I rode the train to Pokeville in the rain, the wind bending all those poor trees outside my train window sideways. I had the money in my satchel, the gun tucked into the back of my pants, and no plan except to get out of there alive. Lightning split the sky, I took a nip from my flask, then a nip from my other flask. Just got out of the looney bin, and I'm coming to get you Doreen, Darlene, whichever one of you is sitting on the porch swing when I get to your house by the bend in that muddy river. I had a dream once I was being led off to the gallows tree, and a band was kicking up a merry storm behind me in the dust of the road, and the women were lining main street and waving handkerchiefs and smiling, and I turned to the preacher and said, "Say a prayer for me." And he replied, "You're in the belly of the whale now, son, and don't you worry. It'll all be over in the blink of an eye." And when I woke up the sun was shining through the dirty sheet of a curtain, and I was still drunk, and somebody was coming up those creaking roominghouse steps, and I just knew it was the sheriff, and I'll be damned if it wasn't.