Tombstone.
I walked down the street towards Kate’s and saw a man walking over. “Hi Natalie,” he said to me first.
“Hi mister. You know my name?” I looked at him, worried.
“Yes, your momma described you to me,” he smiled. “I am Irish.”
“Oooh! You’re my ma’s cousin!”
“Yes,” he grinned. “Make me yours as well.”
“I guess so!” I grinned. “Do cousins help get free candy?”
“Well, how about a free ice cream?” he laughed.
“That works!” I grinned and we went to the store to get ice cream. “So wait… If you’re ma’s cousin that makes you my.... uncle? sorta?”
“Sorta… I guess you could call me Uncle.”
I giggled and licked my ice cream and said, “So I started writin a new series for the Bee.”
“Oh you did?”
“Uh huh. I interviewin people in town. To get to know why they came here and what they do and stuff.”
“Sounds like a good thing.”
“Yeah. Ma don’t want me to do it alone though. Maybe you could come with me and make sure I stay safe? I could even interview you!”
“I think I can handle that,” Uncle Irish grinned.
“Can I interview you Uncle Irish?”
“Sure… Shall we sit down?”
We went to sit down outside of the store and I started. “Ok I has a few questions. How long have you been in Tombstone?”
“About two months now.”
“How come you came to Tombstone?”
“To start over and get away from the some bad things in my past.”
“What do you do for work in Tombstone?”
“I work for Doc Cole in Benson helping with the animals.”
“Oh wow! So you live in Benson?”
“Yes. Near Miss Joan.”
“What do you do for fun in town?”
“Not a whole lot because I don’t drink… I like to dance and am learning to bowl…”
“Do you have a favorite places in town? Or I guess in the area..”
“Not really I like it here cause I can get ice cream..which is my favorite. And I am helping Miss Enola in Benson get her cafe up and running..she feeds me good..”
“What’s your favorite animal? Do you have any pets?”
“My horse Snap..”
“That’s a good name! Are you married? Do you have any kids?”
“Is both a pet and favorite animal. No and not yet.”
“Well that’s all the questions I got! Now I done five interviews already!”
“Okay, who’s next?”
“I wanna do everyone in town so I never have to give Jeff nothin for the Bee. Well who else is in town? Wanna go see?”
“Sure know Miss Angel is here,” Uncle Irish nodded.
I took his hand and we saw Freebird and I grinned. “He had a funny interview!” I handed it to him and asked Mr. Free, “You been to any banks lately?”
“Naw, not yet,” Free said.
Sheriff Angel greeted me and I asked her if I could interview her for the paper. I commented on how I had seen Mr. Free at payroll yesterday and he said they tricked him and put snakes in the loot box. Miss Angel asked me what I thought about the Christmas decorations and I said they looked good as I continued to hold Uncle Irish’s hand. Sheriff Angel asked me to help her set up her tree and we talked about how some things I could talk about with the paper and others I couldn’t.
I helped Sheriff Angel set up the tree and we had so much fun decorating. I tried to put one of the Christmas balls up but then I dropped one and felt really bad that it broke. “I sorry,” I looked down.
Uncle Irish picked me up and helped me put the balls up again as Sheriff Angel cleaned up the glass. “Iz okay Natalie, no harm done. Am more vorried about you getting hurt.”
“I broke a lot when I was a kid,” Mr. Free said.
“This looking pretty fine there ladies..” Uncle Irish smiled.
We started to put up the candles on the tree and Aspen came over to help us decorate. I introduced her to my uncle. I waved to them and headed home.
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