THE ROBBER GAMBLERS

The Robber Gamblers(a short story) by Austin Mitchell Calton and Linton were playing checkers. Calton was winning the games. He knew that he was better at any board game than Linton. In fact he had won many local checkers tournaments before. “How much is your bike worth, Linton?” Calton asked. Linton smirked. “You will never own a bike like the one I have, guy," he boasted. Calton laughed, he knew he was close to cleaning out Linton. They set up their pieces on the board again. They played for another fifteen minutes. Linton threw down his last thousand dollars and they began playing again. Calton won the game again. He stretched his hands to pick up the money when suddenly Linton pulled a knife on him. “Give me all the money you have,” Linton ordered and took away Calton’s knife. He then dug his hands into the man’s pocket and took out his wallet. “Empty out your other pockets,” Linton ordered. Calton did as Linton ordered. “Okay, take off your shoes and your hat.” Calton’s shoes and hat didn’t produce any more money. “You won’t get away with this, Linton,” Calton warned. "Who is going to stop me, you?" Linton mocked. Linton jumped on his bike. “Hey, guy, a man who can’t defend himself shouldn’t gamble,” he said and laughed as he rode away. He threw Calton’s penknife back at him. As Linton rode away, he knew he was lucky to get away. All the roads in Keswick were guarded night and day. He counted himself lucky as they were just on the outskirts of the village. Calton would soon tell the men in Keswick what had happened to him. They could only do something to him if they caught him there. He thought he had been foolish to get into that game of checkers with Calton. He knew he had committed a grave mistake by pulling his knife on the youth and robbing him of his winnings but the man had cleaned him out. If he had begged him back some of the money he would probably have given him a hundred dollar bill. When he reached his village of Dudley a man named Dixon came and told him that word had already reached the community about what he had done. Linton explained why he had done it. He told Dixon that he suspected Calton of cheating him. Other men came on the scene. They said that he had soured relations between Dudley and Keswick. They said as far as they were concerned, he was on his own. The best thing for him to do was to give Calton back his money. Linton balked at what the men were telling him to do. He told them that he was not afraid of the men from Keswick. Linton knew that he was permanently banned from Keswick. If he had a girl in that community he couldn’t go and look for her, nor could any woman from there come and look for him. About three months later, Linton was in another community, Norris, and he was gambling with a man named Bing. Linton was winning thousands of dollars off Bing. He didn’t think that Bing knew anything about dominoes. Suddenly Linton was looking at Bing’s machete. Bing told him to give him all the money he had on him. He then drove away, warning Linton not to follow him on his bike. Linton sought help from the men from Dudley but they refused to help him. He bravely rode to Keswick one night, three days later. He explained to the men in Keswick what had happened to him. They were some men there who were threatening him. The men in Keswick said that they couldn’t help him because of what he had done to Calton. They said that they knew Bing and he was barred from their community. They also told him that they only allowed him to come into Keswick because of what they heard had happened to him. The only way the ban could be lifted was for him to repay Calton. Linton went to Norris but the men in Norris said that Bing was an outlaw whom they had no control over. Linton returned to Dudley biting his lips and with a hard look on his face. Bing had completely cleaned him out. He decided to concentrate on farming the two acres of land his father had left him. It had on a lot of fruit trees. The land was overgrown with a lot of weeds. He couldn’t pay a man to clean it up. He had to do it on his own. A month later, he had the land cleaned up. He was now selling apples, some of which he took on credit from other growers. He was now making some money and he was tempted to start gambling again. But he remembered what had happened to him with Bing and Calton. He wanted to increase his acreage under cultivation and was getting three acres to rent in Keswick. However, the men in Keswick said that the only way he could farm in their community was if he agreed to repay Calton his money. Linton agreed to repay him from the profits of his crops. Two months after he started farming in Keswick, there was a big commotion in the village. Calton and Bing were gambling when Bing held him up and took all his money off him. But Bing met up on a roadblock as he made his way out of the village. The men who set up the roadblock demanded that he repay Calton his money before he would be allowed to leave the village. Bing, seeing no other way out, complied with their demands and was allowed to leave the village. He was warned not to visit Keswick again. Linton knows that he was lucky to be allowed the chance to farm in Keswick. When he looks at how hard he has to work and then to let anyone clean him out over a gambling table was just not worth it, Linton thought. He has therefore decided to give up gambling. The End. Taken from the collection of short stories: Going Into the Hills to Teach My books are on book fusion, pay hip, Amazon, draft2digital, free e book net etc My email: glengoffe1@cwjamaica.com Readers