{"id":4717,"date":"2021-07-07T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4717"},"modified":"2021-07-03T14:05:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T14:05:57","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-59","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/07\/07\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-59\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 59"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Buber’s Basque Story is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Kepa held up his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, mutilak, we don\u2019t want any trouble,\u201d said Kepa with his broken English as he backed away and turned to go the other direction. As he turned he nearly walked into Donny McCowen, who towered above him, his sinister sneer highlighted by the moonlight bathing his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you didn\u2019t want trouble,\u201d growled Donny, \u201cthen you should have stayed in your own damn country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Kepa could respond, Donny\u2019s fist flew and hammered him in the stomach. Kepa immediately fell to his knees. Kepa could hear Donny\u2019s friends laughing behind him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKepa!\u201d exclaimed Maite as she crouched next to him. She then glared up at Donny. \u201cLeave him alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt least one of you is man enough to stand up for yourselves.\u201d He spat in the dirt. \u201cYou damn foreigners come here, ruin our lands with your damn sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donny then crouched in front of them both. \u201cGet him out of here,\u201d he said in barely contained rage. \u201cI don\u2019t want to see his ugly face around here again. And if I find any of his sheep on our land, I\u2019ll kill him and all of his sheep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donny stood up. His boot flew and connected with Kepa\u2019s cheek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKepa!\u201d screamed Maite as Donny waived to the two other men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome on boys. Let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite helped Kepa to his feet, blood flowing from the cut that ran across his cheek. She pulled out a handkerchief from her purse and cleaned up his face as well as she could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get you back to the Noriega and clean that up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa looked at her. \u201cI guess it\u2019s not just De Lancre we have to worry about,\u201d he muttered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite shook her head. \u201cYou need to be careful. Who knows what he\u2019s capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a good guess,\u201d replied Kepa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As they made their way into the Noriega, they found the bar still crowded with more than one table hosting a game of mus. The room filled with murmurs as the players noticed Kepa\u2019s bloody face. Maite led Kepa to the bar and asked for water and ice. As she began cleaning off the blood with a wet napkin, Juan Jose left his game and approached them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat happened?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a nice chat with one of the local cowboys,\u201d replied Kepa with a shrug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of those McCowens, I\u2019ll bet,\u201d said Juan Jose. \u201cThey\u2019re always causing trouble for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know them?\u201d asked Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of us know them,\u201d said Juan Jose, waving his hand to indicate the other men in the room. \u201cThe cattlemen around here hate us, and the McCowens are the worst. They think all of the land is theirs, even the forest land. More than a few of us have been threatened with our lives if we didn\u2019t leave \u2018their\u2019 land. They shoot the sheep too, and burn our camps.\u201d He shook his head. \u201cI\u2019m sorry you met him on your first day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve dealt with worse,\u201d said Kepa dismissively, trying to deflect the unwanted attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan Jose grabbed Kepa\u2019s shoulders. \u201cDon\u2019t be a fool!\u201d he said, his voice rising. \u201cThose men are dangerous, some of them are killers. Don\u2019t think you\u2019re safe. We\u2019ve lost more than one friend to the cattlemen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d replied Kepa. \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to make light of them. I\u2019ll be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOndo,\u201d said Juan Jose as he returned to his game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kepa held up his hands. \u201cLook, mutilak, we don\u2019t want any trouble,\u201d said Kepa with his broken English as he backed away and turned to go the other direction. As he turned he nearly walked into Donny McCowen, who towered above him, his sinister sneer highlighted by the moonlight bathing his face. \u201cIf you didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1e5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4718,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4717\/revisions\/4718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}