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In the previous episode, Arizona rancher Buck
Turner is overwhelmed with the amount of work there is to do around the
farm while rehabilitating an alien. He resents having him around. He looks
forward to the time when the alien will be able to pay him back for all of
their labor in his behalf.
Edith, a self-styled doctor and Buck’s wife,
finds the alien heals faster than humans usually do.
I’ll admit some of the problems with caring
for him were of my own creation, but who expects their wife to turn their
home into a hospital?
I didn't make the kitchen large enough. Edith
wasn't the only woman who complained: Mmes. Guzmán and Nuńez did as
well. Even before we had the cot in there, everyone could have used a
little more room to spread out into when they were finished with their
meal. I was reminded of my lack of planning two or three times a day,
minimum, after and during each meal. Next house I built, I'd do better.
The area seemed large enough when we were
building the house. Only after we put in the table, chairs and stove did
it get too small. We got used to it before the creature came. Adjusting to
still less space between the cot, stove, table and chairs became
impossible. Edith said the creature needed to be next to the warmth of the
stove. She'd relent and then insist, relent and then insist, unable to
make up her mind because she wasn't sure herself. But, despite the
inconvenience, he finally stayed.
Preparing dinner took twice as long as it had
before. With the cot in there, there wasn't enough room for the women to
work. Caleb or Pablo Guzmán, Guzmán's son, would help the creature get
up and into my favorite chair in the parlor. He then would put the cot by
the stove in the front room if there was a fire burning, or by the wall
closest to the kitchen if there wasn't. Sometimes the creature grew wary
of sitting up and had to be laid down. If he was laid down, he had to be
placed in a warm area. If Caleb or the other boy wasn't around to do this,
there was a delay in starting dinner. The cot was framed of wrought iron,
too heavy for Edith and Becky to move by themselves.
Edith knew better than to ask me to move it
after the first time she asked. I yelled at her, told her the alien needs
to be taken out behind the barn and put down like a sick horse.
"There's nothing we can do for him," I
said. "This is going to go on forever. You yourself said he isn't
doing anything!"
"It's not going to be like this much
longer," Edith said, in his defense. "Spring is coming and it'll
be warming up. It's just now he can't take coldness as well as we
can."
Then it was back into the kitchen with the cot
once dinner started so the creature wouldn't get a chill.
She liked to have him in there when we were
eating. As the creature was unfamiliar with a lot of our foods, she
thought having us eat with him laying in there would encourage him to eat
more.
But eating in there was rough, an amalgamation
of elbows, knees, knives, forks, chairs, food and tempers centered around
one poor table. I was pinned against the wall, unable to take a full
breath. It might have been good for the creature's health but it was
terrible for mine.
"We need to start eating in shifts," I
suggested.
"Dearest, you're complaining too
much," she said sweetly.
She told me she hoped I'd enlarge the kitchen
when the weather warmed up.
I laughed. I wasn't going to do it for the sake
of the creature. "It was fine before, it should be fine now," I
said.
"Everyone said it was too small
before," she retorted.
"I just didn't build it to the size
somebody could be laying in a cot while we were eating. That's all,"
I said, reminding her she said the kitchen's size was okay when I was
building.
"I was busy with something else when you
showed me - and anyway, you didn't show me how big it was going to be
exactly," she said.
"Well, what's done is done," I said.
"I don't have time to worry about how large the kitchen in this
blasted house is," I said.
I thought about keeping both of the stoves lit
so the cot could be moved out of the kitchen. Some days we did, but most
days there wasn't time to get enough firewood stacked up to keep both of
the stoves burning. We had to mind the amount of firewood we burned.
"Just try to see the long term. If he keeps
getting better at the rate he is improving, he should be out of the cot by
April, I think. We just need to keep him comfortable and keep things
peaceful. If he has comfort and peace he is going to heal faster
too," she said.
"That's really easy for you to say," I
said.
"But look at him - he's different from
anyone else. He comes from a long way away. He's hurt. We should help him
get better. It's the only Christian thing to do," she said, staring
at me as a dog watches an intruder.
I had a lot on my mind. I was looking for verbal
fisticuffs, but yelling at someone like her, you felt worse than when you
started.
"Wherever he comes from is a lot warmer
than it is here. He suffers when he gets cold. We can't have him away from
the fire for too long. It's part of keeping him comfortable. He's used to
the heat. If he's comfortable, he'll heal sooner," she said,
logically.
After a few days, Edith went back to her
previous pattern of spending her time studying the creature's
peculiarities. After a few days, I too went back to my pattern of
resenting the creature. I couldn't help it. I needed to strike out at
someone. The helpless creature was a convenient target.
I knew I should have been directing my anger at
the one person who made it: Ike Renner. I knew that would only get me
trouble with the law and leave me guiltily supporting his widow and brood.
When it all became too difficult for me, I'd go
out and chop wood. The chore served the two needs of clearing my head and
keeping the stoves warmed.
Eventually we were able to keep both stoves
running and move the alien out of the kitchen during dinner. He ate after
everyone else. "He'll get the idea he needs to eat Edith. If he can't
do that much for himself then he's lost and there's nothing you can do for
that."
In the meantime, my troubles gave Guzmán a
laugh, "You got room for me too? I think I want to sleep in your
parlor and be moved in and out of your cocina. You mind?"
"Ha. That's really funny," I said
flatly. "You might as well bring the kids and Nuńez too."
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