Old Ramon by Jack Schaefer

Author:Jack Schaefer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: 2016-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

THE AIR lay hot and heavy over the big land. The accumulated heat of the whole day seemed to have given it weight to press down on the plodding flock. The sun was low toward the western horizon but there was no lessening of its glare over the dry sands. No breath of a breeze moved. The dust stirred by the many small hoofs clung about the flock and hung motionless in the air behind it. Through the dust strode Old Ramon, using his stick much now, urging the stragglers on. Off to one side, out of the dust, plodded the boy, leading the burro. His body slumped some into each plodding step and if he was thinking it was of the wearying seeming endless effort of putting one foot before the other onward.

Old Ramon moved over to the side by the boy, out of the dust. He stopped and the boy stopped too. Old Ramon pulled his hat brim low against the slant light of the sun and looked out all around the far shimmering horizon.

“I have the feeling of it,” he said. “Where are the winds of the afternoon that the heat breeds and that bring some coolness to the man and the beast? They are not here. I have the feeling inside, in the bones. They are in hiding. They are building up their strength in their hiding to take us of a suddenness with the surprise.”

The boy licked his dry lips. “I do not understand.”

“The chorro,” said Old Ramon. “The sandstorm.” He scanned the horizon again. “Ai, do you see?” Far to the south the horizon was fading. The land and the sky were merging in the one murky brownness that caught glints from the slant light of the sun and flickered with flashes of color. It was beautiful in the distance but there was darkening menace in it.

Old Ramon stepped to the burro and leaned his weight pressing down on its back. It spread its legs a bit and braced them against the pressure. While the boy watched in wonder Old Ramon climbed on his hand and knees on the burro’s back and the two lashed packs that balanced each other on the two sides. The burro braced its legs and they quivered some but it held firm. Carefully Old Ramon steadied himself and rose upright. He peered all around into the distances, studying the land. He jumped down and the burro, released from his weight, shook itself until the packs rattled in the stillness.

Old Ramon whipped a faded bandanna from somewhere out of the recesses of his patched old clothes and handed it to the boy. “Tie this around your mouth and your nose. And tightly.” He dropped his stick and took out his knife and pulled at his old shirt until one of the tattered tails was free of his belt and with a single slash he cut this off. In a moment the knife was back in its sheath and the piece of shirt was tied around his head covering his mouth and nose.

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