A February morning had never felt so warm on the skin of Albert White. At first he had thought it was the stale coach air being oppressive and feeling warmer in his claustrophobic throat than it actually was. How strange it was, to be so uneasy in the coach, longing for fresh air and sweating, while having no issues with packed sleeping quarters of ships which had the potential to turn into hellholes more accursed than the dirtiest of diphtheria pest houses. But it turned out he was right: it was warm. Unnaturally warm, he thought alighting in the wide dirty thoroughfare.
It was no New England, that was sure. The winter sun never burned so warm up there in the north, not even in zenith. Here in Arizona it felt more like a pleasant spring. Courtesans seemed to agree, standing on the balcony of some joint, having a smoke and most certainly sipping laudanum as well, or some other substance in those bottles they held. He put the hat on and took the satchel from the coachman holding it for him allowing him to find the rest of his belongings: a long slender thing wrapped in cloth and a bag. He gave the man a coin and tipped the leaf of the hat in thanks as the coach left with neighing of horses.
He saw a fat man sleeping in a wheelbarrow across the thoroughfare in front of a telegraph company headquarters, his head bloodied and muddied. A smaller fellow, a child or the like, walked to him and took from his person a shillelagh and ran off. God damned thief. Lawlessness the first thing I see, even at cock's hour. This is a shithole. He spat. Better move the hell on.
The hotel doors were closed -- a note written in a halfwit's hand nailed to them, informing visitors they wouldn't be opening before noon that day -- but one of the saloons -- the one on the balcony of which prostitutes were hanging around -- wasn't. He walked in, the only person besides a bartender, a younger, slow in the head looking fellow, and another employee leaning plump and shirtless on the bar next to him, eating a piece of canned peach impaled on his knife. Hastily looking around, he caught a glimpse of a monte games table and above it a big hanging sign saying NO PRIESTS: IF YOU PRAY, YOU PAY. They ceased their chatting as he approached.
”Whiskey, please. And coffee.” He put money on the bar, enough money for two rounds of whiskey, looking first at them and then on the well-made quena flute framed in glass among the bottles in front of him, somehow knowing it was made of Christian bone.