THE TOMBSTONE RIDER
                                                                            OF
                                                                           1881

Everyone has heard the story of the O.K. Corral shootout. But no one knows the story that followed the gunfight. As I stood across the street of the Corral where the fight took place, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday were leaving this is where my story begins.

As the smoke cleared and the dust settled, I saw three cowboys laid dead. Just then I heard a loud thundering sound coming from the east. I looked up from the ground where the men laid lifeless I saw a rider riding in hard and fast. There seemed to be something strange about this rider, so strange that one could say one could see right through him.

As he came closer to where I was standing I took a few steps back and saw he had three other horses that were saddled and ready to ride. The strange rider that rode in stopped in front of and looked down at me. I noticed his eyes were as a burning flame from a brightly lit candle, his face looked cold as ice. His horse was big and jet black with sweat from running hard and fast to get here. Then I looked up from the stranger and saw the three men that were gunned down jump on the back of the three horses the stranger brought with him. As they turned to go from where the rider came from, they stopped and all four looked down at me and just stared at me like if I wanted to join them.

I heard the stranger yell for his horse to go and all four of them was off. I looked around and spotted a horse and jumped on it and rode towards them and fast as I could go. Soon I found myself outside of town and I stopped to look to see where these four men have gone. They all seemed to disappear without a trace. I turned the horse back to town and as I did all of a sudden I saw thousands of red eyed cowboys heading straight for me. I froze, and they blew by me and as they did one stopped and called me by my name and said "cowboy change your ways or you'll be riding with us on this endless range in the sky" then he was gone.

I turned the horse and rode to catch this man that told me this but I could not catch him, for he was riding to fast. I must of rode for an hour or more before stopping, it was getting to be dark and  had to make camp before heading back to town in the morning. I started a fire to keep warm for the night and looked through the saddle bags that were with me. Funny thing is I found coffee and some beans and jerky, a meal fit for a cowboy out on the range.

As I started making the coffee and beans for dinner, I heard a voice that would send shivers down your back. It happened to be the stranger that rode into town to pick up the three dead men. He asked for a hot cup of coffee and a plate of beans. I didn't say a word and handed him his request, he sat down and ate his food and started to tell me a story of life riding in the sky that has no end.
Then as he finished his coffee he said to me "Mister, watch how you live your life or you'll ride as I do" then he turned and walked away and disappeared into the night.

I laid down to close my eyes and then I heard the familiar sound of the thundering hoofs of the red eyed cowboys horses riding across that endless sky. Soon the warm morning sun was on my face and I arose from where I slept. Had me some fresh coffee and left-over beans and prepared to ride back to town. I got to thinking if anyone has or would miss me if I stayed here in this dream or whatever this was that I was in. Then the words the stranger had told me rang in my head, so I started back to town. As I reached to city limits of town, I found myself standing where it all began. I was no longer in 1881 but found myself in the 2013. I walked up to Boot Hill and stood over the grave of the three men shot down a hundred and thirty two years ago. I looked to the east and saw storm clouds coming, and I heard in the distance  a thundering sound. To anyone else it sounded like thunder, but I knew what the sound was. It was the red eyed cowboys horses riding in fast for another cowboy that was shot dead.

Story by Tim Moser