Born on the coldest Christmas, in 1859, she killed her mother coming into this world. The effect; he named her Calamity. Now don't get me wrong, her Pa loved that girl like no other. Now he might have had a bit of a drinking problem, but he ain't never raised no hand nor voice to her. Normally a bull seeing red in a china cabinet, you should've seen him with her. You would've thought that was the softest man alive. And he did his best with her. She had aunts and women who were friends of the family to help her with some things, but when it came to others he raised that girl straight up as if she had been born a boy instead. Best horse rider I ever met, and I'd bet on that. One day though, her Pa's luck caught up to him in an alley way after some poker game at the Saloon. So drunk off his ass, the man didn't have a chance to pull his gun before he was dead in the ground. Calamity was alone, but she was okay. Well off enough since her ma's folks had been pretty successful apothecaries, and her pa had more than a few coins to leave her from all of the heads he'd brought in, he'll, the guy who'd shot her father felt so bad he give her to money for the bounty on that man's head. And she had us to watch out for her, me and ma. But once my ma lyed down her head for the last time I flew away like "a whisper on the wind" in her words. We kept in touch, for a while, writing letters back and forth. I can't remember if she stopped being able to track me down or if I stopped reaching out to her. I vaguely remember something in her last letter about some man who was gonna make sure she got her due. Pretty sure I stopped writing after that, not wanting to get in the way of a good thing. She needed a good man, not to still hold out hope for me. But God...Calamity Grace; a beautiful disaster.