**Well, ya know, I suppose that it is just possible for two people to bump into each other, heave a couple of deep sighs between them, and fall in love.
I don't know about you, but it's sure as hell never happened to me. So if we take my version of reality as the valid one, I offer a look into the meeting of two classic "A-type" personalities in a less-than-ideal setting.
~chuckle~ So sit back and watch the fur fly. 0_o
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Jillian had been quiet for the last while. Kayla was concerned. They'd been walking for more than 45 minutes or maybe an hour, and the windmill only looked a little larger than it had from the road. The wind was almost nonexistent, and neither of them had a hat. Jilly had stopped telling her that she was thirsty. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea.
She wondered how she would get Jilly back to the car. That would be a treat. It would be baking hot inside it now, and she didn't know if it would run at all or even start. She thought she heard a car, but wasn't sure.
No, she decided. She was sure she was hearing something, but what? They stopped while she mopped Jillian's forehead, and her own.
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That was how Josh found them as he came trailing a cloud of dust.
The white Expedition roared up over the rise and skidded to a stop. It sat for a second, before the driver's door opened and a man got out and strode rapidly toward them wearing jeans and a faded denim workshirt. He looked to be about 6 feet tall, broad-shouldered and muscular with blonde short-cropped hair on top, and not much visible anywhere else. Kayla was happy to see anybody at this point. She prepared to tell the man that she'd had car trouble, but then paused.
His expression was severe. What was that on his face?
She had a thought that perhaps this might not go as well as she'd hoped. She saw the six-gun strapped to his thigh and wondered about that as well.
"Sign on the fence says 'Keep Out'," he said in a flat tone.
Joshua would have liked to come off sounding a little more friendly, but he'd pretty much hauled ass out here wondering if he could reach them before they found themselves boxed in between a couple of snakes. He couldn't understand how they'd gotten this far. Torn between just getting to them as quickly as he could, worrying over the snakes, the distinct possibility of heat prostration and whether he'd lose any parts of his truck's suspension, since he was beating it up pretty well here hadn't left him much time to think of a better way to start at the moment.
'Hello' might have worked, but he hadn't thought of it.
"We're having car trouble, and I saw the windmill," Kayla said, pointing past the Ford.
Joshua was incredulous. Who the hell would just wander through this place with a kid when there was a road there - with gravel shoulders and everything - that would lead them wherever they were going and offer them the best chance to be seen and maybe ask for help? He couldn't believe it.
"So you walked past the sign and straight on. Why not try the front gate? It's wide open."
"It's too far." Kayla said firmly.
Who is this jerk, she thought. He was starting to piss her off. Who the hell has a tattoo on their face? Jesus, a brown lightning bolt?
He shrugged, "It's only a little farther. The ground's a lot easier to walk on, there are less hills, and there most certainly are a lot less –"
Josh stopped as he noticed that the little girl looked a bit wobbly. She'd probably land on her face in the dust any time now.
He began to step forward toward the girl, and his eye caught the motion of the small bush three feet to her left. He spotted the big rattler under it and remembered that he hadn't taken off the Colt's holster in the rush to get here. He drew the old pistol and cocked the hammer as he brought it up out to the right side.
Kayla's eyes instantly widened. "What are you doing?"
"NO!" she screamed.
Josh swung the pistol out as he stooped down to the little girl. His right knee was down between her and the rattlesnake and he had his left arm under her tiny bottom as he pulled the trigger while picking her up. The Colt bucked in his hand and Jillian jumped at the sound. Josh was already pulling back the hammer again and swinging the pistol out wider as he began to turn away with the girl almost on his shoulder.
This one would have to count. His own body was well within the snake's strike range now and some of them could strike higher than the top of his boot under his pant leg.
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The Western Diamondback had lost most of her rattle the previous spring when it had gotten caught between a rock and a fence wire. She had tried for a day to pull it loose, and finally she'd been rewarded with her freedom. Today she had just watched her brood hatch; all fifteen of her babies were coiled in a ball behind her at the base of her bush when all the commotion began.
First the two large animals with the strange rhythm she felt in the ground, and now another one. This was too much. She would protect her young until nightfall. After that they were on their own, but until then, she would defend them. Her tongue flicked out and in, getting the scent. Her tail quivered silently with excitement against the bush as she turned her head in the direction of the closest of them. The heat sensors in front of her eyes would have helped in the dark, but in daylight, they weren't that useful, especially at this temperature. She coiled back, measuring the distance between them, and then –
The ground shook as a bullet struck a foot away to her left. She recoiled, and struck out tentatively at a new foe there that she couldn't see. This was getting uncomfortable. If she were alone she'd have already withdrawn by now. Finding nothing, she turned her head back quickly to look straight at a hollow piece of metal just as the second bullet struck her a foot behind her head before carrying on through her coiled body twice more, and through three of her young. Her head was sideways as she opened her mouth and flexed out her fangs to bite the air slowly. A drop of venom grew and hung from one fang as her eyes lost focus.
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"JILLY!" Kayla screamed.
Full of adrenaline, Joshua's body was just humming now. It left him no smoothness at all and he heard his own words sounding like someone else's. In spite of it all, he could hear a second rattle. "There's another snake..."
Kayla was nowhere near ready to listen. "Are you insane? Give her to me!"
Jillian wailed softly into Josh's shirt. He turned his head toward hers and said softly, "I'm sorry that I scared you... Are you ok?"
He felt her nod and sniffle before she turned to stare at his face for a moment. It made no sense to Kayla in the middle of this madness, but Jilly made up her own mind right then and put her arms around his neck.
To Kayla he just offered Jillian, "Here, you take her, but don't put her down, alright?" Jillian didn't want to be handed over and fussed a little.
Kayla wanted to kill him. "What the hell is the matter with you?"
Josh stared right at her eyes and said "That was a rattlesnake. There's another one behind you."
"So what if there's a rattlesnake? You could have just told me. What the hell did you have to shoot it for? You scared us both out of our minds," she railed.
As he holstered the pistol, Josh was right back at incredulous. "Well your little girl here was already inside that one's strike range, and your ass is inside the strike range of the one right behind you, except that one's rattle is still working. You'd probably be able to hear it if you'd just shut up for a second."
Kayla inhaled sharply and listened. Sure enough, the buzz was unmistakable.
"Lookit..." said Jillian, pointing to the side. Out from under the body of their mother, a dozen baby rattlesnakes slowly fanned out in an arc. They knew that they were alone now. Kayla turned to stare at them.
Josh spoke evenly, "They hatch ready to go. They've already got developed fangs and working venom glands, and they'll bite just to try them out."
"Come on," he said calmly, "let's get a little space between us and them."
Kayla remembered the snake behind her. Turning, she could see it now. She froze.
Wanting to get her away before this got much worse, he closed the last step between himself and Kayla and took hold of her arm. He pulled her forcefully towards him, and started toward the truck.
"What...Let me GO!"
"In a second," he said, "You didn't look like you were able to tear yourself away, and I'll be damned if I'm going to hang around while you get your ass bitten out of stubbornness." Josh explained pointedly. He could see that she wasn't really listening to him, so he just went on. "Sucking snake venom out of your butt cheek is a pleasant thought, but I'd probably get distracted and swallow."
He noticed by her glare that he'd been wrong.
She was listening to him.
They were beside the Expedition in a few steps. "Get in the passenger side. I'll hand her up to you, or you can both sit together in the back seat, I don't care. Please, let's just go." Josh said.
"Where? Where are you taking us?" Kayla was on the verge of a combination of emotions, and even she didn't know which would surface first.
Josh exhaled the tension out heavily. "To the house, or haven't you had enough of playing hopscotch with these things yet?" He was panting.
"Lady, get in. The truck's cool by now, so she'll be out of the heat." he said, indicating Jillian with his eyes. "I promise you can yell at me in there if you want to."
He got them up and into the back seat. He stopped as he came around the back of the vehicle and drew the Colt to extract the remaining rounds as quickly as he could. He dropped them in his breast pocket.
Though it had worked out, he was annoyed with himself for driving with the loaded pistol in the holster. He didn't like the possibility of blowing off his kneecap, and putting a hole in the engine if they hit a bump the wrong way. He slid the old pistol into its holster and mildly cursed his luck. The woman looked like a walking dream to him, but ...
He sighed to himself. If he'd had a chance to meet somebody like that in a sane place like a club where nobody was distracted by the heat of the sun or a landscape littered with pit vipers, ...
He smirked to himself ruefully. Well then, he thought, he'd have at least a fair shot at watching somebody else likely walk away with her on his arm before old Josh could spit out 'hello'.
It didn't matter, he thought. One look at her face now and he was just happy that she didn't have a weapon. The really odd thing that was driving him a little nuts was that he kind of liked the idea.
Climbing in, he tore through the plastic film on the flat of water bottles on the passenger side floor, and handed them back one each apologizing for the warmth of them. Jillian looked at him, and then at the bottle.
"Oh," Josh said, taking the bottle back and twisting off the sealed cap before handing it to her again. "Are you alright – "
