Once Jupiter had woken up from the blast to the back of the head from those inbred fellas, he tried to get a read on where he was.
Cold, old, rusted steel bars was the first thing he saw. Two thin sheets and a flat pillow on poor mason work was the first thing he felt. The smell of mildew and unwashed bodies hung thick in the stale air. Much like a locker room that has never been clean.
He looked across the way and he saw Whisper watching him. It looked as if she was willing him to wake with her mind. Her elbows resting on spread legs, her eyes locked on his with an intensity that made his chest tighten. One of her braids hung across her face, giving her a very appealing look that sparked a fire inside him.
Jupiter swung himself around so he could raise up like Christ and get an accurate read on the place the two of them were in. Alright, maybe three of them were in?
There was another person sitting at a desk by the door. His feet were up on the desk and he was snoring, sound asleep, his hat tipped forward over his face. There were only two cells in the place, both in opposite corners, with a small path that separated the cells. He faced the person he assumed was the sheriff.
To his right there was a coffee pot on a fire. The way it looked, the coffee inside had turned to mud if not ash at the moment—thick, burnt-smelling sludge that had been cooking for hours, maybe days. There was another desk that was in front of the cell that Whisper was in, only smaller, and there was one file cabinet on either side of the small desk. There was also a gun box on the wall that looked like it may have six to eight shotguns or rifles inside, the wood scarred and the lock heavy.
Between the two cells there was a strongbox that looked like it had various kinds of shackles and restraints inside—iron cuffs, leg irons, chains of different lengths. Right above the strongbox there was a fixture embedded into the masonry. It looked possibly decorative and very old. It had to have been placed there when the building was made. It looked like a tapered triangle with an upside-down letter "Y" connecting the corners. There looked to be some symbols under it but they looked very strange—angular, deliberate, nothing he had ever seen before. Maybe Whisper could understand what it was about.
Jupiter tried not to wake the man until he had as much information as he could get.
"Whisper, do… you… know… what… that… is?" He whispered to her as he pointed to the thing on the wall.
Whisper hated it when people talked to her like she was deaf. She was slow in learning the English language but what she did know she knew very well. She shook her head no. The knot in front of her face only swung back and forth but did not move otherwise. The expression on her face did not flinch.
Jupiter's shoulders dropped.
Whisper had tried talking with Jupiter on the trip to the Arizona territory but he was not very big on talking. After Jupiter looked like he was done realizing that they must be in the jail of the town they were in, Whisper motioned over to the sleeping man. Jupiter knew it was time to wake the man. There was little else he could do from his position. He had been stripped of everything he had on him and this time, Whisper had her hair gone through. Someone made sure that they would not get away like they were able to last time.
Jupiter pushed his face through the bars and, at the top of his voice he yelled, "HEY! We want some food!"
The man that was sleeping in the chair, fell back and the man crashed to the floor with a heavy thud. His hat fell off and rolled in front of Jupiter's cell. His gun fell out and slid to a position where Jupiter might be able to grab it—just a few inches outside the bars. He could see that this man was not Sheriff because of his top-tier crime-solving skills.
The man jumped to his feet. With the speed he tried to collect himself with, he made himself look even more foolish than when he fell out of his own chair.
"Wha, what, wo, who—" Rex opened the door to the office to reveal nobody at all, which he shut quicker than he opened it. He made four half-spins and opened a drawer for some reason or another. He shut the drawer and looked at Jupiter who had not moved an inch since Rex had fallen. Whisper looked on unamused.
Jupiter looked at Rex, then looked at the gun that Rex let sit near the cell, then looked back at Rex.
"Aw, shit, did I lose that damn gun again?" Rex made two steps and grabbed his gun. He attempted to holster it with one hand and he missed time after time. Finally he grabbed the holster with his free hand and sent the revolver to its resting spot on his hip.
"Sump'n I can do for you?" Rex asked.
Jupiter replied, "We hungry. Are we gettin fed in here or not?"
Rex nodded and opened the door to the Sheriff's office and walked out, the door banging shut behind him.
Jupiter hung his hands outside the bars and waited. Whisper still had not moved from the position she had been in when Jupiter had woken up.
Jupiter and Whisper waited for about forty-five minutes to an hour. He noticed that the bricks of the cell wall had been much smaller, yet wider than any cell he had been in before. Coming from the South, Jupiter had spent much time in jail for things such as walking into a door that a white woman was walking out of, attempting to steal a horse for sale with money in his hand, and let's not forget, having a white-skinned brother. Much of the reason for becoming a lawman was to travel the South unmolested. They seemed to have no issue with freed men that played music at train stations or danced at the bus stop. But a quiet man that had no emotion written on his face, that was a bridge too far.
Rex walked into the office with two plates of food that he had gotten from the Tsavorite. He gave one to Whisper and one to Jupiter. Chicken, peas, and applesauce. There were no utensils so, after his face telegraphing his realization to anyone that could see, Rex popped out again and returned with the tools that they needed to eat like humans tend to eat.
Once Rex returned from getting silverware for Jupiter and Whisper, Jupiter asked, "You know why we was put in here?"
Jupiter liked people to underestimate him whenever possible. From time to time he would purposefully make his speech sound much dumber than he normally sounded. People would either assume there was no way this idiot could beat them or they would feel sorry for him. Both seemed to work to his advantage so it was a tactic that he used often.
Rex responded, "The Mayor says you broke into his house and you tried to steal a horse."
Jupiter then asked, his voice slow and confused, "I was stealin the horse when I was inside the house or did I try and do that after I stole nothin from inside the house?"
Rex answered, scratching his head, "Oh, they didn't say but he was in an awful sore mood when I got there. I's gunna let the judge sort that out. I just look out and lock em up."
Rex's laugh trailed off once he saw that nobody near him found anything he was saying amusing. The silence hung heavy in the jail.
"When's the trial?" Jupiter asked.
Rex responded, "Couple hours I reckon."
Jup nodded his head.
After a couple hours passed or so someone came to get the pair. Rex chained them up—wrists bound together, the metal biting into their skin—and walked them over to the town hall. The same building where Point had been kicked out of town not long ago.
After they were sat down, Jupiter looked around. There were three men in the building other than him and Whisper. Judge, someone who looked like a clerk or lackey, and Rex the Sheriff. No jury. No spectators. No witnesses. Just the bare minimum to make it look official.
The Judge stood up and asked, his voice booming in the chamber, "You two was seen breakin into the house of Mr. Cyrus. You stole a horse and was caught red handed."
Jupiter stood up and said, "I have the right to face my accuser! Where is this person that saw or caught me red handed?"
The judge fired back, slamming his gavel down hard enough to make the clerk flinch, "The only rights YOU get are the ones I let ya have, son. That bein said I give ya the right to swing by a rope like a monkey. You are found guilty, and I sentence the two of you to be hanged tomorrow. You will swing by the neck until dead. You hear me boy? DEAD!"
Jupiter rolled his eyes and said, his voice calm and clear, "You are aware that I am a deputy U.S. Marshal?"
The Judge began to look very uneasy and started to stutter a little, realizing that he may have gotten in over his head, "N… no matter, judgment stands."
Jupiter's face had zero surprise on it. Towns like this were all the same. They think just because the world never enters their town, that they can play by rules that they make up. Generate a new reality that is built by the fantasy they want to live in. When reality does bite them in the ass, usually with a slug into the forehead, they realize it has become far too late to back-pedal what they have done.
This behavior was not new. People have been doing this since before Jesus Christ walked the earth and they will keep doing it until he returns. Only thing we can do is to fight these delusional bastards, with their waves of manufactured reality. If we gotta go down, make sure we go down swinging!
Before Whisper and Jupiter are hauled back off to jail, Jupiter stands up, eyes the judge down out the tops of his eyes—his chin dropped, his gaze cold and cutting from beneath his brow—and says, "Ya know judge, I have a feelin that you the one gunna be swingin long before my neck ever sees a rope."
The judge's face went pale. Rex grabbed Jupiter by the arm and yanked him toward the door, but Jupiter never broke eye contact as Rex put chains back on them both. Not until the heavy door slammed shut behind them and they were back out on the street, heading toward the jail.