"What the hell is wrong with you boy, are you a tard" Kieran yelled at his son.
"I'm sorry pa, I'm trying," Jedediah forced out on the verge of tears.
The boy struggled to reload the six shots into the revolver his mother had gifted him before she left the family behind. It had been his grandfathers. Jedediah had no intentions of becoming an outlaw, lawman, gambler or anyone who needed a gun. He could never get used to them not matter how much his father forced him to practice.
The bang of a gunshot always caused his ears to ring and sting with a feint pain that felt more like water trapped in his ear. He could never keep his eyes open as he fired, the anticipation of the bang bothered him too much. Even if he was a great shot, Jedediah had never met anyone he wanted to kill. He never had a problem he couldn't solve with words. His father was the brute, the one who wanted to solve everything by digging a new grave.Jedediah felt the force of his father's backhand before he heard the sound of the bullets he dropped hitting the ground.
"You are nothing but a fuck up. The worst thing I ever pissed out," Kieran yelled down to Jedediah who was now cowering in the dirt.
Jedediah did know someone he wanted to kill, his father. He had never met a more foul man. A man that deserved nothing but the negativity he brought upon himself. Jedediah loaded the gun flawlessly there on the dirt. Then he stood up and turned the gun on his father.
"Boy we both know you don't have a set big enough. Now put that damned gun down before I tie you to the back of a horse and drag you through town myself."
Jedediah's ears didn't ring this time. He didn't even hear the sound of the gun when he pulled the trigger. He just watched his father drop to the ground clutching his arm. Screaming out in pain. Jedediah ran to the house, he knew it would be a while before his father could get to him. He packed a sack with everything he could think of. Clothes, canned food, cigarettes and the money his father hid in his sock drawer. He couldn't stay here now.
"What did you do," Carey asked looking at her father rolling in dirt about two hundred yards away from the house.
"I love you girl, don't let that brick head drag you down with him," Jedediah kissed his sisters forehead and ran through the front door and away from home.
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Didn't expect this to be a series.
