Cabin Fever V

Jacob and I grew up together, at least as much as I grew up with anyone. I guess he was my oldest friend, to put it in more straightforward terms, but we didn't see each other for a long time for awhile, as his family left when he was about twelve.

Before then we were great friends, and when the carnival passed through town we would try everything we could to get in without paying and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. One of the times Jacob got in and managed to get his fortune read, too, but after that he was convinced he was going to die in the street, right outside of the bank. I always made fun of him about that, but he avoided that place like a pox no matter what I said and when he came back into town, all grown up, the first place he went was the bank to deposit a whole lot of money I guess. He was a changed man, and I didn't talk to him, but Old Man James who ran the bank told me he opened the biggest account he'd ever seen that day. He'd said something to Old Man James about finally making his fortune out west.

I guess he was planning on staying, but a couple of weeks later he was walking to his hotel room with Joanne and she said he just dropped, stone dead, right there on the street, right in front of the saloon. I didn't think much of it until the saloon moved father east of town, and Old Man James took the opportunity of renovating the old one into a new bank.