Slim Randles

 Steve reached up and put his cup of coffee on the floor of the turret in his cabin, then climbed the ladder until both he and the coffee were comfortable, looking out at the world.

The only people who didn’t understand why he built a turret on his little cabin up here high on the mountain were folks who hadn’t seen it. Once you actually sat in the chair, looked out the window at the weather and the world, there was no doubt.

You instantly thought, “I have to get one of these.”

 Steve, our tall, walrus-mustachioed cowboy, wasn’t really sure why he built the turret, either. Well, deep in his heart of hearts he actually did, but he’d never tell.

He secretly thought, if he had a turret, and could look out on creation from the safety of this little piece of cabin, something wonderful would happen. It may be that he’d be driven to write a novel, telling the world the sweeping majesty of riding herd and cleaning corrals. Or, Steve might be inspired to take up the paint brush and dazzle the world as a cowboy artist, like Grem Lee and Gary Morton. He could picture in his mind how he would even capture the smell of the alkali dust swirling up to a cowboy’s nose in the catch pen.

Or music? Maybe music. You know, write songs about the cowboy life, like Jim Jones and Steve Cormier. If they could do it, why not Steve?

Steve’s main talent, so far, was putting a rein on a horse. If you wanted to take a big-old-stout horse and spin him with just your little finger touching the reins, Steve was your guy.

But it’s hard to put a good sliding stop on a horse from here in the turret.

In fact, about all a guy could do in the turret without being artistic is sit there, drink coffee, and think artistically.

Steve’s eyes closed and he smiled. Well, there’s always taking a nap, too.

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Brought to you by The Cowboy Bucket List. 100 things to do before you go to the house. www.lpdbooks.com.