PACO AND MATRIMONY Chapter Three

Marriage and then open a Cantina

 

The winter was long, cold, and blustery but Paco and Grrr was warm as toast.  He even took one bath during the winter. It was mostly because Grrr smelled and needed a bath so they both did it.

The trip to the out house was invigorating and Grrr would hold it as long as he could before going to the door and whining. Once the word got around that Paco and Grrr were guarding the warehouse no one else tried to rob it.

Paco was happy but lonesome for Maria. He couldn’t leave his job for it was a twenty four seven arrangement. He thought it wasn’t bad for a winter job. He had a place to stay, food and eight dollars a week, not bad at all. Oh yes, there was plenty of food for Grrr.

From time to time Campbell would take something from the warehouse with Paco and Grrr watching so the workers didn’t help themselves to some of the equipment.

As winter turned to spring Paco was getting restless from being cooped up all those months. He told Campbell it was time for him to get out into the open air again.  

Campbell said he understood but if he wanted to take the job back the next winter it was his.  With the fifty dollars he got for the return of Campbell’s cattle and his winter’s wages Paco had almost three hundred dollars. 

For some reason he wanted to see Maria really bad. Her two boys Javier and Marco had come to see him a month ago and told him their momma wanted to talk to him.

He got his gear and his horse and headed for the border. Of course Grrr was with him and leading the way. Marco the oldest just turned sixteen and Paco was trying to figure out how old Maria was. He thought she might be over forty which was a little old for him to marry since he was only twenty eight.

By the time he crossed the border he had decided as long as she isn’t fifty it might work.

When he arrived at Maria’s he went in and she was busy preparing some dinner for her and the boys. When she saw him she stopped and went over to him and gave him a big hug. As he hugged her for the first time he looked at her closely. He thought she isn’t fifty, no not even forty she might be only thirty for she looked younger than he did.

He thought it strange all the time he knew her he never really looked at her face closely. From this point on all that was on his mind was becoming her lover something he had never thought of before because they were just friends.

He would do some deed for her and she would feed him. He had slept in the spare room many times but never thought of trying to slip into her bed. Now all the sudden she became extra sensuous in his mind. A new urgent desire to have her that’s all there is to it and he would do what ever it took.

He smiled and then laughed as he thought, those four months alone sure has got me stirred up. The next morning when he saw her he gasped. Seeing her after thinking of her half the night was like being shocked by lightening.  

She seemed to be normal and not excited at all. How could she be so calm when he was ready to explode? She said, “Sit down and eat, it will settle you down.”

“What did she mean “Settle me down?  Did she guess what I was feeling and I wanted to grab her and… No she wanted to talk about something else.”

As he ate she said, “You know this place used to be a cantina that served food, wine, and Cerveza.”

He said, “No, I didn’t know that but I can see where it could have been.”

She said, “I want to open for business again and I want you to help me run it.”

She was right about this food and talking cause him to lose some of the driving ardor he felt. She went into some detail about there being some of the old equipment stored out back and a few tables also. She said she knew where she could get everything else she wanted, but she needed a little more money to buy it.

He asked her how much and she said, “A little over two hundred American dollars. That is in addition to what I have. Beer and wine plus some food will be another fifty. That will put us into business.”

She then took Paco’s hand and said, “There is one more thing and that is a thing called matrimony. That will be part of the deal we will be married.”

She said, “I have been without a man way too long and the boys think you are something special and for that matter so do I.”

Paco was thinking, "That is the best I heard ever," and he wasn’t thinking about the cantina. He said, “By the way how old are you?”

She said, “Can you handle forty?”

He swallowed and said, “I guess.”

“Well then how about thirty?”

He said, “That’s a lot better.”

She said, “My father forced me to get married before I was fourteen and then I had the two boys; one right after the other.  My husband was a drunk who liked to come home, have sex, and then beat me.”

The rumors went around about how her husband died. Men thought she had a lover and the husband caught them together and during a struggle the lover killed the husband.

Women liked that version but another was that when the husband attacked her and he fell on his knife and did himself in.

Maria never told anyone what happened and no one ever questioned for they didn’t want to know lest it looked bad for Maria. They had a nice funeral for her husband and the priest said kind things about the man which made people feel better about the whole situation.

They went so far as to extend their condolences to her saying how they were sorry for her loss. Afterward when everyone had left Maria had a stern look that no one else saw unless she was alone and thought about the man she was forced to marry and the hell that accompanied it.

She said, “There is more if you need to hear it…”

“No, no he said that is enough and we never need to think on it again or speak of it.  

 

Tomorrow we will see the Padre and be married and then our new life will start. 

To be continued.