just follow the cat

Part 3 - The Hope of Francisco de los Santos

July 4, 1776

Dunas Sin Nombre

south of the Yuma territory

Mule #6 was missing.

It wasn't the first time this particular mule had wandered off, but it was a bigger problem than usual – at least it was for Francisco de los Santos because keeping track of the animals was his job that night.

Early in the evening, he sensed that something was wrong. The moon was just past full, so there was certainly enough light for any object as large as a mule to cast a shadow. However, instead of regularly counting the mules like the other men, Francisco relied on those shadows to tell him that something was wrong. But relying on something isn't quite the same as acting on it and Francisco was tired. In fact, all the men were tired. Even Juan Bautista de Anzo was tired. But it was Francisco's job to make sure that nothing went wrong with the mules. The hardest part of their journey lay ahead of them and they would need every mule in the barren if they were to make it back to their homes alive.

Since there was sand in every direction, that meant there were no trees and thus no way to secure the mules unless they were tied to each other. Unfortunately, mules don't always like other mules and they gnaw and pull at the knots holding them in place. They gnaw and pull and bray and whimper. All these sounds and all this commotion can be annoying, but after many months of tending to the mules Francisco was used to it. Besides, he liked mules. If he had been the one in charge of this mission, all 25 of them would have been given names. But Juan Bautista de Anzo was in charge and he just gave them numbers. Mule #1. Mule #2. Mule #3. All the way up to Mule #25.

Mule #6 was no different than all the other mules except for being a bit cleverer than the rest. After gnawing and pulling at the rope that tied him to Mule #23, Mule #6 had an epiphany. What the gnawing had achieved, the pulling was quickly nullifying. After hours of frustrating effort, Mule #6 finally understood that the solution to the problem was more gnawing and less pulling. In a matter of minutes, the knots were undone and Mule #6 (along with Mule #6's shadow) was free to wander away from the rest of the barren.

Like any mule herder worth his salt, Francisco kicked himself for not getting up when the shadow first drifted away from the group. But to be honest, he didn't actually see any mule shape or shadow wander away. Still, that didn't stop him from kicking himself when he finally counted the mules and found one missing. You see, Francisco de los Santos was a worrier. All night, he worried that some of the mules might leave. Or maybe just one mule would leave. Or two. He worried so much that (at one point) he thought all the mules had wandered away when, in fact, it was only Mule #6 who left that night and Francisco didn't notice that until it was much (much) too late.

Francisco de los Santos was only sixteen in July of 1776 and only fifteen when the journey started one year before. Though younger than all the others on the mission, in most other ways he was smack in the middle of the group. He was more industrious than some and less than others. Taller than some and shorter than others. Fatter and rounder than a few but thinner than many others. He was smarter (much smarter) than the two priests who accompanied them on the first part of the journey.

Many weeks back, Juan Bautista de Anzo had left those priests in the middle of nowhere so they could build missions and spread the word of God to all who were willing to listen. To Francisco, worrying about mules seemed like a much better deal as long as his worrying would lead him back to his home in Cucurpe.

Others had the same idea. In fact, all the men tending the mules had exactly the same kind of smartness as Francisco. They wanted to go home.

When Francisco first realized that a mule was missing, he wondered if that mule was thinking the same thing. In fact, he wondered whether all mules were born with some sort of homing device like migrating birds and whether they could turn on the device whenever they were lost. And most of all, he wondered if this secret skill would magically propel all of them back to their homes.