Tom Mathews’s Reviews > Epitaph > Status Update

Henry died a few days later.
Josie never left the kitchen. Wyatt was at a loss until Hattie's husband, Emil clapped him on the shoulder.
"Our job is to say yes to whatever our wives want right now. Whatever it is, just agree."
"But why does she keep cooking?" Wyatt asked.
"It's what she has to do," Emil said. Grief takes everyone different."
It could be worse, he meant. At least she's not shooting anybody.

This book is so awesome‼

afterward, men would ask, “Why didn’t Stilwell kill Wyatt then and there? He had the high ground, up on that boxcar.” But those men had never looked into eyes that told you, plain as speech, There is no place you can go that I will not follow. I will find you, and I will pull your heart from your chest, and I will eat it raw.

He went back to reading, but about halfway through he started to frown, and when he was done, he looked troubled. “Wyatt, this ain’t how I remember it. I told Fitch it was Doc who—He was standing behind me, see? When he cocked the shotgun, I thought he saw somebody make a move, so I-“
“Shut up!”
Morgan blinked.
“Morgan,” Wyatt said carefully, “the way you remember it could get you hanged.”

Firecrackers. That's what the shooting sounded like to Louisa Earp: firecrackers going off, right down the street. Misdemeanor, she thought, for fireworks had been outlawed since the fire in June.

A moment later she realized that it was gunfire and she began to pray. Not Morgan. Please, God, not Morgan.

Ike was hollering. “I know my rights! Take your goddam hands off me! I’ll get you, Holliday! I’ll get you before he gets me!”

Which is where things stood when Virgil Earp arrived and coldcocked Ike without so much as a howdy-do.

A sudden silence fell.

“Goddamnit, Doc,” Virg cried, “What in hell was that about?”

Wide-eyed, Doc looked up from Ike’s inert body. “Virgil, it beats me hollow.”

'Pushed by a dry, hot desert wind, the blaze spread with stunning speed. Miners boiled out of the pits. Offices and stores emptied. Every able-bodied man ran toward the center of town. Hundreds set to work, dipping buckets into horse troughs, flinging water against forty-foot walls of flame. They might as well have puckered up and spit, for all the good it did.'

Two women in Doc Holliday’s life managed to get their names into American pop culture without his assistance. His cousin, Martha Ann Holliday, appears in a book written by another cousin, Margaret Mitchell. A clue as to who that character is is the name Martha assumed when she became a nun; Sister Mary Melanie.

In addition Doc’s mistress assumed a name familiar to John Wayne fans; Katie Elder.

Jesus," Brocius moaned, face in his hands. "Why'd you hit me like that?"

That was a new question, so Wyatt answered it. "Because I decided not to shoot you."

“Euphoria is the poppy’s first gift, gently vanquishing the soul’s distress, mercifully muting the body’s pain. What follows is a gorgeous floating languor. Be warned: To experience that sensation even once is to desire it again and again, forever. To be deprived of opium’s beneficence is to endure first longing, then anguish, and finally torment.”

Frank McLaury was old enough to be balding, but he seemed like such a child. Maybe it was because he was so short. Maybe it was because he was so foolish.
“You two keep running with the Cow Boys,” Wyatt warned, “You’re gonna get yourselves killed.”
Frank and Billy watched him ride away. He was over the rise when Billy Clanton asked, “Did that sound like a threat to you?”