374
JUAN FRANCISCO BLANCO
“Anne, come here please, put this in your pocket, and when
you get home, give it to your father. Can you remember to do
that for me?”
Of course I can, I’m seven, you know. I’ll give it to my dad
when we get home. Thank you for fixing Blacky,” Anne said,
while getting back into the bed of the pickup truck.
Bardala, leading Belleza, walked over to Tidal and whispered,
“You know we might need that gold dust, for gas and things.” She
slipped her hand into his hand, “But, my good father would
approve of your unselfishness in what you just did for that
family.”
“Let’s get moving, I hate to be late!” Tital shouted, as he
started loading up Belleza and the other horses. He took a look
over his shoulder, and waved as the family, whom he didn’t even
know, drove off with everyone waving goodbye. Maybe tonight,
he thought, when they camped out in Blanco, they could ask
around to see if anyone would come to work for them.
“Count heads, so we don’t leave anyone behind.”
“My group’s all ready to go,” Jonathan said over the radio.
“Okay, next stop Blanco, New Mexico,” Ronú announced over
the radio. He was now sitting up front on the passenger side.
Interstate Highway 64, running east and west, was full of
curves winding around the mountains. The road was closed in
the left lane for pothole repairs, and to make matters worse they
got behind a big eighteen-wheeler loaded with a Caterpillar
bulldozer. It had to go down to low gear when it started climbing
the slopes of nearby San Antonio Mountain. Then they came to a
complete stop.
“Why are we stopped?” Tital asked over the radio.