Hilario had gone through a lot of difficulties having had to climb over The Wall that separated Old Texas and Mexico. He had only been a kid back then but remembered the pandemonium when that had happened. His father had died and only his mother and him had survived from the family. His mother had later caught on a disease but sadly, she had not survived. Michael could not understand how someone could be so nice and gentle after going through all that. It made him respect his friend even more.
But Hilario would not be able to fill the void that had been left from the friends he missed from his days at Peak City. Especially Chuck, who had been someone he had enjoyed being with because of the way he made him laugh. Even if he was kind of a cunt.
Michael did not think he would be able to fit in with the people here. They were a lot more aggressive, a lot more unhinged and that made him anxious around them. Walking down in the town he would see bar fights, standoffs and all sorts of madness and the lawmen would be unmoved by them. He swore he even saw one of them chanting with some of them: Fight!
Fight! Fight!
But there was beauty in the freedom too. There was way less discrimination in the Freelands than in the Peak City. People from all sorts of ethnic origins intermingled freely: Hispanics, Asians, Americans, Red Indians, African- Americans (even Germans and Soviets who had deserted their armies) and so on. He had been so accustomed to thinking that the discrimination and control in the Peak City had been the norm that he had never thought about people living with racial diversity in relative harmony.
Michael and Hilario were walking down the edge of the path that led to the homestead with tools in their hands when a horse carriage drove past them. There was Rose inside watching Michael intently as the carriage went past. There was something in those purple eyes. An obsession.
Michael stood staring suspended in a dream. The memory of that night was playing fresh in his mind again. He couldn't help but yearn for her presence.
"Ah, she gave him the fuck me eyes," said Earp, one of the workers, as he trudged along with others from the group. He had a teasing expression on his face. "Another one bites the dust…"
The others laughed as they walked past him except one whose face was rueful and full of rage. Michael did not understand what had come over him.
Michael turned to Hilario. "What did he mean by that?" asked Michael.
"I think he was referring to Hicks over there," said Hilario pointing towards the group that had just walked past them.
Hicks was a teenager who was a little older than Michael with a hardened face full of nasty scars. But he was still good-looking and the scars complimented it. Hicks had been part of an outlaw gang as a kid until they'd been caught. The men had all been hanged while him and
brother had been thrown into a foster home. Shortly after, they had run away. This was what Hilario explained to him in short.
"She had suddenly got real interested in his brother Burt about two months ago. Then, suddenly, she had lost interest in him. Except that Burt had fallen a bit too hard for her and tried to keep meeting her. It turned out to be a big mistake. She informed her father who kicked him out of the farm."
Michael gulped. He felt some of the air deflate in his heart after hearing that she had been interested in someone else and just dumped him. She had suddenly gotten interested in him too. Would she leave him too? But she kissed me...
"Burt died two weeks ago. He'd had to join the outlaws and was found dead after a gunfight. Hicks has been furious since then and he hasn't tried to hide it. He blames her for his brother's death."
Michael should've felt sad for Burt but instead he felt a strange pang of jealousy. He was also confused now. Thoughts about whether she really liked him raced through him.
As if things weren't complicated enough…