To read the previous Twirl, go here.

For my new Invisible Friends, Twirl is the story of a star-crossed ballerina named Vivi and her handsome cowboy named Wade, who have stumbled into a international ballet scandal and a old Texas legend that might possibly lead to riches! To catch up in the archives, go to the Never Ending Stories Tab at the top of this site.

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Barreling down dusty roads and old highways with faded signs, Vivi and Wade raced through the night.  The radio was blaring, their hearts were pounding and both were praying for mercy from small town sheriffs and their speed traps.  After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a few hours, Vivi and Wade skidded into the parking lot of the Bahia Del Diablo ten minutes after midnight.  Vivi breathed a sigh of relief.  Even from inside the car, she could hear the pounding beats of music and see golden light streaming from the windows.

“That’s odd,” Wade frowned, hunching over the steering wheel and peering through the windshield at the restaurant.  “It shouldn’t be open this late.”

“Maybe they’re paying tribute to their saloon roots,” Vivi replied impatiently.  “Who cares?  We’re wasting time!”  She grabbed the door handle, but Wade shook his head.

“I don’t know, Vivi,” he drawled, eyeing the beat up trucks and ancient Cadillacs in the parking lot.  “I don’t think we want to be bursting in there.”

“But Wade!” Vivi whined, shaking the door handle, “We’ve got to go!  Margaret’s in there already–look!” she cried, pointing to a black car.

“Vivi, I don’t think”–

“Oh, come on,” she huffed, kicking the door open and leaping out of the car.  “Quit worrying and let’s just go!”  Without looking back, she raced towards the Bahia Del Diablo large wooden doors.

“Vivi!”  Wade hissed.  “Vivi, don’t–Hell and tarnation!”  Cursing under his breath, he shut the door to his truck and locked it, loping after Vivi.

Giddy with anticipation, Vivi burst through the wooden doors.  Her smile faded as soon as her eyes adjusted to her surrounds.  She took a step back just as Wade stumbled in after her.  He looked up and grit his teeth.  Forcing a smile, he tipped his hat.  “Gentlemen.”

Three tables of five elderly Hispanic and white men, all wearing cowboy hats and guns on their hips, stared at him.  Each man clutched a fistful of cards in one hand and a beer in the other.  The air reeked of cigar smoke and Tejano music was blaring.  One man with a black handlebar mustache and beady eyes stood, his Western shirt stained with sweat.

“We’re closed,” he snarled in a thick Mexican accent.  “Get out.”

An older man with a glint in his brown eyes smiled around the cigar jammed in his teeth.  “Hey Rodriquez, maybe the boy wants to play,” he drawled, eyeing Vivi.  “And maybe the girl wants to dance.  We haven’t had a young lady as pretty as that in a long time.”

“Excuse me!” Vivi cried, indignant.  “I most certainly won’t”-

“No sir,” Wade interrupted, sliding Vivi behind him.  “We’re not here to play, and we’re not here to dance.”

The beady eyed man with the thick mustache stepped toward him, his thick nostrils twitching as he sniffed.  “Policia?” he asked, his eyes combing Wade for a badge.

“No sir,” Wade replied, trying to keep a twitching Vivi behind him.

“Then what do you want, son?” another man hissed impatiently, clunking his beer down on the table.  “You’re interrupting our game.”

“Yes sir.  I do apologize.  You see, my girlfriend and I”–

“Listen, boys,” Vivi burst out, thrusting herself in front of Wade and jamming her hands on her hips.  Wade groaned and buried his face in his hands.  Some of the men laughed, others just raised an eyebrow.  “Listen.  We’re trying to find the treasure of Bullet Bill.  One of our clues is here.”

“How do you know that?” the piggy eyed man hissed, crossing his arms.

“Because I have a letter from Bullet Bill to Addy with a coded message,” Vivi informed him.  “It said:

“Across the open desert,

That dark and windy day.

The cowboy rode one last time,

Into the town of Devil’s Bay.

The night was black,

The Devils Bay saloon a glowing.

He tied up his horse,

His parched throat dying for liquor.

And then he saw him,

Standing in the ally,

with death in his eyes.

Lean and mean,

With a smile that would make a baby cry,

The man said to the old cowboy:

“Cowboy, you’re riding hard,

But you won’t take what you’ve come for.

Let’s settle this, you and me,

With my old friend, Pearly Jane.”

“And then he raised his pistol,

Gleaming in the night.

One shot, it was done.

And the cowboy rode into the night.”

Then men murmured amongst themselves, some crossing their chests.  “So you see,” Vivi added, “The clue is here.  So what kind of original artifacts do you have from the old saloon?”

“That’s all you want?” the man with the cigar clamped in his teeth asked.

“That’s all we want,” Wade confirmed.

The man with the cigar nodded to the piggy eyed man with the flaring nostrils.  “Take them to the dance hall,” he ordered.  “Then we’ll play another hand.”

The other man grunted and waved a greasy hand.  “Come on,” he snarled.  “It’s out back.”

Grabbing Vivi’s hand, Wade tipped his hat towards the other men.  “Thank you,” he murmured.

“Much obliged,” Vivi added, pleased with how Texan she sounded.

Wade’s lips twitched as he pulled Vivi after the man with the thick black mustache.  The man slid out of the back of the restaurant, through the kitchen doors, crossed the property to an old wooden building with a half-rotted porch.  Kicking the wooden door open, he flipped on a few buzzing lightbulbs.  Vivi blinked, glancing around as the light grew stronger.  The room was empty save for a few long benches and tables on the sides, with a dance floor in the center.  An piano sat in one corner next to a small bar, a stage in the back.  Over the stage was a framed picture.  Vivi narrowed her eyes towards it, but couldn’t tell what it was.

“This is the original dance floor of the Devil’s Bay Saloon,” the man told them.  “We kept it so we could get historical standing–more money for the government, see.  Everything’s pretty much as it was–just put in electricity, no air conditioning though.  People only come in here when they rent the place for events.  Stay as long as you like.  When you leave, just leave.  And keep your mouths shut,” he snarled, waving a greased stained fist at them.

Vivi opened her mouth and Wade clapped a hand over it.  “We’ll be sure to do that, sir,” he replied.  “Thanks so much.”

Grumbling, the man waddled through the door and back to his game.  Vivi stuck her tongue out at his retreating frame.  “I don’t like him,” she muttered.

“Well, he didn’t like us much either,” Wade replied.  “But they didn’t shoot us and they let us back here, which they didn’t have to do.”

“True.”  Vivi acknowledged.  Her eyes roamed back to the picture and she stuck her tongue between her teeth.  “I’m going to start looking,” she informed him, making a beeline for the picture.

“What are we looking for?” Wade asked, heading towards the bar.

“I have no idea,” Vivi replied, pulling the piano bench over to the photo. “Pearly Jane, I guess.  Something Bill would have wanted Addy to have.”

“Maybe some earrings,” Wade mused, pulling open the drawers of the bar.

“It could have been a pearl cameo,” Vivi agreed excitedly as she climbed on the bench.  “Those were real popular then.”

“Pearl cameo earrings,” Wade muttered, crawling under the bar.  He checked the base and thumped along the wood, searching for hidden compartments.  “Nothing there.”  He moseyed over to the piano and banged a few keys.  Thumping on the front and back, he only dislodged some crickets and a cranky mouse.  “Nothing there, either,” he coughed, waving the dust away from his face.

Vivi stared at the thick frame in front of her.  A  pock-faced man with a long scar across his cheek and coonskin cap stared back at her.  “Is this Davey Crockett?” she called, puzzled.

Wade glanced up and shook his head, continuing to tap on the walls for hollow spots.  “Nope.  Just some guy.”

Vivi wrinkled her nose.  “Cute.”  Lifting up the picture frame, she gasped.  “Wade, come here!”

“What?” Wade asked, hurrying over.  “What is it?”

“There’s a safe behind this picture!” Vivi cried.  “That’s what it looks like, anyway.”

“Well, let’s see.”  Wade stepped around Vivi and lifted the frame off the wall.  Perched on the bench, Vivi pouted and crossed her arms.  “I’m on a bench and you were still tall enough to do that.”

“Just my genes, darling,” Wade grinned, giving her a quick peck on the lips.  “How do you want to open it?”

“As fast as possible.”  Vivi simpered, but her toes were tapping impatiently.

“You got it.”  Rearing back, Wade punched the safe with his fist.  The old metal door popped open with a metallic shriek.  Shaking his bruised hand, Wade pulled the door open.

The safe was empty.  Vivi felt all the hope deflate out of her, escaping through her fingers and toes like air from a balloon.

“Oh bother,” she sighed, plopping on the bench and burying her face in her hands.

Wade stroked her hair.  “I’ll keep checking the walls,” he assured her, hurrying back across the dance floor.  “It’s here darling, I promise.  We’ll find it.”

“Sure,” Vivi replied glumly.  Cradling her chin in her hands, she stared at the man with the coon skin cap.  His dark eyes glared up at her, his lips twisted in a scowl.

“I bet you were meaner than a three eyed snake,” Vivi muttered.  “And what did you have to be mean about? You’re ugly.  And you’re skinny.  It’s not like you were the cutest cowboy out there.  I bet you scared babies with a face like that.”  The man in the picture glared back, his expression growing more cruel the more she looked at it.  Suddenly, she sucked in her breath.

“And then he saw him,” she murmured to herself.

Standing in the ally,

with death in his eyes.

Lean and mean,

With a smile that would make a baby cry,

The man said to the old cowboy:

“Cowboy, you’re riding hard,

But you won’t take what you’ve come for.

Let’s settle this, you and me,

With my old friend, Pearly Jane.”

Her eyes twinkling, Vivi leaned forward and flipped the enormous picture open.  Clawing at the paper backing, she burst out in laughter.

“Vivi!  Vivi, what are you doing?” Wade bellowed, rushing over.  “We can’t go tearing up their historical artifacts!  What are you doing?”

Her shoulders shaking with mirth, Vivi beamed and raised a pearl handled pistol over her head.  The silver barrel gleamed in the light, the pearl handle sparkling in Vivi’s hand.

“Meet Pearly Jane,” she announced.  Raising the other hand, she held up a yellowed scroll of paper that she had pulled from the barrel.  “And meet our next clue.”

Wade whooped with joy, leaping in the air.  Grabbing Vivi around the waist, he twirled her around and around the floor as she giggled.  Planting a kiss on her lips that made her head spin, Wade squeezed her so tight she thought she might explode.

“Darling, we’ve done it!” he cried.  “We’ve found the treasure!  One more stop and we’re rich!”

“Correction,” a creaky voice interrupted.  “One more stop and I’m rich.”

Pulling Vivi closer to him, the couples’ heads snapped up at the same instant.  Standing in front of them behind the barrel of a large revolver was Margaret.

And her finger was on the trigger.

To be continued….

Stay tuned, Invisible Friends!  Tomorrow we’ve got the lunchbox confessionals!  And next week, more whimsical fun!

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