Chapter 1
~ Chapter 1 – Ignacio’s Folly ~
~ 1994 ~
A cow’s head craned down to graze on the grass beneath it. Many other cattle occupied the fenced-in clearing, with palm trees dotting the area beyond it. The sun had barely risen when a group of farmhands pulling a cart approached the animal. The cow gnawed on a mouthful of grass, blissfully unaware of the men’s motives. The cart was stopped in front of the cow, and two of the farmhands nudged the compliant beast onto it.
A man with tan skin, disheveled hair, and rough hands, who appeared to be around forty years old, headed the group. He fashioned something from his side - a bolt pistol, typically used for humanely slaughtering cattle. He circled the cart to the front where the cow stood.
The man cocked the pistol. He was about to draw the pistol up to the cow’s forehead to ensure a clean kill, but then he looked at two young teenagers working among them.
“Hey boys, why don’t you do it?”
One of the boys sporting the beginnings of a mustache asked, “You want us to?”
“Why not? It’ll be a good learning opportunity.”
The mustached teenager seemed unsure of himself, but the other one was eager, “I’ll do it!”
Though he seemed confident, he seemed unsure of himself once the pistol was passed into his hands.
“Okay, Eugenio, raise it right up to her forehead and hold it steady. I’ll tell you when it’s okay to fire.”
Eugenio raised the pistol to the cow’s head; it was still blissfully unaware. The young man steadied his hand and held it directly over its forehead. It took him a moment to steady his arm. “Is this good, Ignacio?”
The man, Ignacio, replied, “Yeah. Just like that. When you pull the trigger, a rod will eject hard. If it doesn’t kill her, it’ll knock her out cleanly. We’ll take it from there. Whenever you’re ready, go ahead.”
Eugenio took a deep breath. Just when Ignacio expected the cow to drop, nothing happened. He stared at the young man and chuckled, “Getting cold feet, kid?”
Eugenio winced, dropped his arm, and observed the pistol, “…It’s not working.”
“What do you mean it’s not working?”
“It won’t fire!”
Ignacio took the pistol from the young man and stepped away. He aimed the pistol at the ground and tried to pull the trigger, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Well… I’ll be damned.”
A slimmer man who was around Ignacio’s age, asked, “What’re you thinking?”
“I’ll fix it at home. We’ll leave the cow till then.” Ignacio replied.
“Have you fixed one of those before?”
“Yeah. Probably jammed by one of the washers or something.”
“Who knows the last time we cleaned that thing…”
They nudged the cow off the cart and back onto the pasture. It returned to grazing immediately, completely unaware of its aversion of death. Ignacio chuckled, “You got lucky today, bud.”
Ignacio and the others returned to his farm nearby and continued to work. He and the co-owner of the farm, Julian, had their workers attend to various tasks. They had the two teenagers, Eugenio and Raul, doing much more mundane tasks meant to teach them about farm work. Both seemed eager to contribute more.
As they were tending to the chicken coop, Julian tapped Ignacio on the shoulder. “Hey, have you done the PCC’s paperwork yet?”
Ignacio reached beneath a chicken and pulled out an egg, gently placing it into a container in his other hand. “No, you’re supposed to. I did it last month.”
“No, no, no. I did.”
Ignacio smiled and shrugged, “No, I did.”
“Don’t play with me, Ignacio! Remember when you told me how your daughter got a job lined up for after graduation? I was working on it then.”
Ignacio’s posture straightened, “…Damn. You’re right.”
Julian smirked and jabbed Ignacio’s shoulder, “Get to it, hermano.”
Once they’d completed their morning work. Ignacio would’ve liked to relax and chat with the others, but with the end of the month nearing, he really needed to finish that paperwork. He headed to an office space within the farmhouse. It was rarely occupied and had become a storehouse for the tedious paperwork that they were often forced to do. He pulled a folder out, which had the words ‘Population Control Council Reporting’ from that room and headed outside.
When he left the main farmhouse, he found the others with ice-cold water, idling at the tables outside, their feet in the sand around them.
Ignacio took an unoccupied table near them and spread out the paperwork. On the edge of the table, he set the malfunctioning bolt pistol. He was planning to fix it on his own.
He was distracted quickly and began tinkering with the pistol, disassembling the mechanical components to try and understand how it got jammed. Julian must’ve taken notice, because he strode over to him and asked, “How’s the paperwork going?”
Ignacio sighed and set the pistol components aside, “I’ll start on the paperwork after I finish this…”
“Give me the damn pistol, Ignacio.”
Ignacio groaned, before handing it over. “I’m getting that back once I’m done.”
“Mhmm!” Julian hummed as he took a seat with the other farmhands.
“You boys can head home whenever you feel like it,” Julian said to the two teenagers working with them.
The mustached kid, Raul, asked, “Aren’t all of you going to keep working in the afternoon?”
“There’s no need for you to stick around for that.” Ignacio commented from his table.
Eugenio, the more muscular kid, said, “We can keep working.”
Julian chortled, “I like these kids! When you two are older, definitely come see us. We’d be happy to have you on the farm full-time.”
Ignacio couldn’t help but wonder how they developed such a strong work ethic. They were nothing like his own son.
Ignacio took a good look at the paperwork before him… he felt a headache coming on immediately. This was always a chore. He began filling in the approximate working hours for all the people working on the farm, and their general duties.
He’d taken to providing the shortest descriptions possible; the PCC never called him out for it. He was sure that the more ‘corporate’ businesses would be required to give more detail. Ignacio and Julian’s farm could get away with throwing information together at the last second. There were only a few times when the PCC questioned their reports. They always fixed it quickly too.
Ignacio fudged everyone’s hours ever so slightly to make them look busier than they were. The same with the number of sales they made. They did it every month, and never got in trouble for it. If they didn’t exaggerate too much, the PCC would be none the wiser. It didn’t hurt anyone, and it only made their crew look better.
He got to a farmhand named Luis and his hours. Ignacio remembered that last month, Luis was at home more with the missus to take care of their newborn. He wasn’t on the farm as much.
“Hey, Luis?” Ignacio hollered to him from across his table, “How many days were you off last month?”
Luis, one of their younger farmhands, tilted his head to Ignacio after taking a sip of water, “Err… Maybe half the month… do you think that’ll sound good?”
“I’m sure that’ll be fine,” Ignacio replied, filling in the paperwork accordingly.
Julian leaned back and looked at Luis, “How are things with the baby lately?”
Luis shrugged, “I think it’s good.”
“You think?”
“I mean, the baby is healthy. So that’s good…. I am nervous about her being a girl though,” Luis remarked.
“Whaddya mean?”
“I mean, when they get older, I know how I’d raise them if they were a boy… but I have no clue where to start with a girl…” Luis replied contemplatively.
Julian finished a sip, “Either way, you’ve gotta be stern with ’em. They won’t respect you otherwise.”
“…I don’t want them to hate me.”
“They’ll appreciate it in the long run!” Julian advised confidently.
Luis turned to Ignacio, still in the middle of paperwork, “What about you, Ignacio? How were you with your kids?”
Ignacio lifted his head from the paperwork and replied calmly, “I reckon they figured things out for themselves. Maggie’s good, doing well in school. She don’t mind coming out to the farm for work either. Paula just graduated… She’s planning to move to Errest soon. Starting some career in media or something.”
“Ha, you spawned a city girl, Ignacio!” Julian chortled.
“She used to like the farm life. I swear, the moment she turned fourteen, she started acting like she was above it,” Ignacio remarked.
“What about your boy? Ernesto?” Luis asked.
Julian winced and quickly averted his eyes. Ignacio hunched his shoulders over and stated, “He’s fine.”
“What’s he up to?” Luis asked again, unaware he was broaching a sensitive subject.
“He’s uh… He’s just taking care of himself.”
Julian swallowed before asking, “Is he working?”
Ignacio simply shook his head, returning his eyes to the paperwork.
“How old is he now?”
“Twenty-three.” Ignacio replied flatly.
“Why doesn’t he just work on the farm? We wouldn’t mind the extra help,” Luis suggested.
Ignacio swallowed, “He-Uh… He doesn’t want to.”
“Really … Is he looking for work at all?” Luis prodded.
“Stop being so damn nosy, man!” Ignacio snapped, “He’s figuring it out.”
Luis recoiled in his seat; he didn’t see Ignacio’s temper flare up like that often.
Julian avoided eye contact. He took a deep breath, gulped down the last of his drink, and stood, “Alright, I’ll say it. You’ve got to do something about that boy of yours. He’s twenty-three, never had a job. Didn’t he quit school early too? You know that doesn’t look good to Population Control.”
“I think you should mind your own business!” Ignacio glared at him, his body hot.
“You always bellyache when you’re asked about your boy. I think you know you messed up and are too afraid to-”
Ignacio rose from his seat, fists clenched, “Shut up, Julian!”
All of the other farmhands hushed their conversations. Their attention was focused on the two of them.
Julian immediately raised his hands in surrender, “Alright, hermano… alright. I’m just worried about the kid. That’s all.”
Julian slumped back into his chair, and Ignacio reluctantly sat back down, leaving everyone in an uncomfortable silence.
