Chapter Fifteen

The market was in the town's high school football field, just as Melinda had said. There was a broad gate for vendors and a smaller one for those who wished to browse or buy. Shoppers could come and go as they pleased, free of charge, but a stooped little man in a straw hat stopped the trading party at the vendor gate. "How many tables you going to be wanting?"

"Well," Peterson said, looking at Melinda and Amalia's carts as he considered. "Me and my daughter will each need one. Amalia?"

"I can make do with one," Amalia said.

"So that's three. Gonzales?"

Gonzales patted the bulging packs strapped to his buckskin's haunches. "I was thinking I'd just rent a quarter space in the bleachers for today and tomorrow."

The man in the straw hat nodded. "North side bleachers are open, first ten rows." Behind him was a polished wooden board with a map of the stadium painted on it and little numbered holes for each section a vendor could rent. Some of the holes had colored pegs in them, indicating that someone was assigned to that spot. He quoted a few prices and locations, adding, "It's a nickel extra if you want to pay at the end of each day instead of up front."

"Two-thirty West sounds good to me." Gonzales dug in his pocket and produced some coins.

The old man took the money, counted it into a cash box and handed him a worn wooden token. "Put that in your pocket in case anyone questions you. Return it tomorrow afternoon when you leave." He handed him a little bracelet of red and yellow wool. "Here's your Tuesday bracelet. It's imperative that you return it tomorrow and exchange it for your Wednesday bracelet or you'll get fined."

Once Gonzales had everything he needed, Peterson, Melinda and Amalia went through a similar procedure to get tables on the field, which was the main market area. When everyone had a colored bracelet for the day, they were allowed to drive through the gate and find their assigned spots.

While Gonzales headed toward the bleachers, Amalia, Donovan and the Petersons found their tables, third row in, on the twenty yard line. "It's not ideal," Amalia said, "But we'll make it work."

Already most of the field was full. Around him Donovan saw signs, banners and brightly colored tablecloths set out to attract passersby. Everything was organized and tidy, without so much as a scrap of garbage in sight. Although it was still early in the morning, shoppers were already checking the wares, comparing merchandise and haggling over prices. It had been a long time since he had seen such an abundance of goods in one place, available to whoever could afford them, and Donovan could barely concentrate on the business of unloading the wagon.

Diana was struggling to stay focused too, and finally Amalia sent Donovan over to the Petersons’ table to fetch her. "Why don't you two make the rounds and find out what prices are like today? That way we'll have some idea what to charge."

They didn't wait to be asked twice. Melinda barely had time to call for Diana to be back in thirty minutes before they were lost in the maze of tables.

"Do you know where we should go first?" Donovan asked, moving clumsily because of the weight and traction of his leg brace.

"It's a little different every time. Most vendors don't get the same spot over and over, so you have to go back and forth. Eventually you'll see everything and then you can decide what to go back and buy."

"Sounds like you've got a system."

"I do." She trotted over to the nearest stall-- a long table covered with a lace tablecloth. The display consisted mainly of books and small items of crystal, silver and china. The white-haired lady gave a tight smile as Donovan joined Diana in examining her family heirlooms. Donovan had seen her type before and knew she was torn between needing to make a sale while dreading to part with her treasures. Even decades after the century of abundance had come crashing down, people still clung to the remnants-- a frosted crystal cat, a porcelain bowl painted with green shamrocks, a book of color photographs of Paris, a silver bracelet.

"Do you like jewelry?" the woman asked Diana, pushing a heart-shaped silver box toward her. "This will keep your things nice."

Diana shook her head. "I like horses."

"I see." The woman looked through her books for a moment, producing a big brown book. It was obviously quite old, with wear on the edges of its cover and the stamped gold lettering almost worn away. She opened it to show page after page of color prints on thick creamy paper. "All the major horse breeds. The text gives you history and description of the breed, and of course you get some very nice pictures."

Diana took the book and examined the pages reverently.

"Twenty dollars," the woman said.

"Oh, that's too much."

"I don't have to have cash. I'll accept food, ration coupons, tools or seeds."

Diana handed back the book. "I'm just looking today."

"I'll be here tomorrow, too. I can hold the book for you, if you like."

"No," the girl said. "I can't promise anything without talking to my mom and I don't want to keep you from making a sale."

As they wandered away, Donovan smiled at her. "That's a pretty grown up attitude you've got. I could tell you liked that book."

"She probably won't sell it to anyone else today and I probably won't be able to buy it, anyway." She tried to sound philosophical. "It's not like we've got that kind of money to spend on books. My family needs a new horse bridle, salt, shoes, canning jars, and some canned foods like what we can't grow for ourselves. Only if we do really well can I think about buying something just because I like it."

"It seems too bad you can't have something for fun now and then." They merged into the stream of shoppers and headed toward the next table.

"I can have something fun. It just has to be useful, too." They were in front of a table that had wool for sale in various forms -- raw wool, undyed yarn, spun yarn and cloth in various vegetable-dyed colors and a few finished products such as hats, mittens, scarves and blankets. Remembering the instructions Amalia had given them, Diana was suddenly all business. She examined a pair of mittens and some orange yarn as if intending to buy. "How much?" she asked, pointing to an undyed skein.

"Two dollars."

"That's a lot. How about a dollar and a quarter?"

They haggled for a few minutes. The young woman at the table finally refused to go lower than a dollar sixty and Diana said she would let her mother know. She and Donovan wandered away, pretending to be deep in thought. Once they were out of earshot, Diana said, "That's more than they were charging last time. If everyone's prices are that high, we'll make some good sales today."

"Are you going to buy that book, then?"

"No." She shook her head. "I'm saving up for a mule."

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Chapter Fourteen

Once they were past the phony road menders, the trading party began passing houses— dirty, tumbledown buildings with peeling paint, cracked walls and weeds in the yards. A few ragged children emerged out of doorways and courtyard gates, and stood at the side of the road to watch the wagons pass.

"They're sizing us up," Amalia said. "They'll be here again when we leave and will beg for money. Right now they figure we probably don't have any, so they'll leave us alone."

Donovan looked around, frowning. "It's hard to believe much trade goes on here. Everyone seems so poor."

"That's the way they like it to look." They were coming closer to the center of town now, where the houses were larger and had once been of better quality. "A lot of these homes are chameleons. On the outside they look like they're falling apart, but they're actually quite nice on the inside."

"Looks like they don't mind keeping the church looking good," Donovan said as they came upon a tall adobe structure with freshly painted plaster all the way up to its bell tower. A shrine out front contained a brightly painted statue of the Virgin Mary and was bedecked in paper flowers.

"The authorities expect Catholics to do that. The government would know they were up to something if they let the church fall apart."

"I guess you're right. Everywhere I went in the Guard, the churches were better taken care of than the homes. We always saw it as a sign the local people weren't going to be a lot of trouble, if they cared about religion so much."

"It's the opiate of the masses."

"The what?"

Amalia shrugged. "Just an old saying. Religion is a good way to keep the people quiet. Make them afraid God will punish them if they don't follow the rules. They're supposed to stay quiet and wait for their reward in Heaven."

"Are you religious?"

"You mean in a church way? We went to church a little when I was a kid. We were Presbyterians. Protestants," she added, seeing the puzzled look on his face. "But I never liked being told how to think. I spent a lot of time reading and it made me ask questions."

"We didn't have any real sort of religion where I grew up," Donovan said. "People in the gangs were into the symbols, though. They wore crosses, prayed to saints, that sort of thing. But they made up most of their saints— dead gang leaders and family members, you know. I've done a little of it myself. It seems more real than a church god."

"When God is just a cruel and distant phantom, it makes better sense to pray to someone who you know will really care.” Amalia turned the wagon onto a broader, busier street. They were now on the town's main thoroughfare, flanked on either side by shops, some open for business, but many boarded up and charred from a long-ago fire.

Horses, carts and bicycles moved up and down the street, churning up dust where there had once been asphalt. People walked down mud-brick sidewalks as if on important business, ducking in and out of shops, stopping to tip a street musician or examine the wares of a street vendor.

"These vendors are locals," Amalia explained. "They often use the same spot over and over. It's free to set up on the street like this, but there's no security and you might get harassed if you're not a townie, which is why we prefer the main market, even though we have to pay for a spot."

The aroma of grilling meat from a sidewalk vendor reminded Donovan that they hadn't eaten since their spartan breakfast of dried apples and parched-corn brew that passed for coffee. When a little girl, clad only in a man’s dirty shirt long enough to pass for a dress, dashed up to their cart shouting "Pepitas!" and waving a little bag, he put a hand on Amalia's arm and asked her to stop.

"Like we don't have perfectly good pumpkin seeds of our own to sell."

"But they're way back there in the wagon somewhere, and this little girl…"

"Was probably made up by her mother to look more like a beggar than she really is. I wouldn't be surprised if she gets three squares and has a comfortable bed to sleep in at night."

Donovan eyed the little girl critically. She shuffled her bare feet and held out the bag again. "Pepitas."

He dug in his pocket where he still carried a little money from when he was in the Guard. "How much?"

"Cinco." She held up her other hand, displaying all five fingers, in case her point wasn't clear.

Donovan held out a nickel, and with practiced agility, the girl snatched it from his fingers and gave him the little bag of roasted pumpkin seeds. Then she dashed back to a ramshackle stand in a driveway where two other children— an older boy and a girl just barely out of diapers, had been watching. "Thank you," Donovan called after her.

Amalia started the team again. "You go buying from every kid that's selling something, there's no point coming to market. We're here to sell as much as we can and spend as little as possible, otherwise we might as well have stayed home."

"It's just a snack," said Donovan in reasonable tones. He opened the bag and popped a few in his mouth. "They're pretty good, too. Want some?"

Amalia shook her head, but held out her hand and let Donovan fill it with chile-roasted pepitas. "They're good," she agreed. "But salty." She looked around at the other street vendors. "I'll lay you odds they've got a father or some kind of older relative out here selling drinks."

"Everyone's got an ulterior motive in your world, don't they?"

"Don't they in yours?"

He considered, briefly distracted by a motor scooter that sputtered past them exhaling the distinctive scent of old cooking oil. "They're just trying to survive, like we are. In general, people have been pretty nice to me, and the ones who have tried to scam me, well, it’s nothing personal, wouldn't you say?"

"I'll say that's a generous way of looking at it."

Donovan was about to elaborate when an old man with flaccid cheeks and an entrepreneurial gleam in his hollow eyes approached their cart. Strapped to his neck was a primitive wooden box full of bottles. "Refrescas!" he shouted. "Cold drinks! You thirsty? I got cold water, cold apple juice, cerveza. . ."

Amalia sneaked a look at Donovan, struggling to restrain a laugh. "I told you this would happen. I wouldn't be surprised if this was that little girl's grandpa. Didn't I tell you?"

Donovan grinned. "Yes, I guess you did."

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Chapter Thirteen

They hadn't been on the valley floor for long before they came upon some men who appeared to be mending a serrated pit in the road. They paused at their work in curious attitudes, as if the approaching party was the most important thing they had seen all day. In a field off to one side, two boys who had been poking sticks at a cooking fire rose slowly and watched the wagons, their bodies tense and faces unreadable. It seemed as if everyone was holding his breath. This was no ordinary road crew.

Amalia and Gonzales had been at the head of the party but now they dropped back and let Peterson draw his cart forward. As he approached the road workers he raised a hand in greeting. "Buenos días, vecinos," he called. "It’s Jules Peterson y mis vecinos de Valle Redondo."

The oldest of the crew straightened and tipped back his hat, "Come a little closer, amigo, it's hard to recognize anyone with the sun behind him. Is that really you, Jules?"

Peterson clucked to his team. Once the men were close enough to recognize each other, the road worker's face lit up in a grin and he dropped his heavy shovel. "Óye, Peterson! Long time, friend!"

Peterson jerked on the reins and his mules shuffled to a stop. "Good to see you, too, Espinoza. We've got some stuff to trade today, if you've got folks who are interested."

"Claro, of course we're interested." Espinoza tried to peer into Peterson's wagon but the goods were covered with a tarp. His eyes scanned the rest of the party. "Three wagons, eh? Not so many, but you'll do good business just the same."

Now that everyone seemed reassured, Gonzales came trotting up on his buckskin. He touched his hat brim and nodded toward Espinoza, then turned his attention to the other men, who had been gathering around their leader. "Óyen, hombres, what're things like these days? Any news? You know we don't hear nothing in the country."

The men exchanged sharp glances, but only Espinoza spoke. "Same old, as far as we know. We don't get much news either. Everyone who comes here is in from the country to trade, just like you. They don't know nothing about the war or the government."

"No Guard sightings?" Melinda asked. "No tax collectors?"

"No, Señora," the man said with a shrug. "Our courier from the post office in Jonasville comes almost every week, and there's probably a spy or two, but we can't do nothing about that."

"Of course not," Gonzales said, the expression on his face suggesting he didn't agree with Espinoza at all.

"So are there any new rules?" Peterson asked. "I haven't been here since May and I don't think anyone else. . ." he looked at the members of his party for confirmation.

Espinoza frowned and turned to the other members of his group. "Anything new since spring, amigos?"

"Just that Miss Janie's getting a little forgetful," one man piped up. "If you lodge any of your animals with her, get her to write you a receipt every time either one of you does something. There've been a few problems with people disagreeing on what got done and what's been paid for."

"Good advice for anytime." Peterson straightened up and twitched the reins. "I guess we better get going, then. It'll take us a little while to set up and we'd like to make a few sales before the sun goes down."

"I'm going to trade for some cash and visit the Tortuga Rosa," Gonzales added with a grin. "I could stand for some good liquor, and a little female company to enjoy it with."

Espinoza chuckled. "You'll find everything just like you're expecting it." He stepped back from the road and his men did the same, dragging their carts and phony road-mending equipment with them. The boys who had been watching the scene from the side of the road moved back toward their fire, still darting wary glances at the trading party.

Peterson, Amalia and Diana called to their teams and the wagons jerked forward with a creak of harnesses and shuffling of hooves in the dust. Gonzales trotted toward the head of the group while Melinda dropped back to bring up the rear.

Donovan, who had by now joined Amalia in her wagon, waited until they were out of earshot, then leaned close. "Clever checkpoint, but how were they going to get word to the town if we weren't what we appeared to be?"

"I think they have a radio or a telegraph setup or something," Amalia said, stiffening at Donovan's nearness but not moving away, either. "Those kids you saw by the fire? Their job is to run and get word to the town about danger while the men cause as much delay as possible."

"When I was in the Guard, there were some places that booby-trapped the entrances to their town or ranch. It doesn't look like they do that here."

"I don't know. If they have a plan other than to delay, hide the stuff and look poor, they aren't talking. I don't blame them. There are a lot of evil people in the world these days. You can never be completely sure who's a spy, or who will turn on you someday."

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Chapter Twelve

Early the next morning they found themselves on a crest overlooking a valley. Below them was a cluster of drab little buildings with people, animals and even a few motor vehicles moving about the dusty streets. In spite of his concerns, Donovan had been looking forward to a taste of his old city life. Amalia caught the disappointment on his face. "It's busier than it looks. This is one of the back roads. Other people coming to market take the south road if they can, because it's easier and they can approach in the dark and be all set up before the market opens. We have to wait until there's a little light because this trail is so steep. But it’s safer from a chance meeting with Feds or raiders."

They were walking alongside the cart so as not to overtax their team on the damaging terrain. When they got to where the road turned sharply downward, Amalia halted the jennies and pulled a yellow scarf on a stick from the back of the wagon. With a bit of wire, she affixed it upright so it fluttered in the breeze. Donovan looked around and found everyone doing the same thing, raising yellow flags on their wagons or attaching scraps of yellow fabric to their saddles.

"It's one of the ways we let the townspeople know we're not here to raid," Amalia explained. "There'll be a checkpoint at the base of the mountain, where they'll confirm that we're legitimate, but at a distance, this is how we make sure we look friendly." She climbed onto the wagon seat. "You want to ride or walk?"

"I'll walk for now."

"Don't worry, the town isn't as dull as it looks," Melinda said, coming up behind Donovan on her pony while her daughter readied their cart for the descent into town. "They can't pretty it up, you know. If they look like they're doing well, someone will be along to make trouble."

"There's a little life in this old place, just you wait and see," Gonzales called to him from behind Diana's cart. "I'll take you to a bar I know and introduce you to a pretty girl or two."

"Don't encourage him." Amalia called back. She and the donkey cart were well down the trail now but voices carried clearly on the mountain air.

"Not to mention there's children around," Melinda added.

"I'm not a child, Mama," Diana said, slapping the reins across the back of her donkeys as she began the descent. "You think I don't know about bars and whores?"

Melinda sputtered while Gonzales and Grandpa Peterson laughed. Peterson pulled his cart up to Melinda and murmured reassuring words to her while the others went on ahead.

Donovan, disconcerted by the fuss he had started, changed his mind about walking and tried to catch up with Amalia, but he had strapped his leg into the brace that morning and it slowed him down.

"Want a ride?" She tugged on the reins with one hand and pulled the brake to a full stop. "Get in. It don't make no difference to the team on the downhill, as long as I don't get careless with the brake."

Setting his ego aside, Donovan scrambled onto the seat beside her. "Where are we going once we're in town? I understand there's a market."

"A big one, with long benches that go up on each side."

"Benches that go up? You mean a stadium?"

"It's a market. I don't know if there's a fancy Guard word for it."

"Stadium isn't a fancy Guard word. It just means a place where they used to play sports, kick balls around and things like that."

Diana furrowed her brow. "Why would they need such a big place for something like that? Me and some of the valley kids play ball games when we get together for parties, but we don't need a special place for it."

"I've been told they used to have big groups of people who practiced their games until they were good enough that other people would come and spend all afternoon watching them. That's what the benches are for. Sometimes the players were so good people would pay them."

Diana giggled. "You're making that up."

"No, I'm not."

"Well, someone must've told you a story because no way would anyone pay kids money just to kick a ball."

"They paid grownups to do it, not kids. And they gave them special clothes, too, so they would all look the same."

"What?" Diana fell over her reins screeching with laughter. Her donkeys flattened their ears in annoyance and Melinda maneuvered her horse down the path, curious to know what the fuss was about.

"What's so funny up there?"

"Donovan says--" Diana gasped for breath. "He says the market at Macrina— that men used to—"

"I told her it sounded like an old sports stadium," Donovan cut in. "She thought the idea was funny."

Melinda pursed her lips. "It used to be the high school football field, but I've never known them to use it for that. The school didn't have enough students for a team when I was a kid and there wasn't enough fuel to bus anyone over for a game, anyway. I only know about it from my father."

Diana swiveled around on her seat, leaving the donkeys to find their own way. "So it's true? They used to pay men to play ball games at our market?"

"Watch your team, Diana," Melinda cautioned. "No, the Macrina high school had a student team. They were teenage boys and they weren't paid anything. But there were big national teams and if you were a good student player, you could maybe get paid to play on one of the big teams when you grew up. Your grandfather says those men made a lot of money."

"Just to play a game? They didn't actually grow or raise anything?"

"No, they just played their game and people paid money to watch them."

"That's crazy."

"We would be crazy if we did it," Donovan said. "But people were rich then."

"Well, we're going to sell all our stuff at market. Then we'll be rich, too."

"Are you going to buy a ball team with your money?" Donovan teased.

Diana tossed her head. "That would be stupid." The wagon lurched over a rock and she clucked at the donkeys. "When I get some money, I’m going to buy a mule."

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Chapter Eleven

It was still dark when Carina woke Amalia and Donovan for the trip to Macrina. While Carina made breakfast and prepared food for the road, Donovan and Amalia did the morning chores and packed last-minute items into the wagon. As they came into the kitchen and sat down to plates of eggs, beans and cornbread, Donovan scanned Carina's face for signs of anxiety.

"You're not worried about being here all alone with no one but Grandma Peterson for company?"

Carina sipped her cup of half-coffee, made with chicory, dandelion and burnt corn to make the coffee go farther. "I'm probably more anxious about you two and the Petersons heading into open country. I'm glad you're going together. It's safer that way."

"We've never seen anyone dangerous on the road to Macrina," Amalia reminded her. "But with the troubles they’ve had on some of the other roads, I suppose it’s only a matter of time. I'm glad to have Grandpa Peterson along. He's still a good shot even if he moves a little slow these days."

"Well, I'm a good shot too," Donovan said. "Anyone trying to raid our wagons will wish they hadn't."

Carina smiled at his little show of bravado. "I'll be waiting when you return. I'm looking forward to having some decent coffee."

Amalia agreed and was about to say something else when she suddenly turned toward a sound on the gravel drive. "I bet that's the Petersons. They're early."

Donovan watched her grab a lantern and head toward the gate. "You know," he said, turning back toward Carina, "About that brace. . ."

"Oh no," Carina set down her fork in exasperation. "I thought we had agreed on that."

"But you said there hadn't been military in Macrina in nearly a decade."

"That doesn't mean they won't come back someday. You were in the Guard. You know that."

"What I know is that the Guard is chronically short of fuel and they go where they think they have the best chances of getting what they need. Some little town in the mountains where they've never had much luck isn't on their agenda."

Carina stood and began clearing the table. "What about informers? You never know who's a spy. Besides, we had an agreement. You'll take the brace, you'll wear it in town, and we can decide afterward if you think Amalia and I are being too cautious." She met his eyes over the stack of dirty plates. "We keep our commitments in this family." She set the dishes in the sink and began working the pump handle on the sink. "Let's not argue. It's going to be a lovely day for driving through the country with friends, so go outside and say hello to everyone. They're waiting."

* * *

The trading party consisted of Grandpa Peterson, his widowed daughter Melinda Nuñez, Melinda's ten year old daughter Diana, and a one-eyed former Marine everyone called Gonzales. They headed west across the valley toward the foothills, traveling an old asphalt road now covered in hard-packed earth from years of blowing dust. Everyone was polite to Donovan the first day, but not particularly warm. He tried to pretend it didn't bother him, but on the second evening he tagged after Amalia as she searched for kindling in the darkening twilight. "Am I doing something wrong?"

Amalia stooped to examine a bit of tumbleweed. "Why would you think something's wrong?"

"I feel like no one likes me.”

"No one knows anything about you except that you've been in the Guard, which is a liability around here. It'll take them awhile to learn to trust you. You've got to be patient."

"But isn't there anything—"

"No." Amalia turned away and resumed her search for firewood. "There are some things you can't charm or rush."

* * *

In spite of her cool words, Amalia must have said something on his behalf because that evening Gonzales made a point of sitting next to him when they gathered around the fire for dinner. "How're you liking our camp food?" he asked. "Ain't like one of Carina's home-cooked meals, is it?"

"Carina's a good cook," Donovan agreed. "But this will do all right." He sopped a bit of tortilla in the fat left on his plate from their meal of skewered jackrabbit.

"It sure beats the crap they gave us in the service."

"That's not saying much, is it?"

"No, I guess not." Gonzales launched into a tale about a bivouac in the tar sands of Alberta, where they had nothing to eat but what they could salvage from the Chinese and Canadian troops they had routed. "Most of it wasn't no good because what they couldn't take with them they set on fire." He chewed a bit of dried pumpkin and chased it with a swig of watered homebrew. "We tried shooting a few birds, but they were so small all we got was feathers." He turned to Diana. "You should've seen the drumsticks on one of them little things. No more meat than a piñon nut." He patted his stomach and gazed into the fire. "Even a bad day in our little valley is heaven on earth compared to some of what's out there. Wouldn't you say?" He fixed Donovan with his one eye.

"I've been in some spots that I thought were good, but nothing like this."

"Some folks act like it's a badge of honor to die for oil, but I won't do it," Gonzales went on. "I'll gladly die for this land, though."

"Sure enough," Peterson agreed. He poured himself some homebrew and passed the bottle to his daughter who twitched her lips in disapproval and passed it to Amalia.

"The land is everything," Amalia agreed, pouring a healthy shot into her cup. "We can't live without it, so we might as well be ready to die defending it."

"I'll kill anyone who tries to take it!" Diana piped up.

"And a good shot like you, I have no doubt of it," Peterson said. "You take after your grandpa, don't you?"

Melinda edged closer to her daughter. "Such talk. You're a good little hunter, but you don't want to be a tomboy. The boys won't like you."

"There's no boys, anyway," Diana pointed out. "They grow up and have to run away, or else get drafted."

"It won't be like that forever," Gonzales told her.

"And you'll be wanting a husband," Peterson added.

"Not from the boys in our valley."

"From Macrina, then?" Amalia asked. "You'll disappoint your mother if you move away."

Diana considered this. "Maybe I won't marry at all. Or maybe when I grow up I'll marry Donovan."

Before Donovan could react, Gonzales slapped him on the back, laughing. Picking up the cue he laughed, too.

"What's so funny?" Diana demanded, but even her mother was laughing, and the girl was left to wonder just what everyone found so amusing.

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Chapter Ten

A few days later, while Amalia was in a shed sorting scrap metal and weighing its value as trade, Carina sought out Donovan where he was spreading compost on what would be their bean field in the spring. "I've got something for you. Don't worry about walking the fences when you're done with this field. Just wash up good and find me. I'll be with the animals."

Donovan didn't bother to ask which animals, because with Carina there was never any telling. She might say she was going to spend the afternoon trimming the goats' hooves only to be found mixing a new udder cream or walking a fence line, looking for a missing guinea hen, the goats forgotten. There wasn't much point in pinning Carina to a schedule. She did what needed doing in her own way, in her own time. Under her care the animals produced so well that Donovan had noticed a reluctance on Amalia's part to criticize any of Carina's other failings as a homesteader.

After he finished composting the small field, he returned the equipment to the barn, rubbed the jenny down and turned it loose in the paddock. Next he went to the garden to take a shower in one of the two stalls set up under bins that warmed the water in the sun, then put on some clean clothes and set off in search of Carina. He selected the goat paddock as a likely place, leaning heavily on his walking stick as he went down the path. He tried to hide the fact that he still tired easily, but it showed up in his limp, like a conscience that wouldn't let him tell a lie.

Carina wasn't at the goat pen, although Donovan saw evidence that she had been there in the form of a full water trough and several placid goats feeding from an overflowing hay bin. The jennet named Goneril stood nearby, watching the scene with sleepy eyes. Carina had told him donkeys were good guard animals, but on a day like today, he wondered just how much truth there was to this assertion. Goneril didn't look alert enough to notice a predator if it walked under her nose.

He found another jennet, this one named Cordelia, alone in a separate paddock on the other side of the barn. She was favoring a foreleg and Carina was keeping her away from the others to prevent reinjury. Cordelia was a friendly creature who craved companionship, and Donovan thought the solitude a little cruel as she trotted up to him for a rub and a handful of weeds.

The only place left for Carina to be was the chicken coop, and sure enough that's where he found her, mending a small hole in the fence of the ranging area. She worked steadily, but still found time to coo and chat with the fat, silky-feathered hens that had gathered to investigate the proceedings. It was the rustle in the flock and not the sound of Donovan's footsteps that drew her attention. She set down her tools and sat back on her heels. "I hope you didn't have any trouble finding me."

"Not too many places you can be."

Carina sighed and looked a little glum. "It’s too bad, isn’t it? I want to add some sheep, a horse or two and maybe a few alpacas, but Amalia says we've got as much as we can handle as it is. I suppose she's right."

"What's an alpaca?"

"What kind of education are they giving in the cities these days? They're kind of like a small sheep with a long neck. Their wool is good for weaving winter clothes and blankets. They come from South America. You know where that is, right?"

"Of course," Donovan said, proud to show off the knowledge of military history that he had been given in the Guard. "That's where Venezuela is, where we sent our troops to get more oil. Only they didn't have as much as they said they did, and they set the wells on fire so we couldn't get any of it. It was a big loss."

Carina frowned. "Yes, the loss of life in that country was tremendous. But you probably mean the loss of the oil, right?" Before he could answer she shrugged. "It's okay. You were taught what's important now, and oil is precious. It's life that's cheap. Give me a second to finish this fence and we can go to the barn together. I've got something for you." She bent back over the fence and twisted a new piece of wire in place with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

"Need any help?"

"No, it's strictly a one-person job." She tinkered a few minutes more, then sat back and gathered her tools. She cast a fond look at the chickens as she stood up. "Be good, chickies. You won't be going anywhere now."

* * *

In the barn, Carina handed Donovan a strange looking contraption of steel rods and leather bands. "What is this?" he asked.

"It's a leg brace. A very old fashioned one, but it will do the job."

"But my leg is getting better, isn't it?"

"This isn't for you to wear around here. It's for when you go to town."

Donovan caught her meaning. "To make any informers think I'm worse off than I really am."

"That, and to make sure you don't walk too normally. Just to be on the safe side, I was thinking we might also put a tack in your shoe so you won't be tempted to put your full weight on that leg."

"I don't think I'll need a reminder. The last thing I want is to get picked up."

"Well," Carina said, "Things happen and we get distracted." The look in his eyes made her pause. "Okay, you know best on that one. But do try the brace on. If it doesn't fit, I'll need to adjust it."

"Where did you get this thing?" he asked as he buckled the straps of the hinged device onto his leg. "I hope it doesn't feel as barbaric as it looks."

"It probably will. That's the point." Carina helped adjust a strap near his ankle. "I got it when I was on the reservation. It had been in a barn for years along with a lot of other stuff no one used. They didn't mind giving it to me, and I was able to fix it with some old harness leather." She stepped back to admire her clever handiwork. "Well, you certainly look handicapped."

Donovan took a lurching step forward. "I feel it, too."

"Walk up and down the barn a little. See if maybe this is something you can get used to."

Donovan dragged himself out of the tack room and went lurching and thumping across the dusty floor. At the end of the row of stalls he turned around. "I definitely won't be walking normally."

"Great. Maybe we can skip the tack in your shoe."

"Uh, yeah. I think so." Donovan reached down to adjust a strap. "And maybe we can oil this hinge a little, too."

"And make it easier for you to walk? No way."

"But I have enough trouble getting around as it is. I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but don't you think it's a little much?"

Carina pursed her lips. "We’ve got a few days to make any final decisions. But in the meantime, won't you please practice with it a little for my sake?"

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Chapter Nine

Donovan accepted Carina's warning not to snoop and set himself to work with a renewed vigor, as if making up for lost time. In the heat of late August he limped around the kitchen on his improvised cane, helping cut melon rinds for pickling and pulling the spines out of prickly pear cactus for salads. As the weather cooled he tried to master the art of feeding the cast iron stove, which seemed to burn either red-hot or barely at all unless it received exactly the right amount of fuel and its many doors and flues were set just so. Then it was time to cut pumpkins and apples for drying. Some of these were strung like corn and hung on the sunny front porch until they were ready for storage. Others were blanched and dried on big screens or else boiled and canned. Red chiles were brought in from the fields, bundled into ristras and hung to dry from hooks on the patio. Soon the porch and drying shed were full to bursting, and the jars of preserves multiplied in the pantry like colorful, oversized jewels.

All of this was new to Donovan, who had never given much thought to food, which always came from stores, homes, civil distribution points and the street vendors he stole from as a kid. In the Guard, food was the mess hall's problem. It struck him as amazing that in a society where most people couldn't be sure where their next meal was coming from, he could still be so ignorant of how it was grown and preserved.

"So you've got to make this last all winter?" he asked Carina one day as they set a screen of sliced pumpkin to dry in the sun.

"We'll supplement it with milk, eggs, maybe a bit of meat and a few things from our next run to town, but yes."

"You're going to town?"

"One of us has to. It's been a long time because it's hard for one of us run this place alone, even if only for a little while. But with winter coming, we need to make a few trades and see what we can get with our ration coupons."

"How do you get your ration books all the way out here?"

"We have a system," she said, heading back into the house and gathering the pumpkin seeds for cleaning and salting. "We have them sent to a friend's address in town, where they sometimes have postal delivery. We have an understanding. She can have one of the books as long as she holds the other for us. It's worked pretty well so far."

"She's never tried to steal the other book?"

"Why would she? She's a friend."

"This is all so different from what I'm used to. People don't trample all over each other here, like they do in the city."

"Maybe not," Carina said, "But that doesn't mean there aren't rules. Things can get ugly when you don't play right."

* * *

Although Donovan's ribs healed quickly, his shoulder retained a painful catch when he moved his arm a certain way. Carina said the problem might be permanent. "The shoulder is one of the body's most complicated joints, you know."

More worrisome than the shoulder was the injured leg. The women had cut away some gangrened muscle, and although he could get around okay, the leg wasn't as strong as the other. The result was a limp that wasn't so obvious when he was rested, but became more pronounced as the day went on.

"It might get better over time," Carina told him. "The body has an amazing capacity to rebuild."

"Think of it as your ticket out of ever being picked up on the street as a possible draft candidate," Amalia told him.

"Why would I be wandering a street?"

"We're thinking you could help us by doing supply runs in town," Carina said, meeting Amalia's eyes briefly, then looking away. She had been pouring apple sauce into canning jars while Donovan sorted dried pumpkin seeds, but now she came to where he was working at the kitchen table. "We could do a lot more trade if it didn't always mean one of us going alone while the other stayed home. So we thought—"

"You thought," Amalia interrupted.

"We agreed," Carina said, with another glance at her sister, "That you would go to town with Amalia next week and see how we do things there. Then maybe we could send you regularly. . ."

"What town is this you keep talking about? I don't know that I want to go anywhere I might be recognized or picked up. A limp won't stop them, you know. They need people for desk jobs, too. If they pick me up and find out I'm a deserter—"

"Yes, we know," Carina said. "But it really would help if we had a man to do our trading. There can be gangs on the roads. We have to wait until some of the other people in the valley need to make a town run, so we can go in caravan, and sometimes that's not convenient. A man, even if he's traveling alone, is much safer than a woman." She stole a glance at her sister. "Although of course Amalia isn't helpless and no one with any sense would tangle with her."

"It’s not a good idea to leave just one person back here on the farm," Amalia added. "What if there was an emergency, or if raiders came?"

"Macrina isn't such a big town, really," Carina hurried on. "You won't need to be particularly vigilant about your safety. It's off the main road and has never been a target for much government interference. It was always a poor town, and the Feds don't bother with poor people."

"Then why trade there, if the town is poor?"

"Because the government is run by idiots," Amalia said scornfully. "Once everyone in these valleys figured out there wasn't any federal presence in Macrina to rob them blind, they all started going there. It's become a good market town."

"And don't worry. We can disguise you a little; make you look like no one they would want for their army, just in case anyone is scouting for recruits or deserters."

"Well," said Donovan uncertainly. "If trading is the way I can help you the most, I guess I can give it a try."

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