An Oldman With A Cowboy Hat

Once upon a time, there was an old man who was short and plump and wore no spectacles, for he could see fairly well with his one eye.

He was blind with the other eye which he lost a long time ago while trying to outrun an army of wild dogs who were madly and with all their might chasing the poor old man. He failed to outrun them. As a result, he got a permanent limp in his left leg and lost his right eye.

That was the time when he was not old, rather he was a young guy who kept a big and fat mustache on his face, a knife in his side pocket, and always wore a cowboy hat. He thought he looked ruff and cool, but his wife thought he looked comical in appearance, and she hated it when random people laughed at her husband.

But people don't laugh at him anymore.

In fact, they had stopped laughing at him a long time ago. Four Years to be precise. The little old man was now revered by the local people of the country. All of this happened in such a hassle that nobody could get the hang of it, and the man came out as a hero.

It was the time of day. He was strutting around the city just for passing a couple of hours, as he normally does. He waved and winked and hello-ed to random people on the way who told him to mind his own business. But he didn't care about people and keep on poking them anyways. Then out of nowhere, he saw another guy come running towards him followed at a distance by another person who, it looked, was trying to catch the guy running ahead of him. The person from behind was shouting 'Thief….Thief… Catch him… He stole my bag of money!… Catch him!'

Nobody seemed to care, and they rather liked to be the spectators and enjoy the scene. This irked the old man.

As he saw the thief approaching him in speed, he pulled out his knife which he always kept with him. He held the knife in his hand and waved it in front of the approaching thief. He was burning in fury. He shouted at the approaching figure to stop at once and hand over the bag of money to him. The thief looked at the short plump guy with a cowboy hat in his front, and he couldn't help but start sniggering at the old man.

'This is ENOUGH!' the old man shouted in his anger and with all his might.

Everybody stopped dead in their places and looked at the man. For the first time in their lives, they saw that the old man looked no fun anymore. He rather looked ruff and angry. Something got into the old man at that time. He couldn't stand mockery from someone like a thief who was doing a petty job. As the thief came running towards him, the old man became more determined than he had ever been. And then in an extempore, he began swishing and flicking and throbbing his arm loaded with a knife towards the thief. People all around them looked in confusion trying to understand whatever was going on in all the hassle.

After what seemed like an eternity everything stopped, and the old man was still holding his knife in his hand through which blood was dripping in drops. The thief was lying on the floor, and he was missing his one arm which was holding the money bag. He was horrified and he was crying and he was getting almost unconscious. Seeing what he had done, the old man dropped his knife instantly. He turned around to look at the crowd of the strangers who were looking at him. None of them laughed anymore. Instead, they were looking at the short and plump man with a little admiration and respect. They finally thought that he was tough and ruff and courageous.

It was when the guy who was chasing the thief for his stolen bag of money approached to thank the little old man and hugged him, the crowd of all the people around him began to clap and shout and hail him for the courage he showed that day.

And that's how the old man finally got respect out of people, out of his funny look with a cowboy hat.

His wife, on the other hand, wouldn't fall for the story. But she was finally happy that people had stopped laughing at his husband, and she still considered that his husband looked rather comical still.

But she loved him a lot, and he loved him a lot, and they both loved each other so much that the old man didn't care if he looked comical to his wife. He in fact liked it that way. And that was perhaps the reason that he never thought of changing his cowboy look because he loved it when his wife would laugh seeing him in his cowboy hat and would kiss him for no reason. They were a lovely couple, and they had been in love ever since they first fell in love, which was a long, long time ago.

A long time ago when they were so young, when William had both of his eyes, when Martha was the most beautiful girl of her age, and when the two of them for the first time ever in their lives came face to face…