RANGO // OӘͶAЯ - Another Outlaw Story [Engl.]

34. Things That Can Happen in the Morning

A light haze lay over the broad expanse of the Mojave Desert. The sun was still behind the horizon, the most animals still slept in their beds, beside a few activities.
Carefully the female lizard looked around. There was no one in the shed and around, except her and a roadrunner by her side. Slowly she petted over the peak of the run animal. With a deep breath, she made one tiptoe step after another. The roadrunner followed her. Together they circled around the shed where they arrived the back side of the ranch. She stopped and made a 360-degree view. Nobody was there. She sighed in relief and turned to her roadrunner. With both hands, she grabbed the saddle and was going to build up momentum.
She screamed when a hand was putting on her shoulder.
She twisted around.
"My god! You scared me!"
With panting, she gave her sister an angry, stressed look.
"Rice?" Beans crossed her arms. "What are you doing?"
"Me? Uh, I thought Neddy needs a little movement, doesn't he?"
"Dad moved him yesterday. It's not your task."
Rice kneaded her fingers.
Beans reached out her hand at her. "Give me the reins."
Slowly Rice moved her hands to hers, but then she put them away.
"Beans! I can't live like that anymore! I hate this place! I hate it!"
Beans didn't move a face muscle. "Do you really want to leave dad? Do you want to abandon him?"
Her sister turned around; one hand covered her face. She didn't want to look into her eyes.
"Give me..."
"No!" Rice interrupted.
Beans looked at her with worried eyes. Rice had never disagreed her like now.
Rice's shoulders began to shake.
"Why now?" Beans asked. "Just because of him?"
"Before yesterday, I've never talked with anyone. It was like talking with a stranger on a lonely island after so many years. Like a shipwrecked man on a beach, and asks me to marry him."
She smiled a little, in contrast to her sister.
"Rice, this kind of love is an illusion," Beans said calmly. "Like dad use to say, it doesn't exist in the world anymore."
Rice turned around. "What do you know about love? You had never been in love. But I interrupted before I could start with it. And it calls for me."
Her sister stared at her. She was unconvinced.
"Rice..."
"Give me a few hours," her sister interrupted. "Just a few hours in my life."
Beans was going to open her mouth again, but Rice was faster.
"I will come back, don't worry. But I have to take a look behind the hills if there is someone who is waiting for me."
Beans was going to advance an argument, but this time, her sister was of a different opinion.
Finally, she gave in. "I can give no guarantee; dad will search for you."
Rice sighed in relief and gave her a hug. "Thank you. Just one brief moment. Stall him, tell him something, but not the truth."
Beans lowered her glance. "I can't lie to him."
"I will be back quickly. I promise."
Beans sighed again. "But be quick. I can't hold him back the whole day."

Jake blinked. He had fallen asleep on the terrace of the town hall. But something other had rudely awakened him.
He looked around. The streets were empty, everything was quiet.
There! A very, very weak vibration outside of the town.
Jake left his place immediately and followed the vibration which came from a hill.
The rattlesnake stopped when he saw Mayor John sitting in his wheelchair, and activated a mechanism on his wheelchair.
"Good morning, Mr. Jake," John greeted. "So early astir?"
"Indeed," Jake answered shortly.
"Very commendable," John meant and picked up something from the ground.
Jake narrowed his eyes and saw how John held a rolled-up pill bug in his hands.
John felt his glance and held it higher.
"Do you play golf?"
"Golf?"
"Yes, but without golf balls. That's too much for my old bones. With these bugs you don't have to take them out of the holes, they will climb outside after a while for themselves."
Jake slithered closer and realized a golf bag beside the turtle. Around the area there were several holes, marked with flags.
"What about a game of golf?"
Jake gave him a skeptical look. "I have no hands."
Mayor John said nothing, instead he placed a rolled-up pill bug on the ground.
"My feet don't carry me anymore, but with a little fantasy..."
He operated a lever. A frame like from a hydraulic lift was extended where at the end stuck the head of a golf club, hit the pill bug and rolled into the hole.
"... you can make everything or much more."
Jake gave him a grumpy look. "You obviously mastered this game."
"Well, I've been playing it for many years. Like Margaret did."
The voice of the mayor became sad again. Jake watched him from the site, but then the mayor eyes met his.
"Try it."
With that Mayor John handed a golf club to the snake.
"But..."
"Try it."
Jake sighed. He took the golf club, wrapped his upper end of his tail around it and eyed it. Then he struck out.
The golf club met the woodlouse, but now it wouldn't come back in one year.
Both reptiles watched the disappearing bug which flew away through the air more and more. Until it wasn't visible anymore.
"For the first try, very good", John said. "But you shouldn't hit too hard."
Jake looked like he was going to give it up. "I think it's not my game."
"Use your fantasy."
Jake eyed his gun at the end of his tail. Finally, he inserted the golf club in one of the Gatling gun holes. He focused the rolled-up pill bug and tapped it. The bug rolled several meters away closer to the next hole.
"With exercise you could be a good player", Mayor John said.
"Mm, maybe."
Jake finished the part with his pill bug and rolled it into the hole and Mayor John had his turn.
"Anything new?"
Jake looked at him. "You mean last night?"
"That's what I want to know."
Jake hesitated. Should he talk about what Bill had done?
"We are working on that problem. But I can say, the Jenkins Brothers are very mad on to find water in the desert."
"Water in the desert?"
"The pipelines. But they are dry, too."
Mayor John silenced.
"Do you know where the pipelines come from?" Jake asked. "What's the source of it?"
"Well, Margaret took care of it. It was her land. But after her death, I never went to the bother of finding the source of it. She said it would be a secret to keep away criminals, but her death came fast and I had just time to sorrow for her. We had the plans of the pipelines, but they were stolen."
"Nothing new", Jake thought. But didn't he know about the source of the water really not? He couldn't imagine. He had to know something, or was a just an old man who was waiting for his own death only?
"And Margaret," Jake made a new try. "Did she ever talk about it?"
"One of the last things what she told me was: Control the water and you control the world. That's what she said." Mayor John put his hands together, his glance focused on the distance. "That's my philosophy of what I learned in my life. Water controls everything. It decides on peace and war. But you can't keep water with bare hands."
Jake looked at him silently. But suddenly...
"Psst! Hey!"
The rattlesnake turned around and saw Kinski with waving hands a few meters away.
"Excuse me."
Jake put his golf club aside and slithered over to Kinski.
"Mr. Jake", Kinski hissed. His voice sounded worried. "I think we have a little problem."