#and not even all of Arizona they’ve been documented in just a very small range | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

galadrieljones · 5 years

Text

The Lily Farm - Chapter 36 & 37

AO3 | Masterpost

Rating: M (Mature) - sexual content, violence, and adult themes

Summary: To help her process Sean’s death, Mary Beth asks Arthur to take her on a hunting trip, somewhere far away. He agrees, and on their journey to the north, they find quietude and take comfort in their easy bond. They’ve been friends for a while now, but life, like the wilderness, is full of uncertainty and complications, and as they embark on their desperate search for meaning together, they endure many trials, some small, some big—all of which bring them closer to one another, and to their future.

***Acknowledgments for this chapter:

Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call is borrowed from the Lonesome Dove series by Larry McMurtry; Texas Ranger LaBoeuf is borrowed from the novel True Grit by Charles Portis. I also won't lie when I say that their characterizations are informed by the actors who play them: Tommy Lee Jones as Call in the 1989 Lonesome Dove miniseries, and Matt Damon as LaBoeuf in the 2010 adaptation of True Grit.

Some exchanges in this chapter have been adapted directly from lines in the Red Dead Redemption 2 story mission "American Fathers I."

-gala

Chapter 36 and 37: Stand By Your Man (Pt. I and II)

“So. Texas Rangers, huh?” said Arthur.

It was noon in the high saloon of St. Denis. Arthur, Mary Beth, and Hosea were seated at a round table near the window with two Texas Rangers by the names of Call and LaBoeuf. Hosea had called them in that day to reap their help with the riverboat job, as he was collecting on a favor owed to him from years before. Arthur was smoking compulsively while Mary Beth leaned with her chin in her hands, bored by what she assumed would soon become a show of dueling masculinities. Call and LaBoeuf were both upright characters who took themselves very seriously but in different ways. Call was older and obviously much more distinguished. He had many lines in his worn-out features and a heavy but well-maintained salt-and-pepper beard. LaBoeuf was thirty or so. He chewed on a piece of cocaine gum with a great deal of enthusiasm and carried maybe a little too much weight around his middle section. They both spoke with tough Texas accents that were thick and recognizable but far different from the molasses drawls of Lemoyne.

"Texas Rangers," said LaBoeuf. "That's right."

“You lot still set on shining up your badges as priority one?” Arthur went on. “Or you catch anything worth hangin lately.”

“Forgive him,” said Hosea, straightening his neckerchief, sitting behind a blueprint of the riverboat he had skimmed off the captain's wife some days before. “He’s never had a badge to shine.”

“Not true,” said Arthur.

“We are currently hot on the trail of a man who killed a senator back in Dallas,” said LaBoeuf, unmoved, chomping. “Been on his trail since he left another man dead in Arkansas, husband, and father of one.”

“Killed the poor bastard right in front of his teenage daughter,” said Call.

“Jesus,” said Arthur.

“That’s awful,” said Mary Beth.

“Awful indeed, ma’am,” said LaBoeuf. “We got a tip, says he’s been shacking up here with a gang known as the Lemoyne Raiders. You know of these reprobates?” He said Lemoyne like Lee-moyne.

Arthur smoked his cigarette to the nubbin and stamped it out in the crystal ash tray in the center of the table. “Bunch of old-fashioned hillbilly racists, used to outfit in our camp. I know them all too well.”

“They killed Sarah,” said Mary Beth.

“Who is Sarah?” said Call. He was enchanted by Mary Beth and glanced at her often.

“My goddam prized Foxtrotter,” said Arthur. He reached into his pocket for the tobacco tin. “I don’t like losing animals, Mr. Call, and I got a bone to pick. Even more so than usual.”

“Well, we could certainly use your help, if you’re offering, Mr. Morgan.”

“Oh, I’m offering.”

Mary Beth leaned into him then, whispered into his ear. “You’re hunting Raiders now? What happened to living honest.”

"Gee," he said. He lit his cigarette, smirked at her as he shook out the match. “I don't know, Mrs. Kilgore.”

She elbowed him playfully and resumed her posture at the table. LaBoeuf cleared his throat.

"You got a cough there?" said Arthur.

“No, sir," he said. "Mrs. Morgan, I just overheard your concern."

"Which one."

"I would just like to remind you that bounty-hunting is legal work.”

She glared at him. “It ain’t the legality I’m worried about, Mr. LaBoeuf. Obviously."

"Then what's the worry."

“In my experience, legality don’t mean safe," she continued. "If you drag my husband out on one of your legal missions hunting murderers for the state of Texas, then he’d better not come back shot. That’s all I’m saying.”

Arthur grinned to himself, feeling hot in his cheeks and around the rim of his shirt. LaBoeuf studied her, popped another piece of gum. He had a ripe scar across the bridge of his nose and a superiority complex. “Well then.”

Hosea interjected. “She’s got spunk, our Mary Beth," he said. "Real tenacity. It’s why she needs bodyguards on the job.”

“Of course,” said Call, his voice stern and deep. “And we are happy to provide whatever assistance we can in the way of intimidation, Mr. Matthews, per the terms of our reciprocal agreement. We’d also be willing to enter into new and future negotiations if Mr. Morgan here is willing to assist us on that bounty.”

“The way you law men still rely so recklessly upon the lawless for your enterprise, even as you drive us from the open range and straight to the gallows will never cease to astound me, Mr. Call,” said Arthur. “Nevertheless, I am in.”

“Good,” said Call. He leaned back in his chair with one leg crossed over the other. His coffee sat, untouched and getting cold. He had a canny look about him as he lit a cigarette. “For the record, Mr. Morgan, we ain't Pinkerton Detectives," he said. "We may be law, but we know how the world works. You boys have helped us out of all manner of scrapes, from Arizona to the Dakotas. Mutual respect is in our best interest, and we’d just as soon keep it that way.”

“I admire your nostalgia,” said Arthur, gazing at him. “You keep me and my wife safe on that riverboat, and you and me, we’ll have an understanding. You got my word on that.”

They shook hands.

“Very good,” said Hosea.

"I would appreciate it now," said LaBoeuf, "if we could go over the specifics."

"Of course," said Hosea. He wiped his face with a pale handkerchief and then put it in his pocket. "It's rather simple, really. As a private security detail, you'll have two main objectives at the poker game."

"Go on."

"The first objective is to offer your authority on the manner of Mary Beth's alias. The second is protective in capacity. Mary Beth is playing a rather complex role, and she needs credibility, so as agents of the law in Texas, you can offer that to her. Anyone asks, her father is Larry 'Blue' Johnson, ex-outlaw turned oil man back in Galveston. Old Blue is a real person, or he was anyway, before we put him in the ground back in '91, but the State Government still believes he may be alive. I've had documents forged in his name, deeds of ownership for two fictional oil fields, one in Galveston, and one in Dallas. Those deeds have already been filed with the county assessor, thanks to a couple old buddies I got back in the Dallas City Hall. Those are just secondary insurance, mind you. They exist only as our benefactor at this party, Mr. Angelo Bronte, is a blowhard, but he's got deep pockets, and if he looks into Marie Kilgore's history, this is what he'll find. You two are our frontline defense and pony show. You're bodyguards, contracted by Marie Kilgore's father. Just follow Mary Beth around and stay quiet, looking tough and Texan, badges and sidearms visible. Your presence will be cleared ahead of time, through the riverboat's proprietor and host of the evenings' affairs. He's some local aristocrat or other, young as all hell, entirely harmless, a contact through our associate Josiah Trelawny. What's important is that you are Texas Rangers. Act like Texas Rangers, and everything should go smoothly."

"Sounds easy enough," said Call. "We'll study the blueprint this week and draw up an escape plan in the unlikely event that the night go south."

"Thank you," said Arthur.

"What about Mr. Morgan here," said LaBoeuf. "What's the story on his alias?"

Hosea rolled up the riverboat blueprint into a tight scroll, secured it with a piece of twine, and handed it to Call. "The beauty of Tacitus Kilgore is that he is a known outlaw, reforming as a married man, exactly like Arthur. There's nothing you need to do but keep an eye on him from afar. He'll be cheating cards while performing only minimal sleight of hand. He'll make his winnings believable, but should anybody desire to rustle him up and search his sleeves, you'll let them, and he'll submit. The goal is to make money, and nothing more. Nobody needs to get hurt, but there's gonna be a lot of chips on the table, and so tempers will fly. The priority is Mary Beth's safety. If it comes to throwing hands, exercise your authority, but for the most part, Arthur can handle himself. He gets into a scrape he can't get out of, that probably means the job has gone south, and it's time to relocate."

LaBoeuf nodded. Call studied the scroll as if it were a sacred artifact. Arthur took a deck of cards from his pocket. He had purchased them earlier from the bartender and was now shuffling them with precision. He watched Call through a haze of smoke. "There's one more thing," he said.

Call looked up. "Which is?"

"Angelo Bronte. Hosea mentioned him before. I am concerned that he has an unnatural affection for Mary Beth. We're gonna keep an extra special watch on him throughout the duration of the festivities. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," said Call.

"Bronte?” said LaBoeuf. He had produced a hunting knife from his belt with an ornate handle, took to studying its tip. “What is that, Spanish?”

“I-talian,” said Arthur, unthinking. Then he gave LaBoeuf a kind of strange look. “Spanish? Ain’t you from Texas?”

“Yes, sir.”

Arthur sighed.

"And this will square us away, financially speaking,” said Hosea. “For that time in Denver, the bounty on the train tracks. We let you have the full cake on that, and now you’ll do us the same.”

“Your terms are understood,” said Call.

“Is there anything else?” said Hosea. "Arthur? Mary Beth?"

“If we’re in agreement, then I’m good to go.” He looked at Mary Beth, softened, and took her by the hand. “You good?”

She smiled and kissed him on the nose. “I'm good.”

LaBoeuf smiled then, leaning in and still chomping on that cocaine gum like an addict. “Well ain’t you two cute,” he said, pointing with the knife. “How long you been married?”

Arthur glared at him, but Mary Beth was easy to talk about her romance. “Just a week,” she said, looking at Arthur. “But we known each other a lot longer than that.”

“Well, congratulations,” said LaBoeuf.

“Thank you.”

“You got wives?” said Arthur, pocketing the cards, sipping his coffee.

“No, sir,” said Call.

“Neither one of you?”

“Call here’s got a boy,” said LaBoeuf, casually brandishing the knife in a nonthreatening manner. “Well, more like a teenager at this point. But his momma ain’t no more. Went by the wayside years ago.”

“Thank you,” said Call. He was observing the depths of his untouched coffee. He had his hands folded, gentlemanly, in his lap. “I believe we’re finished here. LaBoeuf and I will be staying at the Parlor House in Rhodes for the purposes of future correspondence.”

“Wonderful," said Hosea, rapping on the table once. "We’ll be in touch soon, gentlemen. The game has been scheduled for one week from Friday.”

“Adios,” said LaBoeuf, saluting the knife as a psychopath.

Arthur, Mary Beth, and Hosea left the bar.

“That man is a veritable moron,” said Arthur. They turned the corner, stopped at the horses. “I ain't one to judge, but goddam.”

“Which man?”

“LaBoeuf."

"Well, I’m not sure about his specific credentials," said Hosea, "but he’s partnered up with Woodrow Call on this one, and Call and I go way back. He’s a good Ranger, an ex-rustler if I remember straight, knows every corner of this god forsaken country and the people in it. LaBoeuf may not be the most cultured among us, but if Call trusts him, then I do, too.”

“Fine,” said Arthur.

“Do you know what happened to his wife?” said Mary Beth.

“I don't believe they were ever married,” said Hosea. “But it was Typhoid that got her. Or, at least I think it was Typhoid. Five or six years ago.”

“Just like my momma,” said Mary Beth.

“Yes, well, sweetheart, a lot of good people have gone that way, I’m afraid.”

“It’s sad,” she said, placing her hand over her abdomen, briefly, like it comforted her.

“I think we’re gonna stay, Hosea,” said Arthur, patting Diana behind the ears—he’d had to take her out in Sarah’s wake. “Kick around the city a little bit. Take in a show, spend the night.”

“You gonna look at the stable for a new mare?”

“Perhaps,” said Arthur. “I ain’t decided yet.”

“Maybe you’ll go back into the wild, break your own.”

“Maybe,” said Arthur, a little blue at the thought of it.

“We'll see you back at camp then.” Hosea mounted up, then glanced down at the two of them as he settled in his saddle. A horse and buggy went by in the background. The streets were starting to bustle with the day. It was warm and muggy, and there as a street fair somewhere. There were children walking around, holding pinwheels, and you could smell the corn-on-the-cob, grilling. “Thank you both,” Hosea continued, his hands on the reins, “for entertaining those men. It’ll be a good score. Of course, it’s still like we said. If, at any time, you get a bad feeling, and you wanna call it off, just say so.”

“Thanks, Hosea,” said Arthur.

Mary Beth smiled, leaning on Watson dreamily, and petting her pretty black mane. “Yes, thank you.”

They exchanged goodbyes, and then Hosea was off, trotting through the city streets, tipping his hat so diplomatically to strangers.

Arthur felt Mary Beth then, her hand on his back. “You okay?” she said, seeming to sense his restlessness.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said. He smiled and put his arm around her. He placed a toothpick between his teeth and sighed. “Just a little sad is all. About the old girl.”

“I know,” she said. She put her head on his shoulder.

They took a walk up to the park. On their way, they stumbled upon the street fair, which was along one of the main drags, at the center of the city. There were flags and colorful bunting everywhere, and lots of pinwheels and bubbles, making the world feel pretty and alive. They’d never really been to a street fair like this before. There was a man making balloon animals on the corner, beside a stop sign, surrounded by children. It was something neither Arthur nor Mary Beth had seen in a long time, so they stopped to watch for a little while as the children laughed and clamored for his attention, and then Arthur bought Mary Beth a tulip from a vender in a straw hat, and she blushed.

They bought hot dogs for lunch and a loaf of stale bread and they walked to the park to sit on a bench and feed the ducks. Then, they walked some more. Arthur took out his deck of cards. He showed Mary Beth a couple tricks he’d learned off Trelawny in years past and a couple more he had invented himself. She was captivated and as she sat admiring his gumption in the summertime sun and how it made his hair gold, she thought about how thankful she was to have found a man so good and so true to her, and how for a long time, she had never thought it possible, living the way she did.

“Hey,” she said then, noticing something. She was watching through the crowd in the park and she thought she saw a man she recognized. “Hey, baby. You see that country-lookin guy over there? With them Native men?”

Arthur squinted after her, seeing what she saw. “Yeah, I do.”

“It’s Evelyn Miller,” she said, holding her tulip. “That’s him ain’t it?”

“It is indeed.”

“What’s he doing there? And are those the same men from the party?”

“That there’s a government building,” said Arthur. “But I ain’t sure.”

“Let’s go say hi.”

Arthur thought on it, grinding the toothpick between his teeth and then spat it to the grass. He had a funny feeling. “I don’t know.”

“Why not?”

He sighed. “Could be they’re busy.”

“They don’t look busy. Come on, Arthur. He’s a famous writer. I wonder if he’d remember us.”

So they walked over, arm in arm. When they got close, Arthur puffed up a little bit and assumed his more proper and upright posture. “Excuse me, Mr. Miller?” he said.

“Yes,” said Evelyn Miller. He turned toward them both in his stately manner. He was a man of the southern tradition and seemed to recognize them at once. “Ah, haven’t I met you two?”

“Yes, you have,” said Arthur. He held out his hand. They shook. “I’m Arthur Morgan. This is my wife, Mary Beth. You may actually remember us as the Kilgores, but that’s a bad alias.”

Miller had kind eyes. He smiled in recognition. “The Kilgores,” he said. “Why, of course. That ghastly party. You escorted a drunken fool from the premises if I remember correctly.”

“That, I did,” said Arthur. "Escorting drunken fools is one of my finer specialties."

Miller laughed. He addressed Mary Beth in a gentlemanly fashion. “Mrs. Kilgore. You are as lovely as I remember.”

“Why thank you, Mr. Miller,” said Mary Beth. She made a curtsy. “But you can just call me Mary Beth. Or Mrs. Morgan, if you’d prefer.”

“Noted,” said Miller. “This is quite the coincidence. Oddly enough, I was just speaking with the mayor about you two the other day.”

“The mayor?” said Arthur.

“That’s right,” said Miller. “I don’t mean to be awkward, but I just—I wonder if I might say something rude about it.”

“Go right on ahead,” said Arthur.

“The mayor, well. He thinks you stole from him.”

The Chief and who Arthur assumed to be his son stood nearby in silence, but they did not seem disinterested. Arthur gave Miller a kind of careful look. He didn’t like the notion of having entered into the casual conversations of polite circles. “Stole from him, huh?”

“To be clear,” Miller went on, “he wasn’t very upset about it. He rather liked the two of you.”

“I see.”

“Do you…well, that is to say…” He removed his hat. He shuffled in his shoes nervously.

“You got ants in your pants, Mr. Miller?” said Arthur.

“No,” said Miller, blushing. “No. I just wondered—is that something you can do? Steal things?”

“Excuse me?”

“I apologize,” said Miller. “I just. Well.” He looked at Mary Beth, seemingly conflicted. “I did not mean to imply—”

“Imply what?” she said, feigning that demure sensibility of hers. “That we’d rob a politician at his own party? That’s some highfalutin accusation, even for us.”

This confused him. He shook out his head a little and then looked at Arthur. “I thought she was an oil heiress from Texas.”

Arthur chuckled. “Well, that is the story. In any case I must ask if there is a reason you are asking me to incriminate myself, Mr. Miller. We didn’t come over here to enter into the wrath of the law. We just wanted to say hello.”

“No, no. Well. Not formally at least.” He turned to the chief and his son then, ushering them into the conversation as if he had been remiss. “Have you met? This is Rains Fall, a great chief, and his son, Eagle Flies.”

Arthur and Mary Beth both nodded, said hello. Eagle Flies must have been about twenty-two or twenty-three. A little younger than John. He had some kind of anger in his eyes, but it was not menacing. It was disassociated from man or object and seemed to turn outwardly upon the world as one single, existential atrocity. "How do you do," said Arthur.

“We have not met officially,” said Rains Fall. He wore a dark hat and jacket, as if to hide himself. “We saw you many months ago, however, on the wagon train, crossing the river at Cumberland Falls. Do you remember?”

“I do,” said Arthur.

“Mrs. Morgan, I remember you fondly from the party. Though we did not speak, many spoke well of you.”

Mary Beth smiled politely, seeming surprised. “I didn’t realize I’d made such a splash,” she said.

“Well, I remember.”

“Those are some mighty powers of observation,” said Arthur.

Rains Fall glanced away, heavily beneath the brim of his hat. He had much to say. “Indeed. My people, if we even are a people anymore, were once lead by our powers of observation. We have fought hard, and we have lost a great deal, Mr. Morgan. In the wake of our defeat, we have been repeatedly punished and removed from our land. Now, I am told that we are to be moved again. That is why we are here."

"I thought there was treaties for all that."

"There are treaties," said Rains Fall. "We've made peace treaties. Many, in fact. But those treaties are being been broken."

“In their most recent effort to uproot his tribe, the State Government is clearly contravening one of these peace treaties, proposed and signed only three years ago,” said Miller. "Don't you see?"

Eagle Flies stood by sadly, in deference to his father, seeming unwilling to look Arthur in the eye. Arthur glanced at Miller and felt Mary Beth renew her grip on his arm as if to signal that she was feeling things deeply and that the trajectory of the conversation were about to change.

"What are we getting at here," said Arthur.

“This will lead to war,” said Eagle Flies. He lifted his chin amidst the proposal. His father quelled him with wise words that seemed removed from the situation, high above, but Arthur could see the sort of hot indifference inside Eagle Flies and how he dismissed it. In his heart Arthur agreed with such anger, but he sensed now, too, as if he were tossing adrift in an endless ocean of responsibilities and getting too far from shore to turn back.

“It’s a bad business,” he said to them all, in an effort to end the conversation. “I’m mighty sorry.”

Even still, Miller pressed on. “It’s to do with oil,” he said. “I know it, but I need the proof.”

“What kind of proof?” said Mary Beth.

Arthur cleared his throat, went ignored.

“I believe there were some prospectors who were up on their land a few months ago who have filed reports with Leviticus Cornwall and the State Government, claiming huge reserves of oil under their land.”

“You can do that?” said Mary Beth. “Claim something that’s underneath something else? Ain’t the land just the land?”

“You would think so,” said Eagle Flies.

“Anyway,” said Miller. “If we could just get our hands on those reports. That would be the proof we need.”

There was a dull silence then, filled only by the sounds of the surrounding street fair and all of its ignorant bliss. Arthur was staring at Miller. It all came together and he was promptly put upon. “You want me to try and steal it,” he said.

Miller stared at him, a little slack-jawed. “Well, obviously they can’t, and even more obviously, I would be useless. Listen, I realize this is both a seemingly random and ridiculous request, but Mr. Morgan, we are desperate.”

Arthur was scratching at the back of his head then when he took a step back, as if to leave. Mary Beth watched him closely, still held onto him, waiting to see what he would do. “I ain’t no activist, Mr. Miller,” he said. “I’m real sorry for your predicament, but my wife and I, we’re working folk. We got problems and…a cause of our own. I hope you can understand.”

“We will pay you very handsomely, Mr. Morgan,” said Rains Fall, head on.

"That’s okay,” said Arthur.

But Mary Beth tugged him back. "Arthur," she whispered. "Wait."

This seemed to bring him frustration. “Mary Beth,” he said, lowering his voice. He turned his back to the men for a moment to privately address her. “I ain’t doing this. We got enough on our plate.”

"But you'll help them Rangers hunt that killer from Texas? Don’t you hear this man?” she said. “The government is stealing from him. That ain’t right.”

“I know it ain’t right. And I hear what you're saying, but it ain't the same. Hunting Raiders for the law is easy work I can do with my eyes closed, but going up against the government? That’s a whole other can of worms, Mary Beth and it ain't in our best interest.”

She looked at him. He had a good deal of hefty concern in his eyes and was soft to her. He was talking about her and their future and she understood this time. “Okay,” she said, giving in. She let it go.

But Rains Fall was insistent. “Please, Mr. Morgan,” he said.

Arthur glanced at him over his shoulder. Even still she could tell he was feeling things. He was very conflicted. “You want me to put myself in danger for a damn cause?" he said. "How much we talking then.”

“I told you,” said Eagle Flies to Rains Fall. “They’re all mercenaries.”

“Hey,” said Mary Beth, forcefully. She took a step forward. This surprised Eagle Flies. “It ain’t like that. You don’t know him.”

But Arthur calmed her. “It’s okay, Mary Beth,” he said. He turned to her, palmed her cheeks and smoothed her hair down her neck. She had only been defending him. “It’s okay. He’s right. Not about you, but about me, he's right.” Then he looked back at Eagle Flies. He removed himself from Mary Beth and addressed him man to man. “You wanna know about me?” he said.

“What about you."

“What about this?" said Arthur. "I got a price on my head in two states, my friend. The government don’t like me anymore than it does you, and like you, I been running for as long as I can remember. The same thing goes for my wife here, hence her anger. Like you, our time in this place is coming to a fast finish, and our cause is getting out of here with our lives and the lives of our loved ones. When it comes to any and all things extracurricular to that cause, well, morality is a concept of due relativity, Eagle Flies, and we don’t bend so easy. Now, I agree with you, and I find your dilemma mighty disturbing. But I got a woman and a family, and I gotta get paid for the risks I take, particularly when it comes to stealing from the State Government. Do you understand?”

Eagle Flies said nothing. He looked back at Mary Beth, but she was looking away at the cobblestone now. Rains Fall took over. He said, “We understand, Mr. Morgan. And we will pay.”

“Thank you,” said Arthur. He looked away, looked at her. He could not believe what he was agreeing to.

“You’ll meet my son in three days up near Citadel Rock, just west of the oil fields.”

Arthur nodded. “Fine.”

“We are very grateful for your help,” said Rains Fall, with seriousness. He looked at Mary Beth as well. “We are grateful to both of you.”

Mary Beth smiled, weakly. Arthur could tell she was still upset.

“You’re welcome,” said Arthur. He took her hand as Evelyn Miller broke the conversation, bringing up something or other about the senator.

“This whole thing is a waste of time,” grumbled Eagle Flies.

Rains Fall made to comfort him with a hand on his shoulder. He said, “We must try everything, son.”

Arthur looked away. That sentiment he had heard many times before.

Arthur felt himself stretched by circumstance after that. It was an old sensation very familiar to him. Mary Beth spoke little on their return walk through the town. She suggested they visit the stable, but Arthur was not ready for that. He didn’t fancy horse shopping at the time being, and she understood. They had earlier discussed buying tickets to a show, and so they began to head in the direction of the theater. Arthur could tell she was still cooling off. The day had become serious very quickly, and he could sense her processing as they went along, and even as he knew she did not desire to be preoccupied or for it to derail the day, he was grateful to her. Despite what many would have believed he did not have many people in his life who would defend him like she had so casually that day.

When they got to the theater, Arthur paid for the tickets, and then they went inside where it was only about half-full. They sat down in a row toward the back. Mary Beth had begun to loosen up a little at her excitement for the picture show. She had only ever been to one. Arthur waited until the lights went down, and a hush fell over the meager crowd, and then he took her hands into his in seriousness.

“What’s the matter?” she said, quietly, looking at him.

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing is the matter. I just—before the picture starts, I wanted to thank you, Mary Beth."

“Thank me? For what?”

“For defending me today," he said, folding his hands over hers, completely. "With Eagle Flies. You didn't have to, but you did. You did it with those Rangers, too. You got my back. You always have, even when we was just friends, and I don't know that I've ever really thanked you for it.”

She smiled up at him, gracious, and she took hold of his ear and kissed him. “I’m always gonna have your back, Arthur,” she said. “This ain’t no one-sided arrangement, and you know that. You're welcome."

It was life-saving. The curtain went up. They turned to see, and the movie was perhaps a most preposterous show of artistic failure. They laughed, made fun of it a little, watched with their heads together, whispering. Even still, as they called it silly, they were having fun, and they had to admit it was sort of neat.

#red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #arthur morgan #rdr2 fanfic #mary beth gaskill #arthur morgan x mary beth gaskill #hosea matthews #rains fall #eagle flies #lonesome dove #true grit #not a crossover per se #just some cameos from texas rangers i love #<3 #the lily farm

25 notes · View notes

ntrending · 7 years

Text

Vampire bats could soon swarm to the United States

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/vampire-bats-could-soon-swarm-to-the-united-states/

Vampire bats could soon swarm to the United States

Thousands of years ago, the United States was home to vampires. Fossils of multiple vampire bat species have been found in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, and other states, dating from 5,000 to 30,000 years ago. Since then, winters in the southern United States have become cooler. But vampire bats still roam Mexico, Central America, and South America. And now, they are on the move. The common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus) is pushing into new territory in both North and South America, and bringing new variants of rabies along for the ride.

New research indicates that the bats’ population is on the rise at the northern edge of their range, and they may even return to the United States as climate change renders parts of Texas and Florida hospitable once more. “They’re very social and gregarious animals that have coexisted with humans for a really long time,” says coauthor Antoinette Piaggio, a molecular ecologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “We’re not trying to portray these animals as something we should all be scared of.”

It could be that an infusion of blood-sucking bats will not even lead to a noticeable rise in rabies in the United States. Still, scientists must prepare for a possible vampire bat invasion. They are trying to predict where the bats will arrive, what the consequences will be, and how to prevent vampire bat-borne rabies from spreading into new places.

Returning stateside

As the only mammals to feed solely on blood, vampire bats are well suited for their special meals. They can detect where blood is flowing closest to the surface of an animal’s skin, recognize an individual animal’s breathing so they can prey upon it night after night, and escape if the animal stirs by springing from all fours right into flight.

Vampire bats are not, however, well adapted to the cold. The 2-ounce bats, which are found from southern Argentina to northern Mexico, are kept in check by chilly winters. Vampire bats are thought to be limited to areas where the average coldest temperatures don’t dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet in recent years, people have started reporting vampire bats at higher elevations and farther north than before, Piaggio says.

Within the past 5 years, vampire bats have been documented within about 30 miles of Texas. The bats are multiplying in areas where they were once uncommon, Piaggio and her colleagues suspect. They’ve taken wing tissue samples from hundreds of bats, and found evidence in the animals’ DNA that the population had grown rapidly and recently in the northeastern edge of their range in Mexico.

But speed is relative. The bats could have started increasing in the past decade—or hundreds of years or more in the past. “It could have been as far back as when Europeans first arrived,” Piaggio says. The livestock that the colonists brought with them in the 15th and 16th centuries could have provided the bats with more prey, allowing them to increase their numbers. In future, examining more of the bats’ genomes could help the team pinpoint the their rise more precisely, says Piaggio, who published the findings in the journal Ecology and Evolution in June.

If the bats are marching north, they might find appealing real estate in the southernmost United States. Piaggio and her colleagues are investigating where vampire bats could cross the border using current and worst-case future climate conditions through about 2070.

“A very small part of the southern tip of Texas could currently be representing suitable habitat for vampire bats, and so it’s possible that vampire bats could currently be spreading north,” says team member Mark Hayes, senior bat ecologist at Normandeau Associates, an environmental consulting firm headquartered in Bedford, New Hampshire.

In the next few decades, other parts of southernmost Texas and the southern half of Florida could become warm enough to host vampire bats. Hurricanes could blow the bats from Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula into Cuba and then Florida, Piaggio says.

While vampire bats could perhaps settle in a sliver of southern Texas, there’s no way to know if or how soon they might arrive. It’s possible that incursions into the southern parts of Texas would be a seasonal affair. “They’re very social animals, and even if males disperse they might not stay because they couldn’t set up a harem of females and reproduce,” Piaggio says.

The vampire bats would likely only colonize a pretty small area. What’s more, rabies doesn’t affect a large portion of the population, although the wounds the bats leave behind can still harm an animal’s health if they become infected. “It might even be that we end up with vampire bats and no or very little rabies transmission,” Piaggio says. “Maybe they would feed on feral swine and deer and we wouldn’t ever really pick it up.”

If the climate in southern Texas and Florida shifts and winters become warmer, the bats would have a fair shot of surviving up north, says Daniel Streicker, a disease ecologist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “I think it’s going to be a pretty slow invasion,” he says. But, “I don’t see why they couldn’t move up into the U.S.”

Ready to mingle

Understanding where vampire bats from different areas meet up could help scientists predict how rabies will spread. For now, Streicker says, rabies is not found in vampire bats along the western coast of South America. But that may change within a few years.

To estimate how quickly the virus could travel, Streicker and his colleagues pored over records of past rabies outbreaks, noting which version of the virus was responsible for each. They also captured vampire bats from around the country, and examined variants of the virus that had shown up in different areas. The team found genetic evidence that male vampire bats are responsible for bringing rabies to new territory, likely when they leave their families to seek out a harem of females to breed with.

The team also found genetic similarities in bats on the eastern and western slopes of the Andes. Vampire bats, it seems, are not blocked by the mountains, and could bring rabies with them over this route. Already, farmers and vets are reporting vampire bat bites on livestock at higher and higher elevations in the Andes. The researchers have calculated that vampire bat-borne rabies could reach the Pacific coast of South America around 2020.

Streicker has also documented “waves” of genetically related versions of rabies moving through livestock in Peruvian valleys. This indicates that variants of the virus carried by vampire bats hadn’t existed in these regions previously, and are only just arriving. Local farmers told Streicker that they were used to dealing with vampire bats, but the rabies was only a recent problem. He then examined strains of the virus from around the country and saw a similar pattern, implying that rabies is on the move in many places.

It’s not clear why this is happening now. It could be that vampire bats are moving into new areas, and the virus takes a few years to catch up. Climate change could be making mountains less impassible, allowing bats from previously isolated colonies to meet.

Humans might also be unwittingly bringing vampire bats together. As farmers bring livestock into new areas, the bats could feast over broader terrain and encounter bats from neighboring colonies. And when people build tunnels and mines, they create new housing for bats in areas that might have otherwise lacked tempting roosts.

Another possibility is that rabies has only been circulating in the vampire bat population for a couple centuries, and hasn’t had a chance to spread to every corner of the bats’ range.

Streicker is now studying the economic problems vampire bats cause by spreading rabies to livestock. Many of the communities where bat-borne rabies is now invading rely on small-scale subsidence farming. When a single cow sickens and dies, it can represent the loss of a month’s income. “It can be totally devastating,” Streicker says. “When they sell a cow, it’s going towards childhood education or towards repairing their houses.”

He’s heard that many people are giving up on raising animals altogether. “They’re either moving to cities or they’re switching to raising things like oranges or avocados, because it’s just so unsustainable to raise cattle in areas where there is rabies,” he says.

Bracing for impact

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Rabies Management Program has begun to prepare for the possible arrival of vampire bats and any new strains of rabies they might bring to the United States. They are surveying cattle at cattle sales barns, feedlots, and on dairy farms for vampire bat bite wounds in Texas, Arizona, and Florida. In 2017, they examined more than 95,000 cattle, and did not find any vampire bite wounds. They are also educating farmers and wildlife biologists in the borderlands to recognize vampire bat bites.

Their goal is to minimize any risk to people, pets, and livestock without demonizing the bats. “While the mention of the word rabies strikes fear [into] people there are very straightforward ways to minimize the risk of being exposed,” Richard Chipman, the rabies management coordinator, said in an email. “Vaccinating pets and livestock and avoiding strange or sick acting wildlife remains the best first line of defense.”

These steps, however, will not halt the spread of rabies within the bat population.

“We can vaccinate humans and livestock all day long, but at the end of the day those species don’t contribute anything to the onward transmission,” Streicker says. Yet culling the bats hasn’t reliably worked to stop the spread of rabies, either, he says. In fact, this tactic can actually spread diseases even farther.

People sometimes try to kill vampire bats by lighting their caves on fire or attacking them with large sticks. This can drive the bats out to seek new homes, bringing rabies into new areas. “The bat has no reason to stay inside this cave [where] it’s being lit on fire and persecuted all the time,” Streicker says.

Another technique for killing vampire bats is to spread a poisonous paste on one bat’s back, then release it. When the bat rejoins its fellows, they will begin to groom it and lick the poison from its fur. “Some of the ones that might be incubating rabies but aren’t sick yet might realize, ‘there’s something strange going on here, all of my friends are dying,’ and so they might fly farther away to try to escape,” Streicker says.

There might be a more effective way to slow the virus’s spread: swapping the poison out for vaccines. So far, oral vaccines seem to work well in captive vampire bats, including when the bats swallow it while grooming each other. For now, though, these vaccines are still in development and need additional safety testing; it will probably be a few years before they can be tested in the field.

Vampire bats do pose a substantial risk in terms of their ability to spread rabies, and they are more abundant now than ever before, Streicker says. In Latin America, they are the main cause of rabies outbreaks in people. But on the whole, it’s rare for people to be bitten by vampire bats in agricultural areas; if there are livestock around, the bats tend to feed on them rather than people. People can get rabies from infected livestock, but in practice this doesn’t happen much, Streicker says.

Vampire bats have the potential to do a lot of damage; in some parts of Mexico, rabies kills up to 20 percent of unvaccinated cattle. But in the United States, their impact is likely to be more limited.

“The arrival of this unique and interesting species and eventually a novel (at least in the U.S.) rabies virus variant is not a catastrophic event or cause for significant alarm,” Chipman says. Even if it sounds a little bit spooky.

Written By Kate Baggaley

#Animals

0 notes