the ranch

Sam Bender sat at the kitchen table in the glow of the single light over head. his coffee cup was half full, his headed throbbed and it put him in a bad mood.it was still dark out side. Coaly sat on the porch with his coffee and stared into the western sky.  Sissy scurried about the kitchen bare footed, her serape  house coat wrapped and tied with the braided hay string belt. her bare legs and long black hair covering her neck and back the only thing visible as she attended the stove. she brought sam a pill bottle.
" the doctor said to take them when it hurts" she whispered.
 " well it damn  sure hurts" sam reached for the bottle
    he had returned home the night before  from the hospital, his head with a lump the size of a goose egg.  the crease in his neck from the bullet that knocked him from his horse was scabbed over and stiff but wasn't  as painful as the concussion he had received from hitting the only rock in the vekhol valley. downing two of the pain killers he washed them down with the coffee left in his cup. Sissy put a plate of food in front of him, filled the cup with fresh, hot coffee then went to the door and asked Coaly if he wanted to eat. he arose and stepped inside and she filled his cup as he went to the table.
   " doc said to stay down for  few more days. why didn't you stay in bed?" he asked
  Sam slowly shook his head " cant sleep, when im,e this pissed off. hows the ranch?"
  " everything is ok. ill make a run today and check all the waters. there hasn't been any one out and about that I have seen,  but then ive stayed kinda close here." Coaly forked eggs into his waittting mouth.
  " ill ride along if its ok." sam mumbled.
  " do you think that's smart? you know what the doctor said. theres nothing out there that I cant handle." Coaly was looking him in the eye
" my ranch, my choice. ill not do anything but tell you what to do." Sam had a crooked smile on his face. his eyelids were drooping.  the pain killers taking effect.
   " you do that anyway. if you want to go you bring them pills. bouncing around in that truck wont help that head of yours." coaly was shaking his head as he finished his meal.


   out on the vekhol road a dilapidated ford pick up was bouncing  along. the driver just barely able to see over the steering wheel. his hair was long and greasy and covered with a old baseball cap with the dust from the road settling into it. buck teeth jutted out of his upper lip, and he steered the truck from side to side on the dirt road. he was a guatamalin. a refugee from the  political unrest in central America.  he was employed by the farmer as a sheep herder. but everywhere he went he went armed. he carried the rifle as if it were a fragile child. he was a assassin in central America and was here because of the price on his head.  he had one big problem that added to his ugly features and made him a mediocre assasin, he was horribly crosseyed.  the farmer kept him in his employ because of his unexplained loyalty. he did what ever the farmer assigned to him. herd sheep, or kill he did it. but his last two jobs hadn't been done well. he didn't know it but the farmer was happy with them. better than a killing they instilled fear into the folks who might be a problem. had he killed the papago policeman he would have had a full scale retaliation by the reservation. the farmer didn't want that.  as for bender the farmer just wanted him to stay away from the paradise.  but he had grossly under estimated the Vietnam veteran. Santiago cruz was to make sure that the delivery from mexico was to be picked up uninteruped.  the black federal agent rigsby wasn't to know of his presence. he was to be watched and covered. the farmer trusted no one. Santiago didn't know what was being delivered, and didn't care.  he was to make sure the delivery was made, then follow rigsby back to town. when he was sure of his safety he would return to his sheep herders shack at the sheep ranch.  Santiago didn't understand the rules of the bombing range. he couldn't read English as well as Spanish so the warning signs meant nothing to him. he drove out there to  avoid detection from the people who might be a problem to his mission. it was still dark when he parked his truck in a mesquite thicket then walked a mile to the spot he had used before to observe the drop.  he couldn't see  it but rigsbys suburban was parked below him a quarter mile away. he settled into wait for daylite and the plane to make the drop.