“But at least I am still alive”, he said to Jake as they stood on the Doc’s veranda, sharing a smoke. “But... you know, what the fuck am I gonna do now?”
“Good question.” Jake leaned his back against the wall. “There’s powder ganger camps all over the place, though.”
Boxcars was silent for a very long time.
“Assholes left me there to die. None of them moved a fucking finger for me”, he finally said. “Served them right they all were killed.”
“And where does that leave you?”
“Fuck if I know.”

After a few moments of silence, the saw Sunny come down the path, coming from the hills. Her rifle was slung across her back and the zipper of her jacket was undone, and in all, with two golden gecko skins slung across her shoulder, she seemed content with herself and her life.
Jake watched her with mild interest, while Boxcars stared open-mouthed at the woman walking down the path, his face empty and his eyes wide. “Jesus”, he finally whispered. “Who’s the chick? She’s got some of the finest ass I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“That’s Sunny Smiles, and if I was you, I wouldn’t say that again anywhere near her where she can hear it. Otherwise, you’d never have a reason to think about girls in that way ever again.”
Cigarette halfway to his mouth, Boxcars froze and followed Sunny with his eyes. “Yeah...” Then he snapped his mouth shut and stared at his feet before taking another drag. “Guess she’d rather have left me for the coyotes, what with me being a powder ganger.”
“Well.” Jake tapped off his ash. “I guess so.”

Sunny passed them by and Jake gave her a nod that she returned. Boxcars didn’t look up, and she pointedly ignored him. First when she had walked past them completely did Boxcars look up again.
After a few more steps, however, one of the gecko skins slipped without her noticing at first. It hit the ground behind her, and as she turned around to pick it up, Boxcars had limped to her side and icked it up. He held it out to her, and she grabbed it from his hand as if it would be soiled by his sheer presence. Their eyes met for a moment.
“Fuck off”, Sunny suddenly said and spun around, making her way down the hill with hasty, angry steps. Boxcars stared after her with sagging shoulders.

“Should’ve killed me”, he said to Jake when he had limped back to the veranda again.
Jake watched Sunny vanish into her house and said nothing, but he exhaled a long, thoughtful cloud as he cast the man beside him a look from the corners of his eyes that he failed to notice.

A few days later, Sunny found Jake sitting in the saloon with a beer and a smoke, and he walked over to her bearing two bottles when he had seen her enter, as if he had been waiting for her.
“Hi.” Sunny accepted the beer he was offering her. “What can I do for you?”
“For me, nothing.” Jake offered her a smoke, too, that she declined. “What if there was someone who had it bad for you?”
Sunny narrowed her eyes. “I guess that someone is no one I’d willingly look at.”
Jake shrugged. “He ain’t that bad.”
“He’s a powder ganger!”
“He was. He doesn’t want to go on like this, that’s what he said. He just doesn’t know what to do about it.”
“Maybe he should’ve thought about this before he turned into a thug.”
“Damnit, Sunny.” Jake looked down at her. “Don’t you believe in giving someone a second chance?”
She faltered and put her beer down. “I do. But do I have to fuck him because of it?”
“No.” Jake tapped off his ash. “You don’t have to do anything. Just stop treating him as if he is still something he’d rather not be anymore.”
Sunny looked at the table top and sighed. “Oh well, I guess I’ll try to be fair.”
“That’s all I ask of you.”

x-x-x-x-x-x-x