Free Hell With the Lid Blown Off by Donis Casey

when she was pondering what better reaction she could have had, she realized that her sister Martha would have frozen Jubal to the ground with a glare, Mary would have laughed in his face, Alice would have spit in his eye, and Phoebe would have faded into the crowd like mist. But this was the trouble with being a well-bred and rather inexperienced girl. Her first instinct was to be polite. After all, it had been Jubal who had put an end to his brothers’ devilment on the road earlier that week. He couldn’t be as bad as all that.
    â€œNo, thank you, Jubal,” she said. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to meet my brothers.”
    She started to walk away but to her surprise he didn’t release her arm. Her forehead furrowed, and she looked up at him. Another glimpse of those snaggle teeth. “Oh, I think you will.” She was too surprised to resist when he hauled her by the elbow a few feet, through a bunch of chatting matrons into the relative privacy of a corner. She gathered her wits enough to shake his hand off of her.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” she managed. “I said I don’t want to…”
    Jubal took a step toward her and Ruth took a step back. The wall halted her retreat. She looked away, but Jubal leaned in so close that Ruth could feel his breath on her cheek.
    â€œYou’d better be nice to me, Missy.” His voice insinuated itself into her ear. He drew back enough for Ruth to sidle out of his way, but he grabbed her arm again before she could escape. “I could ruin your reputation real easy. Folks love to spread gossip. It don’t even have to be true.”
    â€œIs this lowlife bothering you, Ruth?”
    She whirled around to face Wallace, who was standing so close to her that she nearly bumped her nose on his chest. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or dismayed.
    Well, better the devil you know… “Yes, Wallace, thank you.” Her voice was breathy. “I think I’ve had enough of this conversation so if y’all will excuse me.”
    Neither man moved and she found herself caught between them. She suddenly knew how a doe felt caught between two stags in rut.
    â€œMind your own business, fancy pants,” Jubal growled. “Or should I say fancy no-pants? What kind of gimcrack are you supposed to be?”
    â€œHow would you like a punch in the eye, Jubal, just on general principle?”
    People in their vicinity began to take notice of Jubal Beldon and Wallace in his silly outfit standing nose to nose and squeezing Ruth in the middle like a piece of cheese in a sandwich.
    â€œWhere’s your girlfriend, MacKenzie?” Jubal was saying.
    Ruth didn’t understand. Was he referring to her? “I’m not his girlfriend,” she said, and Jubal smiled his unpleasant smile without looking at her.
    Wallace struck a boxer’s pose. “Put up your dukes, Beldon!”
    That was the last straw. Ruth felt the blood rush to her cheeks and she wrenched herself free just as Preacher Bennet and a couple of other men stepped in.
    â€œNone of that, boys,” Mr. Bennet said as Ruth made her escape into the crowd. “This is a church meeting, and I’ll have no brawling.”
    Shaw Tucker
    After they had their fill of making sport of Wallace, Shaw and various other male members of the congregation returned to the business at hand: whether or not the United States would get into the European war. Only weeks earlier Congress had nationalized all the state militias and renamed them the National Guard, then immediately mobilized the Oklahoma organization for duty on the Mexican border. Several families had sons and fathers in Texas at that moment, and no one was happy about it.
    Why nationalize the militias? Did this mean that war was imminent? But at the Democratic Presidential Convention last week Mr. Wilson had promised to keep us out of war. The Republican nominee, Mr. Hughes, said