Sarah - The Meeting

From last time ...

"Oh ... and Mackey? You better spruce up a bit. Wear some after shave in the morning, okay?"

And Now ...

Sarah, Mackey, Ma and Billy had been sitting in the back booth at the diner for almost two hours, talking in low tones so as not to be overheard. They had all had too much coffee and Ma, finally, could take no more and announced she had to use the head.

"Get outta the way, Billy, 'fore I piss in your shoes."

Two Feathers stood up so that Ma could exit the booth.

"Cranky old white woman ... don't be gone too long ... you still haven't finished your pancakes ... they could be gone by the time you get back."

"I got a knife strapped to my leg, Billy. You touch my pancakes and that Indian dick of yours'll be two inches shorter."

Ma went across the diner to the restroom.

Sarah had been lost in thought, but the snappy repartee brought her back to awareness.

"Billy, I wouldn't mess with her. She's got 'Love' on her mind. If you show her up too bad she just might cut ya for spite."

Mackey slumped a little lower into his seat.

"Are we almost done here? The way Ma keeps lookin' at me, I feel like a steak."

"It's not lookin' at you that's doin' it to her, Mackey. It smellin' you that's drivin' her wild. You smell like a French whore. I never told you to take a bath in that stuff."

"What? You said to wear after shave. Well, I don't own any after shave. So, I just splashed on some of that cologne I got last Christmas from that showgirl in Vegas I was goin' out with. It doesn't smell bad, does it?"

"No, not BAD, Mackey. Just strong as hell. It smells like forty horny biker broads in here."

"How the hell was I supposed to know? I never wear this stuff."

"Well, when we get done here you'd better go back to the adobe and shower some of that smell off of you."

"Yeah."

"Okay. Before Ma gets back here ... we're all agreed on what we have to do, right?"

Mackey and Two Feathers nodded in agreement.

"Once we get this operation over with, we gotta figure that Flores is going to go back on his schedule. Billy, it's going to be up to you to figure out where he is in his schedule - and where he's gonna be every minute for at least a week. How many hit points have we defined for him?"

"We have 7 different spots laid out where we could take him out - and those seven spots cover 4 days - and there's one day with only one shot. So, for the most part, we've got two shots a day that we could take. The only problem is that we could wind up waiting as much as three weeks for the first shot because we don't know where he's going to pick up his schedule."

"What's your best guess?"

"Don't have one. But if he picks up where he left off before he started devoting all his time to Ma, we should have 8 days once he starts. IF he picks up where he left off."

"Well, if he doesn't, then we wait. Meanwhile, Billy, how many Sheriff's uniforms you think they got out there on the Reservation?"

"I'm not sure. I think we can probably put a couple of complete uniforms together though."

"We don't need complete uniforms. We just need a couple of hats and maybe a badge. And maybe a pair of pants we can use to hang some fabric on some cactus."

"Sure. That won't be a problem. I don't know about a badge, though. If they've get 'em out there, they're not likely to give 'em up."

"Offer 'em money, Billy. Otherwise, we're gonna hafta try to steal a badge - and that's not something I'm feeling real comfortable about."

"Okay, Sarah. I'll let you know."

Ma walked up to the booth, standing right next to Mackey.

"Scoot over, Big Boy. Lemme sit down next to ya fer a minute 'fore I go back over to the Motel."

Billy jumped up from his side of the booth.

"Sit down, Boy. You can finish my pancakes if ya want. I gotta get back to work."

She leaned over to the side, resting her chin on Mackey's shoulder.

She took a long, deep breath.

"I just wanted to get one more good whiff of this MAN over here before I left."

Ma got up and looked longingly at Mackey. Mackey slumped down in his seat, again.

"See ya later, Mackey. Sarah. Billy."

She turned and left, slowly letting a long exhale out as she walked away.