Joe’s Conversation

By Bakerj

I slapped my hat down on the table next to Joe’s. 

“How did you find me?”

“Wasn’t easy.  Can I sit down?”

“Free country.”

It wasn’t much of an invitation, but I grabbed a seat.  The gal bringing drinks took my order for a beer and another glass.

“Pa send you?”

“I ain’t so fond of your hide that I’d choose to follow you all over the country.”

“You can tell him I’m fine.”

“Well, thanks, Little Brother.  I’ll be sure an’ do that.”

When the beer and glass arrived, I helped myself to the bottle on the table and settled down to enjoy warm beer and tequila that was far too good for a little cantina at the end of nowhere.

Slumped back in his chair, dark shadows clouded Joe’s eyes.  Brooding.  That was Joe.  But I could hardly blame him.

As if he read my mind, Joe mumbled, “She was something, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she was.”

“Every man in Virginia City wished he were me.”

“I reckon.”

“That English accent, so beautiful, and when she talked in French or Italian… like music.  Even her name was enchanting.  Estella.  A star fallen to earth.”

I moved the Tequila bottle out of Joseph’s reach.  “That’s right, Little Brother.”

Joe laughed.  “Remember how you almost choked on your steak that first time you saw her?”

“Before I’d even stopped coughing, you whipped across and corralled that little gal.”

“She was worth catching.”

They were soon closer than ticks on a dog.  I smiled, remembering the evening when he’d brought Estella to supper.  Like moonstruck calves, we listened as she described all the cities in Europe where she’d lived before traveling to New York and then out West.

Across our dining table, the light danced off those delicate little hands that couldn’t stay still.  “Bohemian blood runs through my veins.  I was born to live in any way, and anywhere I choose.  A free spirit roaming the earth.”

Joe caught one of those fluttering hands.  “Not roaming again yet, I hope.”

“No.  Not yet.”

The warmth of her smile made me grin, but that look in her eyes wiped it from my face.  I had seen the same look in Adam’s in the months before he left. 

When we rode into town, saw the smirking faces and heard the snickering, we wondered what the joke was.  Joe marched into the hotel, only to be hit with news.  Estella had left.

“When?”

“Two days ago.”

“Did she leave a letter?”

“Sorry, Joe.  She just told everyone that Virginia City bored her.  Her people packed her trunks, and they left.”

A week later, I knocked on Joe’s door.  I knew right away he’d gone.  I checked his desk for a note, and that’s when I spotted it tucked in a pigeonhole.  One of those little black jewelers’ boxes.  Flipping it open, I stared at the ring.  My knuckles leaned hard on the desk as I lowered my head.  “Dagnabbit, Joseph.  Why didn’t you say something?”

When I told Pa, he thrust his hands deep into his trouser pockets and nodded.  “He just needs time.  He’ll be back.”

But the weeks stretched into months, and Pa spent longer each day on the porch, gazing down the road, waiting to see that black and white paint appear.

The cantina filled with noise as more people arrived.  I looked at my brother over the tequila bottle and settled in to wait.  This was Joe’s conversation.  

“D’you ever regret falling in love?  Wish you’d never even met those women?  If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have to lose them.  Don’t you wish—”

“Aww, Joseph.  I ain’t never regretted any one of them.  They all brought something into my life I don’t ever wanna forget.  It ain’t loving someone you should regret.  Regret the greed and hate in the world but not the love.”

Joe’s gaze met mine for a long moment.  When it dropped, I shifted in my seat and poured another glass of tequila.

His long fingers turned the glass in his hand, making circles in the liquor spilled on the table.  I let the silence sit between us.  Finally, Joe offered, “I’ll tell you what I regret.”  I lifted my eyebrows and waited.  “Punching Walt that time for calling you a crook.  That guy had a jaw like granite.”

I chuckled.  “What about when you rode that hammerhead after we’d all warned you?”

“I couldn’t walk for a week.”

“No one said you have brains, Little Brother.”

“Thanks!”

When he sank back into his chair, the smile faded.  He tilted his glass and gazed at the pale gold liquid.  “I sure do regret meeting Estella.”

“That ‘cause the wound’s still raw.”  Grimacing, he slugged back the last of his tequila.  “I saw the ring.  Pretty.”

Joe snorted.  “Pretty stupid.  Three months’ wages—wasted.”

When the shadows clouded his eyes again, I slapped one hand on the table.  “Don’t you fret none.  Folks know how it really was.  All they can talk about is the way Estella finagled you and led you on with her fancy wiles.”

“That’s not true!  No one has any call to say one bad word about Estella.  It was me who—”  He broke off, ducking his head.  “She never promised me anything she couldn’t give.”

“Is that so?  Seems to me there’s only one person who can put folks straight.”

Joe’s eyes shot to mine and narrowed.  Wide-eyed, I stared right back.  “Y’know, Pa never gives you enough credit for how sneaky you can be.”

I grinned.  “So what’s it gonna be?  We heading home tomorrow?”

Joe’s chair scraped over the wooden floor as he rose.  “Why not?”

When we headed for the door, I put a hand on Joe’s shoulder to steady him.  “Good, ‘cause Pa’s been saving that section of fence on the north pasture for you to fix.”

“What’re you trying to do?  Change my mind?”

Roaring with laughter, we stepped out of the cantina toward the hotel.

~ The End ~

April 2026