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89 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

I ain’t to good at keepin’ up with this journal. I’m back on Tamale Ridge and I didn’t get the

mares. That Frenchy was making too much money off me. I shore spent a wad gettin’ down

there and for nothin’. I didn’t go to Mexico City and see about Caliente. I found out that’s what

they were still callin’ him. Juan has kept up with things good here. I’m nearly broke again but

the colts are nearly ready for delivery. I ain’t had a letter from Sis in a long while. Last one she

sent she was feelin’ awful tired and worried about Gid. I wrote to tell her that I wanted her and

her boy to have this place if they wanted to come out here and help me run it. I don’t know if I

could have saved her husband from that snow slide, if I’d been on that mountain. I had went to

the camp for supplies and when I got back it was too late. Juan and me …….”

I couldn’t believe it! I was reading Uncle Trent’s last journal and had learned a lot! He had

sold Tamale to some man named Jake Johnson down at Barela! He had an account at a Trinidad

bank. He had a love affair with the girl from Alamosa, named Lucinda. He was the Americano

that we had met in Vera Cruz!

I didn’t have much energy. The rocking motion of the train and the fact that I was nearly

exhausted from the trip made me awfully sleepy but Gilberto had been taking care of the mares

and colts and the saddle horses. He was dead on his feet and still, he was trying to do more.

“Why don’t you get some sleep Muchacho?” I said.

“Are you sure Señor that you do not want to sleep also?” He asked.

“It’s ok. I’ll sleep in a little while,” I said.

There wasn’t a lot to do for now and I wasn’t worried that anyone would bother the horses. We

just had to make sure to keep looking every so often so a foal didn’t get down in the train car and

get stepped on. We also had to see that they had water and as much feed as we could keep in

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