{"id":4895,"date":"2021-09-15T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=4895"},"modified":"2021-09-11T12:38:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T12:38:35","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/09\/15\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-70\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 70"},"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

\u201cWhat about us?\u201d hissed Kepa, his anger barely contained. Though he had mostly hated his time up in the hills, he had still grown attached to his life there, even to Santi and the sheep if he were honest with himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you worry,\u201d answered Donny. \u201cI\u2019ve got plans for you. And your girl ain\u2019t here to protect you this time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santi turned toward Kepa with a look of anger. \u201cZer egin zenuen?\u201d he asked in Euskara. \u201cWhat did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEzer ez,\u201d hissed Kepa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, now,\u201d interrupted Donny with a smile that then turned into a scowl. \u201cYou are in America now, and you better be speaking English.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donny turned to the other two cowboys. \u201cJimmy, Bobby, you two watch the perimeter. We don\u2019t want to be interrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other two cowboys nodded as one went back toward the horses and the other crossed the camp in the other direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, then,\u201d said Donny once the other two were in position. \u201cYou can put that thing away,\u201d he added, waving his own revolver at Santi and his shotgun. \u201cI know you ain\u2019t going to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santi reluctantly placed his gun on the ground next to his chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood boy,\u201d smiled Donny. \u201cSee, that wasn\u2019t so hard. If you had just listened in the first place, we wouldn\u2019t be in this situation, now would we?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou were just going to let us go, were you?\u201d asked Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, you\u2019ve figured me out,\u201d laughed Donny. \u201cOf course not. We need to make examples of you damn herders and you two will do as well as any. Better than most,\u201d he added, with a piercing stare at Kepa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFine,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cIf this is personal, between you and me, let him go.\u201d He nodded his head toward Santi. \u201cHe has nothing to do with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donny shrugged. \u201cTrue. But, he\u2019s here with you. You know, guilty by association. And he\u2019s still a damn sheep bastard.\u201d He paused and then chuckled lightly. \u201cYou know, I heard that the reason they hired you Basquos to herd the sheep is because you stink so bad, you keep the coyotes away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Santi growled, but Kepa put his hand on his partner\u2019s arm, trying to calm him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donny grabbed something from his hip and threw it at Kepa, who caught the twirling stick in the air as it came at him. It was a stick with some kind of sticky resin at the end. Kepa looked at Donny. \u201cWhat is this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA torch.\u201d He waved his revolver almost nonchalantly at the fire. \u201cLight it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa stood up and placed the pitch-end of the torch in the flames. Within an instant, the end of the torch was ablaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, throw it in your wagon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa looked at Donny in shock. \u201cEz,\u201d he growled. \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donny shrugged again. Kepa heard the bang and Santi\u2019s scream before he realized what had happened. Santi was holding his shoulder; blood was pouring down the sleeve of his shirt. Kepa nearly dropped the torch to run to Santi\u2019s side when Donny barked at him. \u201cStop!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI heard you Basques were stubborn, but I didn\u2019t think you were so stupid,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t want your friend to take another bullet,\u201d he continued, his voice dropping into a menacing snarl, \u201cyou\u2019ll throw that torch into the wagon.\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":"

\u201cWhat about us?\u201d hissed Kepa, his anger barely contained. Though he had mostly hated his time up in the hills, he had still grown attached to his life there, even to Santi and the sheep if he were honest with himself. \u201cDon\u2019t you worry,\u201d answered Donny. \u201cI\u2019ve got plans for you. And your girl ain\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-4895","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-1gX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895","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=4895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4896,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4895\/revisions\/4896"}],"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=4895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}