Wolves At Our Door
Page 32
Nesib threw the pitchfork away and began to weep. Rafa slumped on the grain sacks, wept, and rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. Ibrahim, Abdullah, and Jacobo had clustered together and moved toward the door. When they saw Kane and Vogel go to Fatima’s side, they recovered and carried her into Abdullah’s stall and laid her on his cot. She revived and refused to let them examine her. Kane felt better when she ordered them to send Rafa to the main house for a maid. Three maids came and ordered the men out of the barn so they could examine her, because Abdullah’s stall did not have a door on it. After a while, the oldest came out and told everyone that the pitchfork had laid four long, deep scratches on Fatima’s side, but the bleeding had been easily stopped.
Kane and Vogel went in to see her. She would not look at Kane, so he went out to saddle his horse. Abdullah came up to him with the colmillo. "Here, Jim. Take your knife," he said.
"Since I’ve had that extra tooth, I’ve discovered secrets about myself I don’t like," Kane said.
"I understand."
"Leave these people and come with us, friend."
"No, I have the responsibility of the small Abdullah, my namesake. He’s not mine, but he carries my name and I have no one else to do that"
"Then, if you stay with these people, I hope I never see you again."
Abdullah’s eyes went cold. He stepped back, looked Kane in the eye, and buried the blade in the ground at Kane’s feet.
Kane picked it up, sheathed it, and walked back to his horse.
An hour later Kane and Vogel and the Brennans stopped on La Golondrina Pass to let their animals blow and turned for a last look at the hacienda. Vogel did not often wave to people, but Kane liked to wave good-bye when he left a place. Toribio the one-armed watchman had always returned his wave, but this time he did not, so he turned his back and rode to catch up to Vogel. He and Vogel were in the lead and the trail was wide enough for them to ride side by side.
Right then a mocking bird sang her heart out nearby. Kane looked up and found him in a cottonwood tree. He smiled and murmured to himself, "Da boids in da trees."
“You’re talking to yourself, old man," Vogel said. "Now tell me what happened at La Culebra. I want to know everything."
Kane grinned at him, but had a tear in his eye. Ignoring Vogel's request, he said, "When Adelita was learning English, she became fascinated by the different American accents. She liked to mimic the ways that Americans from the eastern states talked. She loved to say, Ah, tis spring. Da boids are choiping and da woims are sticking der little noggins outta da doit." Kane then said it in correct English for Vogel, who had not understood one word, then he tried to make him understand by translating it into Spanish, then gave up and said, "The way she said it made my heart roll over. I loved it when she tried to speak English in a New York or New Jersey or Texas accent. Her Mexican accent always ruled whatever she said, and she laughed a lot about it. That made me happy and she knew it."
Vogel’s face looked blank, but he smiled anyway.
"When I heard the mockingbird in the tree, I thought of Adelita, that’s all," Kane said.
"That’s a good thought," Vogel said.
"I think I need to see a doctor," Kane said.