HOME | DD

Description
Hello, so sorry for the long wait, but I made some big changes in this chapter. ^^'

22. Excuse me!

It became dusky when they reach her house. It lay in a wide-open area, surrounded from high hills.
They looked around. Especially Rango. He never had seen such kind of place in the desert. There was a stony old house with windows, a long terrace with roof and old lanterns.
Not far away, there were other big houses, which looked more like stony sheds. They had big doors and stood in a row like garages. Beside the old buildings, there were old fences, dried grass and trees.
He stopped a moment, when his roadrunner's feet touched a metallic piece, hidden in the sand. He looked down and realized a metallic long beam.
"This was a rail station," Cassy answered his silent question and pointed at the stony buildings. "This was the station for passengers and tickets, and these are the rest stations for the trains."
"Why are they abandoned?" Rango asked.
Bill snorted. He was uninterested.
"Well, after humans built the highway it became too dangerous for animals. For this reason the railroad company decided to relocate the rail deeper into the desert."
"Second, highway?"
"The highway Road 40 in south Mojave Desert is not far away. Just few miles."
"You are in a wrong place!" a hissing voice let them stop.
The corn snake Chili lay in the way with lifted upper body and hissed at the group.
"Chili! They are guests."
"Not here!"
"What about Miss Conny?" Cassy asked to change the theme. "Is she okay?"
"Bad mood like always," Chili muttered back.
"That's good. Better bad mood than angry."
Rango's glance stopped on an old sign, where he read: "Hospital station."
He wanted to ask something, but suddenly he winced when he heard a throat cleaning sound.
He turned around and froze. "You are new here are you?"
He looked at the two strange animals. The first one was an old lizard, but he had just one leg. At his side a crutch. The second one didn't look better. It was also a snake, but not a rattlesnake. Maybe a kind of desert snake, but not a corn snake like Chili and had the half size of Jake, maybe less. He wore a brown hat and a red scarf. But that wasn't the strange thing. He had a strange formed snake tail and his mandible was a little deformed and looked like grown crooked. Scars on his nose and a very big scar on his upper body.
The one leg lizard lifted his hat. "Welcome. I'm Corty and this is…"
"Dwayne," the snake answered grumpily. "I can still speak for myself."
Rango lifted his hat shyly. "Uh… nice to meet you…"
He was still irritated because of the unusually persons.
"Good evening," Cassy said and climbed down from her roadrunner. "Again here?"
Corty grinned. "We like to be here."
Dwayne looked away. "Liar."
"So, do you wanna eat with us?" she asked.
"Just to give you a little company, but I see you found someone."
"No, no. You are always welcome," she said quickly.
Dwayne snorted, but he said nothing.
Cassy looked back to the group, which also stared like Rango at the two other reptiles.
"You can bring your runners to the second building. There are other runners, water and food."
At last, Rango managed to open his mouth again. "Oh, thank you. We really appreciate it."
"Toady," Bill muttered.

After they treated their roadrunners, they walked to the bigger house. The sun was very down now and it became colder.
Rango went first, so that Kinski could asked Bill something without soft speaking.
"Bill, what's the use of that? Why we are here?"
"Stupid question, I'm hungry. I don't think that we have to spend money if we are guest here."
Kinski rolled his eyes. "Of course."
The reached the house and opened the big door. They entered a big entry hall, which was the entry hall for passengers in past. It smelled of old stone and dust. Old signs were still hanging like "Tickets" "Suitcases".
A stair guided to the first floor.
"I'm smelling something to eat," Stump said wistfully.
Bill didn't say something. Wordless he grabbed Stump's ear and went to the stair. "Let's go upstairs."
They walked one floor up and came to a side door, while the stairs guided more up.
Behind the door were voices. Bill didn't hesitate long and opened the door. They came in a long corridor, which guided to the left and to the right side.
"There," Stump said and followed the smell of eating.
The others followed him. Suddenly Stump stopped. Bill and the others collided against him.
Bill wanted to protest, but he became silent again when he was looking into the room.
They stood there with open mouths.
Corn snake eyes looked at them nosily. Maybe more than twenty. They sat around a long table and looked at the new group.
Corty, who also sat on the table next to Dwayne, waved his hand. "Hello."
Suddenly Chili jumped on the table and hissed. "Attack them!"
"No, war is over!" a second voice shouted, when Cassy came into the room.
Stump had embraced Kinski with shock when he thought the snakes would jump at them.
Rango lifted his hands. "We came in peace."
The children looked from one person to another. Then they talked wildly with each other.
Cassy whistled loudly and the snakes became silent.
"Listen kids, they are guests. You can watch them and greeting but not bite."
The group winced when a snake wave slithered at them. They were small and crawled everywhere. On the floor, around their arms and legs.
Rango chuckled when a snake smelled with her tongue in his face.
Chili remained on the table and looked at them grumbly.
Cassy clapped her hands. "Alright children."
She looked at Chili. "Chili, maybe it will be the best, you and the others left the room and go to bed."
A disappointed children muttering filled the room.
"Or do I have to bring Miss Corny that she do that?"
With a protesting "no", the little snakes crawled away and left the room.
Rango, Bill and the others, stood there like when they asked themselves whether it was a dream or not.
Cassy smiled. "It's good that the kids had already eaten. You have more time to have a rest."
"Where do they come from?" Rango asked after he had recovered from the unusually greeting.
"They were born here," she answered.
"Without parents?"
"Well, when I moved in this house, I found their eggs outside. Well, I took them and that's the result."
She chuckled and waved his hand. "Take a seat. I will bring your meal."
She disappeared into a little corridor.
The group exchanged glances. Then Rango shrugged his shoulders and sat down on a long wooden bench, next to him Bill and then Kinski, Stump and last Chorizo.
Corty wasn't ready yet and continued to sip his soup. Also Dwayne who seemed to have a little problems with his mouth. Rango watched him automatically until the snake interrupted his eating a second and gave him an angry glance.
Rango looked quickly away and tried to busy himself. He looked around the room. There was an old fireplace, on the wall old photos, some of them also memories from the golden time of railways.
Fortunately, Cassy came back and brought them soup.
Bill and his gang didn't say a word, and started to eat when the plate touched the table.
Stump picked it up and drank it. Kinski gave him a push in his side and gave him a spoon in his hand.
When all got a plate of soup, Cassy sat next to Rango and took a nip of a teacup.
"Well, what's the use of this place?" Rango asked Cassy.
The silver fox-wolf folded her hands. "The road is not far away, like I said before. Well, cars hurt animals very often and when nobody wanted to buy the land, we took it to have a place for injured animals from the road. The most of them are snakes, which wanted to warm up on the street in the night. The most of them were killed, few have luck."
She looked at Dwayne and Corty.
Rango understood why Corty lost his leg.
Corty chuckled. "Well, I lost my leg, but like I always say, better with one leg in life than with both legs in grave."
"I'm not hungry anymore," Dwayne said darkly and left the room. When the door was closed, she sighed. "He was one of the guys who didn't know the danger on a road."
"Was he also…"
"Ran over? Yes, he was, with a lot of luck. He must have had a guardian angel. Maybe two."
"But why is he still here?"
"He and Corty walk from time to time along the highway to look for roadkilled animals."
"Must be an important job."
"Yes, but we still have the problem of money for medicine."
She looked down into her teacup.
"One snake was so badly injured, that we had to deliver her from pain."
She stopped.
"I'm so sorry for that," Rango said quickly.
"By mistake or with purpose."
Cassy looked at Bill angrily.
"Very funny," she said sarcastically.
Bill shrugged his shoulders. "We are also looking for a snake."
"And a lizard," Kinski added.
Stump swallowed down his morsel. "A female lizard."
Chorizo grinned. "A beautiful female lizard."
Bill and Rango threw them an annoyed glance.
The three chuckled and Kinski took his glass. "Cheers."
"What else." Cassy waved his hand. "We tried to earn money with farming but we have no water anymore. The pipelines had broken. Before Corty and Dwayne came, we tried to earn money alone."
Rango raised his head. "We?"
"Me and my husband."
"Oh, is he walking outside?"
"No."
Rango became serious. "Is he… dead?"
"No… I don't know."
Bill raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
"Yes, I don't know," she said annoyed.
"Did he leave you because you had another one?" Bill asked cheeky.
"Really!" she shouted and hit her hand on the table. "How can you assert something like that?"
Bill shrugged his shoulders unimpressed. "Who knows."
"Excuse me!"
She stood up and walked into a corridor, maybe to the kitchen, and left the room.
Rango gave Bill a berserk glance.
Bill snorted. "What? What's wrong?"
"Too much wrong!" Rango hissed. "Remember, we are guests here!"
"So what? No reason to don't say my opinion."
"Excuse me!"
With these words, Rango stood up and followed Cassy into the kitchen.
The female fox-wolf stood in front of a sink and scrubbed some pots.
Rango lifted his hat. "Madame. Sorry. I have to apologize for my companion's behaviour. He is a little… ruthless."
"He would never deceive me," she muttered darkly.
Rango came closer. "Uh… well, I can imagine. You know… I… I have also a girl… I also couldn't imagine that she would…"
He stopped. Wouldn't Beans really do? He had no idea what Jake had done with her.
His glance wandered to a picture on the wall. It was a photography of Cassy and another animal beside her. It was a wolf or similar but more with male facial features in blue jeans, white shirt and brown cowboy hat. They looked happy and smiled into the camera.
"Who's that?"
Cassy stopped a moment and Rango pointed at the photo.
She looked away again.
"My husband."
"Uh… eh… what's his name?"
She smiled softly. "George."
"Ah, good choice. I mean, he looks like a good guy."
"Yes, he is."
Slowly she wiped over the pot with a towel.
"How long has he been gone?"
"Over one year."
Rango swallowed. "Without a message?"
"I'm still waiting for a message. He just said, that he would come back and we would be set for life."
Rango cleaned his throat. "Well, I'm sure, if he really loves you, he will come back."
"Excuse me," another voice said.
They looked at the door frame where Corty stood.
"We will leave now."
"So, you don't want to stay here?" Cassy asked and left the washing place.
"No, I think Dwayne wants to go back to our quarter. We will also control the road by night."
"I guide you to the door."
With these words, Cassy guided Corty into a second little corridor, which was maybe a little abbreviation of the way to the door.
Rango went back to the eating room. He stopped immediately when he saw how Bill had taken something from the mantelpiece.
"Bill!" the chameleon hissed.
Bill stopped a moment in his movements. "Oh, back?"
"What are you doing?"
"Just habit. Maybe we could find something valuable."
Rango ran at him. "You will not dare to steal something, do you?"
"Little pocket money."
The chameleon wrenched the thing from Bill's hands, which was a little clock and but it back on his place. In last minute, at this moment Cassy walked back.
"Come on. I will show you where you can sleep now."

Description
Hello, so sorry for the long wait, but I made some big changes in this chapter. ^^'

22. Excuse me!

It became dusky when they reach her house. It lay in a wide-open area, surrounded from high hills.
They looked around. Especially Rango. He never had seen such kind of place in the desert. There was a stony old house with windows, a long terrace with roof and old lanterns.
Not far away, there were other big houses, which looked more like stony sheds. They had big doors and stood in a row like garages. Beside the old buildings, there were old fences, dried grass and trees.
He stopped a moment, when his roadrunner's feet touched a metallic piece, hidden in the sand. He looked down and realized a metallic long beam.
"This was a rail station," Cassy answered his silent question and pointed at the stony buildings. "This was the station for passengers and tickets, and these are the rest stations for the trains."
"Why are they abandoned?" Rango asked.
Bill snorted. He was uninterested.
"Well, after humans built the highway it became too dangerous for animals. For this reason the railroad company decided to relocate the rail deeper into the desert."
"Second, highway?"
"The highway Road 40 in south Mojave Desert is not far away. Just few miles."
"You are in a wrong place!" a hissing voice let them stop.
The corn snake Chili lay in the way with lifted upper body and hissed at the group.
"Chili! They are guests."
"Not here!"
"What about Miss Conny?" Cassy asked to change the theme. "Is she okay?"
"Bad mood like always," Chili muttered back.
"That's good. Better bad mood than angry."
Rango's glance stopped on an old sign, where he read: "Hospital station."
He wanted to ask something, but suddenly he winced when he heard a throat cleaning sound.
He turned around and froze. "You are new here are you?"
He looked at the two strange animals. The first one was an old lizard, but he had just one leg. At his side a crutch. The second one didn't look better. It was also a snake, but not a rattlesnake. Maybe a kind of desert snake, but not a corn snake like Chili and had the half size of Jake, maybe less. He wore a brown hat and a red scarf. But that wasn't the strange thing. He had a strange formed snake tail and his mandible was a little deformed and looked like grown crooked. Scars on his nose and a very big scar on his upper body.
The one leg lizard lifted his hat. "Welcome. I'm Corty and this is…"
"Dwayne," the snake answered grumpily. "I can still speak for myself."
Rango lifted his hat shyly. "Uh… nice to meet you…"
He was still irritated because of the unusually persons.
"Good evening," Cassy said and climbed down from her roadrunner. "Again here?"
Corty grinned. "We like to be here."
Dwayne looked away. "Liar."
"So, do you wanna eat with us?" she asked.
"Just to give you a little company, but I see you found someone."
"No, no. You are always welcome," she said quickly.
Dwayne snorted, but he said nothing.
Cassy looked back to the group, which also stared like Rango at the two other reptiles.
"You can bring your runners to the second building. There are other runners, water and food."
At last, Rango managed to open his mouth again. "Oh, thank you. We really appreciate it."
"Toady," Bill muttered.

After they treated their roadrunners, they walked to the bigger house. The sun was very down now and it became colder.
Rango went first, so that Kinski could asked Bill something without soft speaking.
"Bill, what's the use of that? Why we are here?"
"Stupid question, I'm hungry. I don't think that we have to spend money if we are guest here."
Kinski rolled his eyes. "Of course."
The reached the house and opened the big door. They entered a big entry hall, which was the entry hall for passengers in past. It smelled of old stone and dust. Old signs were still hanging like "Tickets" "Suitcases".
A stair guided to the first floor.
"I'm smelling something to eat," Stump said wistfully.
Bill didn't say something. Wordless he grabbed Stump's ear and went to the stair. "Let's go upstairs."
They walked one floor up and came to a side door, while the stairs guided more up.
Behind the door were voices. Bill didn't hesitate long and opened the door. They came in a long corridor, which guided to the left and to the right side.
"There," Stump said and followed the smell of eating.
The others followed him. Suddenly Stump stopped. Bill and the others collided against him.
Bill wanted to protest, but he became silent again when he was looking into the room.
They stood there with open mouths.
Corn snake eyes looked at them nosily. Maybe more than twenty. They sat around a long table and looked at the new group.
Corty, who also sat on the table next to Dwayne, waved his hand. "Hello."
Suddenly Chili jumped on the table and hissed. "Attack them!"
"No, war is over!" a second voice shouted, when Cassy came into the room.
Stump had embraced Kinski with shock when he thought the snakes would jump at them.
Rango lifted his hands. "We came in peace."
The children looked from one person to another. Then they talked wildly with each other.
Cassy whistled loudly and the snakes became silent.
"Listen kids, they are guests. You can watch them and greeting but not bite."
The group winced when a snake wave slithered at them. They were small and crawled everywhere. On the floor, around their arms and legs.
Rango chuckled when a snake smelled with her tongue in his face.
Chili remained on the table and looked at them grumbly.
Cassy clapped her hands. "Alright children."
She looked at Chili. "Chili, maybe it will be the best, you and the others left the room and go to bed."
A disappointed children muttering filled the room.
"Or do I have to bring Miss Corny that she do that?"
With a protesting "no", the little snakes crawled away and left the room.
Rango, Bill and the others, stood there like when they asked themselves whether it was a dream or not.
Cassy smiled. "It's good that the kids had already eaten. You have more time to have a rest."
"Where do they come from?" Rango asked after he had recovered from the unusually greeting.
"They were born here," she answered.
"Without parents?"
"Well, when I moved in this house, I found their eggs outside. Well, I took them and that's the result."
She chuckled and waved his hand. "Take a seat. I will bring your meal."
She disappeared into a little corridor.
The group exchanged glances. Then Rango shrugged his shoulders and sat down on a long wooden bench, next to him Bill and then Kinski, Stump and last Chorizo.
Corty wasn't ready yet and continued to sip his soup. Also Dwayne who seemed to have a little problems with his mouth. Rango watched him automatically until the snake interrupted his eating a second and gave him an angry glance.
Rango looked quickly away and tried to busy himself. He looked around the room. There was an old fireplace, on the wall old photos, some of them also memories from the golden time of railways.
Fortunately, Cassy came back and brought them soup.
Bill and his gang didn't say a word, and started to eat when the plate touched the table.
Stump picked it up and drank it. Kinski gave him a push in his side and gave him a spoon in his hand.
When all got a plate of soup, Cassy sat next to Rango and took a nip of a teacup.
"Well, what's the use of this place?" Rango asked Cassy.
The silver fox-wolf folded her hands. "The road is not far away, like I said before. Well, cars hurt animals very often and when nobody wanted to buy the land, we took it to have a place for injured animals from the road. The most of them are snakes, which wanted to warm up on the street in the night. The most of them were killed, few have luck."
She looked at Dwayne and Corty.
Rango understood why Corty lost his leg.
Corty chuckled. "Well, I lost my leg, but like I always say, better with one leg in life than with both legs in grave."
"I'm not hungry anymore," Dwayne said darkly and left the room. When the door was closed, she sighed. "He was one of the guys who didn't know the danger on a road."
"Was he also…"
"Ran over? Yes, he was, with a lot of luck. He must have had a guardian angel. Maybe two."
"But why is he still here?"
"He and Corty walk from time to time along the highway to look for roadkilled animals."
"Must be an important job."
"Yes, but we still have the problem of money for medicine."
She looked down into her teacup.
"One snake was so badly injured, that we had to deliver her from pain."
She stopped.
"I'm so sorry for that," Rango said quickly.
"By mistake or with purpose."
Cassy looked at Bill angrily.
"Very funny," she said sarcastically.
Bill shrugged his shoulders. "We are also looking for a snake."
"And a lizard," Kinski added.
Stump swallowed down his morsel. "A female lizard."
Chorizo grinned. "A beautiful female lizard."
Bill and Rango threw them an annoyed glance.
The three chuckled and Kinski took his glass. "Cheers."
"What else." Cassy waved his hand. "We tried to earn money with farming but we have no water anymore. The pipelines had broken. Before Corty and Dwayne came, we tried to earn money alone."
Rango raised his head. "We?"
"Me and my husband."
"Oh, is he walking outside?"
"No."
Rango became serious. "Is he… dead?"
"No… I don't know."
Bill raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
"Yes, I don't know," she said annoyed.
"Did he leave you because you had another one?" Bill asked cheeky.
"Really!" she shouted and hit her hand on the table. "How can you assert something like that?"
Bill shrugged his shoulders unimpressed. "Who knows."
"Excuse me!"
She stood up and walked into a corridor, maybe to the kitchen, and left the room.
Rango gave Bill a berserk glance.
Bill snorted. "What? What's wrong?"
"Too much wrong!" Rango hissed. "Remember, we are guests here!"
"So what? No reason to don't say my opinion."
"Excuse me!"
With these words, Rango stood up and followed Cassy into the kitchen.
The female fox-wolf stood in front of a sink and scrubbed some pots.
Rango lifted his hat. "Madame. Sorry. I have to apologize for my companion's behaviour. He is a little… ruthless."
"He would never deceive me," she muttered darkly.
Rango came closer. "Uh… well, I can imagine. You know… I… I have also a girl… I also couldn't imagine that she would…"
He stopped. Wouldn't Beans really do? He had no idea what Jake had done with her.
His glance wandered to a picture on the wall. It was a photography of Cassy and another animal beside her. It was a wolf or similar but more with male facial features in blue jeans, white shirt and brown cowboy hat. They looked happy and smiled into the camera.
"Who's that?"
Cassy stopped a moment and Rango pointed at the photo.
She looked away again.
"My husband."
"Uh… eh… what's his name?"
She smiled softly. "George."
"Ah, good choice. I mean, he looks like a good guy."
"Yes, he is."
Slowly she wiped over the pot with a towel.
"How long has he been gone?"
"Over one year."
Rango swallowed. "Without a message?"
"I'm still waiting for a message. He just said, that he would come back and we would be set for life."
Rango cleaned his throat. "Well, I'm sure, if he really loves you, he will come back."
"Excuse me," another voice said.
They looked at the door frame where Corty stood.
"We will leave now."
"So, you don't want to stay here?" Cassy asked and left the washing place.
"No, I think Dwayne wants to go back to our quarter. We will also control the road by night."
"I guide you to the door."
With these words, Cassy guided Corty into a second little corridor, which was maybe a little abbreviation of the way to the door.
Rango went back to the eating room. He stopped immediately when he saw how Bill had taken something from the mantelpiece.
"Bill!" the chameleon hissed.
Bill stopped a moment in his movements. "Oh, back?"
"What are you doing?"
"Just habit. Maybe we could find something valuable."
Rango ran at him. "You will not dare to steal something, do you?"
"Little pocket money."
The chameleon wrenched the thing from Bill's hands, which was a little clock and but it back on his place. In last minute, at this moment Cassy walked back.
"Come on. I will show you where you can sleep now."