Slumped over in his sheepskin coat on a bed of bug-chewed corn husks in a Nebraska sod cabin, Mike Morris realized it was almost Christmas and he’d missed the fiery Ozarks autumn foliage for the first time in his life. Nothing helped his melancholy, not Slick Peterson’s dirty jokes, not Windy Bly’s sour smelling mash in the coffee. At the spindle legged cedar table, Slick fumbled with the slick glass chimney of a kerosene lamp that the wind kept blowing out, while Windy tilted back on the cramped room’s only chair, scabby bare knees showing through threadbare holes in his pants.
This story was free to read the third week of May, 2018.
“Not Much the Cowman” is one of several short western stories in my collection, Tough Job in Driftwood.
Each month this year, I will post a free crime story on the first Tuesday of the month, and a free western story two weeks later on the third Tuesday. The stories will stay up for seven days until the next week’s blog post.