th' trail.” But Jeb ignored his words as he remembered a pretty face and her sweet words of love.
The remembrance of the past pleasured hours was interrupted by the skidding of the mule to a full stop. Even his uncle was jolted out of his own reverie of the profits earned in the sale of his titillating literature. There in front of them on the trail was a small group of bareback mounted brown skinned men. Both Ebenezer and Jeb were stunned and mixed in fearful thoughts.
"Jest you leave it to me!” exclaimed Ebenezer, "Do know how to deal with the redskins.”
The crabby huckster carefully lifted himself from his seat on the wagon and made his way to the sand of the trail. Slowly he walked on the dusty track till he neared, but no so close, to the Indians. With a 'how' and 'ugh' or two to his lips he made a sign of peace with one hand raised and the other with the sign to talk and barter.
The savages looked down at Ebenezer and the chortled in their language at the sight of this dark scarecrow capped with a tall beaver hat. Their words if translated sounded like, "Get a look at this joker making with crazy sounds and signs.” They simply looked at Ebenezer and pointed at him and laughed with grunts.
Three of the younger warriors alighted from their piebalds and encircled the now thoroughly frightened Ebenezer. They grunted as the searched his dark cloaked thin figure and looked into his crabby face. The beaver was knocked from his head and one of the savages grabbed the thinning gray locks. The good man's prayers silently beseeched the Good Lord for mercy and salvation as he waited for the sharp scalping knife
Jeb Stuart, in the meantime, got a touch of a brain wave. He quietly slipped into the back of the wagon and searched about till he came to his snake oil costume. He quickly changed clothes, daubed his face with coloured streaks and wrapped a single feathered band around his hair. Then with a whoop he emerged to the sight of the Indians.
Jeb quickly jumped from the braked wagon with a jumble of so-called war cries together with the beat of his moccasin shoed feet. Then with signs to the Indians he made a movement that showed that the wagon and the scarecrow of man were his by right. He moved threateningly with terrifying shouts towards the redskins showing the sign of his anger that braves from another tribe wanted to take possession of his loot.
Somewhere there was a good manitou in the heavens above that directed the Indians to accept his holler and signs. Without a word the three warriors flung Ebenezer into the dust of the road followed by his beaver. They remounted and rejoined their companions. Then within a flash they turned their mounts towards the hills and left the site, leaving an opened-mouth Ebenezer lying in the dust.
"Don't stand there gaping. Get a move on and jump into the wagon before the redskins take in their minds to return.”
Jeb never saw his uncle move so fast as he raced on his spindly legs to the covered buckboard. When his kin was settled on his seat the reigns were passed to him. "Git the mule a'moving. Got to change me clothes.”
Jeb Stuart moved slowly into the back of the moving wagon. He removed the feathered band, rubbed the paint from his face and with the fingers of his right hand combed his sandy hair. Then he changed into his regular outfit.
As he fitted his coat to his back he patted one pocket which contained a passbook of a trusted bank; alongside was his poke of coins and bills. The ticking of a gold dollar watch caused a smile to crease his youthful face.
* * *
The mule pulled the wagon through the town fronting the river; more like a growing city busy in the trade along waterways. Flat riverboats laden with fur, leather and smoked game meat oared to its rickety docks. Indians of varied tribes mixed with the merchants as they bargained their blankets, beads and pieces of yellow and silver metal for rifles, bullets and hooch.
The river port was the gateway to open West with acres to be staked and riches claimed. The sight of the yellow nuggets in the hands of the Indians stirred the fervor of man to the cry, "Thar's gold in them thar hills"; they gave up their past, filled their wagons with pick and shovel and headed from the town to the unknown territory. Hard-working farmers heard of the richness of the soil and they packed family, bedding and the hoe in Conestoga wagons and joined the migration teams that formed on the outskirts of the settlement.
Jeb was astonished by the inventiveness of man by the methods employed in crossing the river. He stared at a large wooden raft attached by rope to both banks high on stout wooden that served as a ferry to cross the river; when the conveyance was filled with men and animals, harnessed mules on either side pulled on the rope and carried the raft to one side of the waters or the other.
He looked upriver and he sighted in the near distance Conestoga wagons by the score fording a shallow depth of the river; he heard the cursed shouting by sweating teamsters to stubborn oxen. His mouth was agape, ready to shout, as one of covered buckboards tipped and fell on its side into the rushing waters.
Jeb's mind was filled with the sight of the hurried pace of its citizens as they busied themselves in the routine of the town. He gawked at the many buildings, some two or three storied, fronted with shops and saloons. But his uncle was rubbing his hands gleefully as he thought of the coin to be gleamed in the ‘trading’.
An impatient shouting from his uncle disturbed Jeb’s sightings, "Stop yer gawkin'. There's ‘trading’ to be done!”
The youth took in the words of his kin and paid a bit of attention to the driving of the mule. He took in the direction Ebenezer commanded. Jeb drove the ornery mule to one of the streets till he came to the town's stables. They alighted and Ebenezer started to bargain with the owner, which of course turned the better for the stabler. Bills had to be forked out before hand before Lady was given a stall and a bit of oats.
"Tarn' and damnation! Swear he took too much for the stabling. Now let's mosey along and get us a place to a bit of trading,” exclaimed Ebenezer who was put out for not getting the better of the bargaining.
Jeb followed on the footsteps of his uncle till they reached a 'gosh almighty' three storey wooden building, fronted with brick on the lower floor. A sign indicated it hosted a saloon and hostelry. Even the entrance door to the establishment was opulent to the lad's eyes with polished dark brown wood and topped with a decorated window of trellises and small buds.
Jeb had never had ever experienced such splendor in his life as he and uncle entered the plush interior of the saloon with a wide staircase of equally polished wood leading to the rooms for nightly boarding. But the tread of Ebenezer didn't lead to the hostelry but to the well-fitted bar.
Jeb got his first lesson in being a gentleman by being told by his uncle to doff his Stetson. He wiped his feet on a horsehair mat before entering and stepping on the polished wood of the interior. He held his hat by two nervous hands in front of him and meekly followed his uncle through and around well-populated chairs and tables laden with drink and cards.
"My boy this looks like a fine looking place to do a bit of trading, mighty nice indeed. Now y'be going on your twentieth year. Time to taste the forbidden fruit, the elixir of good cheer.”
Upon his words the good man led his kin to the long walnut wooded bar that was quite attended. Fortunately for the twosome there were two empty stools at the far end which they nabbed
"What it be gentlemen?
"My good man, two glasses of your best whiskey!” Ebenezer addressed the burly bartender albeit well dressed in the uniform of his trade from the white of shirt to the stripped apron around his trousered belly. His ruddy face from his thinning hair to the square of his chin beamed as he took the order.
"Here's to good trading,” Ebenezer called out as he and Jeb lifted up their glasses in a toast. Jeb followed the lead of his uncle and gulped the contents entirely. Then his face turned red and he coughed and chocked as the potent fluid coursed down his gullet.
Off course it brought a bit laughter from his uncle and the barkeep joined in the mirth.
"First time the boy had something to drink?”
"Yep, first time,” as Ebenezer and the bartender got into friendly words. As Jeb staggered away from the bar he heard the words of his uncle ending a statement, 'for only two bits'!”
But he did not witness the angry proprietor of the establishment grabbing the collar and trousers of his uncle and pushing him to the entrance and flinging him into the dusty street coupled with the words, "we don't want yer smutty books around here.”
Jeb's head whirled from the drink and his rubbery legs led him to a table with a large group of intense gamblers. An empty chair was available and he plunked his dizzy body on it. For the gentlemen at cards his presence meant only one thing his participation in the game, namely poker.
"Are you're in or not?” the dealer yelled at the hesitant youth.
A bit of bravado entered Jeb's slight drunken thoughts and he pulled out his poke and called, "deal me in!”
Jeb Stuart knew a smattering about the gambling game by watching experienced gamblers in the deal from the many visits to saloons during the ‘trading’ travels. His beginner's luck saw a pile of coin and bills in front of him. Well, it wasn't due exactly to the luck of a novice but to the cheating hands of the dealer and his lovely accomplice who hovered near the table.
To be continued...
Copyright © 2005 by Norman A. Rubin
