Chapter Nineteen - At Hernandez Place

The little homestead got right off called the Hernandez place.  You call things for what they are.

Not much to tell about the next day at the Hernandez place.  There was a lot of weeping, and hugging, and looking mournful; and talking about the damnfool stuff that twenty-year-old girls chat about, I suppose.  And talk.  And talk.  And sleep and eat and talk, and all that.  They didn't come out for that day.  Nobody came by.

Until near sunset, when up comes Chúy, looking like he come down from the mountains.  He stood near the stairs up to the house, slump-shouldered and looking about at the sky like a standing bear.  Whatever he was curious about, it wasn't there.  He walked up the stairs gently, creaking under his weight.  He knocked on the lintel by the red patch.

Judy opened the door, June behind her.  Judy's face lit up - "Chúy!" she called out.  He stepped in, leaned down a bit for a hug.  He smiled at June, hugged her too.  "This is Jesús," explaining to June, hardly necessary.  They settled into the front room.  Judy had hauled a big, overstuffed, oversized chair in for the front room, nearly the size of a loveseat.  Judy gestured to it - "sit down, sit down!"

Chúy looked wistful.  "You went to my home," he said.  "I miss my home.  We shall be returning in a few months, when September comes.  I miss the wildlands.  I miss my friends."

Judy spoke, looking rather regretful.  "Chúy, we are forbidden from entering the Great Valley except when we are on mission to the Navajo.  They have taken the Great Valley back as their land.  They are barring the land from Dawn Mountain to Santa Fé to Pueblo from travelers. Bilgaana who trespass their land will be killed, with no exception.  Even those from the Free Zone may not enter except under certain explicit rules."

Chúy smiled.  "The Navajo are like this, the plague has hurt them badly and they strengthen their borders and bar intruders.  So I expected.  Trust them, even if they do not trust you.  They are hurt terribly again, they have lost many kin, again.  Trust them, they are kind."

Judy warned, "They said they will kill any bilga'ana who trespass their borders.  Do not go there, stay with us.  They might kill you." 

 Chúy's expression showed mild pity for Judy.  "Oh, no, no.  That is my home.  When I go home, the Dine will not be bothered.  Trust me."

Judy said, "The trip down to Farmington was beautiful.  We passed out of the valley over to Pagosa Springs, and there mere many wild animals in the forests, deer and rabbits, even bighorns on the craggy mountains."  "No bears," she smiled and touched her tiny bear necklace.  "Even a puma, resting on a mossy boulder in the forest.   By a little mountain stream.  Spectacular."

Jesús steepled his fingers, as though recalling a long-distant memory.  He sat quietly, and the girls held their tongues while he went deep into his thoughts.    "That's pretty country, sure," he said, as though he was changing the subject entirely.