Hot Shot

By Richard Vadim

A coming of age story about the life and loves of a young woman whose quick wit and even quicker gun help her overcome the trials of the old West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Vadim
• Release date: Nov 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798223868873

Book preview

HOTSHOT

Richard Vadim

Copyright © 2020 Richard Vadim. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction.  All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ASIN: B084H7G6LH

Printed in the United States of America

To my family,

for their enthusiastic

support and guidance.

Table of Contents

1     Home Sweet Home

​2     No Goodbye

​3     Pottersville

​4     Escape Gone Bad

​5     The Sullivans

​6     Captivity

​7     The Sullivan Men

​8     Mentor and Protector

​9     Charge (it)

​10   Common Law

​11   Take Aim

​12   Intrusion

​13   To the Ball

​14   Serpent

​15   The Great Escape

​16   Nightingales

​17   Best Laid Plans

​18   Brass Tacks

​19   Credits and Debits

​20   Seek and Ye Shall Find

​21   Cavalry to the Rescue

​22   Reunion

​23   Mind Your P’s and Q’s

​24   For Whom the Bell Tolls

​25   Cleanup in Aisle Six

​26   Intern

​27   Let There Be Light

​28   Home Sweet Home

​Home Sweet Home

D

arkness had fallen upon the Spade homestead hours ago but the heat lingers.  Invisible creatures communicate pulsing calls of love, or fear, or perhaps just recognition.  The cabin is quiet.  Samantha, Sam to everyone who knows her, lies gazing at the stars through the rough-hewed window of her loft bedroom.  She searches for the constellations to distract her mind, but the day floods back over her. 

​When her father staggered in earlier, he delivered the usual bounty of provisions obtained with some of his pay.  His gait and smell, however, clearly revealed where another portion had gone.

With provisions barely away and supper just started, Sam was sent outside and her mother dragged to her bedroom to perform who knows what kind of acts.  Even from the barn, it was not uncommon to hear groans and moans, which, Sam surmised, were part of the marital ritual.

​Sam snaps open her drooping lids when a coyote howls in the distance.  She mustn’t fall asleep, she tells herself.  In the still of the night after the last roundup a couple of months back, Sam was awakened by the presence of her father by her side, his smelly breath and scratchy face accosting her.  Her violent struggling terminated the intrusion then, but Sam worried about this night.

​She had not changed into her nightclothes and her boots are nearby.  A creaky floorboard below animates Sam.  She stuffs her pillows under her blanket, tries to puff them up to look like a body, then quietly crawls to a darkened corner of the loft.  A noise on the ladder.  The moonlight reveals a shape moving slowly toward the cot.  Sam sees arms reaching out, hands searching.  Discovery results in the blanket being tossed aside.  The shape searches the darkness, but Sam is already on the ladder.  In moments, she is on the floor below and out the door.

She reaches the corral and throws her saddle on her beloved young mare Star, cinches it up quickly, drapes the bridle over the saddle horn, and opens the gate.  Her father bounds off the porch and runs headlong toward her.  Sam is in the saddle and urging Star to accelerate.

Where you goin’ with that horse? her father shouts.  Come back here, you horse thief!

Star and rider are already fifty yards away, heading toward a peaceful moon.  Horsethief? Sam huffs to herself, I raised this mare from the time she first stood on her legs.  Star is mine and always will be.

Once over the ridge, Sam pulls on Star’s mane, reining her in.  A misstep in the poor light could thwart their escape.

Oh, we’re near ‘our place’, baby, Sam says as she dismounts.  Star dutifully follows her sidekick through a thicket and a narrow field.  They stop under a broad hackberry tree and Sam removes the saddle.  We can rest here until dawn and better light for traveling.

Soon, both are reclining in the eerie shadow.  Sam anguishes over the night’s events.  Was her mother even aware?  She hoped not.  But what now?  Where was she to go?

The first person she thought of was Brian McCormick.  He would want her to seek him out and would be angry if she did not. 

Warm memories rush over her, and she even laughs out loud at their most outlandish get-together.  Sam had a propensity for sleeping late.  She and Brian regularly fished the Pawnee, but Sam never got up early enough to suit Brian, who wanted to get there at dawn, when the fish were feeding.

Brian’s solution to the problem was to have Sam tie a string around her toe when she went to bed and throw it out the window and over the porch roof so that it dangled at ground level.  Brian would then come by in the morning, yank on the string to awaken Sam, and they would finally get an early start.

Good plan, but neither Brian nor Sam anticipated the power required to awaken a rock.

The sun had not yet shown itself when Brian stood beneath Sam’s window and gently tugged on the yellow twine which fluttered aimlessly in the morning breeze.

No response.  Brian tugged a little harder.  No response.  After a third attempt proved fruitless, Brian exerted a steady strain on the string, jerking it every few seconds. Soon, he felt something give.  He was astonished to see Sam’s foot on the windowsill.  He tugged again and her foot came out the window and dangled in the air.

Now, what?  He began tugging on the twine in a regular pattern to make her foot swing.  He perfected the technique, and soon Sam’s foot was thumping against the side of the cabin.

Success!  The foot disappeared and Sam’s head came out the window.  What?  She whispered hoarsely.  It’s still night!

No, it’s not!  Are you coming?  Or am I going by myself?

Alright.  Give me a second.

Soon, boots and jeans came flying out the window and landed at Brian’s feet. Next, Sam’s legs came out. She lowered herself onto the porch roof and dangled her legs over the edge.  Brian reached up to help her to the ground.  He stood there aghast as Sam finished dressing.

What are you lookin’ at? Sam quizzed.

Brian looked away.  Oh, nothin’, nothin’ at all.

At last, the fishes’ solitary breakfast was to be spoiled and the two did indeed catch many fish that morning, despite the constant chatter and laughing about Sam’s wake-up call.

Sam loved Brian for wanting her to share all his adventures.  She wondered if he remembered her proposal of marriage to him, and his acceptance.  She wasn’t sure, since they were only five years old at the time.

Perhaps she should seek him out, Sam thought.  Surely, he would find a way to save her.  But no, the McCormicks would be good neighbors and return Sam home.

​No Goodbye

S

am would have been astonished to know that at this very moment, as she and Star sought sleep in the open, Brian McCormick lay in his bed, eyes fixed on the dark ceiling, thinking of Sam and the many glorious times they’d shared.  An unfamiliar tear slips down his cheek.  How is he going to tell her? 

​In just hours, as his family packs their wagon, Brian plans to steal away to the Spades to break the news.  The McCormicks are leaving. 

​Their dozen or so years as homesteaders was a failure, and the bank is soon to foreclose on their home.  Brian’s father, Kenneth, had decided to cut and