Quiet
Time
April 29, 2012
Summary:
1 hour fic challenge, theme word: book
Universe:
Old West
Vin
studied the men lined up on the boardwalk. They were all seated in chairs
they’d pulled out of the saloon. At this time of the morning, Inez didn’t mind
them using the chairs as long as they had them back inside for the lunch crowd.
JD was sitting with one booted foot up on the seat,
his arm wrapped around the leg as he read his latest dime store novel. Buck was
on the chair beside him, his long legs stretched out
and crossed at the ankles. His hat was tipped down over his face, and for all Vin could tell, the ladies man was asleep. ‘Course he could
be watching the ladies across the street, too.
Nathan was in the next chair, straddling it
backwards, a medical text resting on the chair back. As Vin
watched, Nathan squinted up at the sun and scooted the chair back into the
fading shade. It wouldn’t be long before Inez would be calling for those
chairs.
Ezra sat beside Nathan, his legs stretched out like
Buck’s, but resting on a crate he’d confiscated. The gambler took a sip from
his coffee cup as he continued to read from whatever book had his fancy today.
Sometimes Vin was sure they weren’t written in
English.
Josiah had the next seat, and it was, clear even to Vin, that the preacher had a Bible in his hands. Not that
that was the only book Josiah ever read, but the title on the cover was
familiar enough even to people who couldn’t read a lick.
Chris had the last spot in the line that had
captured Vin’s attention moments earlier. Though it
wasn’t unusual to find one or two of the men out front of the saloon or jail
reading when it was quiet in town, to find all of them lined up and five of
them reading was… well, dang strange.
Vin
looked down at the ground, then back at his friends, then down the street both
ways as he tried to decide if he could join them. He stuck his hand in his
pocket, his fingers coming into contact with weathered edges. He sighed,
straightened to his full height and stepped off the boardwalk to cross the
street.
Chris looked up at him as Vin
pulled the last chair back into the shade and sat down. They shared a brief
glance before Chris went back to his reading. Vin
slouched in the chair a bit, settling one boot flat against the base of the
hitching post to keep from sliding too far.
He waited for a few moments then pulled the worn
reader out of his pocket and opened it. For several long minutes, Vin waited. Waited for one of the others to ask him what he
was reading. Waited for someone to make a comment about the fact that they’d
never seen Vin reading a book before.
Just… waited…
But nothing changed.
Buck shifted in his seat, almost falling off,
proving that he had indeed been sleeping. He resettled himself with his hat a
little higher when he noticed the ladies across the way.
Ezra finished his coffee and set the cup on the
ground beneath his chair.
Nathan frowned and flipped a page back instead of
forward.
Vin
looked down at his open book and smiled as he started to read.
The end.
I’d love to know what you think… about the story J.
JudyL
Back to index