By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
RIO GRANDE CITY, Texas |...Well, there had been a load of good times, a beautiful evening here and there. He knew that and could still bring back images from the best moments of their relationship.
Ranch hand Joe Ramirez had bought her a rather expensive ring on holiday sale at the fancy shopping mall jewelry store right before Christmas that one year. She'd expressed the usual initial shock, followed by the open-mouth joy one imagines is the pleasure in such gift-giving.
He'd worked on her car a few times. That yard kept its pretty face thanks to his mowing and landscaping. The flower bed had matured as if to beautify and nothing else. He'd done that and so much more without pay or complaint for her, 'cause, if it had been all about him, well, none of that would have been part of his life. But a confident, grounded man does usually that and more for a woman he likes.
For one he loves, he'll do the spectacular.
Joe was running that full-across his brain as the dusty dirt road ahead began to curve northward onto the two-lane highway that headed up to the ranch. Someday, he'd come back to ask about her.
Not anytime soon, he told himself. Work on the ranch is seasonal and uncompromising. Time would tell.
A break-up, if it has any shot at make-up, must suffer itself out...
-30-
[EDITOR'S NOTE:...This one drags longer in its original version. Part of the short story collection...]
Cool short story. I wonder if the guy ever came back.
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