They are good to everyone but they are extra good to us and the Indians.

Jesús Helguera “Lady, I need to know about a man who lives around here.” The woman was listening, but did not look up. “He is a gringo and he rides mules like others ride a horse.”

“I know this man. Señor Walsh. He has a mule ranch not far.”

“Is he a good man?”

The woman finally stopped and looked at Maria. She liked Maria, despite her manly dress. She could tell that Maria didn’t have bad intentions. “He is the best of men.”

Maria felt a flutter in her belly and a pain at her bullet wound. She started to speak when the woman interrupted her. “He and his uncle are good men. They are good to everyone but they are extra good to us and the Indians. They have a good ranch and it is very grand, but they take care of their people on the land. There, people are treated with respect, paid well. They are a good pair of gringos.”

“And the one who is not the uncle, is he… does he have a woman?”

“Not him. The uncle, though. He’s got Pilar, the bitch.” She spit on the ground when she said the woman’s name and Maria was amused by this.

“This is his wife?”

“Hah! No. She is a Mexicana, like us, but she is the lady of the manor, or at least she thinks so. She is a housekeeper and gives the old man one every so often. She thinks no one knows. Hah! Everyone knows. She thinks she is better than everyone because she had an aunt who was married to a shopkeeper once, and that was a long, long time ago. Now she runs the ranch like it is hers. Old slut!”

“And the other one, this Walsh. He has no woman?”

“No.”  Maria's Trail