I See By Your Outfit That You Are A Cowboy

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy
PegN — 8 Oct 1998, 9:31 PM

Miss Peggy Lou checked the locks on the front of the General Store before going upstairs to the living quarters she shared with her sister. Going through the nightly routine of checking the security of her store, she pondered recent events in Voyager City. This town and its residents just tickled her. All these supposedly upstanding people and their secret lives. Men and women having premarital sex (and she wasn't thinking about Quark's and Maxine's girls), women dressing like men (including her own sister) and what was up with Kes Janeway's skintight leather outfit! A lot of townfolk came through her store and what Peggy Lou didn't observe for herself or learn from telegraph transmissions, she learned from the people who stopped to gossip while they shopped. Voyager City was a fun place to live vicariously

She heard someone come in the back through the Telegraph Office and knew it was Barty.

"Well," she said without turning around. "Been practicing in the choir loft with Mr. Gill this late at night?" She turned then and caught her sister's sheepish grin.

"Look," she began again, "When are you going to let Marshal Tuvok find you? I'm tired of making excuses about where you might be, especially since some of the time, you're standing right next to me dressed up as a man. Why don't you just tell Maxine that her piano player is a woman?"

"Because she advertised for a man," replied Barty. "And you have to admit that as a 'man', I get to see and hear things that most women don't. Like the fact that Tom Janeway comes in there at night when he's not with B'Elanna Torres. And that Mr. Torres supposedly comes in to hear Racine sing but stares at her bosom the whole time she performs. And then there's Old Mike who Max hides from Maxine behind my piano. He hangs out and drinks and then goes on and on about Elaine."

Peggy Lou laughed with Barty, then her green eyes narrowed. "Does Ayala frequent that establishment?"

"Only to accompany me with his harmonica." Barty reassured her. "What do you see in him anyway? He doesn't talk very much. Oh." Barty could tell by Peggy Lou's wicked grin what she saw in him.

"Besides," said Peggy Lou, "You know I like them big and dumb. What do you see in Mr. Gill? And don't go on anymore about the length of his...."

"Why not?" was the indignant interruption. "You say the same thing about Tom Janeway's and you really can't see his unless you get up close."

"Well, that's because he's much fairer and I have been that close, thank you very much. Maybe we could get them side by side and compare length."