Marshall's Rule --- Short Story

Happy Friday, Just Another Story to Brighten Your Day!

Marshall's Rule
 

Marshall was the type of man whom you didn’t mess with.  He always knew what he wanted and 99.9 percent of the time he got it!  Shoot, he even rode in Wild Bill’s Wild, Wild West Show.  He was considered the god amongst cowboys, and no one, and I mean no one ever told him what to do.

One day, while on a break from the rodeo, he rode down to Abilene, Texas,  just to check out the sights and to visit Palo Duro Canyon.  At this time, there was a small encampment of people who lived in the canyon, a mixed group, I think it was.

He rode down into their village and found the chief.  He wanted to personally give them a show, but something was compelling him to go over then next hill.  In their native tongues, they cried out for him to stop, not to go.

“No one ever, tells me what to do, that’s Marshall’s Rule.  Why don’t you think I should go?”  Marshall stated.

“You are not the first to be compelled to go over that hill.  There has been countless of others before you, and they have not returned.”  Said an older frail man with deep folds of skin and a wide brim hat.

“So, if you’re so smart, what is over that hill?”  He asked.

“No one knows, can’t say for sure, but I do know that no one ever returns.”  Said a woman.

“Y’all are all just a bunch of hicks, and I don’t have to listen to the lot of you.  My heart is telling me to go over that hill, and over that hill I will go!”  He screamed.

“Um, what about the show?”  A small child asked.

“Later, I’ll do it later after I’ve returned and showed you all up.”  He answered.

“You’ll never return!”  Said the child.

In the end, Marshall did what he wanted to do.  He mounted his horse, and rode up into the sunset, over the hill.  He started to laugh, laugh loudly he did, so loud in fact that they could hear him in the village below.

What he saw, no one knows, as he never returned.  There are some stories floating around that it was a river of gold, gold as bright as the sun, so when the rider rode over the hill, he would be blinded and confused, not being able to find his way out, but who knows.

One thing is for sure, the village never saw Marshall’s show, and Marshall’s rule was the law.