The dust kicks up from his spurs in small tornadoes. The familiar sound of shutters being slammed into the windows and locked – gives him an exhilarating adrenalin rush. He knows what this means. The gun rattles in its holster and scratches his pant leg anxious to spit out its silver death. The bearings are real silver – made last night over a fire – ready to tear through one person…Bull Frog Billy.

All Colton Paris has to do is wait. By now, Billy has probably gotten drunk in that wreck of a saloon – belching up a storm, and tryin’ to get his grubby fingers on a lady – no doubt. Colton sneers, “The sick – ”

An old man slaps his shoulder, “See here, sonny – you don’t go messin’ with that Bull Frog Billy. He’ll mess you up for sure.”

Colton slowly turns his head to face the man and lifts one eyebrow along with the side of his lip – revealing his stained, decaying teeth. “I’ll do the messing up.” He carefully plucks each finger on the hand of the trembling old geezer off his shoulder and pushes it aside. He walks on…kickin’ up the dust behind him.

The western doors are practically falling off their hinges; even when Colton tries to be gentle and not kick them open, they fall off and clatter to the floor. He stares down at them wide eyed and flinches. The bar tender drops his glass and cleaning rag and shoots his fingers up to his temples.

“What did ya do that for?! Those were perfectly good doors, and you just went and knocked im’ down!”

Bull Frog Billy teeter-totters his head up from his tall glass of beer and glowers at Colton.

Colton looks down at the shattered wood once again and flinches. Normally he’d apologize and offer money – but not with Bull Frog Billy carefully following his every thought. Even this drunk can have his wits about him – a dangerous combination, Colton contemplates.

Billy stares at Paris a minute longer and then starts to get up. “I thought I killed you!”

Colton relaxes. A sorry statement like that couldn’t mean the bloat was too smart right now - Just a poor attempt to impress the woman that was sitting next to him at the bar. She winked her eye and smiled. White powder reined her face and Colton thought at any moment he might find dust mites flying off her hideous grinning mask.

“You didn’t even come close to killing me.”

“You’re like a cockroach aren’t you, Paris? I squish you like the bug you are, an’ you just get up and keep crawlin’.”

“Is that so?” Colton snickers.

“YOU WORM!”

“Well, which is it?”

“It’s both!”

“Heh.”

Billy flares, “You’re dirty and you have your belly in the sand!”

Colton tries to cover his anger, “So, you think I’m lower than you? You ain’t seen me bow down yet, an’ you never will.”

“Let’s just see who’s bowin’!” Billy pulls out his revolver and points at Colton’s chest.

The lady looks dazed and screams.

The bar tender sees the reflection of the gun in the mirror as he crouches down for safety. He clenches his rag in his fist and pops his head up from the counter. “Hey you get that out of here!”

Billy throws his head back, “Shut up, Bar Keep!”

Colton whistles a long note and stops when he receives Bull Frog’s attention. “Let’s take care of this outside.”

“A draw?” Billy cocks the gun as a bullet waits patiently in the chamber.

“Yeah, a draw. How ‘bout it huh?”

“Yeah, fine.” Billy disarms the gun and follows a distance behind Colton with a slow stumble.

Colton laughs to himself, This should be a breeze in the wind. His eyebrows furrow and his face grows long with a new frown. He lifts his lip again revealing his teeth to no one but the dead orange air. He should’ve made sure I was dead. No one gets away from a man married to revenge! He’ll pay for the pain he caused…for the damage done.

Colton lines himself up with the left post of the general shop and fiercely wheels around.

Billy snickers.

Colton’s tattered brown jacket is stirred by the wind and a cloud of dust separates their view of each other.

Colton yells out, “The next tumbleweed that bounces across!”

Bull Frog is silent for a moment. “How about the minute of noon?!”

Colton glances at the town clock that is slowly revealed by the mist of orange dust. It’s three minutes till 12:00.

“Fine.” He pauses. “I do have one question, Bull Frog Billy!”

“Shoot.”

Billy’s last word hardly left his lips before the silver bullet hit him in the ribs. As he fell, the realization that he fooled encompassed his mind. He fell with a thump onto the cracking ground. A few teeth flew out of his silent lips.

Colton spun his gun around his fingers and threw it back in the holster.

The old man eerily appears at his side. “What exactly did the Bull Frog do to you?”

Colton looks over his shoulder, “He insulted my horse. It ran away.” He secures his hat with the palm of his hand. “Dang near had to walk here from Guster Town.”

The old man looks after the mysterious wanderer with the fast hands and the sly tricks. Colton keeps on walking – tornadoes trailing behind.