Turnabout Texas April 1895
The ornery, splinter-ridden door refused to budge, no
matter how hard she shoved. Or how hard she glared.
Daisy Johnson stood on the darkened sidewalk, glowering
at the weathered barricade that stood between herself and
her new home. She absently scratched a splinter from her
thumb as she glanced down at the black and white dog sitting
patiently at her heels. "Don't worry, Kip, I'm going to get
us inside, one way or the other."
Kip gave her a supportive yip, then began scratching his
side.
A noise from over to her left caught Daisy's attention.
Down the street, a shadowy figure exited the livery and
headed unsteadily down the sidewalk toward the hotel.
Probably coming from one of the poker games the locals held
there - an activity she was unfortunately all too familiar
with.
Other than that, things were quiet. Which was fine by
her. Kip was the only company she needed tonight.
Daisy spared a quick glance at the adjoining building
which housed the newspaper office, and thought briefly about
knocking on the door to see if she could borrow something to
use as a pry bar. But she discarded the thought almost
before it had fully formed. Not only was the hour late, but
from what she recalled about the man who owned the place, he
was an uppity gent with a highfaluting accent of some sort.
His attitude reminded her too much of her grandmother. Not
the sort who would take kindly to being roused from his
sleep. Or someone she'd wanted to owe any favors to.
Turning back to the stubbornly closed door, she jutted
her chin out and tilted her hat back. No warped slab of
lumber was going to get the better of her, not when she was
so close to her goal.
Using her foot to shove aside one of the rotten boards
she'd pried from across the doorframe, Daisy jiggled the key
and turned the knob again. There was just enough light
coming from the glow of the nearby street lamp to confirm
the door wasn't locked. Which meant it was just stuck.
"If you think you can out-ornery me," she muttered at the
door as she rolled up her sleeves, "then you better think
again." With that, she took firmer hold of the knob, twisted
it as far as it would go, and led with her shoulder as she
rammed against the door. Kip stopped scratching and gave her
a you-can-do-it bark.
The door held a moment longer, then scraped noisily open
a few inches. Progress. But not enough. Kip might be able to
squeeze through that opening but not her.
Steeling herself, Daisy threw her shoulder into it one
more time, grunting at the impact. With a last creak of
protest, the door gave up its fight and opened wide enough
to allow her to pass.
With a triumphant grin and a prickling of anticipation,
Daisy retrieved her pack, tossed her bedroll up on her
shoulder, and met Kip's curious glance. "This is it, boy.
We're home."
With a deep breath, Daisy took her first step inside the
building, Kip at her heels. The room was mostly cloaked in
shadows, illuminated only by what light filtered in from the
street lamp, and it took a few moments for her eyes to
adjust.
As she surveyed what little she could see of the room,
her grin disappeared. "Jehoshaphat!" She'd spent the night
in abandoned barns that were cleaner and neater than this
place.
Striding farther into the room, Daisy muttered a few
unladylike epithets under her breath as she batted at
cobwebs and felt things scrunch beneath her boots that she
wasn't ready to examine more closely.
She spied a lamp sitting on the counter and was relieved
to find a bit of oil still in the base. It took several
attempts but she finally managed to get it lit and then took
a closer look around.
She could hear Kip sniffling around, picking up goodness
only knew what kind of scents. A couple of loud doggy
sneezes confirmed that it was as dusty at his level as it
was at hers.
She hadn't expected a servant-scrubbed palace, but hang
it all, she'd hoped to find something in a little better
condition than this. No wonder the previous owner had been
so quick to gamble it away.
She started to close the outer door, then changed her
mind. It wouldn't hurt to leave it open for a little while
to help air out the place.
Daisy tromped across the room, ignoring the skittery
scrambling sounds coming from just outside the circle of
lamplight. Hopefully whatever critters had taken up
residence in here were on their way out. Still, she was glad
for Kip's company.
The back room wasn't much better than the front. In the
yellowish light of the lamp, she could see dust, debris and
a smattering of rickety furniture scattered
higgledy-piggledy across the space. Daisy kicked at an old
sack lying in her path, then let out an explosive sneeze as
a cloud of dust billowed up in her face.
Great! This was just pointy-fanged-rattlesnake perfect.
She fanned the air in front of her between sneezes. Why
should the day end even a gnat-speck better than it had
started?
Then she caught herself up short. Not that I'm
complaining, mind You, Lord. I know You answered my prayers
in a powerful way when You took Pa's weakness for gambling
and turned it to good by providing me with the deed to this
building. And I truly am mighty grateful. Besides, I do know
there's nothing wrong with this place that a bit of honest
sweat and elbow grease won't fix up just fine and dandy.
You've done Your part and now I aim to do mine.
Daisy looked around again. Make that a lot of elbow
grease.
But that didn't scare her none. No sir. The place was
more than roomy enough for what she had in mind. She could
already picture how it would look all cleaned up and put to
rights. It would be so wonderful to have a place of her own,
a place to set down roots and build a proper life. And to
finally make some genuine friends of her very own.
And maybe, if she was very, very good, she could have a
family of her very own one day as well.