blind?”
“Stifle it Edith, if you want to stay in here while I check your wife over.” Doc said.
“Hey, you called her my wife, how did you know we’re getting married?” I said.
“Well, what else would you be doing with Faith, she’s not a floozy, you know?”
“Yes, Doc, I do know that. And I’m not either. Do you know anyone who can marry us?” I said.
“Yeah, me. I’m the Clerk and Recorder and the Justice of the Peace for the Chama area. As such I’m licensed by the state.”
I looked at Faith, “Is that right, can she do that?”
“Yes, not only that, but being a doctor she can give us our blood tests.” Faith said.
“What’s your name Doc? I asked.
It’s Pretty Otter, Gail Pretty Otter. So how did you come to fall out of the sky?”
“Well, we didn’t really fall out, the starboard engine on my Cessna was giving a little trouble; we had to make an emergency landing.” I said.
“You said ‘we’, who else was with you?” Gail asked.
“My Dad and Brother. My Dad’s name is Karl and my brother’s name is Jake. Our last name is Bronson. Oh, by the way, as far as the wedding goes; Dad and Felicia are getting married also.”
“What? Felicia Cortez is getting married? I can’t believe it, really?” Gail said.
“What’s wrong with her getting married?” I asked.
“Nothing really, it’s just that with the Spanish Land Grant; you do know that her place has been in her family for three hundred years? I see that you didn’t, but anyway when she got married the first time she didn’t even take her husbands name, she kept her maiden name of Cortez. And speaking of the land grant; Faith, would you tell Felicia that there has been some lawyers poking around? They wanted to see her title, I told them to piss off.”
“Well you can rest assured that Dad isn’t interested in her property, that is outside of the intimate kind. My Mother died two years ago. We still own our ranch in the Big Horn Basin. We don’t need more land.” I said.
“I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, I didn’t think your Dad was. It’s just that I can see trouble on the horizon; is your Dad sure he wants to get involved?”
“Sure, why not? We’re fighters, always have been. We especially like to take the underdog’s side.” I said.
“Alright, let’s forget about that. Since you guys are getting married, I guess I had better give you both a quick once over. When is the last time you had a physical Clay?”
“When I was mustered out of the Navy. I guess it’s been about two years.”
“Okay, but I think I’d better check a few things; we’ll draw some blood and a urine sample and I suppose we had better check your prostate.”
“Why my prostate, what for?”
“Well I think Faith would like to know that you’re in good operating condition, plus also I had better check you for testicular cancer.” Gail said, then added, “do you want separate examining rooms, or are you both comfortable right here?”
“Oh, I want to stay in the same room,” Faith said, with a diabolical giggle.
“Alright, Clay there’s a specimen cup in the bathroom, over there. You give me some urine, I’ll give Faith her shot and take a blood sample from her. Just leave the bottle on the sink when you come out.”
I went in and did what she asked. Then I came out and sat beside Faith on the exam table. Gail pulled a couple of vials of blood out of me. Then said, “Okay, stand up and drop your drawers.”
“Are you sure we have to do this?” I said, as Faith reached over and unbuckled my belt. “Yes, I’m sure,” Gail said. As she snapped some latex gloves on, she too had a diabolical grin on her face.
“Turn your head and cough,” She said, I did so. “Well there’s no hernia’s anyway, stand still so I can feel for lumps.”
Faith said, “Can I do that, I should know what to look for, shouldn’t I?”
“Sure,” Gail said, “just feel all around, you can tell if there’s something amiss.”
“I don’t feel anything.” Faith said.
“Good, turn around Clay and bend over, here’s a tissue, sometimes you might leak a little bit.” I think she really took delight in my discomfort. I know my face must have been bright red.
“No, that’s fine too. You can just throw that tissue in the garbage. You can get dressed now.”
“Do you do that to everyman that gets married?” I asked.
“No, of course not. Faith just wanted to see if you were a good sport or not; you are. But really, a man should get checked every year for prostate cancer, it didn’t hurt you any did it?” Gail said.
“No, it was just embarrassing is all. But come to think of it, I would a lot rather have a woman doctor do that than a man. I always felt uncomfortable when a man doctor did that. With you it wasn’t so bad.”
“That’s just because my fingers are smaller.” She said, then added, “would you two like to get a cup of coffee?”
I looked at Faith, she nodded. “Sure,” I said, “do you know of a place?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I’m a local around here, you know. There’s not too many choice’s in a little town like Abiquiu; my cousin has a small Café. He needs the business anyway, you two being a couple of money bags, you can leave a big tip.”
“Oh, we can, can we? But yes, I usually do anyway, especially if the waitress is cute.” Faith kicked me. “But not anymore, even if their ugly, I’ll leave a big tip.” Faith kissed me.
“Alright, I’ll take my car, you two can meet me there, Faith knows where it’s at.”
It was a little bigger than Gail had led me to believe. Gail was already inside, she was setting at a corner booth. She waved us over. There were perhaps ten people already there, Natives with a long history in New Mexico, mostly Navajo and Mexican, a couple of whites. Or what could be called whites, now all of the races were so intermixed, it was hard to tell, look at me.
We were sipping our coffee, when Gail said, “You know, Faith’s condition made me think of something my mother told me. You’ve heard of the ‘Long Walk’, haven’t you?”
“Yeah, I have, I don’t know about Faith, how about it Faith have you?”
“Perhaps, something about the Indian wars, wasn’t it?” Faith said.
“But what does that have to do with Faith being a milk factory?” I asked.
“That was what I was coming to, it’s a little bit yucky, but not really. You see it was a matter of survival. The year was 1864. The Army had completed the burning of all of our crops and orchards; we had no way to sustain ourselves. In short we lost. Kit Carson was the officer in charge, he told us he would make sure we were treated fairly. They were going to relocate us from our homes, it started at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. They made us walk, men, women and children from our homes to Bosque Redondo in Eastern New Mexico.
Anyway, they didn’t provide them with enough food; over three thousand perished on that walk. My Great Grandfather was just a small baby. My Great, Great Grandmother had the same condition as Faith, she made lots of milk. So what they did was to give her the food, in turn she fed both the baby and my Great, Great Grandfather on her milk. I told you it was little bit yucky, but when you think about, it wasn’t that bad, they all survived anyhow.”
“I don’t see