Free Damnation Road by Max McCoy Page B

will fall from the sky and burn everything it touches, an eagle will fly around the moon and back, thoughts will be sent around the earth, connecting the dreams of all people. And in the end, many years from now when you are an old woman, older than I am now, the Kiowa will be free.”
    â€œWas Jesus in your dream?” the girl asked. “Did he bring the buffalo back?”
    â€œNo,” Laughing Bear said, puzzled. “He was not. But White Buffalo Woman said you must keep track of all of these things to come so that you can tell those of our people who sleep through them, and then are awakened.”
    The old man sat up, sloughing the robe off.
    â€œGrandfather,” she said, placing his breakfast before him. She picked up the robe and put it over his shoulders. “The dope even brings dreams to the whites.”
    â€œNo food,” the old man said. “It will be wasted. You eat it.”
    â€œGrandfather ...”
    â€œIt is time for me to die. Thank you for being kind to your grandfather. Remember what I have told you about White Buffalo Woman and the winter counts to come.”
    Then the old man closed his eyes. His chin fell to his chest and his breathing stopped.
    â€œGrandfather?”
    She touched his shoulder. The old man slumped to the floor.
    â€œGrandfather!” the girl screamed, shaking the body.
    â€œGoddamnit,” Burns said, sitting forward in the chair and blinking hard against the light. “What it is?”
    â€œThe old man died,” Gamble said.
    â€œFor sure or just threatening?”
    â€œOh, this time it’s for sure.”
    The girl threw herself over the body, shaking with tears.
    â€œAll right, then,” Burns said, yawning. “Little what’s her name has now become my property. God knows I’ve waited long enough. But I promised her grandfather that as long as he was alive, she would not be whored out. That’s changed.”
    The blanket around one of the sleeping opium smokers rustled, and then was flung away. Penny Dreadful propped her head on her hand and asked what the hell was going on.
    Gamble told her.
    The woman blinked, absorbing the information. The she wiped the drool from her mouth and sat up, hugging her knees.
    â€œYou’re not actually going to sell her to old Buell, are you?”
    â€œWhat’s it to you?” Burns asked. “Afraid of the competition, I reckon. She’ll put you plum out of business, billiard balls or no.”
    â€œWhat I do is one thing,” she said slowly. “My choice. Nobody has to understand it but me. But this little girl doesn’t have any choice.”
    â€œNobody has a choice in this life,” Burns raged, standing. “Do you think I wanted to be the proprietor of a third-rate opium den on the fucking Kansas prairie? What child dreams of that? Christ, my brother-in-law is governor of this flat, godforsaken excuse for a state. But I did the best with the hand I was dealt. This little bitch will just have to do the same.”
    The other opium addicts were awake now, and they began scurrying for the entrance. In a moment, they were gone.
    â€œIf I was you, honey,” Penny Dreadful told the girl, “I’d run.”
    The girl made for the entrance, but Burns grabbed the hem of her silk robe and pulled her back. She turned around, clawing and kicking, while Burns bunched the silk in his hands. But then the fabric tore and the robe came away, and she was suddenly naked—and free.
    She began to run, but Burns lunged and grabbed an ankle with his right hand, and she fell. When he had dragged her back to him, he wrapped his left arm around her narrow shoulders and, with his right hand, took a straight razor out of his pocket. He flicked it open.
    â€œIs this what you want?” he asked. “I’ll slit your throat before letting you go, you little bitch.”
    Penny Dreadful gave a cry and then covered her mouth.
    â€œHer name is