Tommy Maaltman's Wild, Wild West Minerva heads West

Boarding the train, Minerva felt ill and her head throbbed from hitting the marble floor after fainting back at the Southern Union Bank upon learning of her "good fortune, " i.e. receiving 40.00 Confederate dollars in a telegraph from her long lost father, Colton Lassiter. Having hastily bandaged her head with filthy rags she found at the Boarding House while she packed, she now had time to attend to her wound as the train slowly pulled away from the train station in Valdosta, Georgia heading to St. Louis, Missouri. Minerva looked like death warmed over as she slowly unwrapped the crusted with blood rags revealing a nasty S shaped deep laceration in the middle of her forehead with a deep vertical gash dividing the S in the middle giving the appearance of a dollar sign!!! She gasped as she thought to herself, well this hideous laceration might as well look like a dollar sign since it happened as I was receiving my God sent good fortune from Heaven. She attended to her wound as best she could and found an open seat next to a nicely dressed, man of the cloth preacher, who smiled compassionately as Minerva sat down next to him. The Preacher Man glanced at Minerva and said, "Looks like you are running away from trouble." Minerva responded, "Preacher Man, if you only knew," and explained how her father walked out on the family many years ago. Her brother left home to make a name for himself as a gunslinger. Her mother died working her fingers to the bone leaving her to fend for herself. Then out of the clear blue, a telegraph arrived with money, like manna from heaven, a gift from God Almighty, allowing her to leave her wretched life behind and start over. The Preacher Man said, " Praise the Lord, let's celebrate" as he pulled out a bottle of Ben Nevis cask strength single malt Scotch whisky, 61.9 vol., 123.8 proof with a dark, rich, oily mahogany color, strong, astringent nose, burnt caramel aromatic taste and smooth mellow finish. The strong whisky went right to her head and she passed out. The Preacher Man immediately searched her body and found the money sewn in to her dress at the waist. He eagerly opened the envelope only to find the 40.00 worthless Confederate dollars. With a feeling of......anger and disgust he threw the envelope and the money out the window and got off at the next train stop leaving Minerva unconscious, penniless, vulnerable and destitute. Slainte, Tommy Maaltman