Welcome To Red Cloud

Chapter Three - A Snake In The Foundation

Who are you, boy, to think that you could know the first thing about land and property? Who are you, boy, to think that you can run from me, and steal from me? Who are you, boy, to think that I won't find you out?

Some more honey and oils later, I was primed and ready to head out into the town. I wore my jacket despite the warm weather, determined to keep it close this time, and carried the small box of tinctures that the doctor had prepared for me. Doc Franks informed me that Red Cloud had only two main thoroughfares to speak of: one street that ran north to south, and another that cut it lower down from east to west. His infirmary sat near the top of the north end, and the sunny afternoon walk gave me a fair vantage of most of what Red Cloud had to offer.

The coach driver hadn't been lying when he'd said that Red Cloud seemed a place for people with nowhere better to go. Every other store and property that I passed was a ruin, their window-frames caved in and holes in their rooves, but there were a few notable buildings that buzzed with life. When I reached the centre cross to the street that would take me east, two such buildings dominated the town square. One was the hotel which Franks had spoken of, the Dew Drop, which bore a ruddy façade of rust coloured paint over its cladding. Directly across from it stood a mighty saloon of almost the same size, whose proud and colourful banners told me it was called The Emerald.

The scent of good cooking wafted from the Dew Drop, hitting my gut and sending it off in a rumble. I held fast, swallowing against the soreness in my throat. Now that I was out in the deep heat of mid-day, my head swam with every step. The rest had surely done me good at the doctor's place, but it wasn't enough. I shoved my hands into my jacket pockets, turning east past the Dew Drop at a quicker pace. The sooner I saw what I was working with from the land in the deed, the better.

The "land equalling a half acre on the easternmost road out of Red Cloud, California" didn't leave a lot to go on, but I traversed the muddy street with my eyes peeled for a spare plot. The walk took me some ten minutes more to find the very end of the easternmost street, where a building covered in foreign symbols caught my eye. Great clouds of steam rose from every nook and cranny, making the whole thing look like a kettle threatening to spit off the boil. I paused there, eyeing the symbols with their thick curves and intersecting lines.

"You wan launder something, sucka?"

A head popped out of the nearest window in a burst of hot air. It belonged to a girl with a round face and deep black eyes. The symbols made sense at last. A Chinese laundry. As the steam wafted past my face, I cleared my throat, hoping that a little rest had made me audible against the rattles and hums from within the building.

"Is this the easternmost plot outta town, Miss?"

The girl rolled her eyes, and vanished back inside the building. I made to move on with a sigh, but after a second I heard a loud clanging from within, and some pretty violent shouting in Chinese. She burst from the door in another whoosh of steam, marching up to me so fast I stumbled back a little into the deeper mud of the carriage tracks. The young woman was stout and a little round, her face set with a stern, flat mouth as she tutted under her breath. She grabbed my arm, pinching hard at the elbow.

"Ah, you the neighbour, sucka? Alston, Alston, Alston. We wondering when you come."

She led me past the tall steamy laundry, and with only a couple of steps I saw that there was indeed a place beyond it on the eastern road. It was set back a little from the roadway, as though someone had deliberately left room for a yard out front, but sure enough there was a half-acre stretching back with a wire and post fence around it. The fence barely came to ankle height, and it had allowed two small children to hop over it and set about games on the plot. It wasn't the sight of the little girl and her toddler brother that bothered me, so much as what they were playing on top of.