{"id":13710,"date":"2017-01-25T10:59:20","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T15:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=13710"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:41:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:41:17","slug":"dignity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=13710","title":{"rendered":"Dignity (by faust)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: <\/span>Roy Coffee has his reasons for doing what he does. Really, he has.<\/p>\n

700 words, rated K<\/p>\n

Also available in eBook format \u2014 please pm me for that.<\/p>\n

My Story Index and reading order for the Art-Universe<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dignity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Of course, there are easier methods to get from the Bucket of Blood<\/em> saloon to the sheriff\u2019s office than to wind one\u2019s way crawling on the belly beneath the planks of Virginia City\u2019s sidewalks. Easier\u00a0 methods and\u2026um\u2026more dignified. Methods of locomotion more appropriate for a sheriff.<\/p>\n

Say, one could just walk on<\/em> the wooden planks. Or on the street, straight and upright, in a striding gait, as it fit a real and true hero. One could bath in the warm sunlight there (instead of wallowing in the muddy puddles that remained in the shadowy places under the planks even after several days of scorching heat), and in the citizens\u2019 admiration.<\/p>\n

One could let themselves be entertained\u00a0 to a glass of beer, or let a cigar be slid into one\u2019s breast pocket, could smile modestly and ward off the congratulations and the handshakes. Could say that one did only his duty, that one gets paid for it after all, and that one were just happy to hear that all the good people of Virginia City felt safe and protected in their town, on the streets and in their homes. That, at any moment, one would notice each suspicious movement, would pursue each suspicious noise, follow each suspicious character, halt each suspicious, no, each culpable<\/em> act straightaway.<\/p>\n

That in a town where Roy Coffee were responsible for Law and Order, no honourable woman needed to be afraid, no solitary lady would be molested, no reputable widow would be assaulted and robbed within her own four walls. That the sheriff patrolled the streets at night just for the purpose of preventing all such.<\/p>\n

And then one would go back to the sheriff\u2019s office, content with knowing one did his very best and was respected and venerated for that, would drink a cup of stale coffee and ponder, if it weren\u2019t such a bad idea after all, to, possibly, only for one day\u2026or a half\u2014yes, certainly one half day would be enough as that man is so mercilessly efficient\u2014so then for just a few hours (meanwhile one could easily have a nap in one of the cells, just so one didn\u2019t have to witness it again and feel one\u2019s blood boil again, unbearable hot, and\u2014) well, if one would ask Adam Cartwright to come to the office, just for a very brief time, to straighten out all the paper work that likes to be left unfinished while one is busy with protecting the town.<\/p>\n

And the widows.<\/p>\n

Of course, one could simply stop thinking of widows. Just crawl along, on the belly, beneath the sidewalk\u2019s planks, as far as the sheriff\u2019s office, and then slip in unnoticed und think not of widows. At least not of the one. The one whom one saved last night. And who now is so infinitely grateful.<\/p>\n

So grateful that she already heralded cookies, and sarsaparilla tea, and a picnic. A picnic<\/em>, good gracious, a picnic with the widow, just he and she, all alone out there in the wide prairie, without anyone else\u2026 Only the sheriff, the widow, and those confounded, teeth wrecking hard tacks and the sickeningly sweet tea and, and\u2026everyone knows what happened to Ben Cartwright after his picnic with the widow Hawkins\u2026and NO! Roy doesn\u2019t want any red artist\u2019s tights hanging from a wall in his house or a poster of Harry Hawkins, strongest man in the world. And he doesn\u2019t want\u2026no, sir\u2019 ee, he most definitely doesn\u2019t want the widow to make true her proposition to come and clean up his office and to rearrange everything for \u201cit\u2019s so bleak and joyless in there, my dear<\/em> sheriff. Certainly a woman\u2019s touch is needed to remedy that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, there are easier methods to get from the Bucket of Blood<\/em> saloon to the sheriff\u2019s office than to wind one\u2019s way crawling on the belly beneath the planks of Virginia City\u2019s sidewalks\u2014but no safer as long as the Widow Hawkins is on the hunt.<\/p>\n

Confound dignity.<\/p>\n

*** fin ***<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/p>\n

This was not beta-read, so there must be mistakes. If you spot one, do not hesitate to tell me. Honestly, I want you to do it. Future readers will thank you (and I, too).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags:\u00a0 Clementine Hawkins,\u00a0Roy Coffee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roy Coffee has his reasons for doing what he does. Really, he has.<\/p>\n

700 words, rated K<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":11805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor","category-short-stories","wpcat-4-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/roy-coffee.jpg?fit=251%2C200&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}