Do You Like Jokes?
Arnold Ashford’s Journal Entry #23
“Do you like jokes?” he said. I don’t know if I was more surprised to find the Town’s Lawman playing the trumpet in the Saloon, or for his first words to me to be to ask if’n I liked jokes. “Uh, y-yeah. I like jokes.” I smiled. “Doesn’t everybody like jokes?” With that, Sandy got a wide grin on his face, his hands went up in front of him as if to paint a picture, and he said:
“OK! An Indian walks into a saloon, followed shortly by a bear. The patrons all freeze in fear, and the saloon keeper points to him and fearfully whispers, “There’s a bear right behind you!” The Indian calmly holds up his hand and says, “Bear with me.”
With that, Sandy erupted into laughter and clapped me on the shoulder. “I love that joke!” As he wiped moisture from the corner of his eyes, we began to have a conversation; I introduced myself and explained my journey through the West, the journal I was keeping and articles I was writing. He told me how he went from being a trumpet player to the Lawman of Laredo. It felt like talking with a friend I hadn’t seen in years.
Eventually I noticed that the Saloon was getting quieter, the crowd getting thinner. I asked Sandy about this “Perro Loco” I had heard getting talked about. The grin slowly faded from his face. “Ah yes. Perro Loco. The Mad Dog. Something is not right with him, with his head.” He glanced over at the clock above the wall of whiskeys and other spirits. “It’s probably about time, yeah.” He had an uncharacteristically somber look on his face as he said it. “Laredo is a good town. These are good people. You will have many more good things to write here.”
Sandy clapped my shoulder again and started toward the door. It was then that a unearthly howl pierced the evening. It wasn’t the howl of a wolf or of a man trying to howl like a wolf. It was the howl of a monster. It was Perro Loco.
— Check back next week for a new entry in Ashford’s journal —