Fool’s Gold – Part 6

‘Trouble at its finest,’ Madame Selene, the proprietess smiled as she admired us as she sat on a chair with one of her young whores fanning her in front of her brothel ship-bar. ‘Well walk the plank and come in!’ She invited us in from the sun. She asked us how we been and told my brother that she knew his marriage was in trouble way before it ended. ‘You were up north and your wife came up to me one day when I was out buying supplies. She asked the most oddest questions with her boys nearby, “How does one get close to men in power…?’ All made sense in the end now, doesn’t it?” She smiled at my brother. When we went inside at the bar we saw red-headed Bart, Selene’s husband, serving my brother’s ex-wife’s mother’s husband, the cuckold, who was drinking alone at the bar. My brother went up to him, merrily slapped him on his shoulder and ordered a warm beer and smiled at the cuckold in amusement. ‘Don’t mess with me or I’ll get the sheriff,’ the cuckold warned.  ‘Blind fool,’ my brother sighed. ‘You know damn well I didn’t draw no gun on your wife.’ The cuckold ignored him and drank his beer. We drank ours. My brother smiled and whispered something to the cuckold. ‘What? What are you telling me?’ the cuckold asked, glaring at my brother in irritation. ‘It’s an address… See where your life’s savings is going to.’ The cuckold downs his beer, pays for his drink, and starts walking out, ‘It’s up on the hillside,’ my brother yells out. Suddenly, my brother’s ex-wife’s brother, the idiot, arrives with his cousins. My brother and I smiled, cussed, and ran upstairs. The idiot and his minions scrambled up the wooden stairs. We go into one room and close the door and turned to see a whore bending into a wardrobe. She was sneaking a wallet from her male victim sleeping soundly on the bed into the closet where another lady from the opening leading into the next room was going to empty its contents ‘Ladies,’ my brother greeted them.  And we rushed into the wardrobe through the small opening into the other room. ‘The ladies gasped. ‘Be a dear and close this behind you.’ I gently pinched the rosy cheek of the prostitute. The whore smiled and closed the closet door. We stood with the other whore and could hear cussing from the idiot and his gang trying to figure out where we went and heard one of them say, ‘ They must have jumped out the window. They’ll be in the water. Let’s go get ’em!’ And their thundering footsteps could be heard going downstairs. I looked at the whore and smiled, ‘Cards and a bottle of whiskey. Let Selene come in for a game.’ My brother plopped on the bed and put his hat over his eyes as we waited for night to fall.