Spirit Horses by Alan Evans

in
their mid-
twenties. You’d think they might have grown out of acting like
idiots. Some of those boys aren’t half bad on their own, but whenever they get
together with Bo Nethers, they act like damn fools.”
    Shane quickly stood, and paid for his coffee. He
wanted to get out where he could see what the boys were up to. Once outside the
door, he spotted them catty-corner across the street, as they leaned against an
old pickup truck. They were still smoking and passing around the flask. Whoever
owned the truck must have been inside one of the stores nearby. Shane sat down
on a park-style bench in front of the diner and watched.
    About ten minutes went by, and there was still no
sign of the truck’s owner. The bunch was now passing around a second flask and
seemed to have nothing better to do than to wait around for the driver. Shane
was beginning to guess it was some guy they knew, and when he came out they
would get together and have a good ole time. That’s when he noticed a young
woman walking out of the drugstore just down the street. She was carrying a
small box and was moving toward the truck.
    Surely this isn’t who the boys are waiting to
harass! As the girl moved out of the shadows, it all began to make sense. She
was an attractive young Indian woman. He watched as she shook her head slightly
and rolled her eyes when she realized what was going on at her truck. Showing
no fear, she walked up to the motley group. The girl looked one of the boys
straight in the eye as she approached the passenger-side door and sternly
requested, “Please get out of my way.”
    The fella stepped aside, then bent down into an
exaggerated bow while she opened the door to put her box inside.
    She took a deep breath and rolled her eyes once more
before angrily walking around to the driver’s side, but the boy standing there
wouldn’t move so she could get in. Instead, he swept a disrespectful gaze up
and down her body as he menacingly said, “You’re a damn fine looking squaw. If
you’d come and party with us, we’ll give you a day you’ll never forget!”
    If the young woman was scared, she didn’t show it.
Shane smiled after hearing her sharp response, “In your dreams, you creep, now
get out of my way!”
    The boys laughed then quickly surrounded her. The
Nethers boy, who seemed to be the leader of the fiasco, grabbed her arms and
pushed his body up against hers, pinning the girl to the driver’s side door.
“I’ll tell you what, you little bitch, you give me a nice, long kiss, then
maybe I’ll let you go on your way.”
    The woman, still showing no fear, spit in the boy’s
face as she struggled to turn her head away and get free. Nethers quickly
retaliated to her justifiable defense by reaching up with his right hand and
grabbing her by the throat.
    “Let me go!” she hollered while still fighting to break
his hold.
    This was about as much as Shane could take. He had
to do something before the girl got hurt. He stood as he mentally prepared
himself for the worst, and then headed across the street.
    “All right, guys, you’ve had your fun, now, why
don’t you let her go!” One of the men from the unruly bunch stepped in front of
Shane, cutting him off from getting any closer to the truck.
    “I don’t know who the hell you are, mister,” the man
leaned into Shane’s face. “This is none of your freakin’ business, and I’m only
going to tell you once to stay out of it.”
    Shane looked him square in the eye. “I’m not going
anywhere until you let her go.”
    The cocky young man wasted no time in throwing the
first punch. Shane was expecting it and easily avoided the clumsy inaccurate
swing.
    Although the punch had missed its mark, Shane knew
the talking was over and countered with a pounding right blow to the man’s
temple. The guy, being half drunk, lost his balance, fell to his knees, and
crumbled to the ground.
      As he watched
the man fall, Shane felt a hard, unexpected punch below his left ear.