CHAPTER 19

Kay Kay Keetone had had it – up to there.  She stormed into the Crawlback Inn and marched up to Rancher Clem, standing toe-to-toe even though his dried-sweat-and-tobacco aroma made her slightly nauseous.  Taking a quick but not to deep breath, she began a stream of angry complaints that stopped all other conversations at the bar.  “You inconsiderate, incompetent numbskull,” she thundered.

It wasn’t that Kay Kay’s homemade hacksaws weren’t useable they just looked so flimsy.  She had tried to sell them in every hardware store in town and although the local proprietors may have held personal reservations, the venture could have gotten off the ground had not Rancher Clem chosen that week to go from store to store and making snide remarks about uppity girls and cheep materials along the way.

“You better watch it, Old Man,” Kay Kay threatened, “I’m gonna ream you in ways that will give you nightmares ‘til Kingdom Come.”  Rancher Clem flinched but then turned to another grizzled beer-drinker standing nearby.  “You hear that, Moe?” he said in a voice that was loud but a bit shaky.  “This here little red-head is threatening me with an orange juice squeezer”

Moe turned from where he had been regaling his crony, Charm, with the story of his life, to catch Rancher Clem’s words.  “Haw,” he shouted, “You tell that little girl what for.  We don’t need any females trying to make tools around here.”  He turned to address Kay Kay’s general direction.  “You go back with your ma in the kitchen there, Missy,” he scoffed.  Kay Kay felt like she was chocking on their alcoholic breath.  She looked around briefly for someone who might back her up but Charm seemed indifferent.  There were only one or two other people in the place, and they were talking at the far end of the bar.  Finally she just yelled at the two men, “It’s no use even bothering to talk to you!”  And stormed out of the building with raucous laughter following behind her.