RANGO // OӘͶAЯ - Another Outlaw Story [Engl.]

4. Dry But Not Dead

Meggy dried her hands on a towel and looked through the kitchen window.
Their house was not far away from the shed. It was built of wood and had blue window frames with a terrace. Chorizo's family built it years ago and Chorizo loved it. Including everything what a house could give. Living room, kitchen, corridor, in the first floor sleeping rooms and on the top of the house under the roof a small attic.
All was not bad. But if someone had asked Chorizo why he could buy such expensive things, he would answer, that he had inherited it from his family and existed before the mega drought began. The land was far from fertile. Around the house flew sand blowing from the wind. The grass was brown, just two big cactuses and a dried leafed cactus adorned the landscape. Next to the house lay dried out plants which were memories of a missing garden where vegetables and a fruit tree had been. Around the house and the shed was an old wooden fence with a big wooden frame for the ranch gate.
In the area, there were traces of fences which had broken because they weren't used. Just a little peccary drove of 20 animals stood in a paddock.
Meggy wiped over her hot forehead and sighed.
"Something wrong?" Stump asked, who sat at the kitchen table and was reading a newspaper which was already old. The rabbit boys Stanley and Portley sat on the living room floor and tinkered with paper. Stanley folded a paper plane and threw it through the room until it fell on the floor again.
"I'm a little worried," Meggy answered without looking away from the shed. "For four days, he didn't eat, he didn't drink, he never left the shed. I asked him every day whether he needs something. But he declined."
"Take it easy," Stump muttered. "Snakes don't need food for a long time."
"Even no water?" Meggy turned around and looked at her husband who browsed through the pages. There fell a deep silence. Stump felt her glance. Finally, he sighed and put the newspaper away. "Alright, I will take a look."

The rabbit fanned himself cool air with his hat before he left the house. Shortly after he made a few steps, he heard a low sound of an accordion. Señor Flan and his companions leaned in the shadow of the house and attuned a sad melody with their instruments.
"Dry land
Hungry the sun leaches you out
Pale is the earth
Merciless your heat"
Señor Flan muttered. The owl stopped and wrote some words on a paper.
Stump shrugged his shoulders. "Artists."
He walked to the shed. He opened the door and looked inside. The rattlesnake lay like every day coiled together on the floor. His face averted.
"Mr. Jake? Are you okay?"
"Mmmmh... yes," a mumbling voice replied.
Stump entered. His hat in his hands.
"My wife is a little anxious about you."
"I'm not hungry."
"But maybe thirsty."
"No.... I need nothing anymore."
Jake had spoken very low, but Stump had good ears.
"Listen Mister. I don't know what's going on, but even if you did something bad... well, that's no concern of mine..."
A deep sigh let him froze, because it was a nervous darkly sigh.
"Don't talk more and let me alone. I'm concerning to no one."
Stump watched how the body of the snake cramped.
Nervously, he kneaded his hat. "Well, my father wasn't an expert, but he used to say: If this day is your last day, it will not matter to drink much. That's what he said..." He made a little break. "Before they hanged him. God rest his soul."
Silence filled the air, until the rattlesnake moved his head in his direction. His eyes were a little ghostlike.
"Why did they hang him?"
"He stole. - 100 roadrunners from a farmer. That was his life. A roadrunner stealer. I'm still ashamed about him."
Jake took a deep breath. "At least his death was reasonable. Sorry. But more than mine."
Stump pricked up his ears.
"Really? Why?"
But the snake turned around again. "It's so quiet. Where are the others?"
Stump didn't understand first.
"Who? What? Oh... you mean my workers? Gone into the city. They only come for a few days. There is no much work here. But what did you mean with..."
"As I said before... over and done with it..."
Stump put his hat on his head. "Alright. But if you don't drink or eat anything, I will ask you so long until you will tell it to me. Well?"
Stump wasn't sure whether the snake would accept this, but he trusted his instinct that this man wasn't a bad guy.
Finally, Jake sighed. "Alright. I will do. But let me alone."
With that both parties were satisfied.

Two weeks passed. And it was a mystery for everyone on the ranch, that a creature could live such an isolated life so long. Jake never talked. He only said a little "thanks" when he got something to eat and to drink by Meggy.
It seemed that the snake would never move, until the third week...
It was a day like everyone else since he came to the ranch. The sun was hot, the wind blew sand, there was not much activity outside, just a few workers herded the peccaries to another paddock. Jake didn't pay attention to all and tried to ignore everything.
Suddenly there was a loud cry.
Jake jumped up like thunderstruck.
Fast steps and running feet vibrated on the floor. All seemed to run in panic.
Jake was nosy enough to open the shed door. He screamed and flinched back into the wooden building.
A big shadow had appeared in the sky and circled around the area.
A shrilly squeak and loud flapping wings stirred sand and dust. Then the sounds became lower.
After that, Jake dared to take a fast look outside. Peccaries were still running, and in the distance, a flying big bird with his prey, and he knew one of the peccaries will never see the next morning anymore.

The whole day, Jake didn't dare to move, like every day. Towards evening, Stump came and asked after him. He apologized because of the bird and that he would hunt in this area for a long time. But Jake said, that it wouldn't interest him and that he was fine.
When Stump was going to leave the shed, the snake muttered just a little "Sorry for you."

Jake had bad dreams like every night. But this dream was much worse than the others.
The hawk hunted him through black desert areas until everything changed into a ranch. But there was no sun. No good light. Just dust and banging of shots. Screams for help and curse echoed through his head from far away. Through the dust he recognized shadows of snakes. He turned around, but there were also shadows. They circled him. There was no escape.
He shot with his Gatling tail gun. The shadows disappeared. There was a crying voice.
He looked around. A part of the dust flew away. He screamed at the sight of the dead bodies of farmers. Fingers of strangers pointed at him threateningly.

With pain in his body, he woke up. The sandy floor was ruffled. He had rolled himself very often. He was relieved that it had been just a dream, but he knew the reason for these dreams.
With quick movements, he left the shed. He inhaled the fresh hot air, but then he remembered about the hawk and looked around carefully.
The sky was almost cloudless. It was early in the morning.
He winced. There was a sound a few meters away behind the house. First, he wanted to crawl back, but he felt his muscles needed some movement.
Slowly and carefully, he crawled to the house and looked around a corner.
There lay a dried field. Not far way Meggy kneeled in front of a little hole and put a plastic foil on it with a little stone.
Jake crawled closer and realized that there were more of this kind of holes.
Meggy glanced up in surprise.
"Oh, what a rare sight."
Jake just nodded. "What's that?"
"What? This?"
Meggy stood up and pointed at the hole.
The rattlesnake nodded.
"These are one of our last sources of water. We collect the condensation water every morning."
Jake looked at her questioningly. "Why this way? Are there no bigger water sources?"
Meggy braced her hands on her hips. She wore a dress like every day and her bounded hair hang down with some strands of hair.
"Do you wanna see something? Come with me."
She beckoned him over and together they walked along the house. On the way Jake noticed the leafy dry cactus. Not just because the plant looked like a snake peeking out of the ground, but because something else caught his attention. A circle had been drawn through the ground around the cactus.
He broke away from this sight with the opinion that the children had only been playing something and turned back to Meggy, who had gone to a small wooden house between the house and the garden. The little door had blocked with a padlock.
Meggy whipped out a key from her apron pocket and opened it. She waved inside.
Slowly Jake took a look at it. Inside there stood a very little water faucet.
Under it there stood a bucket. Meggy walked inside and loosened the spigot. Nothing happened until there came a very, very small water drop and fell in the metal bucket.
"This was our source of water on our ranch. Today, it's a lucky day that we can get some drops of water into the bucket within hours. One water drop is value in gold."
Jake glanced at her thoughtfully. "How can you survive here without much water?"
"We try to help ourselves with water of cactuses. Other sources are our last reservoir in the town."
She closed the door of the cabin again. Jake saw that she was worried and sad.
"We are waiting for the water. Waiting that it will flow like it used to be."
Jake didn't want to interrupt her and let her speak.
"All what we need is hope," Meggy continued with sighs and looked at the sky. "That's what our mayor says always."
"He seems to be an optimistic man."
"Indeed," she agreed and together they walked over the ranch square.
"He had already helped a lot of people. But he could never bring back the water until now."
Deep in thoughts Jake looked over the area.
"How long has the drought been here?"
Meggy stopped and thought. "Over nine years."
Jake looked at her with open mouth. "What?!"
"Yes, our children had never seen much more than a bucket of water."
"But this will never be enough to farm a ranch."
"That's right. Once a week we go to the town where we can get some more water every Wednesday. But..."
"But what?"
"We are afraid that the water could dry out forever. Our faucet is connected to the pipelines of the town. But through the years, it becomes less every day."
Suddenly there was a clicking sound of a gun behind him.

The picture is a part of the old Rango online Game "Rango - The World" and should only give you an image how Stump's ranch could look like.