Lad: Did you hate him?

V. Vinle’: Not he himself, but more the idea of him, his spirit. I hated that he was always spoken in the same sentence as me.

Lad: Why was that?

V. Vinle’: Well, we were the two-baddest boys out here. No body knew who was more so…well, until they did know.

(stares coldly at Lad)

Lad: At Rosemary’s?

V. Vinle’: At Rosemary’s.

Lad: So that’s all it was? Just competition?

V. Vinle’: “It wasn’t even much that, it was more like, you know anything about wolfpacks?”

Lad: Cant much say that I do.

V. Vinle’- Well, in a wolf pack you have three clarifications of dog, see. You got the dog that eats first and the dog that eats second. When the kill is made, the dog that eats first has earned his position. But that second dog…that dog knows. He knows that as the universe unfolds. (waves hand around) The first dog is gonna die and that second dog also knows that when that comes to pass. He gonna eat first. Sometimes, well sometimes he just can’t wait. So, that night at Rosie's I couldn’t wait. I aint even ever met that sonuvabitch before I killed him. I was just tired of hearing about him.

Lad: Story goes that there wasn’t even a gunfight. That he didn’t even get off a single round.

V. Vinle’: Lad, it was time for me to eat first

Lad: How exactly did the fight happen? How was it that you were able to put down the most notorious man ever to step foot in this territory? Next to yourself of course.

V. Vinle’: Shit, that was no feat. That was the easiest part.

Lad: So?

V. Vinle’: So I walked in there real late at night or real early in the morning and the only folks left were a girl singin’ some ballads and a barkeep knockin’ back some mescal. I knew from some boys that he was in town. I had been in the same hole as him before, but never met him, just tipped my hat to him as I walked by. That was way back when though, before we were notorious, before we were killers and shit. Well, we were killers but not cold-blooded. So I walked in and asked the girl for him and she pointed over to where he was, slumped over the bar. I strolled on over there and put my pistol up to the back of his head and fired. His headparts went all over the bar and the girl screamed and the keep looked up all loco and shit. She ran out and one of his boys ran in but didn’t even make it in the door with his shotgun before I clipped his leg with my gun and walked over to where he was and cut his throat with my blade. I walked out the bar and got on my Appaloosa and rode on outta town with my boys tellin' them what I done.

Lad: What did they say?

V. Vinle’: They didn’t say a goddam thing.

(Lad pauses, then…)

Lad: One might question your methods.

V. Vinle’: One might? Anyone who does is bound to lie down for a nap sometime or nother and when they do, I’ll be there for them.

Lad: Did it occur to you to maybe say a few words to him?

V. Vinle’: A dirty man once said, ‘If your going to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.’ Besides, I didn’t have much to say. It didn’t have anything to do with him see, kiddie. I’m not responsible for my actions. I don’t have to answer to anyone but myself, ultimately.

Lad: What about God? Or the law?

V. Vinle’: As far as I’m concerned, I am god. And the law, they under god.

Lad: Come again?

V. Vinle’: Look, I don’t give a rat’s ass about you or my boys or anybody else. They don’t exist to me. Prove to me that they exist and I’ll maybe change my tune. That sumbitch in that bar, he aint no better off now than before. He was like some prop in some theater. I exist, he don’t. Neither do you. I could kill you right now and what in the hell would happen? Not much. You all just props in my theater.

Lad: You sound pretty brazen for a man hunted by half the territory by men on both sides of the law.

V. Vinle’: I aint gonna die.

Lad: You aint gonna die?

V. Vinle’: Prove to me, I’m gonna die.

Lad: Everyone does.

V. Vinle’: But can’t nobody actually prove it.

Lad: Come again?

V. Vinle’: Nobody ever written about bein' dead. I aint ever shared a drink with a dead bastard. It certainly aint ever happened to me. So why the hell I should think that I’m gonna die. Because everyone else does? Shit, that don’t mean I’m gonna.

Lad: One of his boys walks through that door behind you and shoots you in the back, you gonna die.

V. Vinle’-It would certainly appear that way, right? But you aint exactly got proof. The way I look at things. (holds drink up to the light, peering through it) I’m the only one who is alive in this world, and the rest of you’s…the rest of you are all just people I meet and all this shit (moves hand to indicate the saloon) is just things I see and when I walk out this room, it aint gonna be here, and when we depart, you aint gonna go back and tell all yer friends and family bout how you met Victor Vinle’. The only thing that’s gonna go on after we leave this hole is that I’m gonna get on that Appy and ride on out this tumbletown.

Lad: That thinkin', aint it a little bizarre?

V. Vinle’-One might think so if one could think.

Lad: And you’re the only one who can?

V. Vinle’: (irritated) Look bastard all I’m sayin' is the only person I know for damn sure that thinks is my own goddamn self and as for the rest of you I don’t give a goddam and for the most part Laddy, the only reason why I feel this way is cause it helps with the killin'. A fella can’t go around shootin' women and kids in the head if he actually thinks that he’s killin' something, and iffin he does well he’s a sicker sumbitch than I am. I don’t mind killin' those fuckers cause I don’t believe in em at all. It helps with the killin'. That’s it.

Lad: It’s good to know you have your reasons.

V. Vinle’: Yea…I got my reasons. I got my own justice weather people fit into it or not is up to me most people don’t. So what? In this world you can give of your self and folks’ll just take and take and then what. You got nothin' except just the idea in your head that you did everything you could to help your fellow man. . Me? I’m the one that takes. I quit makin' excuses a long time ago. I take lives. I take money and gold. I take women. I don’t have the luxury of knowin' I gave of myself. I only took for myself. Does it make me bitter? It used to, but one night out on the plains I wandered off from my boys and smoked some shit and stared at the sky and drank some mescal and it hit me then. I was the only one. I was the only one to look out for. The rest, they weren’t there. They weren’t there…

(pause)

Lad: (putting his drink down) Your very interesting sir. I’ll spread the word of your wickedness and of

your interpretations of life and I’ll speak to all of this palaver. (stands up)

V. Vinle’: They’ll all find out soon enough…

Lad: Good day.

V. Vinle’: Adieu

(Lad walks out the door of the saloon)

(V. Vinle’ sits at the table still sipping whiskey. Largely unnoticed by the few patrons left. V. Vinle’ departs enroute to his inevitable destiny in time)