Seven men bent over the many plants in the community garden Inez started to help feed those in need. The whole community around The Saloon had gotten involved, raising money to buy the plants and putting in the labor to bring the large garden to harvest. The members of ATF Team 7 had gotten involved as well, using borrowed equipment to till up the ground and with all the weeding and feeding needed.
The garden had been very successful and bountiful. Inez and several other women had processed and canned many of the vegetables for use throughout the fall and winter, but they also had enough to disperse the fresh product as well, so many of the poor and needy had fresh tomatoes, green beans, squash, corn, carrots and cucumbers to eat all summer. Potatoes would be dug up and stored in The Saloon's basement and handed out for as long as they lasted.
With harvest season coming close to an end the seven agents and numerous merchants and their family members were in the process of picking some of the last of the vegetables and doing a final weeding in hopes of getting one last harvest from the plants in the next week or so.
"Well she was the prettiest little filly. Long legs that ended at just the right curve of her hip, hair black as coal and the brightest blue eyes. Those eyes would put the ocean to shame." Buck had paused in his weeding to elaborate on the details of a woman he had met at a meeting the week prior. He sat back on his heels, eyes staring off into the horizon so to speak.
"Buck?"
"Yeah JD?"
"You're full of shit."
"And I believe we are no longer in need of fertilizer this season," Josiah added from where he examined cucumbers before removing them from their vines.
" Why is it so hard to believe that a woman that looked that," he sighed, "fine could be an ATF agent?" Buck bent back over and pulled the miscellaneous weeds trying take hold around some tomato plants.
"That ain't what's so hard ta believe," Vin replied as he applied his pitchfork to the potato patch.
"I believe they refer more to your ability to, as you would say, ‘land' such a filly," Ezra said from the tomato plants.
"They've got a point there Stud," Chris chuckled adding more green beans to a bucket.
"I think we need proof," Nathan added. "Photograph, surveillance tape, live body."
"Boys, you wound me. I…" and at that moment Buck let out a screech and popped up, his long legs alternately dancing backwards, his breathing coming in ragged, panic stricken inward breathes. His finger pointed down at the base of the plant he had been working on. "S…….s……sn….."
"Buck, what's wrong?" Nathan had moved immediately toward the man, as had Vin and Chris. The others were momentarily shocked but quickly started moving as well. "Are you hurt?"
"Sn……sn….." He kept dancing backward, finger still pointing. Vin moved cautiously toward the spot the tall man was pointing at while the others gathered around Buck, trying to stop the man's frantic movements.
"SNAKE!" he finally got out, at the top of his lungs. The other members of the garden all stopped working and looked their way.
"Snake?" Chris echoed. While many areas of Colorado had snakes, rattlers in particular, it was rare to find a snake of any kind this far in the city.
Vin's eyes hadn't left the ground, but he reached back and pulled out the buck knife he had brought along to cut back plants with. As the other men tried to get information out of Buck…what kind of snake, was he bit, where did it go…Vin squatted down and reached down under a plant.
"Ya mean this snake?" he asked holding it out for the others to see. This got Buck jumping again and moving backwards, with several "eww"s and "ugh"s inserted.
"Yeah…yeah…that…that snake. Now get it away from here. Kill it. Something! Just get the damn thing away!"
"It's jest a little ol Garter snake. A baby at that. They're harmless. Lots a people like havin' them in their gardens cuz they eat bugs. Get big enough they even eat mice."
"I don't care! Just get rid of it!" The big man had stopped his dance-like hopping but now stood about 15 feet away from where Vin stood with the snake between his fingers. Josiah, JD and Chris approached Vin to take a look at the creature. The other community gardeners stopped watching and returned to their own work.
"Didn't know we had Garter snakes in this part of Colorado," Josiah mused.
"We normally don't," Chris replied as the tiny reptile flicked its tongue out in anger. "Parents might have hitch hiked a ride though. Some truck coming out of Nebraska maybe."
"P…parents?" Buck stuttered.
"Yep. Too small to be much more'n a day or so old. Likely more of ‘em around here," Vin added. "Momma snake can have thirty or more babies…"
As Vin was saying this he looked over toward Buck only to see the spot where the big man had been empty. Seconds later they could all hear the slamming of Buck's truck door followed by the engine starting and the truck peeling rubber as it pulled out. Nathan and Ezra stood staring after him.
"Didn't know he could move that fast," Nathan said.
"Gentlemen, I think we can safely say that Mister Wilmington does not care for snakes." Ezra turned toward the remaining men. "Would any of you be amenable into entering him into the annual Mile High Race and using a little reptilian motivation? I'll handle the bets."
The End
