Sam placed her first two bullets inside
the three inch circle, and by then the crowd was totally wild. Nobody could believe
it. The judge stopped, and bellowed, “Everbody shut up!” Jack Davis was so red
faced and angry by now, most everyone did. On her last shot, a strand from her
brown wig was giving her some trouble, so she had to start her process over
again. Sam was afraid her time limit was about to expire. She may have rushed a
bit. The last shot was close, but outside the three inch circle.
It was close. The two men who put all
three balls inside the three inch circle were in the finals. Sam and two men
had two inside the circle, with one out. One of those men was a half inch
closer than Sam but she edged out the other man by a half inch. Sam was in the
finals! The crowd could just not believe it!
The final shootoff was scheduled for after
lunch, but Sam could eat no lunch that day. Her stomach was all in knots.
It seemed most everybody in the crowd
wanted to come over and meet Sam during the lunch break. Everybody was talking
about what had just taken place. Finally, Sam walked away and found herself a
quiet spot. She needed to rest. She was completely worn out, physically and
emotionally.
The finals began. The best score shot
first, so Sam was, once more, shooting last. A totally new target was nailed up
to another large tree nearby. The wind was mostly settled, so everyone was
shooting their best. All three men put both bullets inside the three inch
circle, none hit dead center, but some were only an inch, or maybe a little
less, away.
Sam had already decided to ditch the wig.
She had planned to keep it on while she was in Nashville, because she had no
plans to go back to the Clan, and sooner or later, Slim would be looking for
her. But it messed up her last shot, so it had to go. She remembered how the
crowd had reacted to her bright red hair in Taladega, so she decided she would
just play to the crowd.
Sam’s turn. She walked up to the rail, put
her gun up, and made just a bit of a show as she pulled her wig off, allowing
the most beautiful red hair anyone had ever seen to curl down around her
shoulders. Jack Davis tried his best, again, to shut them up. But this time, he
could not. But it didn’t matter. Sam was focused. No wind. Sam slowly squeezed
off. It felt good. The field judge took a look, and started laughing. “Dead
Center Bullseye!”
Well, the crowd was completely out of
control by now. Jack Davis didn’t even try to settle things. He just stood
there, shaking his head.
But as Sam put her wet thumb up in the air
for the second shot, a strange thing happened. The crowd went stone cold quiet.
Not a whisper was heard. Again, no wind at all. She squeezed off. The silence
continued and the field judge took a look. He seemed to be surprised, but for
an entirely different reason this time. There was no hole in the target for
this shot.
The field judge bellowed, “A clean miss!!”
Sam was thunderstruck. She couldn’t believe it. Her three opponents were very
relieved, and the stress was gone from their faces.
She
knew something was wrong, and she thought she knew what. She walked over to
Jack Davis, and they talked a moment. Davis was madder than ever, and was
shaking all over as he bellowed out,
“No!” Now, a one-of-a-kind thing was happening………
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