Copyright 1991 Aya Katz
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My darling David,
Yes, Nabal can be insufferable. And I do appear to have steered you in the wrong direction. Even I cannot fathom his depths completely. He has a code of honor, but it's not easy to decipher.
I would have written earlier, but he kept me occupied well into the night, and half the day on Saturday, till Angelo finally called him off to tend the cattle.
You frightened him. "It's starting," he said. "It's starting all over."
"What?" I asked, keeping my tone soft.
He has this irritating habit of not answering direct questions. "There's nowhere to go," he said, caressing me. "So we'll stick to our guns." I'm not sure which guns he meant, as just then he became rather amorous...
Later, as he drifted off to sleep, his limbs entwined in mine so that I could not have gotten up without asking, much less without waking him, he murmured: "You're all I have now, Abby. You ... and my ranch ... and my brand." His brand! I'm sure he would sear it into my skin, if he thought it proper. On the left buttock, perhaps. It's his favorite.
So I lay there. Drifted off to sleep myself. It wouldn't have done to move and break the spell. When I awoke, the sun was casting a triangular wedge of light over the blanket, and Nabal was still clutching at me. He must have held that same thought throughout the night, because his first word was a groggy: "Mine." I wiped the sleep from my eyes, and smiled. "Yours," I said, and kissed him on the bridge of his nose.
At breakfast, I tried to delicately broach the subject of our encounter at the Brown 'N Serve. Mind, it's not easy being diplomatic with Anadora at the table.
"You've got your egg in upside down, Abigail," she said to me. "You shouldn't have done that. Bodes ill, to eat the wide part first."
"I'll remember that," I said.
"Too late now," she muttered.
Nabal ignored her. He was staring out the window, shading his eyes.
"Nabal," I said. He looked at me and his eyes started to adjust. Although you can barely tell his pupil from his iris, the eyes are so dark.
"What?" His full attention was focused on me. He has this ability to concentrate single-mindedly on the matter at hand. It's an asset ... and a liability.
"Why did you turn David down? You were saying yourself that the Judge is corrupt."
"All politicians are corrupt." His voice was flat.
"Why?" I asked.
"It's part of the job description."
I tried a more round about approach. "But isn't there anything that can be done about it?"
He smiled. "Nothing whatever."
Anadora stirred. "It's the stars, determine the destinies of king and pauper. Cannot change the stars."
I tried to ignore her as fully as Nabal. "But if the Judge has already proved himself to be unfit, shouldn't you give David a chance?"
Nabal shook his head. "He'll have his chance, with or without me. But he will not gain my support."
"Because of what he said ... about the ranch?" I asked. Nabal nodded. "But even before there was already one mark against him."
"What?"
"He's disloyal."
I didn't say anything. But the witch was staring at me. When Nabal got up, she leaned forward in her chair and pointed her bony finger at me. "That's one thing a Cabeza de Vaca will not countenance," she said. "Disloyalty."
I don't think she really knows anything. Only prematurely senile, I expect. And even if she did, she would never convince Nabal. "Don't you have faith in anything?" I asked him once.
"Only in you," he said.
There's one reason he will never figure it out. He doesn't want to know.
For the time being, I will have to watch myself. For the time being, you had better let it cool off. I'm enclosing a check, which ought to be a small comfort to you. It's made out to cash. There'll be time enough for bigger things later.
Please be patient. Haste makes waste. Good things come to those who wait. Leave the Carmel mesquite trees intact for now. They will all be yours, in good time.
Yours,
-all yours,
Abby
P.S. I can't make the regular meeting. Nabal's birthday is coming up. But if I get a chance to go out before then, I'll send a note through Pipa.