Five Words for the Old West

Photo from Wikipedia

Five Word Wednesday on my Facebook wall is hilarious. I get quite the range of comments and suggestions. Today I combined my husband's lists of words with my friend Kelli's suggestion of an 1800's setting. So I came up with a wild west story. Here were my five words:

Conflagration

Adolescent

Goose

Interstate

Seventeen

“Ellie!”

Land sakes, only Sid Benson could say her name in a way that made gooseflesh appear on her arms. Ellie turned around and looked out across the yard.

Sid ambled over to her, his thumbs thrust into his belt loops. Two pistols swung by his side. Her chest constricted and it was hard to breathe, like when her corset was laced up too tight.

Sid stood in front of her. “Where ya off to?”

Off to? Anywhere but here. Ellie bit her lip. “Just to the barn.” She flittered her eyes that direction and then back to Sid.

“You shouldn’t be walking by yourself, Elijay.”
She cringed. How dare he use her nickname. That name was the one Pa had used. She fought the urge to kick Sid in the shin.

It’s just for a while Ellie Jane.

Pa’s words echoed in her head. He’d joined Sid’s family in their business a year ago. A sour taste flooded her stomach, like when she’d eaten too many blackberries as a girl. Business didn’t describe it. Sid’s daddy ran an interstate ring of horse stealing. And probably more. Pa’d been sucked in. Sid’s family was a whirlwind, a conflagration of evil, just like Preacher Sam used to talk about. The business had gotten Pa the money he needed to keep the ranch. 

It had also gotten him killed.

Sid spit, the stream of tobacco juice landing not far from the hem of her dress. “When you gonna marry me, Ellie Jane?” 

“I’m only seventeen, Sid.” As if that were an argument. Sid’s mama had married his pa when she was fourteen. She smiled at Sid. Eighteen is what they’d agreed on. He could have her when she was eighteen. And he’d pay off her family’s debts. 

Sid took a step closer and his eyes slid from the top of her braid to the bottom of her dress and back up again. He grinned. “I can’t wait. Betcha you can’t either.”

Oh Sid Benson. He had no idea. Ellie Jane may be an orphaned adolescent, but one thing was for sure. She was no idiot. She’d marry Sid Benson for his money. She’d let him have her. And when her brothers and sisters were safe on a train and tucked away somewhere Sid couldn’t find, she’d take her Pa’s rifle and pay back the Benson family for every night of grief they caused her. 

She fluttered her eyelashes up at Sid. “I’m countin’ down the days.”