{"id":4856,"date":"2021-08-18T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4856"},"modified":"2021-08-14T12:37:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T12:37:06","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/08\/18\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-66\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 66"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Adventures of Maite and Kepa 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

Dominique returned after a few hours, beating Santi to camp. Maite got back on her horse and waved goodbye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was good seeing you Kepa,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I get another day off, I\u2019ll try to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d like that,\u201d said Kepa as he gave an overly dramatic kiss to the back of her hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominique chuckled. \u201cOh, young love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite and Kepa both looked at Dominique in surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho said anything about love?\u201d asked Maite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t have to,\u201d replied Dominique with a wink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spurred his horse down the hill. Maite followed. She turned one last time to see Kepa standing near the wagon, watching her. He waved as she turned. She waved back, almost falling off her horse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trek back to town and the boarding house was uneventful. They didn\u2019t encounter any other riders, for which Maite was thankful. She remembered their encounter with Donny McCowen and shuddered at the thought. She didn\u2019t expect Dominique could be all that useful in any altercation, though the older man did carry a rifle strapped to his saddle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHave you ever had to use that?\u201d asked Maite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZer?\u201d asked Dominique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rifle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, yeah. A few times, hunting rabbits when I got sick of lamb. And there have been a few rattlesnakes I had to get off the trail.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat about another man?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dark look crossed Dominique\u2019s face. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky,\u201d he said. \u201cI keep to mine, and they keep to theirs. I tell my herders to keep their sheep off of cattle land. But, there was one time, when I was a herder myself, before I knew much better. I didn\u2019t even speak any English, back then, at least not much. Some cowboys came up to me and threatened to burn my camp and shoot my sheep. They did shoot a few of them. But, I just stood my ground, pointing my gun at them when they got closer to the camp. Eventually, they backed off. I guess they didn\u2019t think their lives were worth taking a chance, at least that day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite shook her head. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine,\u201d she said. \u201cThat must have been terrifying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominique turned to look at Maite, a sparkle in his eye. \u201cYou betcha, it was. I almost shit myself. Especially since I\u2019d forgotten to load the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite\u2019s eyes went wide. \u201cIt was unloaded?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dominique chuckled. \u201cYep. If only those cowboys knew. I\u2019m sure I\u2019d be dead if they had.\u201d<\/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":"

Dominique returned after a few hours, beating Santi to camp. Maite got back on her horse and waved goodbye.  \u201cIt was good seeing you Kepa,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I get another day off, I\u2019ll try to come back.\u201d \u201cI\u2019d like that,\u201d said Kepa as he gave an overly dramatic kiss to the back of her […]<\/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-4856","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-1gk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856","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=4856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4857,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions\/4857"}],"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=4856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}