Texas

Proud and independent minded, Texas is known as the Lone Star State, having once spent a short tenure as an independent nation before joining the United States. The second largest state besides Alaska, Texans are a fiercely proud people, who enjoy their steaks extra large and their music with country style. Much of the state is large expanses of plains and desert, though several small towns, large cities, and Mega-cities dot the landscape inbetween the vast stretches of emptiness. The heat is often above 100 in the summer, though the low humidity makes it not quite as noticeable.

Kalinka [Dmitriev] [C] Lazy C Ranch [#4313 Ten]

El Paso

Submerge <D> leads to Underneath Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf <G> leads to Gulf of Mexico.

North <N> leads to Great Plains.

East <E> leads to Louisiana.

Southeast <SE> leads to Central Mexico.

Southwest <SW> leads to Mojave Desert.

West <W> leads to Southwest United States.

Up <U> leads to Sky Above Western United States.

Another year has gone by. This year, Bowie does not celebrate Dia de los Meurtos alone. It is not meant to be a somber holiday: rather a day of celebrating the lives of those who have passed on. Because Bowie has no family, he chooses to remember his friends and those who might otherwise have been forgotten this day.

It is late afternoon in the ghost town of El Paso, sunny and mild. Time and weather have gentled some of the harshest edges, but the roads are still treacherous. He's forced to bring the hoverbike to a crawl as they make their way through the deserted city. Unlike last time Kalinka was here, there are a few signs of life: weeds have pushed up through the cracks in the pavement here and there.

Kalinka accompanies Bowie to El Paso. She knows little about this Dia De Los Muertes...only that it honors the dead, but that's enough for her. She clutches Bowie, leaning against his back as the terrain gets rough.

Several of the buildings in the inner part of the city have slowly begun to collapse, some falling inwards upon themselves, others spilling debris into the streets. One office building they pass leans precariously like a modern Tower of Pisa. With a little backtracking and patience, they make it to the center of town. The cracked marble fountain still stands just as on the last visit, though this time the small shrine has taken on an air akin to permanence. Someone, presumably Bowie, has filled the lowest tier of the fountain with clean soil and planted greenery there. How often has he visited this place?

Bowie brings the bike to a halt a respectful distance away and kills the engine.

Kalinka has been very quiet almost all the way here. Now that they've finally arrived at their destination and she's dismounting the bike, she looks over at Bowie. "So...how does this usually begin?" she asks.

Bowie dismounts after Kalinka, then moves over to unlace the saddlebags. "We light candles t'light thair way, set out flowers, an bring food an drink fer them to enjoy. Thay can't eat it, a course, but thay enjoy the smell." He produces a number of the candles he bought the other day, and hands them to her. Once she takes them, he takes out and carefully unwraps a bundle of chrysanthemum blossoms.

Kalinka nods, taking hold of a saddlebag, smiling a little bit...she isn't feeling as morose as when she was dwelling over what this experience was going to be like hours ago. "I hope they like what I made for them...dumpling stew...maybe not what they were used to in life, but it is very good, and I made it with love."

Bowie chuckles a bit at that. "Ah'm sure thay'll appreciate it." He seems fairly upbeat today, or at least closer to the real Bowie than the moody Bowie she's had to contend with so often recently. He walks over to the fountain turned shrine and begins to clear away the candle stubs and flowers left from his previous visit.

"What else do people do? Do they bring other things besides food? Do they sing, or anything like that?" Kalinka asks curiously.

Bowie plucks the petals from the chrystanthemums and sprinkles them around the foot of the fountain, adding golden color to the dusty marble. "Tell stories about them, so people don't ferget who thay were an whut thay did in life."

Kalinka ahs. "It makes me wish I knew more about my mother. But I know so little. I did find out something about her lately, though, that Dad-- that Cossack never told me. It would seem...that she was once an Interpol agent, too."

"Oh?" Bowie says as he turns around. While waiting for her to go on, he goes back to the bike to extract more things from the saddlebags.

Kalinka bobs her head as she opens up the saddlebag she's currently carrying to inspect the contents. "Absolutely. And I learned this on good authority. Very interesting, the things he did not want for me to know."

Bowie silently adds that to his list of Contemptible Actions By Cossack. Whereas Kalinka prepared dumplings, Bowie brought a more traditional dish of freshly baked sweet bread, decorated with a bone motif and sprinkled sugar. He also brought a bottle of local-brewed beer. Tequila is the customary drink, but with the situation in Mexico, genuine tequila is nigh impossible to come by legally. These in turn are laid atop the flower petals. "Wish Ah'd had the chance t'meet yer mother," he says. "Jus like Ah wish you'd had the chance t'meet Jackal."

"I wish so, too, for both," Kalinka admits softly, eyeing the food items. "Jackal is going to have a world-class dinner tonight."

Bowie smiles softly. "He sure will..." The beer fizzes as he twists off and pockets the bottlecap. "We used t'come here, ya know, frum time to time. This wus his hometown, an he wus a big fan a the El Paso Rattlers, Ah remember that."

"Rattlers..." Kalinka repeats. Suddenly, she grins widely as an idea comes to her. "Handsome, could I leave something for Jackal even though I did not know him in life? I want to leave for him a Rattlers hat. I remember this place we passed, just before the city limits...it was selling sports memorabilia. If I could find something with the Rattlers on it, I would like to leave it here for him."

Bowie smiles again. One can't call it an entirely happy smile, but neither is it entirely sad. "Ah thank he'd like that, sunshine."

"Okay then...I will be right back..." Kalinka departs for a short while, presumably to chase down a momento to leave for Jackal. She has another motive in mind, too...to leave Bowie alone with Jackal's spirit, in case he wanted the personal time but didn't know how to ask for it.

In the meantime, Bowie finishes setting up the shrine, setting out candles in the four cardinal directions and lighting them. He also takes a bundle of sweet sage from his front breast pocket and lights it, setting it to burn on the cool marble. By the time she returns, the air will be rich with the aroma of spiced candles and sagebrush.

Although he isn't human, Bowie does take a certain comfort in ritual. He shrugs off and folds up his duster, then kneels down on the ground. "Lord Ah miss ya, Jack," he says aloud, but quietly. "Been a hard road, but Ah'm still tryin t'do whut's right."

Sometime later...perhaps 20 minutes, perhaps half an hour...Kalinka returns with an officially licensed El Paso Rattlers hat from back in the day. She places this beside the makeshift shrine. "Here you are, Jackal," she says with a tender smile.

Bowie is found still kneeling by the shrine, and smiles at the offering as Kalinka adds it to the fountain. "Ah thank he might a had a hat like that, once," he remarks. "Wish Ah could tell ya more about him, but a lot a mah memories about him are jumbled." He pauses, gaze drawn towards the candleflames flickering in the light breeze. "He wus a gentleman an the best Ranger Ah ever had the pleasure a servin with."

"That much is important enough," Kalinka says, as she kneels beside Bowie, taking her place with him to silently pay respects.

"He wus also the first person that didn't think it wus funny when Ah said Ah wanted t'be a Texas Ranger," Bowie adds.

Kalinka says, "It proves just how much of a good friend he was. He knew it was important to you. Only someone who cares deeply and truly knows you would respect your dreams like that."

Bowie nods at her words. "Yeah, he wus a real good friend. Jack, Hank, Ken, an Ah...sometimes Ah thought that when the four a us werked together, thare wusn't anythang we couldn't do." He lapses into silence, but only for a moment. "Ah miss him, but Ah'm glad Ah had a chance t'know him."

Kalinka is silent for a long moment, eyes closed, head bowed reverently. After a while, she opens her eyes again, slowly looking over at Bowie. "I can...feel, that he is pleased. There is a calm presence here. It is a comforting feeling."

Bowie quirks another small smile. "Ah'm glad..." he trails off for a moment, gaze looking out over the ruins. Though he can't say he's ever met a spirit, he does believe in their existence, and so believes what Kalinka says. "Do ya remember anythang about yer mother?" he asks quietly, almost reverently.

Kalinka ponders, then makes a so-so motion with her hand. "I remember what a baby remembers," she admits. "Which is nothing she said, nothing specific that she -did-...just...the soothing sound of her voice, her comforting presence...her shiny blonde hair...things like that. And songs she would sing to me."

Bowie nods slowly, making an effort to understand. "So jus bits an pieces?"

"Yeah," Kalinka admits. "This is not a malfunction, though, it is normal for humans to not have clear memories until they are about three or four years old, because the brain is still forming in those early years and memories cannot be formed in the baby's or the toddler's brain, you see. Babies can remember sensory things. Like sight...and smells...and songs they can hear repeatedly. Those are the kinds of bits and pieces I have of her, that do not have anything to do with the holomovies and pictures."

Bowie again nods. If nothing else, his own memory loss makes her experience a little easier to understand. "Ah see, Ah thank."

Kalinka grins. "If something is confusing, let me know and I will try to explain it a little bit better," she offers.

"Well...the parts a mah memory that do werk, Ah can remember errythang about it if Ah thank about it," Bowie explains. "But humans don't remember that way at all, do thay?"

Kalinka shakes her head. "Sometimes, yes," she says. "But as a rule, no. Especially when the event happened a long time ago. Emotions can also affect the memory recall."

Bowie again nods slowly. "Which is why we hated havin t'rely on eyewitness testimony...sometimes folks remember only whut thay want t'remember, or misremember somethang. Not sayin it's bad, jus how it is." An errant strand of hair flops into his face, which he brushes aside. "Marie, she used to take pictures a lot. Said it helped her to remember special occasions."

Kalinka looks puzzled at the name she doesn't recognize immediately. "Who is Marie?"

"Jack's wife," Bowie answers.

Kalinka ahs, nodding. "Do you still keep in touch with her?"

Bowie's shoulders slump very slightly. "Yeah. She wus able t'help me fill in a few gaps in mah memories...kinda difficult talkin with her, though."

Kalinka says, "I can imagine, and she probably still cries to talk about him, too."

Bowie once again nods. The guilt he still carries over Jack's death doesn't help. "It's been tough," he says. "We still talk now an then. She's a wunnerful lady."

Kalinka places her arm across Bowie's back, a comforting gesture. Also, it's a gesture she hopes will let him know that she considers him a major part of her life, to the point where she almost feels 'at one' with him at times.

Bowie does take comfort in the gesture, and gives her a small but nonetheless genuine smile. "Meybe one day we'll go out an visit her...thay have a son, too. Jacob. He's six or seven now, Ah thank."

(fade to black)