The Best Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gunslinger in the Whole Damned Galaxy by Mike Resnick Page A

been one of the other girls, but it sure fooled me for a second.” He shrugged awkwardly. “I guess I’ve been working too hard."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “If you have been,” said Flint, “you’re the first. Probably you’ve been hanging around the Dancer too much. Living in the past might be contagious."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “I guess so,” said Tojo. He thanked Mr. Ahasuerus again and left.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “That was very generous of you, Mr. Flint,” said the blue man when the door slid shut.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “What was?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Giving him a chain that was given to you by a woman you loved."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Flint toyed with his present for a moment. “I never loved her,” he said at last. “Besides, it was a long time ago.” He paused again. “Hell, if anyone loved her, it was Tojo."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Still, it was a decent thing to do."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “ What was a decent thing to do?” asked Flint distractedly.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Giving him the chain, as I just explained,” said the blue man patiently.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Yeah. Well, I always try to do at least one humane thing a year."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  The blue man stared at him curiously. “Why do you continually pretend to be colder and less caring than you are?” he asked at last.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “What makes you think I’m pretending?” asked Flint.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Because over the years I have watched you continually try to appear callous and uncaring, and yet your actions ultimately prove that you are not."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “It’s your imagination."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “It is not, and I think I deserve an answer."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Flint walked over to the blue man’s refrigerator and pulled out another beer. He opened it, stared at it for a moment, and sighed wearily. “There’s a room on the third floor of a tenement building in Trenton, New Jersey, that’s been waiting for me to come back since I was twelve years old,” he said slowly. “It hasn’t been painted in half a century, and I don’t think it’s ever been heated. At night, you can shine a flashlight on the floor and watch the cockroaches fight the termites. I’ve spent my whole goddamned life getting as far away from that room as I can, and something deep down in my gut tells me that the day I stop running and start caring is the day I’ll find out that someone has moved my bags back into it.” He looked directly into his partner’s narrow orange eyes. “Does that answer your question?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “You’re a very unusual man, Mr. Flint."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “So are you, Mr. Ahasuerus. Isn’t that why we became partners in the first place?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “I suppose so,” sighed the blue man.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Flint took a long swallow of his beer. “This is really pretty awful stuff,” he commented.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Then don’t drink it."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Flint smiled. “It’s not quite that awful."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “By the way, I haven’t made my ledger entries yet. How much did you spend to get Billybuck and the Jimorian out of jail?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Three thousand credits for the Jimorian,” said Flint. “If I’d known then what I know now, I’d have charged them to take him off their hands."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “And Billybuck?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “You don’t want to know."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “I must have a figure."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “Twenty-two thousand."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  “That much?” asked the blue man,