The Appaloosa Page #3

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in a few days,

or a few weeks,

or a few months.

We will be lightin' candles

for the dead.

If we're gonna have a ranch,

we gotta have a horse

around here.

A ranch. W- what do we need

with a ranch?

It's only more work.

Yeah, that's not

what you were sayin'

yesterday.

We want you, Mateo.

You're more important to us

than any ranch.

Oh, Ana, I'll be back here

with that horse

before you can turn around.

It'll be as easy

as cuttin' butter.

It is your throat

that will be cut, Mateo.

You do not know

about Chuy Medina.

Well, the man stole my horse.

What the hell

am I supposed to do?

Go over there and, uh,

and sit down in the river

and forget about it?

Horse.

Horse. I am tired

of hearin'

about that horse.

You drifter.

You come in here

worryin' about a horse.

What do you think

will happen to my family?

All right, go to Mjic0.

Go get it.

He will cut you up

in little pieces,

and we will bury you

and plant more corn.

You just

don't understand.

It's not about a man

stealin' my horse, Ana.

It's about somethin'

that happened

a long time ago,

before you was even born.

It started when Paco's dad

picked me up

when I was a scared,

dirty, skinny, little runt,

and brought me home here,

to live.

Scrubbed me up and treated me

like I was his own blood.

And he never

gave up on me, Ana.

Not- - not even when I stole.

Not even when I lied

or when I cheated him.

I've seen him sweat

like an ox

in the corn field

all so as he can get

some grub on the table for us.

No matter

how hard he worked,

no matter how worn out

he was after workin',

he used to come here

and sit in this chair

and play the guitar

and sing us a song,

teach us a little bit

how to read,

best he knew how, anyway.

About that time,

I left here with that old

one- eyed mule and $1.86

in my pocket.

And that was

all the grubstake

he had to give me.

And I had big ideas

about what I was goin' to do,

how I was going to

get myself a hat full of gold,

come back here

with a real pretty lady,

and build us a big

old hacienda out there

by the pig house

so as the old man

wouldn't have to work no more.

I thought,

maybe with a good stallion,

we can build us

a little horse ranch

and give it to the kids.

That old man spent

a whole lot of years

tryin' to make...

A decent man out of me,

and gettin' that horse

was about the only way

I can see

to payin' him back.

I never realized

that his arms

were so short.

Well, here comes Paco.

Paco, Paco,

reason with him.

Tell him not to go.

There is nothin' I can do.

Okay, kid,

where are we goin'

and how do we get there?

Once you go

across the river into Mjic0,

you take the main carretera

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