Happenstance

The sound of gunfire rolled across the top of the tall grass on the open plain. Hours later, on the streets of a small town that lay nestled within the swaying stalks, one man stood propped against a display board in front of the undertaker’s store on Main Street while those who rode into town with him sweltered in a hot and cramped jail, waiting their turn.

“Where you think he come from?” a child asked his mother as they walked past the macabre figure.

The boy’s mother pulled him quicker along the dusty road, but his eyes would not be averted. “Same place as any of the rest of them that ride around to small towns trying to take what don’t belong to them. And it’s, ‘came from’, ‘where do you think he came from’.  Do I have to go talk to the school Master about your English?”