Claiming Patience

“Yes sir.” Patience spent the remainder of the evening packing up their sparse possessions. She was ashamed to realize that her papa had sold off most everything they owned a piece at a time, to keep her going over the last year.
She wanted to scream at the wide world that she didn’t want to be a saloon girl. Couldn’t stand the idea of so many dirty hands pawing at her tender skin. Why did this have to happen? Standing in the stillness of her quiet loft, she could hear a coyote baying at the moon. The agonizing call of the wild animal was exactly the sound clawing to get out of her own throat. Folding her arms over her stomach she sat on her tiny bed and listened as her father stumbled around in the main room below.