Page 79 - Tamale Ridge_113017

77 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

guess the father of this beautiful young woman could tell that It wasn’t out of disrespect that I

had instinctively held Rosemarie.

In between sobs the exhausted man told of how a few years ago Guerra, trying to favor

Pancho Villa, had befriended the man to gain information. When the man knew too much about

Villa, he had to be silenced. Guerra was accused of setting fire to the man’s home. The man

was gone at the time and his wife and three month old son had burned up with the house.

“Let him go papa! Por favor!” Rosemarie pleaded.

“I’m sure he will make no more trouble. …”

We all heard the shot. The man fell to the ground. A small hole just above the left eye. Raul

stood with a smoking gun in his hand.

“Raul! Said Guerra, “I did not give the order to kill him!”

“But Señor, you did give the order, to protect your daughter and I have insured that this man

will harm her no more.”

Rosemarie appeared shocked to see a man die in this manner. I felt sick, that he was murdered in

such a way, just when I thought we had bargained for his life.

Don’t get me wrong, what he did was bad and I don’t think the man wanted to live anyway,

but to die in such a way as this, was wrong.

They buried the man inside the cave and I stood silent. What could I do? I was in a foreign

country and they had their own sense of justice. I walked down to the horses and Gilberto was

standing there trembling.

“It was a bad thing to happen Señor,” he said.

“Yes, Gilberto, It was a very bad thing to have seen.”

Francisco Guerra came to us and said,

77