The Sheriff's Wife

I don’t know about new people

When they come in and whatnot

I just know what Vance tells me

And he didn’t say anything

About any new man in town

There’s nothing unusual about my husband

Coming home with some stains on his shirt

He’s a messy eater

And a klutz

And sometimes he gets dirty

Like men get dirty

Nothing strange about that

As far as I’m concerned

All these people asking questions

Like they got rights

If they got rights

Who do you think gives them

Those rights?

My husband

Out there

Every day

Making sure we don’t have savages riding through

Skinning us in our own damn homes

I apologize for my fervor

But I get a little worked up

Sitting at my kitchen table

Having people ask me questions

About dead people

I don’t even know

You’re telling me

My husband is sitting in a jail cell

Two feet away from his own desk

And I’m supposed to act calm?

Answer your questions?

Be civil about it?

Would your wives be able to do that?

I’m old enough to remember

When things happened in this town

And if the people in charge

Felt that something could be let go

It was let go

Now we got a railroad coming through

And everybody has questions

About how things get done

Who cares how?

You don’t get to build a road

And use a road

And run your sorry horses

Up and down it

Then wait ten years

And ask how it got built

It doesn’t work that way, gentlemen

Time was my husband could make decisions

And he didn’t need to worry about some cabal

Coming around and picking at him about it

You want to be progressives, now?
Now that we’re all going to civilized

With railroads and fancy hats

And all kinds of strange people

Coming through here?

You think now’s the time

To start demonizing

The people who’ve been building the roads

This whole time?

You got a lot of nerve

I’ll tell you that

Now I don’t know if my husband

Knew this man

This new man in town

But if he saw fit

To shoot him

And cut out his tongue

And leave him out in that field

On the way out of town

Then he must have had his reasons

And I’m not interested

In what those reasons might be

Because I still got a job to do

Whether or not we get a railroad or not

See, your jobs are changing

That’s why you’re putting on nice clothes, Mitch

That’s why you’re writing in some little notebook, Paul

That’s why you’re sitting there with brand new spectacles, Frank

Because you’re new men

My husband ain’t a new man

He’s the same man he always was

Doing the same things he’s always done

And a lot of us are very happy about that

One dead man

And you want to turn this town

On its head

What about all the other dead men?
The ones you knew about?
The ones you didn’t have any problem with

Back when we were on our own?

You ever wonder about them, Mitch?
Paul?
Frank?

No, I didn’t think so

I guess you think

That after all these years

It’s time for a reckoning

You better be careful though, gentlemen

There’s no way to aim a reckoning at someone

Like a gun

A reckoning is like a fire

Once you start it

You got no idea

What it’s going to burn