Heaven Is a Long Way Off by Win Blevins

Author:Win Blevins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2006-10-16T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven

THE PRIEST, FATHER Herrera, took them visiting. “This is the casa of the Otero family.” Sam, Coy, Hannibal, and Flat Dog trundled along beside the priest. “Señora Luna, the sister of Señora Otero, is likely to help you, I think. Since it is the day of the birth of our Lord, she is in town.”

Sam liked Santa Fe. It was perched on a high plateau below snowy mountains. The low buildings were all adobe, and columns of smoke rose straight up into a golden light that shimmered. The town was built along the river, and the streets wound out from the plaza unpredictably, twisting like roots of a tree. He had no idea where this winding lane would lead them, but the town was striking, even beautiful.

He hadn’t seen so many people in several years, several thousand of them. The men of means wore huge-brimmed hats, the rowels of their spurs were enormous, almost comical, and they threw a blanket over one shoulder in a dashing style. Their horses were the same wiry Spanish ponies he’d seen in California.

“Señora Luna owns Rancho de las Palomas,” the priest had said. “It is a splendid ranch of great size. The wagon trains, on El Camino Real from Santa Fe on the way to Chihuahua, they stop and trade there. The señora does an exemplary job running the enterprise.” Sam’s Spanish really wasn’t up to words like “exemplary,” but he got the point.

Hannibal raised an eyebrow at the priest.

“A widow,” the padre said, “and an accomplished woman.”

“Paloma?” said Sam as the three of them ambled lazily along. “That’s a new one on me.”

“It means ‘dove,’” said the padre. “There is a fine Spanish novel called Linda Paloma. Beautiful dove.

“Here we are,” said the priest, opening a gate into a courtyard.

The casa was handsome in the Santa Fe way, vigas jutting out above walls of plastered adobe. But they weren’t going inside. Father Herrera led them into a courtyard and introduced them to two sisters, Señora Paloma Luna y Salazar and Señora Rosa Otero y Salazar.

“Excuse me a moment,” said Señora Luna, finishing some sort of work with her hands. Sam was stunned. He’d expected a woman well along in years. The señora was in her early thirties, he guessed, and possessed of a grave beauty.

Señora Otero acknowledged the introductions, excused herself, and stepped into the house. The priest went with her.

Señora Luna came forward, holding a long string of red chiles. She hung it from a viga, retreated, and looked at it and the entire row of them along the house. “Ristras,” she said. “I find beautiful things irresistible.”

Sam thought, She is beauty.

She made sure of each of their names, gave Coy a pat on the head, and invited them to sit. The winter afternoon was mild and the sun strong. “It’s pleasant out here,” she said. “Very well. Padre says you have a business proposition for me.”

They explained. If Señora Luna would permit them to turn their horse herd out on her grass, Sam and Flat Dog would train her horses as saddle mounts.

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