The day was bright and sunny, but then, the days were always bright and sunny at this time of the year in these parts.

Nathan and Josiah were seated outside the saloon playing cards.

“Morning, Mrs. Potter,” Josiah greeted as the woman walked passed on the street below. Gloria Potter smiled. It was one of those knowing smiles, like she was privy to a secret. Nathan glanced at Josiah. Sanchez shrugged and the pair went back to their game.

Ezra stepped out of the saloon and stifled a yawn. He had been up all night. His poker game, which had started around midnight, had just concluded.

“Ezra,” Josiah greeted.

Standish nodded, shielding his eyes from the light.

“How did the game end?” Nathan asked, glancing back over his shoulder.

Ezra smiled, his gold tooth catching the rising sun.

Nathan snorted and turned back to Josiah. “Stupid question. Another lost soul you’ll have to comfort, Josiah.”

Two young women, who were heading toward the stables, pointed across at the men and began to giggle.

Ezra’s left eyebrow peaked. “Gentlemen, is there something I have missed?”

The seamstress opened the door of her shop, spotted the trio across the street and waved.

“Something is afoot,” Ezra murmured.

“Yeah, I get the same feeling,” Josiah agreed, rising to his feet and scanning the street. People were stealing looks at them and commenting, smiling or laughing.

Nathan pushed his chair back and joined his companions. “Miss Georgia came across to me this morning and said she couldn’t wait for me to do ‘it’. That she was going to do it with me,” Nathan mused, perplexed.

Ezra’s right eyebrow shot skywards.

Nathan’s brow furrowed. “Wonder what ‘it’ is?”

Josiah and Ezra exchanged an amused look.

“Brother, if you don’t know what ‘it’ is by now, then you’ve got real problems.”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t your father sit down and discuss ‘it’ with you?” Nathan looked more confused. Josiah slipped his arm over his friend’s shoulders, his voice taking on a wistful tone. “Brother, there comes a time in every little boy’s life when he starts to look at little girls differently and..”

Nathan shoved Josiah away smiling. “Shut-up!”

“Ah, so you have had the birds and bees talk? That is encouraging,” Ezra chuckled.

“Come on, that’s not what she meant.” Nathan’s face clouded, his eye growing wide. “Would she?”

Mary Travis opened the door of her shop and spotting the regulators, waved casually. A smile snuck onto her lips and before she knew it, she was beaming. Without warning, she winked at them and then turned and disappeared.

“That was definitely an ‘it’ wink!” Josiah exclaimed.

“Yeah, but what is ‘it’?

The trail into Four Corners was filled by a rider returning from his morning patrol. Vin tipped his hat to the group and rode his horse into the livery. A few moments later, the dusty man wandered out of the stable and strode up to his collected friends. Noting their looks of concern he asked, “Somethin’ wrong, boys?”

“We think so,” Josiah stated, thoughtfully.

“People are looking at us strangely.”

“I’ll bet they are,” Vin chuckled.

“Do you know something of this phenomenon?” Ezra inquired.

Vin removed his hat and shook his head with amusement. “I reckon I didn’t think you’d do it either.”

“’It’. What the hell is it?” Nathan demanded in frustration.

“Enter the dance competition,” Vin answered.

“Dance competition? I haven’t entered any dance competition,” Josiah argued.

“Everyone was talkin’ about it last night. Mrs. Potter has the three of you on the list,” Vin explained, slapping Ezra’s arm as he entered the saloon. His three perplexed companions followed him.

“Now, wait just a moment, Mr. Tanner. As you seem to be a fountain of knowledge, I demand you explain in more detail. I have no cognisance of the contest to which you are referring.”

Vin walked across to the bar and placed his hat in front of him. “Don’t know much about it. Just that Mrs Potter is organizin’ some dance competition to raise money for somethin’. I wasn’t takin’ much notice until someone said you three idiots had signed on.” Vin’s bright blues flashed with delight. “Reckon I might mosey on over there tonight to take a gander. Never know what a man might see.” He bounced his eyebrows several times.

“Mr Tanner, your amusement is ill placed, not to mention not worthy of you. I, for one, have no intention of waltzing around the floor with some female I am unattracted to.”

“It ain’t that type of dancin‘,” Vin explained, nodding to the bartender who placed a shot of whiskey in front of him.

“Do explain, brother?”

“It’s that, you know... different dance,” Vin’s eyes were sparkling. He was enjoying this. With a wink he downed the contents of his glass.

“Different dance?” Nathan asked, nervously. “What do you mean ‘different’ dance?”

“You know? Don’t know what it’s called proper, but it’s the one where they...” Vin glanced to his right and left, bent his back backwards and took two shuffled steps forward in an attempt to demonstrate. Quickly, he stood up and scanned the room again to ensure no one had seen him. His face flushed with embarrassment, but he was still smiling.

“Limbo?!” Josiah cried, in astonishment.

“Yeah, that’s it. They do it under some stick or somethin’. I was talkin’ to Chris and he said that you three had... you didn’t?” Vin asked, his face flushed with innocent surprise.

“No we did not! Let us go and sort this mess out post haste,” Ezra cried indignantly, leading Josiah and Nathan from the saloon with short sharp strides.

A smile settled on Vin’s lips. He glanced at the bartender. “Reckon I’ll have another. It‘s gonna be a mighty interestin‘ day... and very entertainin‘ night.”

**********

“Mr Larabee, we would like you to explain yourself,” Ezra ordered as he and his two companions approached the seated gunfighter.

“Perhaps if I knew the question?” Chris murmured, lowering his feet from the guardrail.

“This dance competition!”

Larabee smiled. “Yeah, I heard about that. I think I might drop by tonight.”

Ezra made an exasperated sound in the back of this throat. “You forgot to consult us before taking it upon yourself to fill in an entry form on our behalf.”

Chris stared at the three men. “I didn’t enter you.”

“We have just spoken to Mrs. Potter and she said that you entered the three of us,” Josiah explained.

Chris continued to smile. “She’s mistaken. It wasn’t me. So you aren’t doing it?”

“Of course we aren’t...”

“Excuse me?”

Chris rose to his feet as a woman and her six children appeared beside the group of men. The regulators tipped their hats politely.

“Ma’am?”

“I am looking for Mr. Standish, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sanchez.”

Nathan smiled. “That would be us, Ma’am. How can we help you?”

Almost immediately, tears began to stream down the woman’s face. “I just wanted to thank you.”

“What for, Ma’am?” Josiah asked.

“For entering the dance competition. Gloria is holding it to raise money for us. We’ve just come from out east. On the way here, we were attacked by bandits. They took everything we owned, even the children’s toys. Mrs Potter has been so kind. She’s provided us with so much and then she organized the dance competition.”

“I don’t understand how us entering the competition helps?” Nathan asked.

“You have to pay to watch it,” J.D. explained, walking up to the group. “The whole town’s comin’ now that you three have entered.”

Ezra, Nathan and Josiah glanced at each other and then found themselves staring into the faces of the wide-eyed children.

“We’ll be there, Ma’am,” Josiah confirmed.

The young woman stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.” She smiled and then ushered her family away.

Ezra turned to Josiah. “We’ll be there? We’ll be there! You mean you’ll be there! I have made no such promise.”

“I reckon the town’ll lynch you if you don’t, Ezra,” J.D. giggled. “A lot of people have paid a lot of money to come and see you limbo. Besides, Buck’s running a book on it. You’re winning at the moment.”

“Buck!” Ezra cried. “If you’ll excuse me.” Standish strode off in search of his ‘friend‘ and new prime suspect.

**********

Buck toasted Vin. He was laughing so hard, tears were running down his cheeks.

A week earlier, Buck had been on the receiving end of a practical joke that had left him dancing around a tree naked at midnight. Vin had promised to help him seek his revenge. Of course, Buck wasn’t privy to the fact that it had in fact been Tanner who had designed the plan to help J.D. catch his friend out.

“I told you to leave it to me,” Tanner chuckled.

**********

That night, Ezra, Nathan and Josiah competed in the Limbo competition. The entire town was there to witness the scene. Buck, Chris, J.D. and Vin laughed the night through with the rest of the population. Josiah’s attempts never actually saw him get under the bar. Nathan was laughing so much he didn’t have a chance. Only Ezra was prepared to take things seriously enough to contest the prize, but then, his competitive nature did not allow for anything else.

In the end, Joshua Walker’s teenage son won the bottle of whiskey first prize.

Following the ‘main event‘ everyone milled around the hall laughing and reliving the competition. Ezra found a table alone in a corner where he could stew in silence. He would never admit that he had enjoyed the evening, but the truth was, he had. Since coming to this backward little town, Ezra Standish had found something that had always eluded him - the simple pleasure of friendship.

Vin wandered across to his friend and sat down at the table, a smile plastered on his face.

“Shut up.”

“You okay?” Tanner chuckled.

“Besides the fact that I have been made a laughing stock, I am just peachy.”

Vin grinned. “You made a lot of people real happy, Ezra. Look at the smiles on them kids’ faces. They’ve raised enough money to buy some furniture to replace the stuff that was stolen.”

Ezra flicked his eyes in the direction of the family. One of the little girls waved. Ezra smiled. “I suppose it was for a good cause however, I will never forgive the person who entered me into this charade.”

Vin nodded and leaned back in his chair with satisfaction. “They really got you good, didn’t they?”

Ezra eyed his friend curiously. “You know who it was, don’t you?” he accused.

Vin bounced his eyebrows twice and glanced across at Buck and J.D. The pair’s uproarious laughter was echoing in the room, J.D. once again doing impressions of Josiah’s attempts to get under the bar.

“I see,” Ezra stated with a happy wink. “Well, thank you for identifying the vipers.”

“You aimin’ to get them back?”

“I believe that is a certainty and there aren’t many certainties in this life, Mr. Tanner.”

“I could help,” Vin offered, leaning forward, his eyes alive at the prospect.

“You?” Ezra chuckled. “Sorry, Vin. I don’t mean to laugh at your expense.” The very idea of the reserved tracker helping to design a practical joke was absurd.

Vin Tanner suppressed his amusement. Like Buck, Ezra didn’t suspect for one moment that he had masterminded the plan. “I got an idea.”

“And what would that be?”

Tanner grinned mischievously and then winked at his friend. “Leave ‘it’ to me.”

**********

The party finished just before midnight. The seven regulators collected outside the hall all happy and content as they watched the citizens they protected head to their respective beds.

“Well, I enjoyed that. I can‘t remember enjoying a night so much,” Buck boomed, glancing at the three hapless victims of the practical joke before laughter erupted from him again.

Ezra flicked his eyes to Vin and then let them settle on Wilmington. “We will see just how long you shall be laughing, my witless friend.”

“I thought I had a good chance of winning the competition,” Josiah claimed, thoughtfully.

“How? The kid who won got under twelve inches.” J.D. pointed out. “When you lie flat on your back, it sticks up more than twelve inches.” Eyes widened and dropped to a specific part of Josiah’s anatomy.

“What does?” Josiah cried, blinking.

J.D. blushed. “Your stomach!” he clarified quickly.

Laughter filled the night and continued to echo until the sun chose to rise and announce the coming of a new day - a day when ’it’... the joy of friendship and practical jokes... would begin again.