The Legend of Black Wolf - Sully's Journey Home

Chapter Forty Four

        As Hank slowly eased back on the trigger of his gun, the metallic click allowed Sully to take a deep breath and releax his hands.  As the gun went clattering to the bar, Hank turned back to his whiskey, expecting Sully to walk back outside and leave him alone.

        "I just wanted to talk to you for a minute, Hank."  Sully began, feeling as if this might not have been the best idea.

        "Me no trade-um wit Injuns."  Hank drawled back, not even turning around.

        "Hank."  Sully said, exasperated.  "I just wanted to ask ya about Loren...now that I'm back in town."  The last words got Hank to pause from his pouring and turn around.  The sneer that greeted Sully from the shadows was classic Hank.  Leaning back against the bar, he pushed back his blonde locks and crossed his boots at the ankles.  

        "No luck with trappin' then?"  Hank asked light-heartedly, his sarcastic sneer unable to hide underneath his goatee.  Sully sighed.  Unless the topic had to do with 'entertainin', Hank always seemed to be a jokester.

        "A lot changed this past winter."  The two stood and stared each other down for a minute in the dusky bar.  Sully's buckskins and hat were a sharp contrast to Hank's newer store-bought clothes.  His boots, although not shiny, echoed across the floorboards as he made his way around the bar.  In comparison, Sully's moccasins were silent as he stepped further inside.  Little did Sully know that Hank had always held a bit of respect for Sully in how he had gone and taken what he wanted when he had met Abigail.  Hank had never cared for Loren's choice in Martin Anderson.  The only man in town who had drunk more sarsaparilla than Martin was Horace, the town telegraph operator.  

        "Loren still hates ya, same as always."  Hank said, reaching for two glasses.  "Ain't nothin' new there."  Pouring slowly, he wanted to see if Sully would accept a shot or not.  Resting his hands on the bar, Sully watched the two small glasses fill with whiskey.

        "Just thought I'd try ta talk to him.  Let him know he'll be seeing me around now and then."  Raising the glass in salute to Sully, Hank tipped his head at the other shot, but Sully merely shook his head.  With a shrug, Hank tossed down the shot and turned the glass over.

        "Back ta yer homestead, then?"  Hank asked, helping himself to Sully's shot.  Sully merely shook his head 'no' in reply, then looked out past the swinging doors a minute to the boarding house across the street.  Going back to his old homestead was the last place he would consider living again.  He wanted to leave it all how it was out of respect for the past.  Besides, he was too accustomed to his life with the Cheyenne.  But this was a fact that he was going to leave out for the time being, especially around Hank.

        "He ain't gonna take ta yer stayin' across the street."  Hank's drawl was a bit more relaxed after two shots.

        "He won't have to worry about that."  Sully said sincerely, turning back to the bartender.  "Does he still open, or does Martin do all that now?"  His question was answered with an outright laugh.

        "Martin's gone.  Said he couldn't stand it anymore."   Leaning over the bar, Hank rested his elbows between the two turned over shotglasses and lowered his voice a notch, as if someone in the shadows could hear.  "Said all Loren did was complain about you ruinin' everything."

        Knowing now that a meeting with Loren was definitely not going to go smoothly at all, Sully walked towards the general store with a flood of conflicting emotions.  It was still too early for Loren to be open, so Sully thought he would check around back.  Loren always slopped his hogs first thing in the morning and he might be there.  Slowly walking past the building gave Sully an unexpected lump in his throat for a second as he stared at the porch area where the apples were always displayed.  He could see Abigail standing there just like it were yesterday.  How many times he admired her as she stocked apples there he could not count.  It gave Sully a sense of what Loren must have been going through daily as the memories surrounded him.  Sully had run from those memories, but Loren had been unable to get away.