Sheriff of Eldridge County CH1

[CHAPTER 1] — THE LOST NUGGET

Morning

Eldridge City, a busy town right smack in the middle of Eldridge County. By all accounts it was as lively as much larger cities like Dodge, Tombstone, and Cody. Every day from sunup to sundown was full mysteries to solve. The people that lived here came from all types of backgrounds and professions, none of them busier than the sheriff.

He stepped from the wagon onto the street and pulled his saddle bags across his shoulder. He looked up and down the street before smiling as his eyes rested on the old wooden sign, “Eldridge City” it read. He sucked his teeth and pulled down the brim of his hat; “It’s good to be back,” he thought. Wagon trains and caravans from all over the world were lined up as passengers rushed to enter the city. He would grab his hat and nod his head to the ladies and to the men he gave a curt wave of his hand. “Yep,” he thought,” today is going to be a good day.” Just then, he felt his right foot sink into the most disgusting puddle of water he had ever seen, soaking his boot through and through. “Sugar biscuit,” he mumbled under his breath as he pulled his foot out of the water and shook his boot dry. He sucked his teeth, straightened his back, and strolled through the city gates.

The wonderous smell from the saloon instantly made his stomach growl in anticipation of the morning meal. “Yeah, sure I ate a bite on the road, but nothing was like the vittles that Cookie whipped up,” he thought wondering what was on the menu. He could see his office down the road on the right and turned left to take his place in line at the serving counter.

“Sheriff,” he heard someone calling out to him.

“Sheriff,” the voice grew louder. He turned to see Earl Haskins walking hurriedly towards him with his hand waving in the air.

Now by all accounts, Earl was a good fella, he was smart as a whip but would lose his head if it weren’t attached to his shoulder. “Sheriff,” Earl screamed as he panted from his mad dash to the side of Leon, The Sheriff of Eldridge County.

The sheriff sucked his teeth, “What is all this ruckus about Earl?” he asked.

“Sheriff, I done lost something!” Earl exclaimed as he patted his pocket.

Sheriff Leon sighed and shook his head. “Now Earl,” he held up on his hand, “I aint even had breakfast yet.” “But Sheriff this here is an emergency!” Earl exclaimed.

It was his turn to be served. “Hey cookie,” the Sheriff said with a half-smile and placed his tray on the counter. “Gimme some of that salted pork and grits and a biscuit.” He sucked his teeth, “and some of the good stuff,” he said as he nodded to the top shelf. “In a clean glass this time, Cookie,” he continued. The sheriff waited for his food to be placed on his tray and his beverage.

“Here ya go,” Cookie said without a smile.

The sheriff turned to Earl who had just finished placing his order, “We can talk about it while I eat,” he said, and walked off towards a table in the corner of the saloon. He placed his tray on the table and sat down on the bench. Sheriff Leon pulled the lid from his drink and took a long sip as Earl sat down to join him. “Aight Earl,” he said and took a huge bite of his salted pork. “What’s this big emergency of yours?”

Earl put down his fork, “Sheriff I done messed around and lost my gold nugget!”

Leon put down his meal and looked at Earl in disbelief. “Well did you check your bag? That’s where we found your shovel when you lost it,” he said.

“Yes, yes, yes, sheriff, I checked everywhere for it, and it’s gone,” Earl said sadly.

“Well why is this an emergency and where did you have it last,” Sheriff asked?

“Sheriff,” Earl gasped, “The buyer comes to town tonight, If I don’t have that nugget then I get no money!” Earl took a bite of his oats. “I know I had it on the wagon to town and haven’t seen it since.”

Leon finished his meal, wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his shirt, “Aight Earl, imma help you find this lost nugget of yours,” he said. “Meet me at noon by the coral, and we’ll come up with something.” The sheriff sucked his teeth, “I gotta run on to the office now and imma see you at noon.”

#

Leon strode into the sheriff’s office, dropped his bag beside his desk and plopped into his seat. He pulled his hat down over his eyes and kicked his feet up on the desk. “A couple minutes of shut eye before I get the morning started,” he thought. “Sheriff!” someone calling his name echoed in his mind. “Sheriff! Leon!” The voice finally broke through his sleep, “Please take your feet off the desk and take your hat off inside the school,” Mrs. Trinder, his home room teacher requested.

Mrs. Trinder, also know as the Quizzing Judge of Eldridge County, walked past his desk with her roll sheet in her hand checking off names as passed each student. Her patrol of the room ended near her desk where she placed the roll sheet and turned toward the chalkboard. A collective sigh went up through the classroom. “Class,” Mrs. Trinder said as she began to write on the board, “take out your math workbook and turn to page ten.” She wrote the numbers one through ten on the board. “Answer problems one through ten for this morning’s quiz.”

Leon looked over at Earl. Earl was a math whiz and almost lived for these pop quizzes and was smiling from ear to ear as he whipped out his math workbook and eagerly turned to the assigned page.

#

The sheriff stepped into general store. “Thank goodness you are here Sheriff,” Grif, the shop keeper said.

“Well, why’s that?” the Sheriff asked and sucked his teeth.

Grif walked from the around the counter. “Well sheriff, I had ten apples in this barrel and some of them gone!” he exclaimed. Leon peered into the old barrel. “I only see three apples in here Grif,” he said. “There’s seven missing.”

#

“O.K class,” Mrs. Trinder said, “Tear out your worksheets and pass them to the front.”

Leon and Earl both looked at each other as they tore out their pages and passed them to the person in front of them. Leon glanced at the clock on the wall. “Just about high noon,” he thought and threw a nod to Earl who nodded back in anticipation of finding his lost gold nugget.

Noon

The dust rolled around the town square as the citizens of Eldridge City ran back and forth doing this and that. The local fair was, as always, a highlight as people performed amazing tricks and feats on swings, balance beams, and grand displays of skill playing the various games that were a common occurrence in a city as magnificent as Eldridge. Leon calmly walked through the packed town square nodding and waving as people greeted him.

The coral was on the far of the square, a big, long brown building with a red roof, and there was Earl, sitting anxiously on the bench near the door. Leon plopped down beside him and sucked his teeth before speaking.

“Aight Earl,” he raised the brim of his hat and looked at his friend, “Tell me about this nugget of yours that ya done lost.” Earl sighed, “Well Sheriff, I picked it up on the way into town.” Earl turned to look at the sheriff. “I had it on the wagon. But when I got into town, I couldn’t find it anywhere.” Earl shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. The Sheriff looked at Earl as he rested his head on his folded hands. “So, you lost it somewhere between the wagon and town,” Leon sighed, “That is if you sure you brought it off the wagon even, who else knew about this nugget of yours?” Sheriff asked.

Earl raised his head and thought for a second, and it was at this moment that Leon noticed his friends snaggled-tooth expression. “Well, I did show it to that new fella that came into town today,” Earl said.

“New fella?” Leon sat up straight, “What new fella?” He asked.

Leon prided himself on knowing all the people that lived in his city, “what kind of sheriff would he be if he didn’t?”, he thought. “This new fella,” he looked at Earl, “tell me about him. Where is he?” The sheriff demanded.

Earl ran his hand through his long dark hair, “Well, I hear he is from a city across the river to the west.” Earl began to tell the things he had overheard on the wagon ride to town. “He is a monster of a man by the look of him, sheriff. I was in a friendly mood and showed him the nugget I found just before we got round the town,” Earl continued, and looked around, and pointed. “There is he right there!” Earl said with excitement.

The sheriff followed Earl’s finger and his eyes rested on the new fella, a burly looking tower of a man hanging out by the watering hole with a group of people. “Alright then, time to settle this issue.” he thought. Leon stood up from his seat on the bench and straightened his back. He tipped the brim of his hat down and marched towards the watering hole. He no longer greeted those who spoke to him, and his eyes stayed locked and focused on this stranger that had somehow entered his town without notice.

Within a few moments he was standing next to the stranger. “Howdy,” he said in his sternest voice, “I’m Sheriff Leon.” The stranger turned to the sheriff, “Howdy,” he said and smiled, “name’s Curt.”

“Curt,” Sheriff said and sucked his teeth, “we got ourselves a missing piece of gold and I understand you just might know where it is.”

“Sorry Sheriff, I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Curt said and started to walk away.

Leon caught him by the arm, “Now I believe you do. Ya see, Earl said he showed it to you on the wagon and now it’s missing,” Leon said.

Curt stopped and slowly turned to the sheriff and looked at the hand on his arm. “Sheriff,” he said, “You best be turning loose my arm before things go bad.”

“I do believe things just went bad,” Sheriff said and sucked his teeth. Just then the clock began to chime signaling the end of the fair and alerting the citizens of Eldridge County that it was three hours to sundown. “Reckon we’re going to have to settle this inside the coral.” Curt smirked, “Sheriff,” he said mockingly.

Three Hours to sundown

The Sheriff, Earl, and four others who the Sheriff had deputized strode into the coral with looks of purpose on their faces. There at the other end of the building was Curt and his crew. They were all armed, the sheriff immediately noticed. “Steady yourselves boys and stay sharp. We know they have Earl’s gold, and this is the only way to get it back,” the sheriff said and sucked his teeth. Curt stretched his arms across his chest. He looked at the sheriff and his crew across the room. He turned to his group, “Time to show this sheriff who we are boys,” he said with a wicked smile. The room was filled with people who had to come to watch the showdown between the stranger and the sheriff. They looked at the clock watching each tick of the hand waiting for the moment it would start.

Tick…Tick…Tick

The clock chimed.

#

The whistle blew! “Begin,” Coach Reese shouted from the sideline of the court!

“Let’s get em!” Leon shouted as he threw the red ball directly at Curt.

Curt saw the ball coming and held up his own red ball to deflect it then hurled his at Leon. Leon quickly jumped to his right and the ball passed narrowly beside his head. Leon looked to his right to see Earl taking aim at the stranger. Earl threw his ball with a roar, but his aim was off and the ball struck one of Curt’s crew members on the shoulder. The wounded child quickly ran to the sideline. The red balls flew back and forth, and one by one, the kids were hit until there was only Leon, Earl, Curt and one of Curt’s crew standing. Curt eyed Leon and Leon eyed Curt. “This is it,” Leon thought. “Time to show him.” Curt thought. Earl glanced at Leon and nodded, “Let’s get em,” Earl thought.

Leon saw Curt draw back his ball. He took aim at the stranger and threw his ball with all his might. “Faked him!” Curt said to himself, as he tucked his ball and ran forward. Leon’s ball passed harmlessly by him. Curt and his crew member both threw their balls at Earl, and both scored perfect hit to his head. Earl spun around and fell to the ground with a hard thud. As Curt and his crew cheered and high fived each other Leon ran to the side of his fallen friend.

“Earl!” he shouted as he knelt beside his friend. “Are you O.K.!”

Earl shook his head. “I..I..am fine,” he said as he pushed himself up from the hard wood floor. “Did we get em?” he asked. A red ball bounced off Leon’s back. “No Earl, I don’t think we did,” Leon replied. “Earl stop!” Leon shouted. Leon reached down towards the floor and picked up a tooth, held it up to Earl and asked, “is this what you were looking for?”

Earl smiled a huge smile, “Yes!” He shouted! “We found it! I must have put it in my pocket on the bus after I showed it to everyone.” Earl took his lost tooth from Leon and put it back into his pocket.

Leon glanced over at Curt who was still celebrating. He walked over to him slowly. “Hey Curt,” he said. “I am sorry for accusing you of taking Earl’s tooth.” Curt flashed a grin. “It’s o.k., Leon I’m just glad you found it,” he said. “Good game by the way.”

“Yeah, good game,” Leon said, “cya tomorrow.”

“Another case before sundown,” Leon said to Earl as the bell rang.

The children all grabbed their bags and lined up at the door of the gym for their rides home.

Another day at Eldridge Elementary had come to an end.

.