Age of The Understatement

Part 10 - In The Heat of The Morning

Somewhere, now 400+ Miles from Tombstone

Alex trotted along behind Miles' horse, Pearl's horse following close by, they had been traveling for a good five hours at this point, only two more to go until they reached Las Vegas, NM. The sun was shining, but thankfully plenty clouds covered half the sky, giving the group periods of luxurious shade. Alex had pulled his guitar strap over his shoulder and began to play a couple tunes to accompany their trip, to which Pearl enthusiastically sang along to. Alex only knew a handful of the songs Pearl begged him to play, one of those being 'In The Evening by The Moonlight'. She seemed to be quite the fan of The Pirates of Penzance, which Alex only knew one song of, not the easiest to play on guitar.

"Here's one I wrote myself." Alex chimed, hoping to not be taking anymore requests since he had been doing so for the past hour or so.
Alex's fingers plucked away at his strings, spilling out a beautiful melody that he titled 'It's Hard To Get Around The Wind'. Alex hummed the melody softly along to his guitar, eventually coming to the end of the song. Pearl wrapped her reigns around her arm and feverishly clapped, Miles did the same.

"Did you ever think of the right lyrics for that song?" Miles asked, turning back to face Pearl and Alex.

"I've gotten one bit down–" Alex began plucking at his strings again, starting back up into his song as he quickly sang a couple lyrics.
"Looking for a new place to begin, feeling like it's hard to understand–" Alex stopped himself. "That's all I've got so far."

"It sounds lovely Alex." Pearl beamed. "You ever thought of being a performer? I'm sure lots of people would love to hear what you've got going on up there." Pearl pointed to Alex's head.
Alex blushed a bit, feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Actually, yeah. Miles and I were thinkin' of forming some sort of duo band, just both of us playing guitar. Or something like it." Alex said, looking forward to Miles, a grin on his face.

"Think it would be a good way to earn honest money after all of this." Miles said back at them.

"Miles is a fantastic guitarist, he could play for an orchestra." Alex said to Pearl, their horses still just trotting along. "I'm not even kidding! Hell, he'll have to play for you tonight. Oh and–" Alex looked forward towards Miles. "Where are we staying? Hopefully an inn, finally?" Alex asked.

"We'll have to see if they've got any room for us when we get there, I heard this place is pretty booming population wise." Miles said back. "Let's pick up our pace a little so we can get there sooner." Miles hit his spurs against his horses barrel, sending them into a full gallop. Alex and Pearl followed Miles' lead, possibly cutting their travel time down by ten minutes or so.

Later that day, in town at a local lunch room

Pearl, Miles, and Alex all sat down at one of the plenty tables that were placed in perfect rows inside the large lunch room. They all scanned their menus, partly thinking of ordering one of each item.

"Pearl if I order you 20¢ worth of food would that be enough payback for the Vaseline?" Miles asked, still looking at his menu.

"Here, how's about this. Buy me lunch and a new jar of Vaseline, what about that?" Pearl said, holding her hand out to Miles. "Deal?"

Miles sighed, knowing he was more than likely paying for all three of them anyway. "Okay fine, deal." Miles shook Pearl's hand and quickly resumed his reading.

"Well I'm definitely getting the veal pot pie, and a coke. I need a pick me up." Alex said, placing his menu back down onto the table as he began to look around the restaurant. Nearly every table was full, family's sat with their kids, groups of women in frilly dresses, working men huddled around bowls of soup. Alex felt his stomach grumble.