Virgil got into Bisbee late in the afternoon. Outside of Fetterman’s a drunk cowboy was staggering around the street running his mouth at passer-bys. He was young, dumb and mostly harmless, with spurs set low so they would jingle to announce his swagger. From time to time, his friends would hand him a liquor bottle and egg him on to greater stupidity.
I’m worried that Virgil is gonna snap one day and murder someone he doesn’t mean to, but wow he’s a badass! I also like how reasonable the sheriff was.
Gotta say, it's rough waiting for the next episode. I'm so used to mainlining Audible audiobooks, I keep thinking about this story and I want to know what's going to happen next and then I remember, I need to wait :) That's a good sign you're doing something right!
It occurs to me (I should have thought of it earlier) that Virgil may be a veteran of the Civil War. If so, it could well be that traumatic experiences are the origin of the oblique references in the text to what his life was like when he was a younger man.
Yup. He deserted from the Confederate army "won' the battle of Chicakmauga, saying if that was winning, he couldn't be committed to the cause.
I might never use that backstory, but here's a little of it.
---
He caught up a horse he found running loose and fled the battlefield heading to where there was no country, only territories. For the first few nights he hid out, in fear of being taken up as a deserter by either side. He had been in the reserves under General Williams, and given the state of the Army of Tennessee, hadn’t had a uniform as such. Even his belt buckle was captured from the Union side and flipped upside down, displaying SN instead of U.S. said to signify Southern Nation.
It was the same kind of hopeless, upside-down thinking that could turn defeat into victory with no shame. He was done with it.
It's fun to get all that back-story suddenly, thanks.
It's fun to see you echoing O. Henry's use of the word "sand" where today we'd say "grit". And I have a hunch that your story won't make the same mistake I see in a lot of fiction nowadays, of assuming a sheriff's jurisdiction is just one town, as opposed to a whole county.
I hope it's more useful than irritating if I point out a possible typo. In Chapter 1 and this one, you refer to his wife Laura, but then in this chapter you say "when he'd married and come West, he'd promised Penelope and himself that he'd put all that behind him." I'm assuming his daughter Pen is too young to be the recipient of that promise.
I’m worried that Virgil is gonna snap one day and murder someone he doesn’t mean to, but wow he’s a badass! I also like how reasonable the sheriff was.
Gotta say, it's rough waiting for the next episode. I'm so used to mainlining Audible audiobooks, I keep thinking about this story and I want to know what's going to happen next and then I remember, I need to wait :) That's a good sign you're doing something right!
“He thought about pistol-whipping the man and taking what was his.”
LOL!
Virgil. Dang, loved getting that little bit of backstory on him. He is such an awesome character. This is great! Loving it!
It occurs to me (I should have thought of it earlier) that Virgil may be a veteran of the Civil War. If so, it could well be that traumatic experiences are the origin of the oblique references in the text to what his life was like when he was a younger man.
Yup. He deserted from the Confederate army "won' the battle of Chicakmauga, saying if that was winning, he couldn't be committed to the cause.
I might never use that backstory, but here's a little of it.
---
He caught up a horse he found running loose and fled the battlefield heading to where there was no country, only territories. For the first few nights he hid out, in fear of being taken up as a deserter by either side. He had been in the reserves under General Williams, and given the state of the Army of Tennessee, hadn’t had a uniform as such. Even his belt buckle was captured from the Union side and flipped upside down, displaying SN instead of U.S. said to signify Southern Nation.
It was the same kind of hopeless, upside-down thinking that could turn defeat into victory with no shame. He was done with it.
It's fun to get all that back-story suddenly, thanks.
It's fun to see you echoing O. Henry's use of the word "sand" where today we'd say "grit". And I have a hunch that your story won't make the same mistake I see in a lot of fiction nowadays, of assuming a sheriff's jurisdiction is just one town, as opposed to a whole county.
I hope it's more useful than irritating if I point out a possible typo. In Chapter 1 and this one, you refer to his wife Laura, but then in this chapter you say "when he'd married and come West, he'd promised Penelope and himself that he'd put all that behind him." I'm assuming his daughter Pen is too young to be the recipient of that promise.