Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Two women meet in the desert of New Mexico in 1970 and their lives change forever.
Content Warnings: Violence, Fire, Mild Sexual Content, Loud Noises, Gun Violence
Written and Edited by George Hogg. Narrated by Lara Connolly.
Produced by Woroni Radio on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land, fully funded by SSAF.
PART VI: THE NAME
NARRATOR: PART SIX: THE NAME
[sfx: dust on the wind]
NARRATOR: The desert is quiet. The summer has come to its end.
The sun rises.
You help Adelita pack her rucksacks, watching as she loads them onto her horse, playing your part in the silent dance the pair of you dance each and every time she leaves. You travel into town, buy supplies for the winter ahead. Adelita trots around the perimeter fence, fixing holes.
[sfx: scissors]
NARRATOR: You cut her hair with blunt scissors, until she looks like a man.
The sun sets.
[sfx: curtains fluttering in wind]
You lie in her arms. Watch cotton curtains flutter in the wind. Feel her warmth on your back. Let fear hammer in your chest. Twin blankets cover you both. There is a choice to make.
Resurrection or Slaughter?
—/—
[sfx: house creaking]
NARRATOR: The sun has yet to rise.
You wake before Adelita. You get dressed and begin packing a bag. She stumbles through the door to the kitchen, eyes half closed. She looks between you and your bag. She nods and leaves.
She comes back dressed, bandana pulled around her neck, a cigarette between her teeth. Over the years, the once bright scar over her eye has become nothing more than a pale reminder. The one on her lip, traced many a time by your tongue, almost gone. She pulls her boots on, a glint in her eyes as she watches you pack.
The dance is danced again, with a different ending.
—/—
[sfx: horse riding]
NARRATOR: The sun creeps over the horizon as you mount your horses. Cattle are herded and the journey begins.
During the day, you ride. It is a slow task. The desert sun beats down throughout.
At night, you sleep. It’s a short rest, changing halfway through to watch the cattle.
Occasionally you stop in small, dusty towns. The people here greet Adelita with a respectful nod, her bandana high over her nose, hat low over her eyes.
While lying on a bed in a cheap motel room, she tells you there’s not many men like her left. Men who drive cattle from place to place. A dying trade in the modern age.
You lie next to her, quiet. Another year creeps towards you both, a new decade rolling in. A world changing faster than ever before. Can you remain who you were when everything else is different?
—/—
[sfx: horses riding, occasional doors opening and conversations]
NARRATOR: After many weeks in the open plains, you see the edges of a settlement that you once knew. The ground is green, sky a bright fall blue. You pull your bandana down and breathe in the air. Children watch from their homes with curiosity, eyes wide, just as you once did.
You dismount your horse and follow Adelita into a home. She talks in a low voice to the elder who sits at a table, his books open. Sometimes he looks at you, a question on his mind. After the sale is made, he invites you for dinner.
[sfx: firepit crackling, eating, conversation]
NARRATOR: You sit with the community during dinner, and you wonder if you can still speak their language. Your bandana is pulled around your neck, and they can see your face. You wonder if they understand why. You wonder if they ever will.
Your fears are unfounded.
You are welcomed. You find your mouth still works with the tones of your mother tongue. The sweet smell of maize fills your nose.
Her face is covered but you can feel Adelita smile as she watches you, the soul of a wolf in her eyes.
And here you are, Watcher.
Where do you go, now that you have two homes?
Two places to return to.
You are found in the desert once again.
There is a choice to be made.
—/—
[sfx: wind and dying fire]
NARRATOR: The sun sets and the night continues. Like the cold man and his wife, you turn around the fire with her, just out of reach.
And you come to rest together under the stars, as the fire fades and the smoke thins.
A choice is made.
—/—
[sfx: wind and dying fire]
NARRATOR: And as you stand there, in her arms, in the plains that you once called home, under the stars that have watched you for years, with twin blankets resting on your shoulders, you decide on the Slaughter and I decide on the Resurrection.
NANABAH: “Nanabah.”
[sfx: near-death + fire sounds build]
NARRATOR: And it is no longer a lie, Watcher.
This is who you are; she who returns.
Whether it be the land of your ancestors or the land of your future, you return.
This is where I leave you.
For this is who you were.
Who you are.
Who you will be.
Lamb and Wolf.
Nanabah and Adelita.
The Watcher and the Rider.
[sfx: near-death + fire sounds crescendo with rolling thunder. With a thunder clap akin to a gun shot, the story ends]