Chapter 7
Josh was in a deep sleep in a comfortable bed in his hotel room. It was 5:20 a.m., Thursday morning, and Josh had another dream.
In Josh’s dream, he raced his white horse in the desert and headed toward another woman. She had a hood over her head and was tied to the railroad tracks. The Paradise Express raced toward the woman.
“Yaaaa, yaaaa!” Josh yelled out while he slapped his horse with his reins to make his horse move faster and just missed being pricked by some Saguaro cactus.
The Paradise Express raced closer to the woman tied to the tracks.
Josh screeched his horse with dirt flying everywhere to a stop five feet from the woman.
He jumped off his horse and ran over to the woman tied to the tracks. He whipped out a six-inch shiny knife that was tucked inside a sheath in his right cowboy boot.
The Paradise Express raced closer to woman and Josh.
The sun reflected off the shiny metal of the large Bowie knife while Josh brought the blade down to the rope that kept the woman prisoner to the threatening railroad tracks.
While Josh cut through the rope with his knife, the faint sound of a bell was heard.
The train whistle blew while the Paradise Express raced at Josh and the hooded woman.
The sound of the bell from the desert got louder.
There was a loud bang sound from the desert, which sounded like a door being slammed opened.
The bell sounded louder by Josh’s ear.
The train whistle was louder while it was 15 feet down the track.
“Time to get up!” a woman’s voice yelled at Josh from the desert sky.
Josh looked confused with those bell sounds and the voice of a woman. Then he saw the Paradise Express, which was two feet away from running him over.
“I said, time to get up!” the woman yelled louder from the desert sky.
Josh froze while he looked for the source of the woman’s voice. Then his eyes widened in fear, then he saw the train was inches from his body.
Back to Josh reality in Paradise, Josh jumped up scared in his bed the second the train impacted his body in his dream. He looked around, dazed and confused, then he got startled when he saw Maggie standing near his bed with her hands on her hips.
“It’s time to get up!” she yelled at him, then turned around and walked out of his room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Josh got out of bed and walked to his stand-up closet.
Eighteen minutes later, Josh was back in his room fresh from his bath and dressed in a cleaner pair of western attire. He made sure he didn’t take longer than his allowed fifteen minutes in the bathroom, as he didn’t want a visit from Maggie, the bathroom police.
Josh grabbed his cowboy hat and left his room.
Josh walked over to the row of two wooden outhouses that were assigned to his hotel.
There was a line of five people who waited their turn, and Josh walked up behind Sara.
“Good morning, Sara,” he greeted her with a smile.
Sara sniffed the air. “The morning doesn’t smell so good,” she said in a jokingly manner.
Josh sniffed the air. “I know what you mean,” he replied with a light chuckle.
They looked sicken over the stench from the outhouses, and Larry, a forty-seven-year-old man in front of them, noticed. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the smell in about a month or two,” he said and didn’t appear to be happy with life in Paradise.
“I sure hope so,” Josh replied.
“I do not like Paradise so far,” Sara quietly replied while she pinched off her nose to stop the stench from filling up her nasal cavities.
Josh pinched off his nose. “I know what you mean,” told her with a nasal tone.
Ten minutes later, Sara and Josh were finished with their business in the outhouses.
Sara and Josh walked down Paradise Lane and headed into the Fisher Dining Hall.
Sara and Josh were seated at table twelve, and Walt brought them their plates of scrambled eggs, bacon, and biscuit. Kimmy brought everybody at the table their glasses of milk.
The dining room was filled with small idle chat while everybody ate breakfast.
Fifteen minutes later, people started getting up from their tables and headed out of the dining hall to start their workday.
Charlie Fisher walked into the room with cowboys Henry, Lou, Greg, and Manny.
They all walked over to table twelve. “Don’t forget, I need Josh, Sara, and Linda to stay for orientation.
Willard and James finished their breakfast and got up from the table and headed to the door.
After a few minutes, Sara, Linda, and Josh were the only people left in the Dining Hall except for Charlie and his cowboys.
Marshall Blaine Fisher entered the Dining Hall with a Marshall’s badge pinned to his black shirt. Blaine had a full head of white hair, white handlebar mustache and goatee, two Colt 45 pistols in a holster, and a clipboard in hand. He was also known to always be puffing on a Cuban cigar he illegally obtained through his connections.
Tony, Ray, Mark, and Steve were all cowboys in black shirts with two Colt 45 pistols in their holsters, followed Blaine like obedient servants. Cowboy Tony was the meanest cowboy in the bunch of cowboys and would take a bullet for the Marshall.
Josh looked surprised when he saw Blaine. “Oh my god, it’s Blaine Fisher. I thought his daughter said he was traveling around the world?” Josh said.
Charlie walked up and smacked the back of Josh’s head. “Shut up, boy. You shouldn’t be talking about the Marshall like that.”
Josh couldn’t believe Charlie’s attitude toward him, and while he watched Blaine strut up to their table, so he started to have a bad feeling in his gut.
“Good morning, and welcome to Paradise. I’m Marshall Fisher,” he said while he looked at his clipboard. “Josh Bryant.”
“Here.”
“Sara Cooper.”
“Here.”
“Linda Bronson.”
“Here.”
Marshall Fisher looked up from his clipboard while he puffed on his cigar. “Good, now,” he said.
“I changed my mind. I want to go back home,” Sara blurted out and interrupted the Marshall.
Marshall Fisher looked irritated with Sara interrupting him. “You just got here, little lady.”
“I know, but Paradise isn’t for me,” she said and looked like she was going to cry any second.
Fisher thought for a second then motioned to Charlie to come over.
Charlie walked up to Marshall Fisher, who whispered in Charlie’s ear.
Charlie nodded that he understood, walked away, and headed to the door, and his four cowboys tagged behind him.
“You can leave tomorrow afternoon, Sara,” Marshall Fisher told her with a smile.
Sara looked relieved she would be out of his place.
Fisher looked back at his clipboard. “We have Sara and Josh working the gardens, and that shift starts at 7:30,” he said.
Sara looked a little baffled. “Why am I working if I’m going back home?”
“Until you leave tomorrow, you’re a resident of Paradise, and that means you will work for today’s meals. Do you understand?” he replied and glared at her.
She looked intimidated and nodded in agreement and figured that maybe working will help today go by faster.
“Now, you two will be meeting with Bo Whitfield in front of the General Store. Linda will work at the Paradise House of Pleasure. Everybody works Monday thru Saturday, and you’ll be fed lunch at your work site. There’s one exception in that the ladies of the Paradise House of Pleasure only get Sunday mornings off,” he told everybody.
“Excuse me, did you say, Paradise House of Pleasure? What’s that?” Linda interrupted him and didn’t like the name of that place.
“It’s the place where my cowboys can relieve stress thanks to pretty women like you,” Marshall Fisher replied with a smile, which showed off his brown stained teeth from smoking.
The cowboys near the table all smiled while they looked at Linda and had nasty thoughts of getting naked with her.
Linda thought for a second, and then it dawned on her, and she looked furious. “No way in hell!”
Fisher nodded at his cowboys.
Cowboys Tony and Ray grabbed Linda and yanked her out of her seat.
Josh looked at cowboy Tony, and something about him seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place a finger on where he’s seen him before.
The cowboys escorted Linda away toward the door.
“I want to go home!” she cried out while they walked her out of the Dining Hall.
Marshall Fisher looked at Josh and Sara. “Payday is on Fridays, now go meet Bo at the General Store,” he said, then turned around, walked back to the door and cowboys Mark and Steve tagged along like obedient little doggies.
Sara’s eyes welled up, and Josh looked concerned while they got up from the table.
Sara and Josh walked out of the Dining Hall and headed to the Paradise General Store, which next store. Both of them were speechless on what just happened back in the Dining Hall.
Sara and Josh walked over to the General Store, where Willard waited along with Gary, Ernie, Gail, Dave, and Harold.
Jenny walked out of the General Store and smiled when she saw Josh with the other folks.
“Good morning, Josh,” Jenny said with a warm smile while she walked up to him.
Josh smiled, and Paradise was now a place he enjoyed. “Good morning, Jenny.”
“What are you doing out here?” she asked,
I’m working as a gardener.”
“Very good. We get to eat some healthy vegetables thanks to you,” she said with a smile, then walked down the street and headed toward the doctor’s office.
Josh looked happy while he watched Jenny walk down the street. Then he looked a little scared when he saw the Indian Chief Merijildo, a 70-year-old Indian with long white braided hair, while he rode bareback on his horse down Paradise Lane. Four Indian on horses followed Chief Merijildo, and they surrounded Jerry Barrow, who rode on a horse with his hands tied behind his back.
“It’s him,” Josh said the second he saw Jerry tied on the horse.
“Who?” Sara asked.
“We saw some cowboy shoot at him last night while he ran out of an alley and pulling up his pants. Then he got on board the Paradise Express and jumped off when he was in the desert. The cowboy fired a shot at him,” Josh told everybody while he looked at Jerry, who was scared to death.
Willard looked bothered at the sight of Jerry, and he turned and looked away.
While Chief Merijildo and his Indians rode to the Marshall’s Office, his eyes lit up at the sight of Sara’s beauty. He continued to glare at Sara with love in his eyes while they stopped at the Marshall’s Office.
The Chief’s glares gave Sara the chills, so she looked away.
The Indians dismounted off their horses and tied the reins to the hitching post.
Then two of the Indians pulled Jerry off his horse, and he landed on his back with a painful thud.
The two Indians picked up Jerry by his arms and walked him inside the Marshalls office.
Bo Whitfield, a bully of a man, who was a close friend of Blaine Fisher, and had a shotgun in his saddle, rode up to everybody in a wooden wagon pulled by a horse.
“Are you two Sara Cooper and Josh Bryant?” Bo asked.
“Yes,” Josh answered.
“Hop in the back of the wagon,” he told them.
Josh, Sara, Gary, Ernie, Willard, Gail, Dave, and Harold all hopped in the back of the wagon.
Bo turned his horse around and headed down Paradise Lane toward the entrance.
While the wagon rode down the street, Sara and Josh saw Chief Merijildo and his four Indians walk out of the Marshall’s Office with one of the Indians carrying a small wooden case of whiskey bottles.
Sara got the chills again while Chief Merijildo had a smile while he watched her in the wagon. Chief Merijildo turned around and went back into the Marshall’s Office.
Josh looked back at the Indians. “Are those Indians a threat?”
“Don’t worry, Sheriff Fisher has them under control,” Bo said while they rode down the street.
Josh and Sara looked relieved.
The wagon drove past the Paradise House of Pleasure, which was a two-story house with 8 small bedrooms on the second floor. The first floor was a parlor and bar for entertaining the guests before they spent their hour of pleasure with a whore.
On the front porch stood of the Paradise House of Pleasure four whores named Candy, Sadie, Prudence, and Sweet Pea took a smoke break while Linda stood with cowboys Tony and Ray. Then Casey, the fifty-five-year-old two hundred fifty pounds of pure bitch madam, walked out to the porch. She was once a whore that Blaine Fisher frequented when he was married to Anita’s mother.
“This one is fresh meat and just arrived a little while ago,” cowboy Tony told Casey.
“Good,” Casey said, then grabbed Linda by her arm and forced her inside the Paradise House of Pleasure.
Cowboys Tony and Ray went inside to christen Linda into the Paradise House of Pleasure.
The remaining four whores waved and blew kisses at the guys inside the wagon.
Josh and Sara looked concerned with the scene they witnessed with Linda and knew that the Paradise House of Pleasure was a whorehouse.
Three cowboys walked over to the front porch of the Paradise House of Pleasure.
One cowboy grabbed Sweet Pea by her arm and took her inside. One cowboy grabbed Prudence by her arm and took her inside.
The remaining cowboy grabbed Sadie by her arm and took her inside.
Everybody remained quiet in the back of the wagon while Bo rode down the dirt trail and headed out of the town of Paradise.