Diamond and the sheriff shared a laugh.

  Breath of relief. Wow, did she have a striking birthmark over her top lip.

  “Get your tail over here, grappling sheriff,” Diamond hollered.

  ***

  Inside the Pharmacy, the buffed-up counter and shelves shined. I smiled at the sight of the organized jars of medicine and clean, checkerboard marble floors.

  Something about smells of plants and coffee beans brought on nostalgic musings of the way folks once thought the odors to be healing. I knew better but wished to believe I didn’t during every shopping experience there. It’d be especially nice to have faith in something decent with all the recent hysteria concerning the rumored alliance of Sam Hill, dark entities, Calamity Dyer, Ana Ahote, and his Ana Tribe.

  Diamond offered her hand and said, “You must be Doc Apollo, and you probably thoink I’m crazy.” Her dialect and demeanor brought a gentle feeling.

  “Crazy? Not at all, miss.”

  “You better watch out for the company you’re keeping. Sheriff Chip’s always coming in here with a cold.”

  I nudged Chip with my elbow and said, “I’m certain he is.”

  “Not today,” Chip clarified. “My deputy has an incision. And Doc needs to pick a few things up to tend to it.”

  “Oh. Where’s his cut?”

  Chip and I exchanged uneasy glances; I spoke up first. “Don’t worry, miss. I assure you it’s a tiny matter. I need some carbolic acid, opium, a needle and thread, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

  The front door creaked, and Dick and Patsy arrived. They were a heavyset couple, as well dressed as fed, him in a three-piece suit and long coattails and her in pearls and an expensive silk dress. I’d say Patsy passed down the blondeness to Diamond (Dick didn’t have a strand to give), but Diamond’s golden locks were too big and unreal.

  Turned around and hanging his coat on the rack, Dick had barely gotten through the door and was already in conversation. “Diamond, honey, I saw that suiter of yours over at the General Store. Told him to get you home right after y’all’s trip to the Restaurant this afternoon.”

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  Chip frowned and thought aloud. “Suiter?”

  Dick turned, jumped, and giggled with a high, nervous pitch. “Luddy mussy! Sheriff! Doc! Didn’t see you two there.”

  Patsy waddled halfway upstairs and leered down, huffing from the exercise. “Dick, you lightweight, you must have gotten loaded to the gunwhales over at the Saloon. Thoink you’re gonna tell Diamond what to do? She’s grown and is as full of piss and vinegar as me.”

  “Shoots a sniper rifle better than you, though.” He squealed in laughter.

  “Dick, you can’t fire a toy gun, so hush.”

  “Excuse me boys, gotta get this vixen under control.” He and Patsy howled as he chased her up the stairs.

  Chip demanded, “Well, hurry, Diamond. Get what we need, so we can get going.”

  Diamond left Chip and his balled-up fists alone with me.

  “Easy now, Sheriff. You have more steam coming out your ears than what’s rising from the tonics. And I think the fumes are turning you green. Or is that envy over the suitor?”

  “You’re starting to get under my skin.”

  Diamond in a flurry delivered the items I needed for my kit, and the cost of oof seemed to upset Chip much more than me. He contended, “What kind of rip-off is this? We’re saving a life.”

  Diamond slapped the counter. “Alright, Sheriff Chip Blaze, if you thoink pitching a fit because you’re jealous is gonna make a mash with me, you’re dead wrong. Pay up, right now.”

  “Jealous. Don’t be ridiculous.” He banged the skids down hard enough to bring the parents halfway back downstairs with Dick’s belt undone and Patsy’s hair a-mess.

  Flushed face, Diamond folded her arms. “Mama, Deddy, don’t come down. Ploise.”

  While they stayed put, she resumed. “Sheriff, Dylan was nice and was courageous enough to ask me out, while you were sneezing and hacking and not upfront with me the way I like it. He’s a US soldier. You noid to respect his service. And even if you don’t, he’s my suitor now, and that’s that.”

  ***

  Just as she finished, an Indian war cry wailed for all Promise Road to hear.

  All of us, including Dick and Patsy on the staircase, froze. The yowl was harsh as tornado winds; its threat clear as if it was inside the Pharmacy.

  Sullen voices cried in unison, “We are the Ana Tribe, raining down vengeance by the authority of our great witch, Calamity Dyer and the dark entity, Sam Hill.”

  Everyone seemed to be eyeballing me, despite my bewilderment. The tribe’s chants and rattles shaking rose higher.

  How could this be real? We were just arguing over money and jealousy and things that such exist in our world, and here we stood, a moment later, arrested by an unworldly threat. A Bowie Knife under a bed could really endanger the entire town of Grand Jose?

  The sheriff somberly clutched his six-gun shooter and said, “I have two of these. Take one.”

  Diamond chimed in with a note of nervousness in her voice. “I got a couple sniper rifles, too.”

  To join the sheriff on the ground, turn to Chapter Five. Six-Gun Shooters.

  To go with Diamond to the roof, turn to Chapter Six. Sniper Rifles.