Billy The Kid Reimagined

By D.G. Baxter

Take a trip back to 1877 Lincoln, New Mexico with a retired history professor and a teenager who looks remarkably like Billy-the-Kid. The kid wonders if he's related to the legendary outlaw, and the old man wonders if his great grandfather really did once save Billy-the-Kid's life. They both get answers, but not necessarily the ones they expected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: D.G. Baxter
• Release date: Dec 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393699293

Book preview

Prologue

This is a work of fiction. This is not a complete historical account of the events that took place in and around Lincoln County in the late 1870s. The author has attempted to reflect the major historical highlights of the era while fictionalizing characters and events for the purpose of telling a story.

Billy The Kid Reimagined is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Copyright © 2020 David G. Baxter

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

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Published by Hard Knocks Group. All rights reserved.

1

When he was sixteen-years-old, William McCarty first read about Billy-the-Kid. It was a book he found in a used book store on South Main Street in Lima, Ohio. He ducked inside the store to get out of a sudden rainstorm. He wasn't much of a reader, although he had read a few books recently and was beginning to realize he enjoyed reading if the books were fiction, not dry subject matter that reminded him more of hard work than enjoyment.

The book was in a bin marked 70% off, and many of the books were a buck or less. It was a musty old store on South Main, the rundown section of town. The owner, an older woman with her hair in a bun and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, kept an eye on William. She had experienced a rash of thefts recently. That was unfortunate; she barely made enough money to keep her store open, so any further loss could push her to close the store.

But this young man seemed harmless. He was medium height, perhaps five foot eight or so. His only noticeable feature was his teeth; they protruded at an odd angle, what some people called buck teeth. He also dressed plainly, as if he did not attempt to keep up with the fashion of his peer group. She guessed he came from a family with little or no means to spend on clothes.

He looked around and finally stopped at the sale bin. He was holding a paperback, and he seemed quite interested in it. She was sure he wanted to buy it if he could afford it. She decided to lower the price if he could not afford the $1.25 cost of the book. There were no other customers at the moment, so she watched the boy, making sure to dust her counter so as not to appear to stare should he look up. But William was far too busy reading where he stood. Finally,