Chapter 1

Debit to pay

"How old be ya?" He asked combing his thick scrounged beard with his gigantic muscled hand, looking me up and down to see if I would fit the part in his business. He was a curious older man, whose weight was hard to decipher how old he really was. My guess what around his forties, but the desert usually aged people quickly.

"I'm sixteen sir," I answered in all honesty. This was the only place they could put me, as far as paying off my family's debits. It wasn't my ideal place to work, but it was a place that was better than nothing. The building itself smelt a musty old wood scent, that had seemed like it had been here for many years.

"You wanna work here?" he asked one more final question before deciding my fate.

"Not practically" I whispered under my breath then gave him a smile. "Of course, I am of age ain't I?"

"Not for a saloon girl, but as a servant yes and you'll have to work your way up, am I understood?"

"Yes sir." I replied, nodding my head slightly in agreement to his offer.

"Good," He paused and turned his back towards me, placing his hands around his mouth to elaborate his deep echoing voice. "Claire, I need your service."

Clattering of heels running could be heard from the upstairs of the Saloon balcony, as well as her dress flowing from side to side, making the noise as if you were to sit next to a waterfall and just listen but the dress had more of scratching sound. The clicking of her heels was rhythmic, all the way until she was face to face with both of us. "Yes sir?" Claire asked as she came to stop on the last step of the climbing stairs. She looked at me for a moment before looking towards her boss's face, her face emotionless.

"Take Miss Gina to her servant room would ya?" he asked heartedly, "you know I wouldn't make it up two stars."

"Of course I will." She replied giving me a very small smile of welcoming. As soon as we were out of ear shot from Todd, the bartender, she laid the rules out plain and simple. "So, you're our new servant, is that right?" she asked, only to make sure she got her facts right.

"Yes, I believe so." I replied hastily, following her like a little lost puppy.

"A servant, well that's a pretty simple job, giving those outlaws, cowboys, or whoever shows up their drinks, got it?" She paused, looking at me with a side glance.

"Yes madam." I replied, looking up to her every time she took a glance my way.

"That's another thing, forget your manners even though your momma taught you well, but here the more slang the more the men want ya." She pushed a key into one of the wooden doors and suddenly turned to me. "They don't want any smart gals."

I shook my head for an agreement that I understood. "But madam…"

"Claire." She correctly quickly with a smile, hoping the facts she was stating would stick in my head.

"…Claire, what is the test you talked about earlier?"

She gave herself a well enjoyed laugh. "That Gina you'll learn in time, but until then what is your job?"

"Serving the drinks."

"Good, here is your room and your new clothing is hanging in the dresser, hope you know how to sow because you might need to fix them." She turned from the door and started to walk away, but turned to face me once more abruptly. "One more thing, next door is Kaleen and she doesn't like to be talked to, next to her in Jenifer she a sweetheart and could of made somethin' of herself, next to her is Rebecca she is quiet during the day, loud when the boys come around, and last is Bethany and everyone calls her Beth unless you have a death wish."

"Why?" I blurted out.

Suddenly the door that Claire pointed out slammed open and a broad woman peered in between the door frame. "Who's the one who wants to die?" She asked in a brutal tone, and then in a quick instinct her piercing eyes stung my way. "You?"

"N-no madam."

"What did you call me?"

Terrified I looked over to Claire watching her lips whisper slang. "No Beth."

"That's right, and you better remember that for the rest of your life." She remarked, reentering the room and slamming the door tightly behind her.

"Like I said, watch your wording but that's all who works here."

"Not many of you are there?"

"Well, in a small town like this what do you expect, now get changed into your serving clothes and what is your job?"

"To serve the men their drinks."

"Until…"

"Until I pass the test."

"Good" She replied, retreating to her own room that was next to Beth's at the end of the hall.

I slowly turned the key and the doorknob to reveal the small dusty room. With each step rose a new cloud of dust then slowly it lowered itself to its new foundation. I took my suitcase and through it onto the bed, making the room full of a dusty sheet and the air wasn't breathable for the moment. As soon as the air cleared enough to see I traced my past steps to the dresser that was leaning against the wall near the door. 'That's where the dresses must be' I stated, making my way through the dirty air. Carefully I pulled open the doors with their loud screeching noise that followed.

Inside hung three separate Saloon Girl dresses, which were colored green, blue, and almost a crème colored one.

They were quite fancy and would show off much skin while they were on, but this was my new life, and the one I would have to live with until my families debts were paid off. Quickly I followed Claire's instructions and rapidly stripped off my clothing, replaced it with the short inner layer skirt, buttoning it at the front then twisting it around so the buttons were in back. I pulled up my pantaloons so that they couldn't be seen hanging below the skirt, and then with both hands pulled up the black fish net stockings to as high as they would go. I got the buckler ropes, and buckled the fish nets to my pantaloons so they wouldn't fall while I worked and then after the bottom of myself was complete I began putting on my top half, but my privacy was disturbed when a thin cowboy walked into the room, his spurs clinging behind him as he walked through the door way, and his belt buck collected the light from the sun and showed off its polishing finish. "Evenin' madam" He said, grabbing the tip of his brown cowboy hat, nodding his head quickly.

Luckily the ringing of his spurs gave me enough time to cover myself with the top half of the saloon outfit. "E-evenin'."

"What are ya, 'bout fourteen?"

"Sixteen."

"My they're startin' them young now a days."

"Sorry, what do you mean?"

"Well for bein' a Saloon Girl, that's what I mean."

"Oh," I paused for a moment, feeling the awkwardness loom around. "May I help you?"

"Well I was just lookin' fer Rebecca, seen her?"

"No sorry."

"Eh what do ya know, ya just a silly girl anyways."

I was upset with his statement, but didn't want to make a fuse about it. "Ya right sir, I am."

"Glad to see ya agree now if you would excuse me madam, I need to find me a Rebecca." He replied tipping his hat once more and gracefully exited out of the room, the clinging of his spurs echoing behind him, but for a moment it sound like they were headed back.

His head pepped out from the hallway. "By the way madam, ya sure do look pretty."

I felt my face turn a light red with excitement. "Thank you."

He nodded once more and his spurs could be heard walking down the steps from the balcony.

Before any more interruptions I quickly pulled my top half up, and buttoned it as well. The top was much looser than the bottom half, it was as almost as if I could place another one of me inside, but that was to be expected, since I was thin for my age. I grabbed the back where the buttons were to see how tight I could get it so that I could still breathe, and there would be a lot of extra material to take off. Claire's voice could be heard from the door way as I turned to see her leaning against the door frame. "You need to put on the corset, that's what makes it tighter."

"Oh" I replied, looking around the room for the article of clothing she mentioned.

"Let me guess, you come from a pioneer family and never heard of the word."

"You're right Claire, I haven't."

"Well then I guess I'll have to teach ya everything about being a Saloon Girl huh?"

I gave her a smile of reassurance and watched as she went to the dresser, opening the bottom doors, then took out some very short legged pantaloons and a weird looking shirt that had no sleeves. "Now these are the pantaloons that you wear, not the ones your momma made for you to wear under that pioneer dress of yours, take those off."

I did so and replaced them with the short legged pantaloons.

"Now for the Saloon Girl top…" I gracefully put on the top, and waited patiently while she unfolded the weird shirt that was in her grasp. "For the final touch is the corset." She flipped it so a black side to it was to be seen, and its bordered sowing was of golden thread to make it decorative. "Turn around."

I placed my hands on the back board of the bed, so that I would be leaning forward a little bit. Then she placed the front of the shirt of my stomach, taking the wings to the back, and then started to lace the corset tightly so it would show off my small girl figure. At first it was very hard to breathe because it was so tight, but Claire said that I would get use to it. "Now do your hair and you'll be set, hurry though."

I looked into the mirror and combed my hair into a half pony tail and tied it off with the ribbon that was in my suitcase. "Awh… isn't that cute if you were at home."

"Alright Claire, how do you Saloon Girls wear your hair?"

"There's one simple trick that was brought from England." She unbowed the ribbon and took a long feather that matched the green color of my dress, then she took the jointed pieces of hair from the side of my face and twisted it around the feather, with one simple movement she pushed the feather down in the middle of where the two sides of my hair met. I couldn't believe how it worked and stayed in whatever way I went. "That's amazing."

"Well, it's just simple and later I'll show you some more but fer now we have to git down there and show our stuff."

Quickly we exited the room and for a quick glance I looked over the railing to see the saloon chuck full of cowboys. Some played card games laughing hard at many points during their game, many just talking with one another and some dancing along with some of the Saloon Girls who were up on the stage.

"Hurry Gina before he counts us late." I ran after her to keep up and followed her to meet Todd who stood behind the bar, filling a pint glass full of whiskey.

"Evenin' ladies." Todd said, sliding the pint down to one of his customers.

"Evenin'" We replied, but Claire was off doing her usual thing, while I took a tray from behind the counter to begin work.

"Um… Gina, first take their orders, start over by the poker tables alright?"

"Yes sir."

I made my way quickly over to where the five men sat quietly looking at each other in the eyes, probably to see if each other were bluffing. "Evenin' boys, what can I git ya?"

One looked away from an intense glare from his opponent across the table into my eyes, "Evenin' little missy, what do ya have here in this Saloon?"

"Whiskey."

"That' it?"

"Until the Stage Coach comes to deliver more of a choice."

He laughed heartedly "I'm just kiddin' with ya... I know there's only whiskey." He paused, looking at the rest of the group then to me once more. "I'll take three."

Most of the men around the table gave a "o" sound, as if he was daring them to order more than him.

The man sitting next to him was a pretty well kept man, and he tipped his hat then raised his pointer finger in the air. "I'll raise that and take four." He replied, placing his hand back to the other side of his fanned out cards.

"I'll match that." A man dressed in mainly black clothing, including his cowboy hat blurted out into the open.

"Five." Another said, looking around at his competitors, giving them his missing toothed grin. He wasn't as well kept as the one that was kiddy cornered from him, but I had a feeling I would see many different kinds of cowboys tonight. "And how 'bout you handsome?" I asked the youngest looking one out of the group. He looked up at me with a smile then, back down to his cards, which from what I could see was a straight flush. I only knew this because my papa taught me how to play poker at one time, and a straight flush was a really good hand. "Well, I'll take six, and you."

"Flattered, but I'm only a servant."

"Well I'll talk to Todd about that." He replied with a smile.

I smiled back in the only flirtiest way I knew how. "So twenty two whiskeys comin' up."

I retraced my steps back to the bar where Todd stood whipping one of the small glasses. "Twenty two whiskeys Todd."

"Alright"

While he did so I made my way over to the other card game that was going on, but with only two players. They were both very young lookin' and wore their bandanas to the front of their neck. They were lookin' around suspiciously and I really didn't want to go over, but it was my job. "Evenin' sirs, what can I git fer ya?"

"Whiskey." They answered rapidly at the same time.

"How many?" They both looked up to me with glaring eyes, which gave me my cue. "I'll bring one fer now." With that they nodded their heads and returned to their game.

"Hey Todd, have you seen those two before in your Saloon?" I asked, as soon as I was close to only where he could hear me.

He looked over to where I was mentioning and said, "Nope, but I know who they are..." He motioned one of the cowboys near by to come over. He did so and Todd whispered in his ear then with a great rush walked quickly outside, disappearing into the darkness. "Act normal." He told my at last. I nodded, and took the orders of the first table over to them, while acting like nothing was happening.

"Why hello beautiful" The first man said, giving me a smile and a nod.

"Hey boys." I replied. "Alright so, three whiskeys for you." I said, placing the three small glasses in front of the first man. "Four for you two." I placed the next eight glasses separately into their own piles in front of the two men. "Five for here." I placed the glasses beside the toothless man's pile of chips he had collected from his wins. "And six for you." I said at last, placing the last glasses next to the young man's arm.

"So what did Todd say about you?" He asked as soon as I placed the last glass down.

"He said that I would cost three cows and your house."

The boy lowered his head in shame saying with a sigh "Someday."

I gave a small giggle and returned to the counter to pick up the other order for the two suspicious men, but the order would never make it to them because suddenly the small wooden doors broke apart with the sheriff and his young assistant standing next to him. Everyone looked over in shock to see him standing in the door way, and the two men slowly started to get up.

"Sit!" The sheriff called out to them.

They did so abruptly and watched him with gloomy eyes then one yelled out in rage, "It was that damn new Saloon Girl wasn't it?"

"No need to yell, she was just doing her job." I tried to hide myself in the crowd of men that were trying to see the scene in a better view.

"Where is she, I'll kill 'er." One replied standing up in rage,

"Sit!" The sheriff called, but his voice wasn't threatening enough to make the man sit. Suddenly his glossy angered eyes spotted my long green feather in the crowd and without a blink pulled his gun from its holder, and aimed it for my heart. In a matter of seconds the bullet flew through the air yet never made it to my body, but only to hit the young boy's who I had only met.

The sheriff quickly took hold of the raged man, while his assistant took hold of the other, and led them to the town jail, leaving the helpless boy in the mists of the crowd. Everyone in the bar surrounded the boy, and I myself knelt beside his stained red body, from his own blood that surrounded him. "Madam, may I know yer name before I die?"

With tears that I chocked upon I gave a small introduction of my name. "Gina."

"Well Miss Gina, I shall thank God w-when I git up there for l-letting me see such a pretty woman before I d-died." He looked away for a moment giving a hard swallow of his own blood to go back into his body when soon returned to my gaze. "Good bye M-miss G-Gina." He said for his last words.

Many tears fell down my soft face as I watched his body slowly limp back towards the floor, his eyes glazed over with a blank stare, and his skin turning cold by the second.

Claire quickly lifted me up, and cradled me in her arms as if I was her child, giving me comfort as Todd and three other men lifted the young man off from the floor and carried him outside.