Calico town
It wasn’t long before we reached the town of Calico. I pulled the Train up to a little depot apparently parking the locomotive perfectly, at least that’s what Jeff said. As soon as we stopped there was another Engineer waiting to take my place.
Something felt strange for a moment and then I noticed it. A flash of white light and a new operators band had appeared on my arm. It was bronze and had a picture of a locomotive with the number 41 on it.
“Well, now.” Said Jeff. “It finally gave up its band.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Operators have come and gone trying and failing to get the band out of this train. You must be very powerful.”
“You think so.” I asked.
“Sure do...I got something for you.” Said Jeff pulling up his sleeve. On his arm was another bronze band. He tossed it to me. “I’m not an Operator.” He said. “But my father was...Maybe it will help you against Nefarious. Besides they’re both Locomotive bands, they belong together.”
I looked at the new band. It had another picture of a locomotive on it with the number 340.
I thanked Jeff for everything. He told me that I could thank him by bringing his brother back and as we said our goodbyes he told me that if I ever needed a job I should think about working for the Calico railroad. “Oh and watch out for that three forty.” He added. “She’s got a mind of her own.”
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
“You’ll see.” He replied. “Just remember to be nice to her.”
I found it funny how Jeff referred to the locomotives as “She”. He must have really loved them.
Bigfoot and the conductor tossed the bandits off the train, the two made loud thuds once their bodies hit the wooden dock. Bigfoot then grabbed each by their necks lifting them to their feet.
“Come Michael.” Said Bigfoot. “We need to take bad men to Sheriff.”
“What happened??” I asked. Before Bigfoot could reply Dodo began squawking at me like it was telling me what had just happened.
“Bad men try rob train.” Said Bigfoot. “But me and Conductor man stop them.”
“...Okay?” I replied.
We began to leave the train depot but before we did a little girl shouted at us telling us to wait. Her mother was trying to stop her holding onto her hand, but she pulled away slipping and escaping her grasp. The little girl ran right up to one of the bandits. He knelt down and she took the gag out of his mouth then wrapped a necklace around his neck.
“For you daughter.” She said. “You sell it so she doesn’t starve.”
“What’s your name darling?” The Bandit asked.
“Daisy.” The little girl replied.
“My daughter’s name is Rose.” Said the Bandit. “Rose and I thank you, but from now on I want you to do me a favor... It’s something that I tell Rose to do.”
“What’s that?” Daisy asked.
“Never talk to strangers.”
The little girl nodded and rushed back to her mother.
We left the train station and made our way to see the rest of Calico. The town was pretty large. There was a large courthouse just across from the train depot, and a saloon right next to that. Calico town was much different from the Boardwalk. It was like it was somehow stuck in a western era. There were lots of people out now all dressed in western attire. Cowboys and miners on horseback riding up to the saloon and tying their horses before heading in. We could hear a few people cheering inside, some arguing.
One man came out of the saloon feeding his horse then hopping aboard his saddle. He had dark brown skin like me. Long hair that reached to his shoulders and looked maybe a few years older then I, maybe thirty-two or thirty-three. He wore a leather vest and for a moment I could see he had shiny things on his arms until he grabbed a leather jacket from his horse satchel and put it on, maybe he was an Operator too I thought, maybe those shiny things were operators’ bands. For a moment the man noticed me...He had a strange look on his face as he starred at me from a distance, like he was trying to figure out where he knew me from. He shook his head, hopped on his horse before ridding off.
“I think I know that man.” I said.
“What man?” Bigfoot asked.
“The one that just rode off. Didn’t you see him?”
“No.” Bigfoot replied continuing to struggle with the two bandits.
“Well where’s the sheriff?” I asked.
“We get there.” Bigfoot replied. “Sheriff on other side of town.”
The bandits whined all the way there, trying their best to convince us to let them go. Bribing us even, but Bigfoot wouldn’t budge.
We headed further into calico struggling to keep those two bandits detained. Soon enough we could see that there was a commotion up ahead. A band of cowboys came rushing out of a bank shooting their guns in the air moneybags in hand... Suddenly another loud gunshot came from another direction.... there stood the Sheriff.
“Alright you three.” Said the sheriff. “Put your guns down and hand over the cash.”
“Well… well.” Said the leader of the bandits, pointing his revolver at the Sheriff. “Looks like you’re outnumbered. There’s three of us and only one...”
Before the leader could finish his sentence the sheriff fired off three rounds wounding each of them.
Each fell except for the leader, he fired off a few rounds first, hand clenching his gut where the bullet had entered. “Well that’s just not fair.” He said finally collapsing.
“Never is.” Replied the sheriff.
We could hear the sheriff talking to himself saying something about how he might as well just pull up a seat and wait outside the bank from now on.
I guess bank robberies happen all the time in this town.
The Sheriff was an older fellow, grey head of hair, grey handle bar mustache too. He wasn’t thin but not fat either, somewhere in between with a small gut. He wore a long trench coat, a leather Dakota style hat along with spurred boots and a sheriff’s badge. He holstered his revolver and the towns people began to cheer.
“Wow.” A spectator cheered. “You got them good!”
“Yeah I sure did!” The sheriff laughed. His voice was coarse and well weathered, it took charge with every word that came out of his mouth “They’re lucky I didn’t bring my rifle.”
A young deputy and a doctor came out, the doctor brought out a stethoscope and proceeded to check the leader whom he turned over and listened for a heartbeat. The other two cowboy robbers were clearly alive, they were very animated as they squirmed in pain rolling back and forth on the dirt street. The deputy stood over them with a shotgun just in case they reached for their guns.
“He’ll live!” The Doctor announced. “…At least for now.” He cocked his hand back then let it fly slapping the leader across the face as hard as he could. The leader let out a loud moan and began to wake up. The deputy forced the three to stand up.
“Of course they’ll live.” Replied the Sheriff. “My bullets don’t miss their targets.”
“Should I lock em up?” The Deputy asked.
“Yep.” Replied the sheriff. “Make sure they’re all patched up first Tommy.”
“Will do.” Answered Deputy Tommy.
Bigfoot decided to say hello. “We catch bad man too!” Said Bigfoot. “I stop them.”
The Sheriffs eyes grew wide looking over in our direction with an uncontrollable smile.
“Bigfoot!” Said The Sheriff. “You giant heap of fur! What brings you all the way out here?”
“You two know each other?!!” I interrupted.
“Sure do.” Replied the sheriff. “Me and this big guy go way back.”
Bigfoot tossed the two bandits aside and gave the sheriff a big bear hug lifting him up off the ground. The two train bandits hit the ground hard, their hands were still bound so they had no way to ease their fall which looked rather painful. Once the two were on the ground they both looked at each other and began to slowly crawl away, But the Sheriff pulled out his revolver pointing it at them.
“Don’t even try it.” The sheriff said and the bandits stopped in their tracks.
“It good to see you.” Said bigfoot. “You take bad men to jail?”
“Yeah partner.” Replied the sheriff. “I’ll take the bad men to jail.”
I shook the Sheriffs hand, he had a strong grip.
“Shake like you mean it.” He said as he squeezed my hand even harder. I shook back as hard as I could. “It’s nice to meet you Mr.?”
“Michael.” I replied.
“Okay Mr. Michael you can call me Westwood.”
“You want me to take them too?” Asked Tommy the Deputy unintentionally interrupting our conversation.
“No, no.” Replied Sheriff Westwood. “You got your hands full already.”
“Are you sure?” He replied. “It ain’t no trouble at all.”
“I’m sure, you just watch those three while the Doc patches em up, don’t want anyone getting away again.”
“Okay.” Replied the Deputy and he and the Doc led the Bank robbers off to get patched up before sending them to jail.
Westwood ordered the two train bandits to their feet.
“Why Billy and Bobby Baines!” roared Westwood, recognizing the two.
One of the bandits rolled his eyes.
“What’s a matter Bobby? Didn’t think you’d end up back here?” Westwood scoffed.
“Oh we knew we’d end up back here.” Bobby sassed. “just hoped it be at your funeral in Boot Hill Cemetery.”
“I was going to bring you daisies” Billy added. “... You like daisies?”
“You know.” Westwood growled. “There’s a high price put out on you two... dead or alive. So maybe I’ll be the one throwing daisies on YOUR graves.”
Billy and Bobby fell silent for a moment.
“Tell me...” Westwood Asked. “How do you two lousy thieves keep getting out of my jail cell?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.” Replied Bobby. “There ain’t no jail cell that can hold us!”
“I bet I have a rope that will.” Westwood snapped.
Westwood was firm with the two bandits but was rather nice to us as he led us through Calico. As we made our way through town people began to notice Bigfoot more and more. Most of the townspeople hadn’t seen Bigfoot before and were uneasy at the sight of him. Some shocked, others amazed, all would stare. One person shouted out “Monster.”
Bigfoot looked at his arms and legs. He then looked at me with a frown.
“I no monster.” Moaned Bigfoot.
“No you ain’t.” Westwood replied.
I felt bad for Bigfoot. For a moment even I thought he was a monster at first glance when we had first met in the mysterious forest, and I was afraid of him because I didn’t know what he was. Now that I knew him I was ashamed of that.
“You’re not a monster.” I assured Bigfoot patting him on the back. “You’re nice… monsters aren’t nice.”
Westwood would scold those that stared saying things like. “Don’t look at my friend that way." Or “What’s a matter with you? You never seen a Sasquatch before?” Children were more accepting. A few walked right up to Bigfoot to say hello, others would run up and poke him then run off giggling. They liked to play with Dodo too.
Westwood told us all about calico as he led us to the jail house.
Inside the jail house he opened up a cell and locked the two bandits away. There were other criminals in there also, mostly cowboys.
“You know we’re going to get out again..." Scoffed Billy Banes. “...We’ve played this game before."
“I’ve secured this jail cell better than last time.” Westwood replied. “There ain’t no way you two are getting out again, and if by some miracle you do, I’ll have your necks at the end of a rope next time I catch you...Trial excluded.”
Right beside the jail house there was a criminal that seemed kind of nice. He was locked up in his own personal cell away from the others. He asked me how my day was, he talked for a while and I asked him what he was in for, he claimed that he didn’t do anything wrong. Once Westwood heard that he got angry and told me that the man had stolen his horse, and that he wasn’t getting out of there until he fessed up and told him where it was. The man had a sad look on his face. Like he knew what happened to Westwood’s horse, but had too much pride to tell him the truth, instead demanding that he was innocent. I’m almost positive I overhead the man’s name, but I can’t quite remember what it was. Oh well... just some “Sad eyed Joe.”
“Well, that’s that.” Declared Westwood. “Let’s get a drink.”
“No can.” Replied Bigfoot.
“We need find Montezuma.” I added. “Do you know where he is?”
“Montezuma?” Westwood Replied. “...Yeah he’s here somewhere in town. I saw him earlier today.”
“Where can we find him?” I asked.
“He’s been looking for that final seal so he can stop Nefarious.” Westwood replied. “Your best bet would be to look somewhere you can get information. That’s where he’d be.”
“Where can we get information?” I asked.
“Wow you sure do ask a lot of questions!” Westwood laughed. “Hey Bigfoot? What’s wrong with your friend?”
“Oh!” Replied Bigfoot. “He lost his mind!”
“Lost his mind?” Westwood laughed. “How did he do that?”
“He no can remember. Not much in his head, we try find Montezuma, maybe he can fix.”
“I didn’t lose my mind!” I rebuked. “I lost my memory, those are two different things!... Now where can we get information???”
“At the saloon of course!” Laughed Westwood patting me on the back. “Looks like we’ll be having that drink after all!”
We headed to the saloon. Along the way we past various shops, a blacksmith was working in one of the shops forging horseshoes out of red hot metal from his furnace. Once finished forming the horseshoes he would then dip them it into a large barrel of water. Steam arose from the barrel once the red hot horseshoe touched the water. The Blacksmith would then remove them from the water and they were no longer red hot, afterwards he would place the horseshoes on a metal anvil closely looking at his work making sure every part of them had been made perfectly.
Close to the Blacksmiths shop was a windmill, spinning slowly in the wind. Underneath it in was something odd. It was some kind of four legged creature resting in the dirt. It had blonde hair on its head and large horns facing outwards towards the front of its face. Its head looked like a large log of firewood, and its body looked like it was made of tree branches. It wasn’t very big, maybe the size of a large dog or small pony. There was a sign next to it that read (Catawampus, Species Extinct).
“Was that real?” I asked.
“Sure was.” Replied Westwood. “Catawampus used to roam all over these parts. Playful things. All gone now, Extinct.”
“What happened to them?” I asked.
“The grey witch took em.” Replied Westwood. “Used them for a spell, she comes back every year and lays into us pretty hard, her and her minions.”
We continued our journey to the saloon. Along the way we saw a large crowd begin to form around a small wagon. It had a wooden stage where a man stood speaking, convincing people to come together. The man had a large case with him that was open and resting on a stool beside. He was clean shaven and dressed fancily with a top hat and large coat which he took off and set aside. He also wore black slacks held up by suspenders that covered a white dress shirt. His attire finished off with a black bow tie.
His wagon was a colorful red and had different advertisements on it that looked carefully painted on. It read (Dr. I. Will Skinem. Medicine Show!) It also advertised that there would be “Phantasmagorical Wonders!”
The man was interesting enough so we joined the crowd to watch the show.
“Welcome, Welcome!” He spoke loudly engaging the crowd starting his show.
“My name is Dr. I. Will Skinem! I have come from all parts of the known world to bring to you amazing medicines to ail your poor wounds.”
From his case he brought out a glass bottle, the bottle was rectangular shaped and sealed with a cork at the top.
“Amazing medicines indeed...” He said slowly waving the bottle in the air for all eyes to see.
The crowed talked amongst themselves for a while but began to settle down so Dr. Skinem could continue his speech.
“This here is my most famous, most effective and most pleasurable Miracle Elixir. It’s power comes from a plant that grows in the world of Cedar point.... a place that I and I alone have traveled to.” Dr. Skinem claimed. “I’m not saying that my other medicines aren’t as effective, in fact some of them are more effective for certain things...what I’m saying is that out of all of my medicines this one here cures more than one symptom and it’ll also make you live longer.”
He brought out more bottles from his case. I didn’t pay much attention to the rest except for the last bottle that read (Memory Elixir).
Dr. Skinem talked a lot about his travels.... places that only he had been, like the world of Cedar point, a place called kings Dominion, a place called Kings Island and the land of Valley Fair, and so on. Apparently he had traveled to these places somehow and had gotten rare remedies from each one.
“Let me ask.” Said Dr. Skinem. “Raise your hand if you have back pain?”
A few of the people from the crowd were miners and they put up their hands.
“Well, you poor souls.” Said Dr. Skinem. “One swig of my Muscle tonic and you won’t feel a thing, and you’ll get the best sleep you’ve ever had! Come, come.” He asked one of the miners up on stage. “Go ahead.” He insisted. “Take a drink.”
The Miner was hunched over somewhat with all the back pain he had endured from what I can only imagine were hard working days at some mine somewhere. The Miner took a big drink from the Muscle tonic then waited for a moment.
“Nothing’s happening.” Said the miner.
The townspeople began to “boo”, but Dr. Skinem hushed them telling them to give it a moment.
Slowly the miner began to straighten his back standing tall, he had a look of relief on his face. From the look of it, the Muscle Tonic actually worked! The crowd was amazed!
“Well... Tell everyone what you think.” Said Dr. Skinem.
“Works even better than whiskey!” Laughed the miner before passing out and falling backwards off of the tiny stage. Luckily the other miners were there to catch him.
“You see!” Said Dr. Skinem. “He’s all fixed up, and did I not I promise him the best sleep of his life?”
Dr. Skinem continued his medicine show, showing off all of his different tonics and remedies. Amazingly enough each of them worked and everyone he called up was cured in some way.
Dr. Skinem then called for his assistant and out of the wagon stepped a young woman carrying a tray full of different remedies. People began to buy them, especially the muscle tonic, but some of the people from the crowd were still skeptical.
“How do we know you ain’t no fraud?” Shouted a concerned customer that was hesitant to buy. “...And haven’t just payed people to pretend like they’re being cured?”
“Now that is a fair question!” Replied Dr. Skinem. “Which reminds me of my youth..."
Dr. Skinem closed his case and removed it from the stool to which he then sat upon. He cleared his throat before beginning to tell a story.
“When I was a young boy..." Said Dr. Skinem. “...I traveled with a man, my teacher... if you will. The same as my assistant here does here with me today. While working for that man, we traveled the known world selling his medicines, medicines that he promised would work… but none of them actually did. Back then, like you, people would ask if we were frauds and that man would tell them that if the medicine hadn’t worked by the next day they could return it for a full refund... little did they know that we’d slip out in the night before the next morning. In my young heart I felt truly bad, I didn’t want to swindle people, I didn’t want to lie. When I was very young my mother died from consumption, the breathing disease, and I always wished I could have found a way to save her from that horrible fate, but the past is the past and she is gone now.”
Dr. Skinem re-adjusted himself in his seat then continued.
“One day while working as the man’s assistant we came upon a town where one of the women watched our medicine show, like you are today. That poor woman reminded me of my mother because she too had the breathing disease and bought medicine at that show.... medicine to which I knew …never actually worked. I knew that poor woman would be dead soon and all we did was profit from her sickness. I felt horrible and ashamed… But my teacher did not. In fact, he actually laughed while counting the money we made that day. To that man people were nothing more than a way to make money and I, being young and naive, was too dependent upon him to stand up for myself. One day I’d had enough. The hurt that we were causing people finally got to me, so I ran away and I never looked back.”
Dr. Skinem now stood up from his stool.
“Since then.” He continued. “I have dedicated my life to finding actual remedies and actual cures! I have traveled to all parts of the known.... and unknown worlds to find them! I knew as a young boy that what we were selling false hope and fake medicines... Now that I am a man, and an honest one at that, I am in the business of selling true hope and real medicines! After all is said and done there is one thing I did learn from that man from years ago, he had a guarantee, and like him I also have a guarantee... but I won’t slip out in the middle of the night, I won’t sell you false hope ...my guarantee is honest and true...If any of my medicines don’t work after the first sip, then you can turn it back in, money back guaranteed!”
The people liked Dr. Skinem’s speech and not by long he was almost sold out of medicines. I wanted to see if maybe I could get my hands on some of that memory elixir so I too stood in line waiting patiently.... Westwood said he’d buy because I was a friend of Bigfoot, plus even after Dr. Skinem’s story he was still unconvinced and he wanted to see for his own eyes if these weird potions actually worked. Soon enough the crowed had dispersed and all of Dr. Skinem’s medicines had been sold out.
Dr. Skinem was packing his wagon away for the day when I shyly came up to him.
“Heads up!” He shouted to me then tossed a bottle in my direction. Luckily enough I was able to stumblingly catch it. It was the Memory Elixir! It wasn’t full... only a small sip left in the bottle.
“Saw you eying it the whole show.” Laughed Dr. Skinem. “I’m all sold out but at least you can try a swig of it and see for yourself.”
Dr. Skinem took a long look at Bigfoot.
“You know, if you come back tomorrow, I’ll have something that’ll get rid of all that hair.” He said playfully.
“I like hair!” Bigfoot replied totally offended.
“He’s just messing with you.” Said Westwood.
I asked Dr. Skinem if the memory elixir would actually work?
“Of course it will!” He laughed. “All of my medicines work, guaranteed! Go on, take a sip.”
“Sure why not?” I said. Thinking to myself “What’s the worst that could happen?”
I poured what was left of the bottle into my mouth then swallowed it in one gulp, it had a sour fruity taste to it. Immediately I felt a sharp pain in my head! It hurt massively!
“What wrong with him?” Asked bigfoot.
“I don’t know....” Replied Dr. Skinem. “This has never happened before!”
The sharp pain faded away and I stood there relieved for a moment.
“Well what do you remember? Westwood asked. “Anything?”
I tried to think very hard, but no memory came to me.
“It didn’t work.” I replied.
“That’s impossible!” Dr. Skinem shouted. “My medicines always work!”
“He no lose memory like you and I...” Said Bigfoot.
“What do you mean?” Asked Dr. Skinem.
“Supposedly I’m from another world.” I added.
“Oh I see!!” Replied Dr. Skinem. “You’re from the one world I haven’t traveled to, you got your mind all jumbled up from that! Unfortunately, I have no remedy for that type of memory loss... well not yet at least, why not give me a few months and I’ll see what I can do for you?”
“I think we’ve seen enough already.” Westwood grunted unimpressed.
“Thanks for trying.” I said to Dr. Skinem. “But I don’t think I have a couple of months to give.”
“Well...Good luck to you!” Dr. Skinem shouted as we left. “I’ll see what I can do anyway.... Never met a sickness I couldn’t cure!”
We had now made it to the saloon... Each of us passed through the wooden swinging double doors. Everyone was loud inside, glasses clinked and music from a piano played. There was the humming sound of many conversations all happening at once... until everyone in the saloon noticed us, immediately everything grew dead silent. Everyone staring at Bigfoot and I... Well, probably just Bigfoot.
“They’re with me!” Westwood warned. “Anyone got a problem with that?"
At that the noise level rose back to its loud self.
“I didn’t think so.” Westwood added. “Let’s find ourselves a seat.”
Inside the saloon there were lots of different types of people. Some railroad workers. Some farmers. Others were cowboys just heading through town. There were Miners too, some with shovels and pickaxes leaning against their tables. Everyone was relaxing and spending their hard earned cash for the slight taste of comfort.
There were cancan dancers and a pianist playing up on a stage. It was a sight to see. The dancers sang beautifully and the pianist played effortlessly, as if he had been born to play that piano as easy as it was for him to walk.
We pulled up a chair at a table of our own. At the next table over were a few men playing cards. One was cheating, occasionally sneaking a card from his pocket while the others were distracted by the dancers on stage.
“Drinks are on me!” Westwood cheered.
“Good.” I thought to myself, because between me, Bigfoot and the Dodo bird I didn’t think we had any money.
“What’ll it be?” Said our waitress.
“Were looking for Montezuma, have you seen him?” Westwood asked.
“Sorry Westwood.” She answered. “I just started and haven’t seen him yet. But he usually comes in around this time and stays till dusk.”
“Well ok then." Westwood replied. “Whiskey for me and my new friend Michael.”
“Me want Whiskey too.” Bigfoot Added.
“No, no.” Insisted Westwood. “No whiskey for you, don’t you remember what happened the last time you drank whiskey?
“What happened the last time you drank whiskey?” I asked.
“I like dance.” Sighed Bigfoot. “But I so big things break when dance.”
“Believe me.” Westwood added. “It ain’t pretty, no whiskey for this one.”
“But I thirsty too!” Bigfoot demanded.
“Okay, okay… Give him a sarsaparilla.” Westwood insisted.
“Sarsaparilla it is.” Replied our waitress.
“You can’t get drunk on sarsaparilla.” Westwood whispered to me.
The three of us drank for a while, I only had two. I didn’t like the taste of whiskey very much. Bigfoot had around twenty sarsaparillas.
“I think these start working now.” Said Bigfoot. “I tipsy now.”
Westwood began to laugh… He knew he wasn’t drunk, but he bought Bigfoot another sarsaparilla just to encourage him anyway.
Over an hour had gone by with me pointing at different strangers as they entered the saloon, I asking Westwood if they were Montezuma. For a moment I even saw too familiar faces walk in the Saloon shoving each other and laughing as they entered. It was the train bandits we had put in jail earlier! Billy and Bobby Baines! At the sight of us the two immediately turned around fleeing right back out the swinging doors.
“Did you just see that?!!” I asked.
“Yeah... I saw.” Westwood answered. “I still need to find out how those two have been escaping every time.... I’ll worry about them the next time they rob a train.... and I know they will, they always do.”
“What if they hurt someone?” I asked.
“They won’t.” He replied. “Never have...They’re thieves not killers.”
We continued to chat and wait for almost another hour. It was now dark outside.
“This is strange.” Said Westwood pulling out his pocket watch. “It shouldn’t be dark out
yet.... It’s only three thi