TUESDAY
A well-dressed dandy suddenly rode into Dodge on a big white pony and yelled, “Listen up! Sheriff Ardern’s back in town - and I’m gonna interview her! Ain’t that extraordinary?”
There was a rustle of interest. Sheriff Ardern back in town! That really was something. But they knew she had only come back to say so long, and would be gone again.
And they knew all about the well-dressed dandy, too. Big John Tex Jesus Campbell was the most sensitive man in the county. Love for the people of Dodge filled his heart and he wept like a tap.
He sat down with Sheriff Ardern in the middle of the town square, and said, “Well, now. Ain’t this extraordinary! But tell me. What’s on ya mind?”
She talked all day.
WEDNESDAY
Sheriff Ardern returned to the middle of the town square all by herself and talked some more.
She talked about her years as the sheriff of Dodge, the good times, the bad times, the sacrifices, the things she achieved, the things she wished she achieved, the folks who stood by her.
Old Mate Robertson listened, and cast his mind back to when he first met the sheriff and they talked long into the night about making Dodge a better place.
Doc Bloomfield listened, and remembered the long days and even longer nights he fought the plague alongside her.
Fishy Gayford listened, and thought about fishing.
Redneck haters who saw themselves as good ol’ boys listened too, but only for a little while. They spat in the sawdust on the floor of the saloon. They banged their shot glasses on the table, told the barkeep to fill ‘em up, and spoke loudly about all manner of bullshit.
THURSDAY
Ex-sheriff Ardern up and left once more, this time for good, slinging her baby and her Juliette Hogan hatbox on to a stagecoach and riding off into a sunset that illuminated the sky in a brilliance of deep, beautiful reds.
FRIDAY
A cold wind blew off the Sierra Thorndons and whistled down the main street of Dodge. The mercury had dropped to 10 below zero. A pig oinked.
In her attic room above the saloon, Whitey Collins sat in her rocking chair, combed the blond-haired doll in her lap, and looked out the window. But there was nothing to see.
Dodge had gone awful quiet. Mighty quiet. Too quiet, even in the saloon, where the good ol’ rednecks sat in silence. What was there to say? Deep in their hearts, they knew that Sheriff Ardern was someone special, and like everyone in Dodge, they would miss her, miss her like hell.
