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106 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

named Miguel. They spent a lot of time together. Miguel was only a few years older than

Ramon and they got along well. Rosemarie thought it was good that Ramon had a friend.

Sometimes the two would disappear together after the day’s work was done. They used to hunt

for deer and rabbits and were very good providers of meat for the table. Ramon had been given

a Winchester .22 pump rifle for his fifteenth birthday and he used to let Miguel carry it on these

hunting trips. There were not very many men who had such a rifle, as they were expensive.

Francisco had a big rancho and many cattle and horses and he didn’t feel it was too extravagant

a gift.

Rosemarie wrote more letters than she sent. She would write to Señor Thacker and it would

start out being about horses and then she would say things that she felt that she must but she

would destroy them and start over. She wanted to call him “Gid” but she just couldn’t do it.

She knew that is the name his friend's and family had called him. He had told her that himself.

She wanted him to call her Rosemarie too but he was always proper in addressing her.

She often thought about the last time she had seen him. She still remembered the way he held

her face gently in his hands as he kissed her. It was very hard to refuse his offer to go with him

but she knew she was right in doing so. Her father would never bless their marriage. After

what had happened with his second wife, Teresa and then trying to live down the shame of such

a thing happening to someone like Francisco Guerra. Maybe if her mother had lived, she would

have gotten to know a different Francisco Guerra. She could only vaguely remember her

mother. Her mother, Rosa, had died very suddenly in a terrible accident involving a wagon and

run away team of horses. Contesa was as close to a mother as she had known and still there was

a small strain on their relationship that she couldn’t put her finger on.

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