Welcome Featured Author for June, 2014 - Robert G. Polans of Chillicothe, Ohio .....

Featured Author for June, 2014 is Robert G. Polans of Chillicothe, Ohio

Tag Reese
By Robert G. Polans

Out in the country, Tag was repairing his roof when he almost slid off the thing, but he had tied himself to it. The worst that happened was a bruise to his side. After the roofing job, he went to the river to clean up. As birds flew away, his attention was caught. At first he did not notice, but when he did, his gaze became riveted to the spot. The Indian Princess was completely naked, except for some reeds that shadowed her.

The Princess' mind, birds flying away and her blushing, wondering if she was safe from everyone's sight. Tag had left his clothes on the bank as well, and swam to the little island. He did not expect to be there long, so wasn’t bothered by the cold. When Sacred Dove saw him, she tried to cover herself with her hands, but that was a futile gesture, just as him covering himself was. They could not speak; they did not know each other’s language. However, when he took her foot, Sacred Dove understood, “You have beautiful feet.” All the way up her body he would touch areas and smile giving the same message. Sacred Dove did with him also, until they found themselves making love under the only tree on that island.

Soon, her brother, who was the chief and known for his warrior abilities had a couple of his men separate them. Tag was tied pretty well and what they were saying, he did not know. He did understand what the man meant when he dragged his knife across his throat. And one look at the fire and spears surrounding told him that these were Sioux. The town refused to sell anything to them. The Princess chimed in “NO!” Bull Runner, the Chief untied Tag and was looking at one of the arrows they supposedly shot, he just laughed. Tag held his arms out sort of saying “huh.” In a very broken English Sacred Dove took an arrow and said, “Not ours.” Then in a display, Sacred Dove raised a bow and aimed to between Tag’s legs to fire. The arrow went wild, never hitting its mark. The fact that it flew at all was only because Sacred Dove was quite accomplished. Bull Runner held up one of their arrows and held that next to it. Tag grinned and nodded. He understood that someone was framing them. Now the task would be to find out whose it was. A somewhat simple task, but he had to get to know Bull Runner a little better.

It was the end of the month and as always the stage or more specifically the moneybox was robbed. There were arrows sticking into the stage, but nobody recognized the feathers. The town was about to fall apart as a result of the poverty. Although, they had learned to rely on the cattlemen who also brought their cows and bulls in around the end of the month. This was the only injection into the economy keeping the town going. Of course there was the Sheriff who was known to look the other way when cowboys let loose in the saloon. His deputies who simply followed his orders, the Mayor, and the barkeeper in order of importance. Otherwise you would find the odd storekeeper, waitress; they even had a teacher until they ran her out of town and of course the townspeople. A robber baron type gave the sheriff two options once he came to town with his gang. "You have two choices; either a stage with arrows in it, or a saloon with guys smoking and drinking. And this town stays the same."

The Sheriff understood that his back was against a wall, so he accepted the first option. The second gave him very rowdy cowboys causing all kinds of mayhem to structures and people.
 

Over the month Tag did get to know Bull Runner almost as a brother, as Sacred Dove kept meeting him on the banks of that same river they met in. He was also meeting with both the different cattlemen who drove across his land and the Sheriff. At one time or other Tag Reese shook hands with the cattlemen and the Sheriff, he was invited to their weekly poker game. During one poker game Tag was called into the back room and shown papers. They amounted to the beginning of the KKK, although it was called the Businessmen for Purity Act, the idea was essentially the same. Native, Black, an influx of Chinese Americans were not wanted.
 

About the middle of the month, when Sacred Dove and Tag had one of their meetings a bunch of cowboys happened in. They almost raped her, separating them is putting it mildly. Sacred Dove ran too fast once her clothes were off. Once home, she donned new clothes and as her shaman had shown her went on a visionquest. At the end she watched those men be arrested. The stage was also robbed that month; but as in the rape, nobody could identify the men, they were wearing masks. The masks were the sacks of the money; but the eyes, nose and even a slit for the mouth was cut out. Obviously Bull Runner wanted revenge and Tag had an idea who, but he insisted they wait. A very difficult thing for him to do, especially the length of time it was. Sacred Dove running naked, but with a mask in her hands, was most of their downfall. She didn't cast a spell, that wasn't her belief. However, she did go on a visionquest. She watched the men who would have killed her be arrested.

At the end of that month, he contacted the U.S. Marshall’s office and told them something in confidence. At first the Marshals were reluctant to go along with him, but when they heard him out and realized it had been almost a year and the town would soon go down, they had more respect. His plan was simple, the coach passed his house, when it did he would put a wet log in the fireplace. This would signal Bull Runner that “Indians” either were attacking the coach or soon would. The Marshals were needed because the faux Indians wore masks and there always was a chance that they would elude the Sioux that Bull Runner led. If not, they could simply arrest the men and possibly it would lead to a more important arrest.

A few Marshals, one with a pocket watch came to an agreement. Yes, the plan would go ahead.

The Princess was telling Tag that it would work, she had seen it. He was looked quizzically at her."

Tag heard the thundering hoof beats and tossed the log into his fire. He walked out, waiting for Bull Runner and was not there long. The only problem was alerting the Marshals. It turned out to be no problem, Bull Runner asked which way to the Marshal’s office. As Tag pointed, one of his men began riding in that direction. Next stop, the coach, and they knew to ride quietly. Coming up behind the men, they found cattle in a clearing. Tag and Bull Runner smiled and nodded, how much more perfect could things get? They drove the cattle to where the coach was. There was chaos, no running from this. Right in front of the cattle was where there was no escape. A search of their saddlebags showed a few of the “arrows” that wouldn’t fly when fired. Finally, when their masks were taken off, were the cowboys and the Sheriff. Here was where the Marshals were needed. They could get Sioux justice, but this went farther than just simple stagecoach robberies. So the Marshals went to see the cattlemen, and all their fast-talking was to no avail. The triple d ranch, the McAloosas of the silver fire. All five of the men were arrested. The triple d ranch was nothing special, the McAloosas after an inspection of the ranch house showed an insidious plan to divide the country even more than it had been.

One of the Marshals walked back smiling "What do we have here? It looks like a treatise, do you want to turn in the others who are part of your army?"

The elder McAloosa said no, but one of his sons said "It's over, sign us free and we'll give you the names."

"We don't have the authority, that's up to the generals."

Tag went back to his house in the country with her at his side. He wondered if Bull Runner would accept this. He did ride up and although he was not used to it, knocked on the door. Tag opened the door and Sacred Dove brought some tea for everyone. Then a discussion started.

When Bull Runner began saying, “Sacred Dove should be home with her own,” her hand went to her stomach.

Tag told him “If you want, I’ll move there.”

As his sister shook her head violently, Bull Runner said, “No, you stay here (in his broken English) we need someone on the outside.” Eight months and some days later, Sacred Dove moved in with Tag. He had been made Sheriff and they now had one of the first inter-cultural children of the U.S.A.

The End

Robert G. Polans
Author's Bio:  Born June 26, 1950

The family moved quite a bit to many places in the US, but mostly settled in Broooklyn, NY then L.I. NY.
Schools: High school was JFK High School graduated in 1969 from there I went to Nassau Community College at night until about 1976.
Work: I worked in furniture manufacturing, setting up factories with my dad until he died in 1993. I was VP and Assoc. Ass't. On the factory floor, I had my own work space. I was in charge of cutting the fabric for the operators to sew. Once I could, I became a writer full-time.
I think I began writing crime to understand what we did in real life and to some extent I do. Also an editor. I suppose I can blog, but have never had the desire to.
I have been married for sixteen years, writing since 1986. Most of my "stuff" was on disks from an old word processor that one day decided to start formatting (deleting) everything. I've recently started putting it on computer. I have an unfinished (as of yet) crime drama series, the first book Calla's Curse is finished, now for the others. There might be a fourth, during a bout of writers' block I wrote a story one year in the future. Considering that the stories begin in the late 60s to early 70s, there are really three to ten year intervals between them. 

 

Therein Lies The Squatting of the Toad

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