Aiden slept like a dead bird, just really peaceful, not a movement from him. He dreamt of the strangest things—turtles, rotten oatmeal, and Tanner wearing one of those big floppy sunhats. He awoke flushed, in the most feverish of states, sweat beading up at the base of his neck and making his socks feel uncomfortably wet. It was a strange hour. Well past midnight, but the morning was still young and pitch black.

Haworth and Hale were still asleep. The cabin shook with the rattles and rumbles of Haw's deep snores. Aiden left the cabin quietly so that he wouldn't wake anyone.

All that night sweat was stirring up the thought of a bath. That, and Aiden had sand under his fingernails, and under his armpits. Some mornings after sleeping on his side, he awoke to a sandy pillow. He hadn't taken a decent bath in a few days. It was so late too; that would give him some privacy.

He slipped onto the main deck and breathed in the salty air. It was cool; the desert was always cooling at nighttime. He knew of a deep desert cove, past a sandy outcropping that he could go to. That was where he usually went.

The twenty-minute walk stirred up the sand and made him even dirtier. The night mist was collecting low to the ground. It cooled his ankles as he waded through it and down to the water's edge.

He unbuttoned his shirt. He heard a noise. Maybe a scratching, maybe a sliding. Maybe nothing. These outcroppings were old. The rocks were always loosening in the night winds and rolling down. And those little critters that hid out in them weren't all the most graceful lot either. Tanner's gun and all, he kicked off his boots and trousers and threw them on the beach. He took off his pants—they'd gotten shorter as he'd gotten older. Looked sort of funny if he wasn't wearing his boots. Took everything else off too.

Now don't get worked up. Aiden wasn't much to look at. He was sort of a straight line up and down. But at least he had a body. Got the job done was all. There was something to be said about a body that was substance over style.

Aiden washed his hair out. He washed his chest, his butt. He got tired and sat there for a while as the waves crashed up on him.

He heard laughing. Something deep, happy maybe. Aiden scrambled out of the water and pulled his undergarments on, hopping on one leg. Clumps of wet sand flew all over him. He couldn't get away from that stuff. He tugged on his pants, slipped his boots on and started buttoning his shirt as he hurried across the beach.

He heard some more unintelligible chatter. Before he ran home, he stopped and moved closer to the source. It sounded too familiar. He peeked around the very outcropping that had once sheltered him from the public eye and looked out into the next stretch of beach.

He would have thought Amelia Rose to look particularly beautiful that night if not for ending his bath early. She was with Tanner. Aiden didn't even know he was awake. But how could he? Tanner had that nice big cabin all to himself. Tanner sat on a piece of driftwood and twirled  a knife.

"Now what's this nonsense?" Tanner pointed the knife towards Amelia Rose. Aiden tensed up, before Tanner lifted his other hand, which held a  piece of wood. He went back to whittling.

"How many times must I say it, Mr. Tanner? Oh you're so dreadfully dim. It makes me suffer," she shook her head and put a hand on her forehead. "I don't think we should marry, Mr. Tanner. It's that simple. We'll make each other miserable."

"I ain't stupid, I just hadn't heard ya right." He shook his dagger, "I know it. Me and you are like water and vinegar."

"Water and vinegar, sir?"

"We don't mix. I thought you was a smart one, too!"

"Oh, dear Mr. Tanner. You're so horribly, inexplicably troubled. Your company simply rots my brain." She shook her head. Aiden didn't understand half the words she ever said, but that sympathetic look she gave Mr. Tanner made Aiden's heart move more than it ever had. Maybe all he wanted was for someone to worry about him in that sort of way. Just the thought sent shivers racing all up and down his back.

Tanner chuckled. "Uh, yeah." He didn't seem to understand what she had said either. "You know, your Pa's willing to give me all this money just if I'll have you. How can I give that up?"

"There must be a way we can all get what we want and be happy," she said. She stepped towards him. He looked up at her from his whittling. "I think Mr. Tanner, I think you can talk my father into anything. Aside from your faults, I do know you to have a good heart. My father is fond of you in spite of all the bad things."

Tanner set his knife down. "Ms. Wagner, I don't think you've got me pegged all like you think. I ain't no good. I ain't no speck of decent."

"I wish I could change your mind because you have it in you. Do you not want to see it all?"

"Enough!" He shouted. "Enough of you!"

Amelia Rose backed away from him. His whole body tensed up, changing the shape of him from some poor dejected man to one full of anger and intensity. He gripped tight onto his knife. "I don't want you here trying to guilt me, trying to make me into something I ain't. Cause I ain't no good, no small bit of good. I ain't got none of that in me. I'm forty-eight damn years-old. You'd think I'd know my ass from my feet from my own decency."

"Mr. Tanner, you've mistaken—"

"Maybe when I was young, Ms. Wagner. Maybe when I was just a boy. But I got tangled in all this nonsense. Back then—back when your momma died and your daddy went down the shitter. Gambling, drinking, all them night ladies. All piss and sand, ain't nothing good for us two."

"My mother? What's she...what does she have to do with it?"

"Go home. I came out here to be alone," he sat back down on the log.

"We've gotten so off topic. I really wanted to see about you making an arrangement with my father so that we can call off the wedding and—"

Tanner swept off the log, so quickly it made Aiden's heart pound violently in his chest. Tanner reached out and grabbed the neckline of Amelia Rose's green evening dress. He pulled it towards him. The fabric made a horrible noise. The threads had split somewhere.

"Don't provoke me, woman. I'm considerin' it. Considerin'."

"Let go of me," Amelia Rose whispered, her voice grating. She balled her hands up into the tiniest of fists.

Aiden leaned down and pulled the gun out of his boot with shaking hands. He stumbled from behind the outcropping, his legs weak with fear. He pointed the gun out, aimed at Tanner.

"Leave her be, Tanner." Aiden lifted the gun and repositioned himself several times. It didn't feel like there was a right way to hold a gun.

"You took my gun, Payne," Tanner said. He wore the full moon as a crown. He was so gaunt that night. Aiden had never seen a face so gaunt. So skeletal. It scared all the clean right off of him.

"I guess I did." Amelia Rose's eyes were locked onto him. Maybe she was disappointed. Maybe she was amazed. He couldn't read her. He didn't know how, but he wanted to sit there all day and just try to figure her out. Wanted to look deep into her dark eyes forever and ever until he was just dust. How could someone mesmerize him so much?

He looked away, back at Tanner, whose teeth ground back-and-forth. "And I was gonna sell it. I still am. I have to get out of here, Tanner. You don't get it. You never have."

"What do you have that for?" Tanner asked.

All the resentment was burning at his temples. Years and years of nothing but disrespect, unappreciated work, shit pay, no pay at all. But this job was all he could get in this town. No one trusted foreigners like him. The gun slid between his hands in just the right way. His knees bent, he set one foot forward. "I'm not meant to be here. I'm not meant for it." Aiden swallowed hard. His head shook. He couldn't stop the tremors. His fingers curled around the trigger. It was so cold, so comfortable. It was smooth. Inviting. Like the hot kettle his mother always told him not to touch. His fingers were drawn to it like butterflies to sugar.

Tanner yelled, "What for, what do you have that—"

Aiden didn't need to think about it anymore. He pulled the trigger.