The House of Daniel by Harry Turtledove

Author:Harry Turtledove
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466871335
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

(XII)

“Colorado!” Harv said when the bus crossed the state line. You know what, though? Except for the sign that told us we were out of New Mexico, not one thing changed. The landscape didn’t—still mountains and rocks and pines. The people didn’t, either. The next town up, not far over the border, was Trinidad. It was bigger than Raton, but just about as Mexican. You don’t think about Colorado belonging to Mexico back in the day, but some of it did.

Only about twenty miles from Raton to Trinidad, so we could sleep in that morning. After the long haul from Clovis to Raton, we needed it. Nobody blamed the long drive for our loss, even if it could’ve had something to do with it. We were supposed to travel and play and win. That was what the House of Daniel was all about.

They mined coal in Trinidad. The streets crossed at funny angles; the place was built on a chain of foothills. The center of town had some regular brick buildings. More of the ones on the outskirts were made from adobe. Yes, they did things here the same way as they did farther south.

They called their ballyard Round-up Park. The city ran it, but semipro teams could use it. The folks in Trinidad knew the Raton Mice had beaten us. They were wild for their club to do the same. Trinidad and Raton didn’t like each other any better than most towns twenty miles apart. That they were in separate states only made things worse.

Remember what I’d been talking about with Eddie a few days earlier? That was before I found out the Trinidad team really did call itself the Vampires. “Good thing it ain’t a night game!” Wes said when he saw that across their shirts.

Me, I made sure none of their players was wearing great big sunglasses and that none of ’em had slathered every inch of skin that showed with ointments and lotions. They looked like a bunch of ballplayers, was what they looked like. As long as they didn’t start licking my ankle if I got spiked, I was ready to go.

We all were. Trouble was, so were they. The game could have gone either way, but it wound up going theirs, 3-2. Now both those towns that couldn’t stand each other had bragging rights over the House of Daniel.

That was the first time since I joined the team that we’d lost two in a row. Harv was not happy, which is putting it mildly. He read us the riot act when we got back on the bus after the game. “‘They shall drive thee from men,’” he said, madder’n I’d ever heard him, “‘and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.

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