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

45. When the Past Returns

Beans and Rice made no resistance. Rango did not hold a revolver in his hand while they marched over to the prison, but both girls knew that he could always draw his gun with any wrong step. With heavy hearts, they refrained from trying to escape and walked politely across the street in front of the chameleon. Arrived at the prison, Rango opened a cell and pushed the two women inside.
Intimidated, the two lizards took a seat on a bench. Rango turned the key in the lock and tucked the keys on his belt. Then he turned to settle in the sheriff's office.
"You're limping," Rice said.
The chameleon stopped and tilted his head back.
"Just a sunburn," he lied. He turned to Rice and smiled maliciously at her. "Don't look so sad now. At least you are in a better situation than your boyfriend."
Rice raised her head in alarm. "What have you done to him?"
"Me?" Rango looked around in surprise. Then he pointed to himself. "How do you get the idea that I should have done something to him?"
Rice narrowed her eyes. "He would definitely have come here if he'd seen me. And by the way, how do you know how he's doing?"
Rango put his hands in his pockets and snorted in amusement. "He's just relaxing. He's fine." He turned his back on her. "At least until now. Who knows for how long."
"For how long? What do you mean by that?" Rice went to the cell door and held on to the bars. "What are you going to do with him?"
Rango clicked his tongue. "Oh, just tickling a little. Unfortunately, he was too curious. And I don't like people who spy on me."
He pulled out his knife and waved it back and forth cheerfully.
Rice's eyes widened in horror. "You don't want to hurt him, do you?"
"Mm, it depends on how you behave," the chameleon purred.
Rice swallowed. "How should we behave?"
Rango raised the knife and pressed the tip against one of his fingers. "Well, maybe I could be persuaded not to bother him unnecessarily if..."
He paused, which made Rice nervous. "If what?"
The chameleon grinned broadly. "When your sister takes a little town walk with me."
Now it was Beans, who got up suddenly from the bench and went to the bars. "What? Are you crazy? What do you want from me?!"
Rango rocked the knife back and forth in his hands. "Just like I said. I'll spare your sister's boyfriend if you take me out on a date."
He let his gaze rest on the two shocked sisters. "Don't worry. All I ask for is a walk. Not more."
The two lizard girls exchanged looks. Could they believe him? Beans noticed her sister's pleading look. She cared very much for Bill, she knew that. But would this criminal really want nothing more than to go for a walk with her?
Finally, Bean's gaze wandered back to the chameleon, which was looking at her expectantly. "And you really just want to take a tour with me?" She inquired.
"You have my word of honor on that," Rango swore.
They kept silent eye contact for a moment. Finally, Beans agreed. "Okay, but really just a walk."
The grin on Rango's face widened. "I'm very happy to hear that. So then..."
"Wait a minute!" Rice intervened. "Then I want you to bring Bill over here first. Otherwise, we won't believe you!"
Rango's gaze darkened. "Are you suggesting I'm lying?!"
"No, not at all," Rice said quickly. "But who guarantees me that these clan gangsters won't harm him? If you want to prove to us that nothing is going to happen to him, please bring him here."
At first, Rice worried that the chameleon would refuse this request, but then he nodded to her relief.
"Okay. I will bring him to you."

Bill jerked his head up when he heard footsteps again in the hallway. He crouched fearfully on the floor. When someone unlocked the door, he closed his eyes and waited for a next torture of the killer. But instead of pain, he only felt how someone cut the ropes on his head and feet.
"Good news for you," the chameleon said solemnly. "You have the honor of keeping your little girlfriend some company."
He forced the confused Gila monster to stand up. Bill swayed a little, but luckily, he kept himself on his feet and he even found the courage to shake his sleepy legs a little. But when Rango drew his revolver again, his posture stiffened again.
"Listen to me," the chameleon ordered admonishingly. "I'm going to take off the shackles and the handkerchief from you now. Just make a move which I don't like and you can darn your pants. - Got it?"
Bill obediently nodded, but Rango kept his revolver ready while he removed the handcuffs and the gag.
The Gila monster rubbed his wrists in relief, but he winced again immediately when the chameleon nudged him on the shoulder with the revolver. Grinning, Rango waved the barrel of the revolver towards the door.
"After you."
Reluctantly, the Gila monster made its way through the door. In the hallway he looked around hastily, but he didn't dare to call for help. Mayor John was probably in the office, but even he couldn't have helped him. This chameleon was not joking and so he had to bow to his tormentor for better or worse.

The knitting needles rattled every time when they met. Click, click, clack, clack.
Portley and Stanley raised their ears at every noise of the needles, only their faces were anything but happy. For two boys of their age, it wasn't a pleasure to watch an older lady like Miss Daisy knitting, weaving stitch by stitch in an old chair in front of them.
In the background, Kinski was pacing up and down the room. Chorizo looked at his little hat and always he seemed to find a new speck of dust or fluff on it. Melonee and Fresca were sitting together on a sofa, looking at an old photo album. Priscilla did nothing of the sort and just stared straight ahead. From then on, she looked out through the window.
Only Stump was not among them, preferring to be with his wife in the doctor's house.
Everyone in the room was nervous. It had become too dangerous in the saloon, so they had retired to Miss Daisy's apartment on the second floor. But of course, nobody was happy about that. The uncertainty that reigned over the town depressed everyone's mind and no one knew how the whole thing should go on.
Suddenly, the aye-aye girl raised her head and almost pressed her nose to the window glass. "Look! Isn't that the deputy of the sheriff?"
Kinski whirled around. "Where? You mean Bill?"
The girl pointed down to the street. "There."
Everyone rushed to the window. Except Miss Daisy, who nervously continued knitting.
Kinski couldn't believe it when he saw Bill walking across the street. Followed by Rango with a revolver in the hand.
"What is Bill doing here?" Melonee asked in surprise.
"I thought he ran to his girlfriend," Fresca added.
"That's what I thought, too," Kinski muttered in confusion.
"What is he doing?" Chorizo asked.
"That doesn't look good," Kinski concluded.
"Where are they going?" Melonee asked.
Everyone craned their necks and watched the two reptiles march over to the prison.
Portley and Stanley found this very strange.
"Why does he need a gun in his back when he's working in the sheriff's office anyway?" Portley asked.
"I'm afraid, boy, he's not walking to jail to work," Fresca said with worry.
Chorizo didn't like any of that either. "What should we do now?"
Kinski scratched his head thoughtfully. "Uh, I'll say that when the time comes."
Stanley raised his ears in interest. "Oh, does that mean we can storm the prison? Cool."
"You boys don't do anything!" Kinski rebuked them. "Keep calm. At least as long as these clans still allow us."

Rice found no rest at all. She could neither sit nor stand. Again and again she paced the cell. Only when the sheriff's office door opened in the next room, she stopped.
"Pile in! You will probably still know this room, do you?" the two lizard ladies heard the chameleon's commands. At the next moment, Bill stumbled across the cell corridor.
"Bill!"
Rice almost shook the grate. The Gila monster looked at her in surprise. "You here?"
"Alright," Rango intervened. "You can talk inside. Now let's make a change."
With these words, he opened the cell door and shoved Bill in roughly, not being able to resist kicking the big lizard in the back. Bill fell forward and landed hard on the floor. Rango stared down at him sullenly.
"And don't you dare snoop around behind my back in my private life." He glanced at Rice with a growl. "Make that clear to him."
The lizard girl obediently nodded.
Rango grinned contentedly. Then his gaze wandered to Beans. "Well, I kept my end of the bargain. If I could then ask for your part?"
He held out his hand to the lizard in the dress. Beans did not return this gesture, but complied with this request and left the cell, which was then closed again by Rango and Rice was left alone with Bill.
As soon as that was done, the chameleon bent his elbow and wanted Beans to hang himself on him. Beans sighed heavily and put her arm in his. Then they left the building.
"Are you okay, Bill?" Rice asked worriedly and helped the Gila monster to get up.
"Yes, I think so," he muttered, rubbing his back. "But how do you get here?"
"We were kidnapped," Rice explained. "And these Jenkins Brothers forced the mayor to give them the town."
Bill opened his eyes. "He really didn't?"
"Unfortunately, yes. Otherwise, we might have been shot."
Dejected, Bill sank down on the bench. "Oh dear. How good that Margaret didn't have to watch it. It would have broken her heart. John would never have voluntarily done that."
Rice sat down next to him with a sigh. "You seem to know him very well, don't you?"
Bill leaned his back against the wall and looked at her wistfully. "Actually, he's my adoptive father. He and his wife had taken care of me since I was 9."
"So you have no birth parents?" Rice asked sadly.
Bill shook his head, which made Rice sighing again. "Then you have a much better father than me."
The Gila monster raised his head in surprise. "Why that? He's so worried about you."
The lizard girl snorted with a mocking smile. "Yes, about me and my sister. But not about others. That's exactly what I wanted to tell you lately."
She stood up and crossed her arms indignantly. "It was our father who turned off the water valve of the town. He also stole the plans for the lines to build an extra single line to our farm so we wouldn't be affected by the drought. In return, he could turn the tap on the valve every year." She sighed heavily. "And today he finally turned off the tap completely."
Both looked at each other in dismay.
"I'm sorry," she said finally, turning her back on Bill.
The Gila monster stood up quickly and put his hands on her shoulder. "But that wasn't your fault."
"Still, I could have prevented that. It just wasn't right."
Bill gave her a comforting hug from behind. Rice let him do as he liked and looked out through the prison window, where the hooting voices of the Jenkins clan from the saloon could be heard from outside.
"I'm sure they want to blackmail our father with our kidnapping," she muttered dejectedly. "I just wonder how they knew we had the water."

It was lucky that no one was on the street or on the sidewalk. Beans wouldn't have wanted her to see someone walking arm in arm with a criminal. Reluctantly, she let the chameleon lead her along the houses under the shadows of the canopies. Rango, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy her company.
"Well, that's a lot more pleasant than being tied to something somewhere, isn't it?" He giggled in amusement, which Beans only acknowledged with an angry look.
The chameleon raised his eyebrows. "You're not very talkative when you haven't an advantage over someone, are you?"
He stroked her cheek boldly. Beans avoided his touch and pulled away from his arm. Angry, she put her hands on her hips.
"We agreed that we would just leave it for a walk," she snapped at him.
Rango grinned in amusement. "Tss, you are as venomous as a venomous snake, and yet as gifted as a beautiful desert cat or a desert flower."
Beans narrowed her eyes. "Whatever you want to put on a show, it won't work for me!"
Again she avoided a touch of the chameleon, which drove up Rango a little bit of anger. "You can be glad that I prevented you from being hurt," he remarked gloomily.
Beans lifted her chin. "Then explain to me why you are making common cause with this scum."
Rango didn't answer. Instead, he pulled up his pant leg, revealing a bandage.
"A little revenge for my leg," he growled and pulled his pant leg back down. "I told the brothers where the traps are on your ranch."
"You did what?!" Beans couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That takes the cake! Do you realize what you've done?! If my father finds out, he'll...!"
Suddenly she froze. Rango let out a sigh of relief.
"I was hoping for that."

"... stomp you in the ground!"
Beans paused, startled. At first, she thought she was hallucinating. But then she realized that she was actually in a house.
"What...?"
The word got stuck in her throat. The walls of the bank building opened up in front of her.
"Well? Are you back?"
Beans froze when she saw the figure of the chameleon appearing in her field of vision and grinned mischievously at her.
"What should that be?! Let me out of here!"
Beans wanted to rush to the door, but to her horror, the chameleon had tied her to a beam with a rope around her waist while she had been frozen.
"Hey! Let me go! Right now...!"
She cried a choked scream as Rango held up his revolver.
"Put that thing away!" She cried in panic. "Put that thing away!"
She turned her head to the side, but the chameleon just walked towards her, still holding the gun.
Beans tore on the rope like a wild one, but the chameleon had tied her very tightly to it. When she realized that all the fidgeting was useless, she burst into tears.
The chameleon stopped very close to her and tried to turn her chin in his direction. But Beans avoided his touch. Now the girl stood there with closed eyes and wet cheeks.
Finally, the chameleon put his hands on her trembling shoulders, still holding the weapon in his right hand. Beans almost slumped down under his touch.
"Why are you doing this?!" she whimpered.
Rango let go of her shoulder and leaned his hands over her on the beam, his face almost touching her cheeks.
"I heard what happened to your mother," he whispered to her and pressed a little closer to her. "I know how it feels to lose someone."
Beans opened her eyes a little. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see his somewhat compassionate face.
Beans moved her lips shakily. "W-why...?"
But Rango put his index finger on her mouth. "You saw your mother get shot, didn't you?"
The revolver reappeared in her field of vision and the girl closed her eyes convulsively. But instead of putting it away, Rango brought the revolver closer to her face until the cold metal touched her cheek. Beans threatened to hyperventilate with fear and gasped for breath.
The chameleon encompassed her face and turned it forward. Beans did not defend himself against it and let everything be done with her without will.
"I can't forgive you for humiliating me on your farm," he whispered ominously to her. She felt his fingers on her cheeks. "But your face is far too beautiful to be afraid. And too good to be covered with tears."
He pressed his forehead to hers. "Don't let fear take control over you."
Beans had stopped shaking, but she was still afraid to open her eyes. She didn't want to see the building where her mother had died.
She winced as Rango opened the magazine of the revolver and dumped the bullets on the floor. Then he folded the gun together again and put it in Bean's hand.
"Shhh," the chameleon hissed at her reassuringly. "Don't let fear control you. Control the fear."
Beans was breathing heavily as her fingers caught the pistol grip.
"Feel it," the chameleon continued to whisper softly. "It cannot threaten you. It can protect you."
The revolver slipped out from her hand and landed on the bullets on the floor.
She sobbed out loudly. With a warm smile, the chameleon wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back soothingly. Both stayed in this position for a while, then she put her arms around him and the chameleon let her cry without anyone bothering them.