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It was high noon, seems things always happen at high noon out west, as “Lucky” Luigi Linguini stopped for a short siesta, before heading into town. Lucky liked to give the appearance that he was always alert and ready for action, so he naps a whole lot. A quick nap recharges one’s soul and well being, at least that is what he believes. Lucky has been a cowboy for a long time, ‘as long as he can recall’ he will respond when asked, and over that time he has developed many superstitious behaviors. One of them is his quick nap before returning to town, under a tree, that he calls Bertha.
This tree, Bertha as lucky refers to it, is humongous. With a trunk bigger than any house and standing at least three stories high. Bertha is an oddity out west, where most of the trees look more akin to giant bushes, this tree appears to be a close relative of the great California Redwood. As for the name, Bertha was Lucky’s mother, she was a rather large lady. Lucky states that, as a boy, in his mother’s arms is the last time he ever-felt safe and secure. He also points out that the day his mother left this world is the same day that he became a cowboy. So you could do the math, if you were a learned person and calculate just how long he has been a cowboy. Oh but then you would need to know when his mother had passed, and Lucky has never revealed that information.
Being a tough cowboy and all, Lucky does not travel alone. Another one of the superstitions he has acquired over his time as a cowboy. He believes you should always travel in groups of three. So along with him on his journeys is his trusty horse, Eugene. It has never been clear why he calls his horse that. Some believe that it might be his father’s name, which would make sense given that he tends to use names of those close to him. But in all the years of him being a cowboy, Lucky he has never even mentioned his father. It is as if he never had one. Eugene is not actually a real horse, but rather a black pony. Lucky believes that a pony is smaller and thus faster than any horse. From time to time, Eugene has pulled Lucky’s hiney out a situation of two, so he may be right about that.
Lucky also travels with a sidekick of sorts, his trusty partner F. Thomas, a white cat. F. Thomas makes a great lookout while Lucky takes his naps, and has been know to cause a distraction or two, in times of need. F. Thomas was a gift from Lucky’s late mother on the last Christmas she was alive. His mom named the cat, and Lucky just called the cat Thomas, but once him mother had passed, he remembered that she called the cat by two names, with Thomas being the second name. All he could recall of the first name was that it began with an F, so F. Thomas it was. Lucky has risked his life on numerous occasions to save F. Thomas hide, but the same is true in reverse for the cat. You could say Lucky has been lucky to have the cat by his side on several instances.
That about rounds out this little traveling posse of Lucky’s. Now it is time to get down to siesta-ing or whatever the verb form is. Lucky hunkers down at the base of the tree and lowers his hat over his face. Lucky has a full black mustache that hangs from the corners of his mouth to his chin. His skin is browned like leather, from being in the sun the majority of the time. He has a full head of hair, black also, which he usually wears pulled back in a ponytail. Lucky is to wearing button up plaid shirts, red in color. His pants appear to be jean material, covered in leather chaps, which almost match his skin color. He’s also a big fan of the steel toe boot. Currently his boots are black, although he once had to settle for a dark brown pair, which he claims were the best boots he had ever owned.
As Lucky nods off to sleep, his trusty horse and sidekick stand guard and watch over him. Lucky does not share much personal information about his self, but he does talk quite a bit about this reoccurring dream he has. He is living in a house, no longer a cowboy. He now mines gold on his property to make ends meet and do they ever meet. Even though he has a pond full of gold, just beyond of his porch, he still gets up ever morning and mines for gold. He tends to spend a couple of hours out in the mine at the crack of dawn, while his wife and kids are asleep inside the house.
No Lucky’s not currently married, for all you single ladies out there, but he does have his heart set on a special lady, one Lucey McLymont. So you better have some good game if you wish to get this cowboy’s attention. Lucey is a bar maid at the saloon he frequents in town, also the daughter of the town’s pastor. However even though her name is Lucey, Lucky always refers to her as Alice. He states that she looks exactly like he imaged Alice, from the Alice books by Lewis Carroll, that his mother would to read him as a small boy. Lucey was beautiful with long blonde hair, rosy cheeks and a tall slender figure that curved in all the right spots. She was smart and witty also, traits that Lucky felt most females lacked.
As for the kids, Lucky always dreams of a set of twins, one boy and one girl. The boy he calls Addison, he says the name was Alice’s choice and the girl, Novena after the prayers he used to say at his mother’s bedside as she was dying. In the dreams the kids’ ages will change, although they are never babies. He claims that he hopes for twins to get all of those baby years out of the way in one swoop. And states that the ages of five to thirteen are where the real fun happens. Before five, kids are too small to do anything with and after thirteen, they want nothing to do with their parents until they become adults. Both children have blonde hair also, but Addison’s tends to get dark if he is older in the dream.
The dreams also include his trusty pony, Eugene and his sidekick F. Thomas. The family home has a small barn build on one side of it to house Eugene. There are several windows that connect the barn to the house so that Eugene may peek in on the family happenings, through out the day. F. Thomas has quite a bit of space to himself in the house, as well. There are many dressers, beds and bookshelves to hide behind or on top of, but the cat usually is found at Lucky’s side or in his lap.
In his dreams once the family awakes and he smells breakfast, Lucky will clean himself up and spend the rest of the day with his family. That is the point where this dream is interrupted by a loud boom followed by F.Thomas scratching violently at Lucky’s chest.
“Stop it boy, I’s awake,” Lucky’s mumbles at the cat.
The cat continues to scratch at Lucky’s chest.
“I said… I was awake, what in tarnations is the matta with ya? Cat?” Lucky hold the cat up by the extra skin on the back of it’s neck, “and what is all that dang noise you’s is makin’? Sounds like ya broken into a dynamite shed again and accidentically set off a couple of sticks.”
Now he is looking the cat straight in the eyes, “you don’t have no’s dynamite do ya, cat?”
While looking at F. Thomas, he catches a glimpse of something reflected in the cat’s eye and quickly turns around. There just over beyond the rear of town is a smoke plume filling the air.
“That there smoke, wasn’t there when I feel asleep, was it?” he questions the cat and waits a second as if he was expecting and answer back.
“No it wasn’t, was it?”
“We better git into town and see what is happenin’, wouldn’t ya say F. Thomas?”
Lucky then pauses again before packing up his things and mounting Eugene to head into town.
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