Home to Texas: Recollections of a Texas Badman - Part 3

I stepped up to my rival
My dagger in my hand
I seized him by the collar
And I boldly bade him stand

it turned out I had spent 2 whole years with the Comanche. word had been passed on to the ranch bout the trouble I caused, sos John didnt really want me back, but ma made him take me in. life on the ranchero promised to be just as borin as it ever was. grandpa had passed, pa was pretty much useless from drink, and John ran the whole place. ma didnt seem to like havin me around, but I cant claim to have been the good christian she had wanted to raise. the only thing worth stayin round for was marias little cousin, Gabriela. que bonita, she was the third best lookin woman I ever seen. maria, for all her years, was still a fine lookin woman. but Gabriela was not married, and seemed to have a little hero worship of me. the vacqeros were a little skittish of me now, and it showed the worse for them in front of the women. I didnt discourage Gabriela from it, becuase she was a pretty little thing. she was always singin pretty tunes too. pa had taught her some of our songs and she sang em just as fine as she sung the sones and rancheras. it was too bad she was still young. she was about fourteen or fifteen I think. but I could stand waitin around the bellorin cows for a year for her to grow up. I made sure to get in a lot of dances with her at the fiestas though.

there was a lot of places where mexes werent welcome in Texas, although there was mexican, and indian companies of Rangers in the first days. its said that too many battles with mexico had caused a problem between whites and mex. my own reckon on the matter was that it was white women that caused a hostility where we had got along in the original days. didnt Bowie, and a lot of other of the other first Texians marry mexicana women? and why not, cause theyre pretty. but onct the white women started gittin here, and seein that the mex women were prettier, and livelier then them, got jealous, and started interferin. part of it was the bible, cause of the mex was catolica, and not protestant. but how often do you see a white woman, who aint a whore, who aint wavin a damn bible around and yammerin bout drinkin or respectibility or clean livin? if you find one you can start a sideshow and charge a bit to see her, and git rich that way. if Jehovah didnt want you drinkin and whorin, heda made wives easier to git along with. I figger also that some mexes think that whites stole the land from em, but for those mexes you gotta ask who chased the Comanche outta Texas? it werent the mex army for damn sure.

lucky for us, on our ranch, things were a bit better between folk. grandpa had bought the land fair, even if the horses was stolt from somebody else. grandpa tolt me and John bout the patron way of doin things, and about if you ran the ranch that you took care of the people that lived there. there was always gonna be people that lived by their familys skin, and didn’t like no mexes or whites dependin. grandpa just cussed that idea as stupid. of course grandpa had the old tonkawa and an ol freedman nigger that lived out there with us. grandpa never admitted it, but it was a good guess that was his part of his old gang of desperados there. so grandpa started the tradition of throwin lots of fiestas, and the mexes on the ranch didnt have no problem with that, bein a people that enjoyed life.

By Amadscientist (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

what I didnt know, was that Gabreilas pa had no desire to have a white man in his family, not even the jefes brother. onct it became plain as the nose on your face what I about with Gabriela, her pa had arranged with one of the vacqeros to marry her. I dont know whether he had done it out of spite or not, but she was to be married to miguel sanchez, and who I didnt like from when we was kids. he was a coupla years older then me, and had bullied me til the fire and tongs made my arms strong, and I bloodied him up somethin good. he had grown up to be a struttin rooster of a man, who wore fancy spurs, and gunfighters pistols. he was said to have rustled a lot of our cattle up for us, from some of the ranchs south of the border, and to have killed men getting those cattle here. but he still walked quiet round me, after I had tolt the vacqeros about some of the Comanche tricks they played on captives. too bad for him Gabriela kept her eyes to me. sos after I found she was promised, I asked her to meet me on a pretty little hill, and I showed her how to be a good wife for a husband. cuase she was new at it, we had to practise for a few nights til she got the knack for it. miguel found out about it, shoulnt be hard to see when a woman glows like that what causes it. they wasnt even married yet, and he beat the hell out of her. John probably would have dealt with that in his way, which was usually wise, but that beating got my blood up, and I called miguel out. for all the slowness of those big Le Mats, and all the quickness of those fancy pistols, I beat him on the draw. I popped one of the shotgun rounds at him, and that flustered him to drop his pistols. so I walked up to him and emptied the sixteen .40s and the other shotgun tube into him.

Gabrielas pa wasted no time in marryin her off to rodrigo rodriguez, who was closer to her own age, and who was a nice kid to boot. maria said he was the nicest and most respectful boy on the ranch, and he would treat Gabriela right. maria also said he was the most handsome one too. I went to congratulate them, and that made Gabriela happy bout til she was to bust, but rodrigo damn near shit his pants. dont blame him too much. all men that would protect home and hearth should be ready to kill at necessity, but the shooting of miguel was something I had most likely done to an extreme a man not used to killin could get a little sick watchin. John sure thought so, for him and ma banished me from the ranch right after the wedding. ma said I could come back once I started walkin in the path of the lord, but John and maria just looked sad. Gabriela caught up with me on horseback, and wanted one more wife lesson before I left. she tolt me she wasnt really married til I left the ranch, but that if I came back, she would be married then, and not to give her no more lessons.

I cant blame my family. I had seen a wanted poster of me. I was wanted for insurrection, for not signin the loyalty oath, for consortin with the Comanche, and even for shootin that goddammed quaker. I sure wish Ida killed that yella bastard if they were gonna make a court case of it. I had figgered that Id be safe on the family land. I was friend to a good many of the vacqeros. but then again Im not certain on that after shootin a bunch of holes in miguel.

I had run out of places to go - the ranch, Texas, the states, even the comencheria, so I went to mexico.

Allá en el rancho grande
Allá donde vívía
Habi'a una rancherita
Que alegre me decía
Que alegre me decía
Te voy hacer unos calzones
comos los que usa el ranchero
Los comenzo de lana
y los acabo de hierro

John Stevens:

Ma, nor me, could not believe the look of rapture on Wallace’s face as he gunned down Miguel. He was sure riled, and you could see that plain on his face, but you could see as well the pleasure he took in pulling the triggers. I don’t believe that a body on the ranchero would waste a candle on the altar for Miguel’s life, but there was no body that wasn’t upset with the way that Wallace kept pullin the trigger after it was a sure thing that Miguel was down.

That was enough to banish Wallace all of itself. The trysts he had always kept with the Mexicanas was a scandal of the sort that most folk would ignore, but not if he was going to be shooting people into little pieces. A proper senora would have not to do with him, but a good piece of the senoritas always kept an eye to catch him down by the creek.