Free Badlands by Peter Bowen

pret’ good,” said Du Pré.
    Madelaine looked up and she smiled.
    “You know me pret’ good, too,” she said. She put down her beadwork and glasses. She came round the bar and put her arms around Du Pré and kissed him.
    The cowboys at the table cheered.
    Madelaine turned and bowed.
    Du Pré laughed.
    Madelaine went back to her stool behind the bar.
    Du Pré looked at the floor. He saw a piece of blue bead he had missed.
    But when he bent over to pick it up, he couldn’t see it.

CHAPTER 14
    D U P RÉ DROVE HIS old cruiser through the front gate of the Host ranch, and down the recently graded road to the main compound. There were perhaps forty vehicles parked on a lot marked out with lines of white powder. Some were Host of Yahweh vans and some were pickups and cars owned by local people.
    One of the huge metal buildings had its front doors slid open, and lights shone inside.
    “Wonder what they got?” said Madelaine.
    They got out. Ripper and Pidgeon had been sitting in the backseat, silently. They got out, too.
    “Jacqueline and Raymond and the kids be along,” said Madelaine.
    The four of them walked toward the big metal building. There were rain clouds off to the west. A huge area down in a meadow had been made over into a softball field and a soccer field and there was an elaborate playground, with slides and jungle gyms and swings and sandboxes.
    Inside the barn, tables had been set up and hundreds of folding chairs. There was a bandstand and many booths with carnival games. Tossing rings, shooting air guns at spinning targets, throwing balls at stacks of fake bottles. There were shelves of prizes, mostly stuffed animals. Some of the booths sold preserves and baked goods and clothing.
    The members of the Host of Yahweh were bustling around, hanging the last of the bunting and arranging the last few things, forgotten till that moment.
    “Don’t look too dangerous,” said Madelaine.
    Du Pré nodded.
    The rear door of the metal barn was open, too, and scents of cooking meat and barbecue sauce blew through the barn.
    There was a cotton candy machine in one corner, and some kids in line waiting to get really sticky.
    Ripper and Pidgeon split up and they sauntered around the booths.
    Madelaine stopped at one of the shooting galleries. She began to dig in her purse for some money.
    “It’s free,” said the young man in the old-blood-colored shirt.
    Madelaine shrugged and she picked up one of the little air rifles and she aimed it at a target swinging on a stand. She pulled the trigger and the pellet rang on the target. The center red circle fell out of the thing and on to a bell.
    “Top shelf,” said the young man. “Anything you want.”
    Madelaine regarded the large stuffed bunnies and monkeys and bears.
    “That one,” she said, pointing to a big brown rabbit.
    She handed her prize to Du Pré.
    “Look good on you,” she said, standing back.
    Du Pré looked at the big rabbit.
    “I put it in the car,” he said.
    I am not, me, walking around this thing.
    “I look around,” said Madelaine.
    Du Pré heard a mob of happy little voices coming.
    “They are here,” he said, looking toward the front door.
    Jacqueline’s herd of children burst out of the sunlight, laughing and shoving each other. Raymond and Jacqueline came along behind, each carrying a toddler who was too slow to keep up.
    Du Pré put the rabbit up to his face, and he walked past the kids who were looking around in wonder. He went to the cruiser and opened the back door and put the huge rabbit on top of the cooler. He fished his flask from under the seat and he had some whiskey and rolled a smoke. He lit it and shut the car door.
    “Mr. Du Pré?” said a woman’s voice, behind him.
    Du Pré turned around.
    It was the young woman who had brought the poster to the saloon a few days before.
    “If you aren’t busy,” she said, “someone would like to meet you and speak to you for a moment.”
    Du Pré nodded.
    The woman turned and