“Oooooookay,” puzzled Sunshine MacGilicutty as she took a small step away from her already adjudged slightly goofy friend who now seemed teetering dangerously over a downright bizarre precipice. “That’s funny…”

“…and poignant.”, added Festus cutting Sunshine off mid-thought. “Don’t fergit to add POIGNANT.”, entreated the daffy sidekick pronouncing the word like “POY-GUH-NUNT.” “Oh, Mattikins. If you only knew how much I adore you.”, he sighed and leaned dreamily against the hitching post tilting his head back, closing his enraptured eyes and snuggling himself. “Tall in the saddle. Tender in my arms.”

Sunshine drew her gun, aimed it squarely at the squirrelly reprobate, and fired point blank. BAM!

“What was THAT!”, shrieked the totally dazed and befuddled Sunshine as she roused herself from the porch floor, legs akimbo her fallen chair and realizing Matt stood above her strong and athletically balanced, smoking gun in hand. There was a bullet hole and two pieces of rattlesnake where her chair once previously leaned for her customary afternoon siesta.

“Just a little visitor. …Won’t be hurtin’ anyone now.”, promised the marshal in the soothing earnestness that always melted Sunshine’s heart as he picked up the rattle-end of the unwelcomed and unfortunate creature and flung it effortlessly into the middle of the street and shuffled the really dangerous end under the saloon porch with his boot in a graceful way that only served to emphasize his honest manliness.

“Thanks, Matt.”, whispered Sunshine still trying to make sense of the scene fresh in her head and fresher in her eyes.

She picked herself up with Matt’s firm yet tender hand and stumbled slightly against his broad chest. Their eyes met for the briefest moment. Sunshine nervously shook herself off and tried to gather her thoughts while Matt maintained his concerned, protective gaze upon her.

“I think I need a drink.”, asserted Sunshine as she let her hand slip from Matt’s and she took one slightly wobbling step toward the saloon doors.

“Mind if I join you?”, invited Matt, still unsure whether he could safely leave Sunshine to herself.

“Oh, would you, Matt. I could use the company after… …that.”, Sunshine affirmed drowsily as she was beginning to regain some semblance of composure after… that.

“Yeah, that rattler looked a might too friendly for your safety and my liking. Sorry to have to wake you in such a loud way. Although, I must say you looked none too peaceful napping, there Sunshine, if I do say so myself.”, offered Matt with that simple sincerity that every female, especially Sunshine, found compelling and no female, also especially Sunshine, could resist.

“Oh, …THAT. Yes, thanks, Matt.”, spoke Sunshine in red-faced embarrassment remembering her position on the porch when she most recently saw and felt Matt’s eyes upon her. “…You saved me from that snake. But, I was in the middle of a most peculiar dream.”

“Care to tell me about it?”, tendered Matt with his solid, square manner that told you he could be trusted with your most private thoughts.

“Hmm…”, mused Sunshine mulling the odd and uncomfortable scene in her head and quickly figuring it would be best to let it live only in the solitary confinement of her mind. “…maybe in my next life.”

“Let me get you a beer, then.”, Matt proposed as he strode up to the bar next to Sunshine.

“MATTHEW! I’M A COMIN’ FER YA…”

At these words from just outside the barroom entrance the small cluster of patrons, including Matt and Sunshine, instinctively turned to the doorway just as Festus kicked a booted but otherwise bare leg through the doors, turned sideways to navigate the opening just created and stepped full figure into the room, legs astraddle, hands at the waist of his pink gingham dress with pinafore apron, smiling a freakish girly smile beneath a matching pink gingham bonnet. The barroom doors popped him in the fanny as they swung back into place and he lurched slightly forward.

“Dear GAWD!”, burbled Sunshine on her way to an unconscious landing on the floor.