Taming a Mustang

Katerina Lucero on Taps

A sequel to The Harbour

        As the train pulled slowly away from the station she looked longingly out the window at the world passing her by. Her mind wasn’t where the train was headed. Instead it seemed stuck in the city she was leaving in a cloud of smoke. New York, She'd never been to a place she found harder to leave. She’d left a brother in San Diego, a dead father in Denver and a grieving mother in Albuquerque and close friends in nearly every city in the country. But New York seemed to have caught her in its gravitational pull and refused to let her go. She knew it was for the better though. She had to get out before something bad happened. 

          She cursed herself as she tucked her head down and rolled down the gravel embankment back into New York City. She felt a sharp stone cut into her arm and slice up a considerable distance. She felt pain course its way up her arm as it struck other rocks and dirt filled the wound. When she finally stopped rolling she pulled her bag, which had rolled down next to her, and pulled out a flask filled with water. She carefully poured the water over her open wound and gently pulled the stones out of it. Once the wound was sufficiently cleaned she grabbed hold of the hem of her skirt, which had been a pale yellow with a green ribbon empire waist and short sleeves a scoop cut neckline, but now was dirty, stained black from the soot and coal and dirt of the embankment. She ripped a length all around the bottom and tied it tight over her arms to stop the heavy blood flow. She stuffed the flask back down into her bag which held only enough money to buy a drink and a black dress, which was old won out and torn, but she refused to let go of. She slung the bag over her shoulder and headed into town toward the distributor.

          She’d gotten rid of the bandage by noon and found that the ghastly wound proved quite profitable. People saw it and bought papers to help the poor little girl out. She sold nearly twice as many newspapers as she normally did. She was proud of herself. Her day was going well, she’d woken up that morning in his house, and he was the reason she couldn’t leave. He’d taken her heart right out from under the stone she’d hidden it under and dusted it off, he refused to let her hide it away again. Time seemed to drag slowly by when she was away from Keiran, much as she begged it to speed up.

          Late that night she found herself out on the rooftop of the Greenwich Village newsboys and girls lodging house, the place she called home. She stared up at the stars her knees curled up to her chest. The stars shone bright she loved the stars, and the moon. The way they made her feel so safe, so comfortable in the night. She thought silently of the night before, how she’d felt. Staying over in Keiran’s house. She’d been so happy, so loved,. Love, she wondered what that really was. Was love what her father had showed? When the gang grabbed her and forced him to choose. Mikey had told her father he could have his daughter and join the gang or he could not. He’d chosen his only daughter. And while it seemed so admirable at the time, things went only downhill from there. He refused to tell his wife and son what had happened, how Mikey had held Micah by the throat so viciously when she was only 3. He’d tried to run from the gang. But in the rushed process he’d left his son, Phillip behind in San Diego. They arrived in Denver and his wife left him to visit Albuquerque New Mexico and then in another attempt to save his daughters life he’d lost his own, leaving the tiny five year old girl to fend of herself. The gang had adopted her as their own. But eventually she ran, and kept running. He’d saved her life. But the life his death had driven her to was one worse than anything she could think of.  She could never make real friends, never know her mother, or brother, she had to leave each town after two weeks for fear of getting herself caught. She’d been in Albuquerque once. She’d spent her two weeks hunting down her mother, and succeeded in finding her, her mother had recognized her and Micah, out of instinct ran. There wasn’t a night she didn’t wish she hadn’t run. but she would never see her mother again, and she knew it to be a fact.

          Her mother, Michelle Carie had found an address for Micah when she as in Philadelphia. She’d sent a parcel, with a black dress in it. The dress was simple, a scoop cut neck, sleeveless and had a tight fitting bodice. It was so simple but it was by far Taps’ favorite. Michelle had written in a letter that she had made it herself. It was the only dress she kept with her as she traveled from town to town. It had been torn, in a fight, a slit was torn to a point high above Micah’s knee. And she’s massacred the person who’d done it. She wondered constantly if that was what love really was, a mother finding a daughter that had never even bothered to find her, and spending so much time to make a dress for her and never find out if Micah had ever even gotten it.  What was real love?

          “Why can’t I just leave?” She sighed asking the sky.           

          “Because you’re love for him is greater than your desire to leave! Don’t go. Trust yourself. If you leave it will be the biggest mistake of your life.” Came a deep Irish voice. She sat up straighter looking up at the starts not having expected a reply.

          “Lord!” She whispered. “You of all people ought to know I made some big mistakes in my time.”

          “This would most defiantly be the worst one Micah! Trust your gut. Trust your heart for Gods sakes!”

                “Why have you suddenly started talking to me? I’m not exactly deserving of your attention!” She asked standing slowly.

                “What are you talking about?” Thomas stepped out in front of her. “We’re friends right?” Taps nearly fell to the ground out of surprise but instead she tackled him throwing playfully punches into his gut.

                “Don’t scare me like that!” She shouted at him.

                “So how are you and…Irey?” she asked sitting down and looking at him.

                “Oh, Aidelle! I can’t get her out of me head! Every time I’m around her me head spins! I love her Taps!” he replied sitting across from her.

                “That’s great!” Micah smiled. He suddenly reached deep into his pocket and pulled out a small brown paper bag.

                “I sold me great grand-da’s watch.” He said. “And I have it all planned. I’ll buy her a dress, and have it delivered and ask her to wear it. Then I’ll bring her two dozen red roses. I’ll get a carriage to take us to the park after she finishes work. And look!” he pulled a small velvet box out of the bag and opened it showing her the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen. It was gold and held a stunning heart shaped diamond. Taps could do nothing but gasp.

                “Oh Thomas is beautiful!”

                “What do ye think she’ll say?” he asked nervously.

                “How could she refuse?” With that news Thomas put the ring away and bounded off to bed leaving Taps out on the roof alone.

                “Maybe he’s right! Maybe I should stay.” She sighed and stood going down the fire escape to her own bunk.

                She found selling the next day to be quite uneventful. That evening when she had just arrived home James, a fellow lodger, showed up with an arm bleeding badly.  As always trouble had hunted her down and smacked her in the face. he explained that he’d gotten into a fight. When he had tried to get home a guy had gotten into his way and a fight had ensued. James told her he couldn’t really remember the name, stumbled a few times before Taps prompted him and he identified the guy to be none other than Johnny O’Hera, Taps’ very own antagonist. She begged him to tell her which direction Johnny had taken and nearly fell faint when he told her he was headed toward Keiran’s house. She quickly took care of his arm then turned and ran out of the house not stopping until she was nearly at Keiran’s house when she was grabbed from behind and pulled roughly into an alley her eyes covered by a large hand.

                “Taps, do you have the money for me?” came Johnny’s voice.

                “Why did you hurt James? And where’s Keiran?” she demanded.

                “I don’t know any James, and your precious Keiran is right over there with a gun pointed to his temple. If you have the money tell me and it will save his life!” Johnny replied not letting Taps go.

                “I aint got…” she was cut off by six deafening blasts. Then the silence hung in the air ringing so loud it hurt. Johnny’s grip loosened and he let her go, she slowly turned to see a  tall guy, dark hair tucked under a No. 6 cap and loose dirty Levys jeans he wore no shirt. His name was Matt, a boy Taps’ had worked with earlier in the month before all this had happened. He stepped aside to reveal to her Keiran’s body laying there his face indescribable with six bullets buried deeply   inside it. He sat limp his head tilted to the left and he bled down the from of his shirt a sickening amount.  She stared down at his lifeless body then slowly looked up at Matt, who’s gun hung at his side smoking slightly.

                “I’m sorry Taps! Orders!” he whispered. Taps turned to Johnny and tackled him to the ground kneeling on his chest she slammed her fist into his nose repeatedly. Johnny tried to retaliate with his knife but only managed to cut her once. He sliced across the skin on her stomach ripping through the front of her dress which only made Taps madder and she hit him harder, until finally Matt pulled her away from him.

                “Shh! Taps its okay, he’ll be okay! You’ll be fine!” he tried to comfort her. She turned slowly looking at him murder in her eyes. But instead of hurting him she ran.

                She slept that night on the roof top. Wallowing silently in dispare. ‘why didn’t I go when I had the chance to save him?’ she asked time and again. But no answer came. She didn’t shed a single tear through that night. She was beyond tears. All she could do was stare up at the rain as it fell softly on her bleeding stomach.

                The week that followed dragged by unbearably slowly. She sold only because she had to do so to be able to eat. She avoided all the places shed seen Keiran in the past, his house, his gambling club, even her regular selling spot where he passed by every day. Her heart wasn’t in her work she couldn’t eat or even sleep.

                One evening she found herself in the upper east side of Manhattan she’d wandered far further than normal on her route and the sky had been threatening rain all day. She glanced at a clock that hung in a shop window, it was 11:30 or nearly. She sighed quietly and turned to go back to the lodging house.  The sky opened up and a horrible thunderstorm raged. She didn’t quicken her pace however until she saw Johnny hurrying toward her six shot in hand and looking furious with a horribly bruised nose. She did the only thing she could think of. She ran inside the nearest building. It was a house, the family wasn’t rich, but well off none the less, they’d all gone to bed and she crept up the stairs checking the first floor rooms for a place to hide. The first room she checked held the sleeping parents and she pulled the door silently closed. She stepped down the hall and opened the next door. The room held three beds each one with a small child tucked lovingly in to them. She looked at the kids and sighed quietly at how peaceful they looked. How happy they were. She gently pulled the door shut and headed to the third door. Pulling it open revealed a set of stairs she promptly climbed. The room at the top contained a bed and a dresser a bedside table with an antique lamp sitting on it. The window was open slightly and the rain fell inside. She went to the window and pulled it silently closed pulling the lock shut. She looked out into the rain and then turned to the room, it was dusty she assumed it was a spare room, for visitors. There were a pair of towels set out on the end of the bed she hesitated a moment then took one and dried herself off curling it around her hair. She took the same towel and dried the trail of drips she’d left on the floor in the room. Micah sat down on the edge of the bed sadly looking out in the rain, she absentmindedly folded the towel and set it back where she’d gotten it from. Thunder shook the house. A child from down the stairs woke and started to cry. She heard the other two wake up and try to comfort the little one. A light turned on and the mother rushed to the child’s side. She wondered if the mother would notice the hall door being open. She didn’t worry. Lightning flashed ripping open the sky and making it look like daylight. Taps saw a girl sitting in a covered alley across the road. She was pregnant and wearing a torn old dress, she had perched on a barrel and her long blonde curls hung limp and wet. Taps wondered if the woman had a nice home to go to. She hoped so. She pitied the girl for being out there. The child had stopped crying. And the light had been turned off. The storm raged for quite some time getting close and closer. Each time a clash of lightning went off Taps counted out the seconds. Each time she lost a good couple of seconds between the flashes of light and the earth shattering bangs. Finally the light came at the same time as the crash and the noise was so loud the house actually shook. Another crash, her room lit up bright as day and she shut her eyes from the sound. When she opened them again however the light had not disappeared. There was a considerable amount of fire blazing in the door way and she froze fear in her features, the fire was raging fast and nobody had woken up to her knowledge. She screamed loud for them to wake up and tried to pull the window open. She watched in horror as the father and mother ran out into the rain and the pregnant woman from across the road ran inside. She screamed for help once then went back to trying to open the window and watched as another person raced into the house. He came back out in a moment with one of the kids. She turned to face the flames as they inched closer to her.  She looked around the room desperately. She grabbed hold of the quilt on the bed and tried to suffocate the flames but they ate through the fabric quickly and she coughed trying to get a breath of fresh air through the smoke. She turned back to the window remembering the lock she grabbed at it but the metal burned her fingertips and she let go quickly shaking her hand to try to get the heat off. She felt sweat dripping down her spine and the flames crackles laughing as they devoured everything they could reach. There were two kids out on the lawn and the boy came back out with the third. She hadn’t seen the woman and started to worry for that poor woman’s safety. Even Taps knew a woman with a baby should never be inside a burning building.   She could hear the boy calling out through the flames. They arched up and started eating at the ceiling above her. She decided to make a run and go through the flames but just at the moment she’d picked a large portion of the floor in front of her caved in and fell to the second floor on top of the children’s beds. She screamed slightly startled, she heard a voice coming up the stairs. Micah called out to the voice and the woman from the road stepped through the flames and yelled at her to run. Taps pointed out the gap in the floor and the woman grabbed a loose floorboard laying it across the hole and taking a step out, the girl offered Taps a hand. She gladly grabbed it and jumped across the hole then ran down the stairs past the boy who had by then been joined by a girl Taps found slightly familiar. Taps made an exit and ran all the way back to the lodging house through the rain.

                Several nights later she stood in the street near Keiran’s gambling club surrounded by three of Johnny’s best fighters. One, a black man wore a suit and tie with a nice top hat. He carried a chain in his pocket she knew but he hadn’t showed it or used it yet, the next was an Irish bare knuckles boxer, he wore no shirt and had obviously not bathed in quite a while. The third was a good old American boy, he was a born and bred New Yorker, Johnny’s cousin, usually just along for the ride. She sighed quietly as the third, Colby, pulled out a revolver and the Irish guy, Reily beat his palm with a wooden club. She looked at the black man half expecting him to pull out his chain instead he held out a hand and spoke smoothly,

                “Let her run! I want to have some fun tonight!” to this she grinned broadly and took off down the road with the three hot in pusuit. She turned a corner at the end of the road sharply but only got past one building before she was grabbed around the waist from behind and pulled into an alley. ‘Why does this happen so often?’ she wondered but she turned on the water works knowing Johnny was the one who held her tight as the three thugs kept going down the road.

“Johnny please! I'll get your money please don’t kill me! I'll do anything just give me a week... I'll tell you who killed him! It was a girl... She didn’t mean to and then two guys ran up... Please Johnny don’t kill me! I’m sorry! I just need a week! Please I'll do anything! I'll sleep with you, you always wanted that! Please one week!” she stopped breathing in deep then a soft voice came from behind her startling her.

 “Micah... Hunny it's me...”she calmed down and the tears quite suddenly stopped falling.

“You ...You aint Johnny is yah?” she didn’t turn, not quite yet, and he didn’t let her go.

 “No hunny” she turned slowly and looked up into Kieran’s face her jaw dropped a small scream escaped her lips and she stumbled back stepping away from him in terror.

 “Kieran..” She shook her head  “but you.. they... and...” she kept backing up until she hit the wall and stopped a horrified look in her eyes. “Your dead!” she uttered softly.

 “No baby.. Why would I be dead?” he asked attempting a step toward her.

 “Cause.. Johnny.. he shot you six times... he ... I saw you.. in the alley.. you .. you’re  dead!” She sank down to her knees shaking a little at the memory at the thoughts and confusion running through her head. He knelt down in front of her gently stroking her hair.

 “Hun I'm here. I'm just fine. I've been at work all day...” She looked at him on the verge of tears.

 “He.. he showed me!” she started to sob quietly. “You were dead... he shot you...”

 “No babe it wasn't me...” He hugged her close. “you can ask the guys at work I'm ok...” she tentatively returned his hug then lets the tears fall harder making up for the time she tried to hide them.

 “Oh thank god!! I Love you!” She sobbed. He smiled softly.

“I love you too...”she pulled away wiping tears from her face and trying to get a hold of herself.

 “Oh I’m so sorry!”

 “It's ok angel...” she stood up slowly.

“I shouldn’t cry...”

 “It's ok to cry my baby..” he pulled her into a warm hug which she gladly returned until she realized what she’d said earlier and how he’d heard her confession. She hoped he didn’t ask about that.

 “Now... you were talking about my cousin and myself just a minute ago” she slowly turned her eyes up to meet his.

“I... uh... I'd better go...” she turned to leave.

 “Nope.. Sorry kiddo not this time...” he grabbed a hold of her gently. She turned a saddened look in her eyes.

“So.. I’m a gangster.. I'm wanted in every state except New York... and now I’m wanted here too... you want an explanation no doubt?” she sighed.

 “No... don't I understand” He held her close. “I understand” she pulled away a little explaining herself anyway.

 “I was supposed to kill Deakon.. I followed him to the park the night we met.. this girl.. he attacked her she killed him... then two guys cleaned it up.. they left I went back and cleaned it up better.. then the cops saw me in a stolen carriage and chased me down to your house... anyways Johnny gave me a thousand dollars to kill him and he found out I didn’t.. I tried to take off I couldn’t leave you so the money got ruined in the river... he wants the money or he wants me dead.. I swear” she took a step away from him. “if I ever find out who that girl was... oh she'll be so dead!” he sighed softly.

 “No she won't hun... that was my cousin” she turned and looked at him sharply.

 “You knew... you knew all along!”

 “I didn't know that it had anything to do with you angel.” She sighed.

 “Well now you know I’m a murderer..” she shrugged casually. “I told you you'd hate finding out what’s going on...”he shrugged back to her surprise.

 “Could have been worse.” She gave him a quizzical look.

 “Please don’t pretend your okay with this...

 “After what I've done all my life hun it doesn't bother me one bit.” She furrowed her brows thoroughly confused with his response.

 “So.. you.. don’t.. you don’t like me any less?”

 “Nope... not a bit babe.. as a matter of fact... were a lot more alike than you know...but I'll spare you the gory details. Just leave my cousin alone and I'll take care of this little problem with Johnny..” she smiled a little for the first time since she’d seen his body in that alley and looked down.

 “Wow.. this is a real weight off my shoulders...” she let out a deep breath.

 “He wouldn't have touched me anyhow. he's in enough trouble with me as it is” He smiled.

 “But he showed me a body...” she tried to understand how he could be there dead but alive again. Matt’s word echoed loud in her mind.

 “But I'd feel safer if you stick with me tonight ok” he asked looking down so his eyes met hers. She nodded slightly.

 “I’m sorry.. I didn’t tell you sooner!”

“It's ok.” She couldn’t think of anything to do with herself so she kissed him, to which he gladly returned.

 “I don’t know what I would have done if you were really dead...” she whispered.

 “It's ok.. I'm not” She smiled.

 “I’m glad!”

“Yeah me too” he laughed. She even laughed a bit with him, she was surprised at how good it felt to just laugh again. She hadn’t in so long. He picked her up in his arms and she circled hers around his neck giggling as he did he cradled her in his arms.

 “I love you” He told her. She leaned against his chest snuggling up to him.

“I love you too!”

 “Good...So now what? No wait I know!”

 “Now you kiss me like I’ve never been kissed before?” she asked suddenly feeling playful.

 “That’s good too... but something else first” He said grinning. He struck her curiosity.

 “What?” he blushed and set her down taking a small box from his pocket.

“This is gonna sound crazy because we are so new together... but...” he opened the box and knelt down on one knee.

“Marry me?” She looked down at him an amazed grin plastered on her features for the second before she fainted away letting him catch her.

 “Well.. there’s an answer for me...” he said. He leaned down and kissed the girl softly, then picked her up. “Wake up little angel.” She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him a little groggy.

“uhn....”

 “Wake up babe”

 “I love you!” She managed to mumble.

“I know and I love you too... can I have my answer yet?”

 “Yes....”

 “To which question” he smirked.

 “Both!” she smiled up at him.