Stranger Spirits

Justice and Jerky [Chapter Four Part Ten]

I shuffled into the shop and began to look for a map.

"Hello, welcome to-ah!" Franko paused mid-sentence to shoot daggers at me with his eyes. "Frankie, come over here! Look who decided to slink into the shop after acting all high and mighty!"

"Who?" Frankie walked in and his dad smacked him upside the head.

"For gods' sake Frankie, the mountain kid!"

"Oh!" Frankie rushed to his father's side. "What do you want?" He sneered at me and crossed his arms.

"Hello Franko, Frankie," I began my composed speech. "I've come to bury the hatchet before I depart from this lovely town." I gestured towards Atticus who was just standing by the entrance looking around at the assortment of items on sale. "As you can see, my friend is back there because he himself agrees that we can all move on from this through talking and understanding one another."

"Spit out with it kid, we don't have all day and we're busy." Franko spat out and I quietly gazed around at the empty shop.

"Okay," I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. "I would just like to purchase a map."

"Frankie, sit there and watch how men settle disputes." He pointed at a chair and his son sat on it and watched his father. "You mean one like this?" Franko gingerly pried one from a shelf behind him and placed it on the front desk.

"Yes! Exactly!" I smiled. "Now how much is that going to be?"

"I was thinking of selling the map at a premium. To help make amends." My eye may have twitched as I turned towards my pack to withdraw the coin pouch.

"So the map will cost sixty Quznos."

"Excuse me?" Turned towards him.

Franko smirked and crossed his arms. "You want to make amends? Fine. Then you'll be paying for both you and your whore of a mother."

"Excuse me?!" Trying to hold my temper back. I clutched my coin pouch tightly.

"Come on, a plain Jane like her strolling around with two men day in and out stealing from my shop. Other than stealing I bet all she's good for is getting on her knees at night and-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" I shouted, stopping him in his tracks. "If you didn't want to make amends then you could have just said so but you must be less than a man to disrespect one's mother ESPECIALLY when you have no idea who she is and what she has had to go through as a woman." I shoved my coin pouch in my bag. "I will take my leave with pride in that my mother is one of the greatest women to grace themselves upon this land!" I huffed and turned around. "Atticus, let's go!"

I made a beeline towards the front door with Atticus holding it open for me. I was simply as we walked towards the edge of town.

"Vaughn,"

"Yeah?" I sighed. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't worry about the map. We can just follow the coast." Atticus cut me off. "When I tell you to. I'll need you to run."

"What? Why?"

Atticus looked back quickly. Looking down at my hand he took it and clasped it in his. "RUN!" He looked me in the eyes and I obeyed his command without question. I gripped his hand and began to run with all of my might.

"THIEVES!!!" I looked back to see Franko and his son screaming and running after us.

"What's going on?" I shouted.

"I knew that your encounter wasn't going to end well." Atticus huffed. "So while you were speaking to them I went and stole all of their jerky strips."

"What?!" I panted. "That's crazy!"

"No Vaughn, that's justice....justice and jerky!"

We both kept on running until I finally had to stop and catch my breath. I looked behind as I heaved in air to see barely a spec of the town.

"We did it!" I wheezed as Atticus handed me a piece of jerky. I bit into my piece to find that it tasted amazing with the town's unique spices. "This is so good!"

"I miss meat so much!" He cried aloud as I cackled almost choking on the snack.

"Well," I cleared my throat. "Onto the next one!" Atticus continued to munch on the jerky as we walked on. 

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Hope y'all are liking the Stranger Spirits Spring Break! We just completed chapter four as of today and I think with the number of posts that are being put out we'll be able to finish chapter five before the month ends!

-Ryan