Judge
Not
By JudyL
January 25, 2013
Response to Vin F&D 1hr fic challenge – Theme word: judge
Ezra
paused mid-knock as the door to the Clarion opened. He opened his mouth to
speak, but the look on Vin’s face stopped him. He was
surprised when Vin shoved him back a few steps and
strode past the gambler without a word.
“Vin!” Mary called, stopping short at the
sight of Ezra standing in the doorway. She lowered her hand and the book she
had been waving at the tracker’s quickly disappearing back. She sighed and
looked at Ezra who continued to watch Vin until he
entered the livery. “Something I can help you with, Mr. Standish?” Mary asked,
sounding somewhat unsettled.
Ezra
quickly added up all the clues and came to a conclusion. “I would surmise that
Mr. Tanner’s lessons are not going well,” he said softly.
Mary
straightened her shoulders and put a polite frown on her face. “I don’t know
what you mean.”
Ezra
smiled slightly. “It’s all right, Mrs. Travis. I am aware of Vin’s…
illiteracy. I actually stopped by to offer you the use of my small collection
of reading materials, should Vin find himself
interested.”
Mary
sighed. “Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss this on the boardwalk,” she said, moving
back to allow him entrance to the newspaper office.
He
followed, removing his hat as he scanned the large room. He was surprised to
realize he had never been in the building before. “An impressive enterprise,”
Ezra praised, examining the printing press that took up a large area in the
center.
“Thanks,”
Mary said, nonplussed. “I don’t really feel comfortable discussing Vin’s… lessons. I offered to help him, but he’s embarrassed
by his lack of education.”
Ezra
nodded. “I would have offered to help, but after I behaved so rudely…” he
shrugged, not explaining what he meant, “I doubt Vin
would accept my assistance. I was pleased to see you were teaching him.”
Mary
fiddled with the book in her hands, worrying her lower lip with her teeth as
she struggled with herself. Finally, she looked Ezra in the eye and handed him
the book. “Will you talk to him?”
He
held his hands up. “Truly, Mrs. Travis, I do not believe that to be prudent.”
“Please.
He might listen to you. He thinks he should be picking it up faster than he
is,” Mary said, moving closer to press the book into his hand. “Vin’s not as
patient with himself as he is with others.”
Ezra
looked at the book in his hand. It was a simple, child’s reader, probably quite
daunting to someone with limited reading skills. He licked his lips and nodded.
“I shall see what I can do,” he met Mary’s hopeful gaze, “however, should Mr.
Tanner shoot me, I expect you to nurse me back to health,” he added with a
teasing grin.
Mary
smiled back. “Of course, Mr. Standish, I’ll bring you plenty of Nathan’s
healing teas to drink,” she returned slyly.
Ezra
placed a hand to his heart. “Oh, the inhumanity. I’d
best go find our intrepid tracker,” he said, turning to leave.
Mary
stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Thank you.”
He
just nodded, tucking the book under his arm as he exited the building and
headed for the livery. If Vin was still there, it
might be the place to talk. Not many people would be frequenting the place in
the middle of the day.
Ezra
entered the livery and paused to allow his eyes to adjust to the dim interior.
The area was clear of people, so he wandered down to Chaucer’s stall to check
on his friend. The chestnut poked his head over the half stall door and
nickered a greeting. “Hello, my friend,” Ezra said softly, offering the horse a
peppermint from his pocket.
“Stand
still, you ornery beast,” came Vin’s voice from the
next stall down as Peso’s blazed head appeared over his stall door. The black
lifted his lip and whinnied at Ezra.
Ezra
chuckled, gave Chaucer a pat on the neck then moved over to offer Peso a
peppermint as well. He could see Vin shoving the
horse’s hip as he tried to get out from between the horse and the stall wall.
“Dang
it, Ezra, stop spoiling my horse. Ya darn near got me squished to death there,”
Vin grouched, reaching out to scratch Peso on the
cheek as he munched happily on the candy.
“I
brought you something,” Ezra said, casually handing the reader to Vin. “Mary asked me to give it to you.”
Vin’s face shuttered as he pushed the book
away. “Give it back to her, won’t do me no good.”
“Any
good,” Ezra said, earning a black look from Vin.
“It
won’t do me any good to keep it, can’t read it, too stupid to figure out all
those lines and scribbles,” Vin said, his voice low
and full of self-loathing. “Just a waste of time.”
Ezra
laughed. “Oh, that’s funny, Mr. Tanner,” he paused looking at the shame and
building anger on Vin’s face and put the most innocent look he had on his own. “Vin? Surely you were jesting? You can’t possibly believe
that you are stupid.” Vin frowned, confused by Ezra’s
change in direction. Ezra pressed forward.
“Well,
now, that is stupid, because I have seldom met a man with a wit such as yours
who was stupid. Intelligence is quite different from being educated. You should
not judge your intelligence lacking when it is a lack in your education causing
your difficulty.”
Vin blinked. “Ezra, are you trying to say
you think I’m smart?” he asked, a tinge of sarcasm in
his voice.
Ezra
smiled. “No, I’m not ‘trying’ to say it, I just did. And you proved my point.”
“But,
I can’t figure it out, Ez. You make it look so easy,” he finished lamely.
“Vin,
did you learn everything you know about tracking in one lesson?”
“’Course
not.”
“And
how many lessons have you had with Mrs. Travis?”
“Maybe
a dozen,” Vin said thoughtfully.
Ezra
nodded. “Aren’t you teaching JD to track?” Vin nodded.
“Would you expect him to be skillful at it in only a dozen lessons?”
Vin pressed his lips together and shook his
head. Ezra just tilted his head and waited.
Vin sighed. “All right, I hear ya. I just
need more practice.” He stuck his hand out and took the book from Ezra.
“I
would be willing to…” Ezra paused and shrugged, “well, if you like, I could…”
“Thanks,
Ezra. I may just take you up on that,” Vin said with a
grin.
The
end
Feedback
is greatly appreciated. JudyL