Six-guns and Slay Bells, Story 8

Rectification

It was still summer when Eddie Thompson got lynched. Strung up because of a story a young girl told about how a cowboy assaulted her, ripped her dress, and handled her in an unseemly way. Strung up without benefit of a hearing. Strung up by the town’s five-man council.

Little did they know that watchers from afar saw every move. People in a galaxy far far away. A young being, in fact, who felt the situation needed to be resolved.

They took on human form and went to the Kansas town in question . . . just in time for the Christmas holiday, which they thought would work to their advantage.

Jerry Guin weaves a tight story that ends on Christmas. I don’t dare tell you any more for ruining the plot for you. So why don’t you come to Delano along with Gat and Vir to watch over their son Galex and see how he resolves the problems caused by Eddie Thompson’s lynch party?

JERRY GUIN is the author of the western novel "Drover's Vendetta." He has written a number of magazine articles and several anthologized short stories about the old west. Jerry and wife Ginny live in the extreme Northern California community of Salyer.