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| Le hogan est la maison traditionnelle des Indiens Navajos. Reconstruction moderne pour touristes (musée en plein air). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Before it was the Free Zone, before it was in the days the meetings, they would round up and talk, like a school assembly.
Judy asked - when do you discuss the reports from Farmington? Weekly?
Everyone was there, and most folks stared at her like she was speaking in tongues.
- How often do you go to Farmington for the watch?
They sat there, mystified.
- What about Grand Junction, maybe?
Not a word. Even from Tom.
Now, wait - that was before Tom Cullen came. It wasn't Tom there. There was a fella up from Costilla County with his brother, and he was awful slow, too, brother not a whole lot better. Him and Tom got on well after Tom come up from the East - but he was Warren, War'n Baca, the name, Chew was the epithet, he was pretty tall and hairy, like that one in the movie. War'n and Tom was smart enough to bait a hook, between the two of them, and they'd go fishing. But I'm way off the topic, again.
Judy sat there, bedazzled, like she had come onto the Annual Baca Family Reunion, and discovered that ol' War'n was the Rocket Scientist of the clan.
Some folks didn't like her, for talking over them, like she was snobby-smart. She just couldn't help it. She tried to deal the deck out slow, speeding up a little when they looked frustrated, slowing it down a little when the Baca Family Face started to spread across the crowd.
- Who's heard of Farmington? A few hands raised.
- Navajos. You hear of Navajos? Most of the hands went up, and the puzzlement began to clear.
- Navajo land's out there by Farmington, that's the eastern corner, and a lot of the land from here to Las Vegas Nevada's on the Big Rez - the Navajo land.
- They's thousands of Navajos who lived there before Captain Trips, and they didn't live big and fancy like the people on the Front Range. Anyone following me?
A few hands.
- Navajos live in the Center of the World, according to them. Ain't nothing, ain't no plague or Captain Trips is going to coerce a Navajo to leave the Center of the World, especially no plague. They hate illness, more so than most. It's a thing with them.
- Anyone know the world between western New Mexico and the Grand Canyon, ask a Navajo. The western portal into Navajo land's down around Farmington. So we ought to be going to Farmington now and again to know what them bastards are doing over in Las Vegas. You with me?
Light dawns on Marble Head. We'll leave Grand Junction for another time. That one's too much.
Chew sat there, mouthing "NAVAJO"to himself, like he won a prize at the fair.
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