Jedidiah Heath, Jed to his friends, was born in a relatively small town in the frontier. He was a quiet sort growing up, but a bit of a troublemaker. He was very rough and tumble, with a tendency to make trouble with the other kids in town. He started more than a few fights as a child, more often because he’d taken something one of the other kids had said as an insult. He also had a tendency to jump in to other fights, often pushing things into a rowdy bought of fisticuffs. As he grew older, he began to develop more of a sense of justice, singling out bullies and delinquents as his targets. Seeing that young Heath had a chance to direct some of his aggression, the local sheriff deputized him when he was a young man, hoping to direct his fighter’s instinct toward taking down actual criminals. For a time, it worked out quite well and Jedidiah became well liked as the sheriff’s deputy and one of the town’s protectors. Though he would never admit it, Jed liked the work, but more for the excuse to take down criminals in a good fight than because he felt they needed to be put to justice for what they’d done.
Then a drifter drifted in to town. He had the eyes of a killer and a mean look that put everyone in town on edge. More than one person made a point of accusing him as an outlaw. Jedidiah pegged the man as a killer the moment they saw each other. Oddly, he found more respect for the drifter than fear. The man may have been a killer, or a criminal, but he was direct, tough, and remarkably honest for what he did. He and Jed hit it off surprisingly well and eventually the drifter offered him a job. The man and his band were planning a job, a heist at the local bank. All they needed was a man who was willing to provide an alibi so they could skip town with the gold once they had pulled off the heist. Jedidiah wavered a bit, but he found that he much preferred the idea of working with his friend than he did protecting the townsfolk. So it was that two days later a small group of armed men raided the bank and made off with a small fortune in gold bars. Jedidiah swore up and back that he and his friend had been drinking together while the robbery was taking place and his friend rode out of town the next day, smilin’.
Jed found that he couldn’t quite sleep easy. Whether it was because he’d sold out to the outlaw or because he was back to the boring work of arresting drunks and minor thieves, he couldn’t say. Finally, he saddled up and left town, tellin’ everyone that he was followin’ a lead on the missing gold. In truth, he needed some space to clear his head and figure out just what he was planning to do with his life from here. And did he want to take the law into his own hands or go down the opposite path and embrace the outlaw life?
