Clyde

Our Lives Seemed Whole

Yesterday we cleared our bounties. I was the most expensive, rounding up for around 10 grand. It costed a total of 20 grand.

I'm officially a free woman.

Today, Pa and are are going to the hardware store to get the supplies needed. We want to start building the farm tomorrow.

"Hey little lady, you awake?" Pa spoke softly.

I opened my eyes, "yeah. Have been for a good couple minutes at least".

"Okay good," Pa smiled, "Get ready to go. I'm leaving soon".

"Sounds good Pa".

Pa left my tent. I got up and got some clothes on, then decided to put my hair up and some eyeliner on. I walked out of my tent to see Pa and Orville at the fire.

"How does it feel to be free?" Orville asked.

I laughed a little, "Fantastic actually. It's fascinating that people don't know my parents are dead honestly. Lyle noticed a poster up for them in the sheriffs office. 20 grand for each of them. 50 grand for both alive".

"Too bad they're both skeletons" Pa joked.

I laughed a little.

"Coffee?" Pa asked.

"No, I'm alright. You just wanna go get going?".

Pa nodded, "Sure".

Pa got up and walked over to the carriages with me. He got on one, I got on the other. Guaranteed we would need more than one.

"Ready do go?".

I nodded.

"Follow me Clyde" Pa started riding.

I followed behind him. The ride was quiet, I had nobody bedside me. It was too much effort to yell at Pa and him yell at me the whole way.

As always, Reed was pretty quiet.

Pa pulled up to a bigger building behind the city. The back lot had a lot of wood, so I assumed this was the hardware store. Then I looked up at the sign that said "Hardware Store". I felt like an idiot.

Pa parked, "Park yours beside me".

I parked. The two of us got out and made our way into the store. A man sat behind the counter.

"Welcome! Anything I can do for y'all or help ya find anything?" The man spoke.

"We just bought some farmland and we wanna first build a house on the land" I smiled.

The man smiled back, "You've come to the right place then. My name is Justin by the way. Now, we just got some new precut houses in. I can show y'all the options if you like. First come first serve, only got one of each".

"Sounds good".

Justin pulled out a little booklet. Pa and I flipped through the pages. We went to the back, just because we knew we would need a lot of space.

"So we have 6 people, I'd say 6 bedrooms just to be safe. I know Orville and I will share one. We just gotta make sure we have enough space".

I nodded, "I agree".

"Well that's great," Justin pointed to the last page, "We got two houses here. One with one bathroom, another with two. There isn't much price difference between the two".

"One bath is 40 grand, two is 43" Pa pointed to the different prices on the page.

"I like the look of the one bedroom more. It looks pleasing. It has a nice big patio on the front" I pointed to the patio.