{"id":4767,"date":"2021-07-14T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4767"},"modified":"2021-07-10T22:03:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T22:03:42","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/07\/14\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-60\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 60"},"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

The next morning, Maite watched as Kepa left with his foreman for the sheep camp that would be his home for the next several months. She chuckled to herself as she watched Kepa on the horse, trying to stay upright. He almost fell off when he turned to wave goodbye and blow her a kiss. She could see the swollen gash almost throbbing on his cheek. She waved to him before returning to the kitchen to prepare lunch for those who still remained in the boarding house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve really taken a shine to that one,\u201d she heard from behind her as she peeled potatoes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHuh?\u201d asked Maite as she turned. Behind her stood Elena, one of the other young women who had immigrated from the Basque Country at the behest of her uncle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat new herder, what\u2019s his name?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKepa\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBai, Kepa. You really like him, don\u2019t you?\u201d Elena gave Maite a playful jab in the ribs with her elbow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite blushed. \u201cHe\u2019s\u2026 nice,\u201d she said with a smile. Then her face darkened. \u201cI just hope he doesn\u2019t get into any more trouble up there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll be alright,\u201d said Elena. \u201cThe herders look after each other. And most of these cowboys, they\u2019re more talk than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat Donny doesn\u2019t seem to be just talk,\u201d replied Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, but he\u2019s only tough when he has his friends around and he\u2019s had a few drinks. He\u2019s scared to death of his aita. If he brought trouble to the family\u2026\u201d Elena shook her head. \u201cIt\u2019s only when he\u2019s been drinking that he acts so foolishly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope you are right,\u201d said Maite. \u201cI hate to think of Kepa up there alone with those cowboys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe you\u2019ll have to go check on him then, to see how he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can do that?\u201d asked Maite excitedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elena nodded. \u201cThey do supply runs to the camps every week or so. Sometimes, we accompany them, help them pack up the supplies and deliver them to the herders. I\u2019ve gone up there a few times.\u201d She shook her head. \u201cIt sucks up there. All alone for months at a time, with only the dog and the other herder, and thousands of sheep. Sometimes, I think running into the cowboys might be a good thing, to keep the mind sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard that some of them go crazy?\u201d asked Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elena nodded again. \u201cThey call it getting sheeped or sagebrushed. The brain needs human interaction. If all you hear is the bleating of the damn sheep for months on end\u2026 some of them can\u2019t take it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you seen\u2026?\u201d began Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBai,\u201d nodded Elena. \u201cThere was one, he just can\u2019t talk to people any more. He has a small room in one of the other boarding houses. He keeps to himself, talking nonsense all day. I try to stay away from him when I see him wandering the streets. He gets agitated easily around people and it\u2019s hard to calm him down. I\u2019m afraid he\u2019ll hurt himself or someone else one of these days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand,\u201d replied Maite. \u201cAre things so bad in our country that we need to come here and do this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how it was for you,\u201d answered Elena, \u201cbut there just wasn\u2019t enough for all of us back home. The baserri couldn\u2019t support all of us. We were nine anai-arrebak — brothers and sisters. Two uncles lived with us, and amuma too. Ama and my older brothers worked hard to keep the baserri running, while aita worked in town for extra money, but it wasn\u2019t enough for all of us. One brother left to study to be a priest. Another sister works as a housekeeper in Bilbao. But, even so, there wasn\u2019t enough for the rest of us.\u201d She shrugged as she grabbed a stack of plates. \u201cWhy not come out here, try to make some money and go back for a better life? A few years of hard work here is nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elena pushed through the door to the dining hall as Maite returned to peeling her potatoes.<\/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":"

The next morning, Maite watched as Kepa left with his foreman for the sheep camp that would be his home for the next several months. She chuckled to herself as she watched Kepa on the horse, trying to stay upright. He almost fell off when he turned to wave goodbye and blow her a kiss. […]<\/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-4767","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-1eT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767","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=4767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4768,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4767\/revisions\/4768"}],"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=4767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}