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We got cenizo.

That's purple sage.

Agave, nopal.

What's that stuff?

Yeah, that's that, uh… whatchamacallit.

That's…

that horse crippler.

This place is a gold mine!

Lead mine.

What?

I said it's a lead mine!

- Right. - I don't why I'm talking to you.

You got that thing on your head.

You finding lots of cactus and shit?

Not just cactus. There's the acacias, the yuccas...

Looks like a lot of cactus to me.

Man knows 150 different varieties of beer,

can't tell a poinsettia from a prickly pear.

Hey, Cliff!

You live in a place, you should learn something about it.

- Explore. - Cliff, you've gotta look at this.

Don't tell me.

Spanish treasure, right?

Pieces of eight from the Coronado Expedition?

Jesus.

Was Coronado in the Masons?

I got the Forensics fella coming down from San Marcos.

There's no way to know how old the body is without some lab work.

That ring?

Well, Masons been around a long while.

He a treasure hunter?

Old bullets.

Makes art out of them.

Sheriff says we shouldn't touch anything, Mikey!

He can't hear with that rig on.

Mikey!

Hey, what have we got here?

We're supposed to leave everything where we found it.

They're real particular about that.

The scene of the crime.

No telling yet if there's been a crime.

But this country's seen a good number of disagreements over the years.

He went to school on the post in Korea.

It's all kids in the same boat, Army brats.

And I really need...

His record shows that he's a good student.

I'm more worried about the social thing. Are there, like, gangs or guns...?

We haven't had any serious violence, if that's what you mean.

We've got a pretty lively mix, though.

Mexican kids, Anglo kids, Black kids…

- And the Blacks are, what...? - Our smallest group.

Except for a couple of Kickapoo kids.

Look, you're obviously a concerned parent.

But Chet has no history of getting into trouble.

Pilar. Is Amado okay?

- He's not here? - No. Is he sick?

He's gonna wish he was dead.

Somebody hand me a CD player.

They've come a long way since those old eight-track jobs, ain't they?

Something wrong?

This is stolen property. I'm hauling the bunch of you to jail.

If anything else is wrong, tell me on the way to the station.

… cleaning the dirt out of his toenails with a pocketknife.

He was the most hygienic of all the McHenrys.

"Fishbait," Buddy says in that quiet way of his,

"what do you know about them tires that went missing from Merkel's?"

Fishbait thinks for a minute,

then lifts up a loose board from the porch floor,

calls down into it:

"Come on out, Hooter! They caught us!"

Buddy Deeds, he had a way.

He'd known who it was on account of the tire tracks in the dirt

leading from the back of the garage to where they loaded up.

"Old Fishbait," he said,

"never lifted a thing in this room if there was a way he could roll it."

There'll never be another like him.

You know that boy of his can't cut it.

You ask me, he's all hat and no cattle.

Hey, fellas.

Sam.

We was just telling a few on your old man.

Yeah. He was a unique individual.

He was that.

Big day coming up.

I wish we'd have thought of it while he was still living.

Went so unexpected.

Well, better late than never.

Korean War hero, sheriff for nearly 30 years…

The Buddy Deeds Memorial Courthouse.

I heard there was a bit of a fuss.

Well, the usual troublemakers.

Danny Padilla with the Sentinel, that crowd.

They call everything else in the country after Martin Luther King.

We can't have one measly courthouse?

King wasn't Mexican, Fenton.

Bad enough that all the street names are in Spanish.

Well, they were here first.

Well, then let's call it after Big Chief Shit-in-the-Bucket.

That Tonkawa had the Mexes beat by centuries.

Yeah, 19 out of 20 people in this town are Mexican, Fenton.

There was a faction pulling for that boy killed in the Gulf War.

Reuben, um…

Yeah. Santiago.

Mexicans that know and remember understand what Buddy was for their people.

Hell, it was Mercedes over there who swung the deciding vote for him.

She made it an even 3-to-3.

And as mayor, I get to cast the tiebreaker.

Old-timers won't have any problem with it.

They remember how Buddy come to be sheriff.

Hey, tell that story, Hollis.

Everybody heard that story a million times.

I'd like to hear it.

Your version of it.

Yeah, come on, Hollis.

Well, the two of us were the only deputies back then.

Me and Buddy in, what, '58?

Mm, '57, I think.

And the sheriff at the time was Big Charlie Wade.

Charlie was one of your old-fashioned bribe-or-bullets kind of sheriffs.

He took a healthy bite out of whatever moved through this county.

It was in here one night

back when Jimmy Herrera run the place.

Started over a basket of tortillas.

This beaner fare doesn't agree with me, but the price sure is right.

Jimmy got a kitchen full of wetbacks, most of them relatives.

People breed like chickens.

So?

So I roust some muchacho on the street doesn't have his papers,

all he's gotta say is, "Yo trabajo para Jimmy Herrera."

Sort of a "I scratch his back, he washes mine" arrangement,

if you know what I mean.

This'll be one of your pickups, Buddy.

First of the month, just like the rent.

Get the car, Hollis.

I'm not doing it.

Come again?

It's your deal.

There's gonna be some left over for you.

I take care of my boys.

That's not the point, Charlie.

You feeling bad about Jimmy?

Have him tell you the size of the mordida they took out of his hide

when he run a place on the other side.

Those old boys from Ciudad León...

I'm not picking it up.

You do whatever I say you do or else you put it on the trail, son.

Well, how about this, Charlie?

How about you lay that shield on this table and vanish

before you end up dead or in jail?

You're not making sense, Buddy.

Stick around and I'm bringing up charges on the county-road project.

Two-thirds of that money went straight into your pocket.

You're being mighty careless with your mouth, son.

You ever shoot a man who's looking you in the eye?

It's a whole different story, isn't it?

You're fired.

Not a soul in this county isn't sick to death of your bullshit, Charlie Wade.

You made yourself scarce, you'd make a lot of people happy.

- You little pissant. - Now or later.

You won't have any trouble finding me.

You're a dead man.

Get the goddamn car. We're going to Roderick's.

Muchacho. Más cerveza, por favor.

"Más cerveza, por favor."

That Buddy was a cool breeze.

Charlie Wade were known to have put quite a few people in the ground,

and your daddy gets eyeball-to-eyeball with him.

We made our pickup at Roderick's place.

Nobody's seen hide nor hair of him since.

He went missing the next day

along with $10,000 in county funds from the safe at the jail.

Never heard from him again.

Buddy Deeds said a thing, he damn well backed it up.

Never be another one like him.

So I suppose then he arrested all of Jimmy Herrera's people

and sent them back to the other side?

No, he come to an accommodation.

Money doesn't always have to change hands

to keep the wheels turning.

I know you had problems with your father.

- And he and Muriel... - Your mother was a saint.

But Buddy Deeds was my salvation.

Won't be another like him.

It is an honor for me to assume command of this unit.

I'm looking forward to working with all of you.

I'm sure you're all aware of the Army's decision

to shut this post down.

That does not mean, however, that we are here to mark time

until we're reassigned.

You may have heard rumors

that I run a very tight operation.

These rumors are not exaggerated.

Shadow, you just wanted to talk to me, right?

Settle down. Why you gotta be up on me all the time?

What's wrong with you? Wait a minute.

No moving! Somebody call a doctor!

- Gotta hold him down. - Hold him down.

Somebody call, please!

You weren't in here tonight, were you?

No, sir.

Go out the back way.

Somebody call a doctor!

Somebody call a doctor!

Just tearing everything down.

Tearing down our heritage,

the memory of people who fought and died for this land.

We fought and died for this land too.

We fought the U.S. Army, the Texas Rangers...

Yeah, and you lost, buddy. Winners get the bragging rights.

- That's the way it goes. - People. People.

It'd be best if we don't view this thing in terms of winners and losers.

The way she's teaching, it's got everything switched around.

I was on the Textbook Committee. Her version is not...

We think of the textbook as a guide, not as an absolute.

It is not what we set as the standard.

You people can believe whatever you want. When it comes to teaching our children...

They're our children too.

As the majority in this community, we have the right.

The men that founded this state have the right

to have their story told the way it happened...

Hey. The men who founded this state broke from Mexico

because they needed slavery to be legal to make a fortune in the cotton business.

I think that's a bit of an oversimplification.

Are you reporting this meeting, Danny, or you running it now?

Just adding historical perspective.

You call it history, I call it propaganda. Now, I'm sure they got their own account

of the Alamo on the other side,

- but we're not on the other side. - There's no reason to be threatened.

We're not about to have our schools taught that way.

Excuse me.

I've only been trying to get across

part of the complexity of our situation down here.

Cultures coming together in both negative and positive ways.

If you're talking about food and music and all, I have no problem with that.

But when you start changing who did what to who...

We're not changing anything.

We're trying to present a more complete picture.

And that's what's got to stop.

There's enough ignorance in the world without encouraging it in the classroom.

Now, who are you calling ignorant?

I hope the sucker does die, man.

- Mess with me, that's what you get. - Hospital says the kid's in bad shape.

- The shooter local? - Down from Houston.

I think he knew the girl from before.

We'll take a statement from all the GIs before they go back to post.

You get the story from Otis, over at the club.

Okay. Any poop on the John Doe we found out there today?

No, nothing much. Rangers putting Ben Wetzel on it.

- I'll catch you later. - All right.

He's only 15. He's about 5-foot-5, he's got...

Pilar.

Something wrong?

They've got my son.

- They got him here? - Somebody called.

Something about a house that was broken into.

- They say they don't have him, but... - I know what he looks like.

I'll see what's going on.

I was, uh…

I was real sorry about Nando.

He was a good fella.

We haven't talked...

We haven't talked since high school.

Yeah.

I'll go check on your boy.

Ritchie didn't say nothing. He didn't wanna get in it, see.

Then next thing I know, there's shots and Ritchie's down.

It... It just happened so fast.

We got some boys you run in earlier today.

They tell me you're good at fixing things.

Your father was a hell of a mechanic.

You know, if you figure minimum wage on the time most thieves spend in jail,

they could have bought most everything they stole.

They asked me to hook it up for them. I didn't steal anything.

Well, I didn't say you did.

My name's Sam, by the way.

- He's all yours. - Are you okay?

- I don't know what the big deal is. - You'll find out when I get you home.

Thanks, Sam.

It's no problem.

It was good seeing you again.

Big O's is the only place in the county where African-American soldiers are...

That they feel comfortable in, sir.

- Have we had trouble there before? - Fistfight now and then.

- This town isn't much. - They didn't come for a vacation.

No, sir, but for a lot of them, it's their first time away from home.

They're dealing with new people.

- I remember my first hitch... - Substance abuse?

Yes, sir, but I went through the program and I haven't had a drink since...

I meant on the post in general. How are you dealing with it?

We throw a urine test at 'em once a month.

Random numbers.

Maybe a hundred people at a time.

- Let's make it once a week for a while. - No problem, sir.

I sprint the last quarter mile.

You gentlemen don't have to keep up if you don't care to.

Appreciate it, sir.

Guy cracks walnuts with his asshole.

You get the feeling he doesn't wanna be here?

Sam the Man.

Hey, Ben. Thanks for coming down.

How's business?

Ah, business is booming.

Got your drugs, got your illegals.

Had a shooting the other night at O's place.

Soldier got ventilated.

I hear they're closing Fort McKenzie down.

Gonna pull a lot of jobs out of this county.

Yeah. We'll have folks swimming over to Mexico to work in the sweatshops.

That the word on our boy?

Yeah, this is Skinny.

Skinny?

When we find a body, it's either Skinny or Stinky,

depending on how much meat there is on the bones.

That's a nice job.

'A male Caucasian, 40 to 60 years old,

5-foot-9 or 5'11", chewed tobacco.

Then we get the dental records and the personal effects.

It's Charlie Wade.

That badge…

- Didn't come out of a cereal box. - Yeah.

Think you know the popular version of how he left town.

Everybody on the border knows that story.

- So you got a cause of death? - Skull was intact.

There's no signs of trauma on what we found of him.

Not much to go on.

Well, so he could have gone out to the post, uh,

just hopped the fence, dug down into the dirt on the old rifle range,

and had a heart attack.

You remember what old Buddy carried for a side arm?

Colt, Peacemaker.

- .45. - He swore by it.

What?

I was just wondering.

So is Buddy on your short list?

If it were some poor mojado who swam across at night and got lost in the brush

and starved out there, it wouldn't go much further,

but this is a formerly prominent citizen who disappeared under a cloud.

You've got to investigate. There's no question about it.

What I will do is keep names out of it until we get some answers

or hit a dead end.

You know how the press is when they get ahold of a murder story,

even if it's 40 years old.

Yeah, yeah. They can do a number on you.

I remember Charlie Wade come to my father's hardware store once.

I was just a little boy.

And I'd heard stories about how he shot this one,

how he shot that one.

The man winked at me.

I peed my pants.

Winked at me.

Okay. We have the fight against the Spanish

with bloody conflict for dozens of years till they are finally defeated in 1821

and Mexican independence is declared.

Anglo settlers are invited to colonize the area.

And by the time they begin the movement against Santa Anna,

they outnumber the Mexicans here by four-to-one.

The war between Mexico and the Anglo forces ends in 1836

with the formation of the Texas Republic.

Texas joins the United States

as a state where slavery is legal in 1845

after the so-called Mexican War,

then secedes to join the Confederacy in 1861.

The Confederacy is beaten,

and the reformation period here is marked by range wars and race wars.

And all this paralleled by the constant battles

between both the Mexican and Anglo settlers

and the various Indian nations in the area.

What are we seeing here, Chet?

Um…

Everybody's killing everybody else?

Well, I always wondered what you mayors do when you're not cutting ribbons.

Sam.

Partner.

You caught me playing hooky.

Yeah. Floating around out here, playing hell with them bass.

Sounds great. Where do I sign up?

- You been by your old place lately? - No.

New people painted it some god-awful color.

Look, we found a body out by Fort McKenzie yesterday.

- It'd been there a long time. - Was it Davy Crockett or Jim Bowie?

Uh, you recall if Charlie Wade was a Mason?

Charlie?

Yeah. I believe he used to go for lodge meetings over to Laredo.

What's Charlie Wade got to do with your body?

Well, all he was wearing was a big old Masonic ring

and a Rio County sheriff's badge.

You remember anything else from that last night you saw him?

Hell, I've told the story enough times.

We were just in the car.

He was stewing about his fight with Buddy as we drove over to Roderick Bledsoe's.

Bledsoe…?

He owned the colored roadhouse before Otis.

- He still living? - No.

I think his widow's still in their place in Darktown, though.

You think it was Charlie Wade, huh?

Well, the Forensics people are sure of it.

You got any idea who might have put him there?

Besides my father, I mean.

There's no call for that, Sam.

Wade made hisself a pile of enemies over the years.

Yeah. And Buddy was one of them.

With the dedication tomorrow,

it's a hell of a time to bring up old business.

People have worked this whole big thing up around my father.

If it's built on a crime, they deserve to know.

I understand why you might wanna believe he couldn't do it.

I understand why you might want to think he could.

Thanks for your time, Hollis.

Look at all this, will you?

Tackle, boat.

All just to catch a little old fish

minding his own business down at the bottom of the lake.

Hardly seems worth the effort, does it, Sam?

So you knew this young man before?

From back in Houston. We both come up off the street.

Did you know he was gonna be there last night?

If I had, I wouldn't have gone in.

And you and Private Graves were…?

We were just dancing.

We're not running a dating service here, private.

I know that, sergeant.

Look, we were just dancing.

There was a bunch of us there.

Shadow…

Shadow just come down looking for trouble.

I don't like to get involved with the personal lives of soldiers,

but when it interferes with the training here…

Shadow just gets crazy.

Sergeant, how is Ritchie doing?

Private Graves?

He'll live.

He'll be transferred to Fort Sam as soon as he's stabilized.

He'll probably be getting a medical discharge.

Will this go on my record?

The incident will be noted.

But if it happened the way you say it did, there hasn't been an infraction.

Thank you, sergeant.

- You're dismissed. - Thank you, sergeant.

- You spoil them, Cliff. - You don't believe her?

Let's just say that wasn't much of an interrogation.

I'm in charge of her sorry ass, and quite frankly...

I don't wanna give her the third degree just because her ex-boyfriend is a thug.

She's pulled herself out of a pretty rough neighborhood.

And if she isn't careful, she's gonna slide right back into it.

Mrs. Bledsoe?

That's me.

I'm Sheriff Deeds.

Sheriff Deeds is dead, honey.

You're just Sheriff Junior.

Yeah, that's the story of my life.

You ever play one of these?

Yeah, I've seen 'em.

Well, don't ever start up on 'em, because once you do, you can't stop.

I tell myself I'm just gonna play three little games after breakfast,

and here I am

with half the day gone.

You mind if I ask you a few questions about your husband, Roderick?

I ain't gonna say nothing bad about the man,

but you can ask away.

He had the club out on Old Trail Road.

We ran that club for over 20 years.

Give it over to Otis Payne in 1967, April.

Then you must remember Sheriff Wade.

Them days, you deal with Sheriff Wade or you didn't deal.

First of the month every month,

he'd remind you who you really working for.

So he squeezed money out of you?

It wasn't legal to sell liquor in a glass back then

unless you was a club, see?

Roderick used to say:

"Buy yourself a glass, get a free membership."

That Sheriff Wade, he could close you down anytime.

And my father?

Sheriff Buddy was a different story.

Long as Roderick throw his weight the right way at election day,

make sure all the colored come out to vote,

throw a barbecue for the right folks now and then,

Sheriff Buddy kept to his word.

That Sheriff Wade, though,

he could get ugly.

And people didn't complain, huh?

Not if you was colored or Mexican.

Not if you wanted to keep breathin'.

I remember the last time I seen him before he gone missing.

He come fussing around our place.

He used to come in whilst we was in full swing.

Making everybody nervous.

Had him a smile like the Grim Reaper.

He used to sit there with his hand on his old gun,

acting the kingfish with everybody.

Otis Payne come to work for us about that time…

… and that boy had him some attitude.

Pour it.

What?

Pour it.

I know you?

Name's Otis.

Otis what?

Payne.

They call me O.

One of Cleroe Payne's boys?

Uh-huh.

I sent your daddy to the farm once.

Yeah, I know that.

Why you think that was?

Some crop needed picking and the man was shorthanded.

As I remember, it was 'cause he had a sassy mouth on him.

Must run in the family.

You wouldn't be running numbers out of this club, now, would you, son?

Running numbers is illegal, sir.

Running numbers without I know about it is both illegal and unhealthy.

You remember that.

Whoa, son, you're not finished.

- Pour his. - Oh, I prefer it in the bottle.

Shut up, Hollis.

How come you don't look familiar?

- I've been away, up to Houston. - Houston, huh?

I hear they let you boys run wild up there.

Oh, look what you done now.

Better get something to wipe it up, son.

You spilled it. Maybe you should wipe it up.

I told you to do something.

Are you gonna hop to it, or are we gonna have a problem?

You don't wanna turn tail in front of your people, huh?

I understand.

Come on, Houston, give it a try.

Come to Papa.

Uh, don't mind him, sheriff. The boy is just a bit slow, is all.

He don't mean nothing by it.

That the problem, son?

You slow?

Otis. Apologize to the sheriff.

Sheriff, you got him too scared to peep.

Maybe if you'd put that gun up.

- You telling me what to do, Roderick? - No, sheriff. I'm just...

Is that whiskey in them glasses on the bar?

Roderick, I'm gonna have to cite you for violation of a state law.

This is a club, sheriff. You've been here.

All you people better clear out of here now.

You learn how to act your place, son.

This isn't Houston.

Course, I was young and full of beans back then.

I didn't understand the spot I was puttin' Roderick in.

And that was the last time you saw him?

I think he came in one more time,

uh, with Hollis and, um…

No, no. Your daddy wasn't with him.

Made their monthly pickup.

Roderick wasn't in, so I just kept my mouth good and shut

and handed over that envelope.

That was the night he disappeared?

Could've been.

You own a gun?

Back then?

No.

How about Roderick?

Oh, he kept a big old piece

back behind the bar just so folks knew it was there.

I don't keep one here now.

Don't much care for them.

And when my father was sheriff?

What about him?

What was your deal with him?

Buddy was more part of the big picture.

County political machine,

Chamber of Commerce, Zoning Board…

If I kept those people happy, he was pretty much on my side.

Whenever somebody thought of startin' up a new bar

for the Black folks, they'd be, uh…

How should I say this?

They'd be officially discouraged.

He ever accept cash for a favor?

I don't recall a prisoner ever died in your daddy's custody.

I don't recall a man in this county,

Black, white, Mexican,

who'd hesitate for a minute

before they'd call on Buddy Deeds to solve a problem.

More than that…

I wouldn't care to say.

So I'm supposed to tell all my friends they're too low-class to hang with?

Come on, Amado.

Just because I'm not Little Miss Honor-Roll here?

- Leave your sister out of it. - You and all those teachers in that dump.

Your story's over, so you don't want anybody else to have any fun.

- You jerk. - Not talking to you.

You don't have any friends.

Who'd wanna be friends with a bunch of pachuco wannabes?

- I don't pretend I came on the Mayflower. - And those stupid girls

- who hang out with them. - Just shut up.

Joanie Orozco's telling the whole school

she's like desperately in love with Santo Guerra.

- So? - It's pathetic.

You can't be desperately in love when you're 14 years old.

Not if you have half a brain in your head.

Of course you can.

What?

It's got nothing to do with being smart.

It's ancient goddamn history, Danny.

1963, they dam up the north branch to make Lake Pescadero,

and a whole little town disappears.

A squatter's town.

People had been living in Perdido for over 100 years.

Mexicans and Chicanos are deported,

evicted, moved forcibly out of their houses

by our local hero Buddy Deeds and his department.

There was a bill from the state legislature.

Families were split apart, Jorge. A community was destroyed.

And who ends up with lakefront property bought for a fraction of the market price?

Buddy Deeds, sheriff of Rio County, and his chief deputy, Hollis Pogue.

You finished?

Look, I'm not after you, Sam.

But I just think people in town ought to know the full story on Buddy Deeds.

That makes two of us.

I don't see what the big deal is.

Go back over, talk to the man, and bury the hatchet.

Why should I? He's had almost 40 years and I haven't heard a word from him.

He was probably embarrassed.

Otis Payne was never embarrassed about a thing in his life.

- Dad... - Del, you were 8 years old when he left.

He didn't leave.

He moved three houses down with one of my mother's best friends.

Dad.

"Hey, Delmore, where's your daddy?" This godforsaken town.

Everybody in everybody else's business. And everybody loved Otis.

Big O, always there with a smile or a loan

or a free drink.

Dad, can I talk to you about track?

- People change. - Not that much.

- I talked to the coach. - I thought we already had this out.

- Next year if your grades are high. - I have a B average.

How many B-average students do you think they take at West Point?

We're stuck here for three years. We're gonna have to see him.

No, we don't.

Get off the phone, Enrique. We've got a big wedding.

Mami.

They're getting stupider every year.

Maybe you're just getting less patient.

If they're going to survive here, they have to know how to work.

Well, if you hire illegals, what do you expect?

Nobody's illegal in my café.

They've got green cards. They've got relatives who were born here.

If they only had a little common sense, I'd be very happy.

Maybe if you took a little more time training them, you wouldn't have to...

Did you come here to teach me how to run my business? Hmm?

I was wondering if you wanted to take a trip down south with us.

Maybe see where you grew up?

Why would I wanna go there?

You must be curious how it's changed.

Amado is into this big Tejano-roots thing,

and I've never been further than Ciudad León.

You wanna see Mexicans?

Open your eyes and look around you.

We're up to our ears in them.

Mami…

how old were you when my father died?

He was killed.

Right, when he was killed.

A little older than Paloma is now.

How come you never got married again?

It just didn't happen.

There must have been somebody.

I was too busy.

Mami, nobody is too busy.

Maybe now.

It was different back then.

I had to do all the shopping, all the cooking.

What do I need some chulo with grease under his nails to drink up the profit?

- Thank you. - I don't mean Fernando.

Mami, when I brought him home, those were your exact words.

- "Some chulo with grease under his nails." - I never said that.

You made it pretty damn clear you thought he was nobody.

I thought that you could do better for yourself.

What? What?

Become a nun? I mean, you didn't even want me to go out with Anglos.

I never said that. It was just that boy.

"That boy."

Mami, say his name, for chrissakes.

You people are stealing from me.

Es tu madre?

Mm-hm.

Lo siento.

Now, I'm as liberal as the next guy…

If the next guy is a redneck.

… but I gotta say,

I think there's something to this cold-climate business.

I mean, you go to the beach, what do you do?

Drink a few beers, wait for that fish to flop up on the sand.

You can't build no civilization that way.

But you got a cold winter coming on, you got to plan ahead.

That gives your old cerebral cortex a workout.

Good thing you were born down here, then.

You joke about it, Sam, but we are in a state of crisis.

The lines of demarcation are getting fuzzy.

To run a successful civilization,

you have got to have your lines of demarcation

between right and wrong, between this one and that one.

Your daddy understood that.

He was a… What do you call it?

The referee in this damn menudo we got down here.

He understood how most folks don't want their salt and sugar in the same jar.

Oh, you mixed drinks as bad as you mix metaphors,

you'd be out of a job.

You're the last white sheriff this town is gonna see.

Hollis retires next year.

Jorge Guerra is gonna take over.

This is it right here, Sam.

This bar is the last stand.

Se habla American, goddamn it.

And even in here, it's slidin' away.

Take that pair over in the corner.

Place like this, 20 years ago,

Buddy would've been on them two.

He'd a went over there and given them a warning.

Not that he had it in for the colored, but just as a kind of a safety tip.

Yeah, bet he would.

The day that man died…

they broke the goddamn mold.

- Seriously. - Seriously? I think we should get married.

- We've been through this before. - We should just do it.

And if I get transferred to a different post?

- To Germany or Korea? - I'd ask for a transfer too.

Which they are most likely to turn down.

I'd quit the Army for you if it came to that.

You know, you are something.

Man's gonna retire in two years, and he offers to quit.

Big goddamn deal.

Excuse me.

Sheriff. Hi.

This is Sergeant, uh…

This is Priscilla Worth.

Sheriff Deeds was with us on our archeological find yesterday.

It true they're gonna build a shopping mall out there?

If certain people have their way, it's gonna be a new jail.

Damn. They're closing down military left and right

and putting up jails like 7-Eleven stores.

Say, do either of you have any idea

when they stopped using that site as a rifle range?

Fort McKenzie stopped training infantry there in the late '50s.

It was just a playground for the jackrabbits

till they gave it to the county last year.

You know who it was they dug up?

Uh, not for sure yet.

But I kinda wish they hadn't.

In English, Enrique.

This is the United States.

We speak English.

Is very beautiful, your car.

Good night, Enrique.

Buenas noches, señora.

Carolyn.

Knock that off for a minute.

Black Seminoles?

Hobby of mine.

A few artifacts,

couple of pieces one of your men out on the base made.

Admission's free.

Oh.

This is where he was shot?

- He fell right there by the door. - You get much of that in here?

It's a bar.

Folks come together,

drink, fall in love, fall out of love,

air their grudges out…

Deal drugs in the bathroom.

If I thought it would do any good,

I'd put up a sign telling them not to,

right next to the one about the employees washing their hands.

This here is Carolyn.

Honey, this is my son, Delmore.

Nice to meet you, ma'am.

I'll be in the back waiting for that delivery.

So.

So.

Tell me why I shouldn't make this place off-limits.

This is an official visit, then.

I assume most of your business is with our people.

Your boys are all cooped up together out there.

They need someplace to let the steam out.

If they're Black, there's not but one spot in this county

where they feel welcome.

It's been that way since before you were born.

We have an enlisted man's club at the post.

You the man out there now, ain't you?

It's your call.

That's right.

You know, I've been hearing about this new commander out there

for a couple of weeks now.

The boys say they hear he's a hard case.

A real spit-and-polish man.

Full bird colonel by the name of Payne.

Bet you never figured you'd end up back here.

When the Army offers you a command, you go, wherever it is.

Right.

I hear things too.

They call you the mayor of Darktown.

Over the years, this is the one place that's always been there.

I loan a little money out, I settle a few arguments.

I got a cot in the back.

Folks get scared to go home, they can spend the night.

There's not enough of us to run anything in this town.

It's Holiness Church

or Big O's.

And the people make a choice.

Most of them choose both.

You see, it's not like there's a borderline

between the good people and the bad people.

You're not on either one side or the other.

Right.

I'm gonna meet that family of yours?

Why would you wanna do that?

Because I'm your father.

You'll get official notification when I make my decision.

So that's him.

Yeah, that's him.

Historic occasion, ain't it?

Yeah. Seems like we have another one every week.

Jorge and the boys down at the Chamber of Commerce

gotta keep things humming.

Building up tourism, Sam.

People come here to catch bass

and get laid at the Boys Town in Ciudad León.

You ought to put up a banner:

"Frontera, Texas: Gateway to Inexpensive Pussy."

Well, that kind of talk don't help.

I'd rather have that than the ten-foot-high catfish statue.

Got Eddie Richter at the Sentinel to kill that story, Sam.

What, the Perdido thing?

He agreed it wasn't exactly news.

Danny's gonna be out for blood the next time.

That's the reason we wanted to talk to you about the new jail,

- just so as we're all on the same page. - We don't need a new jail.

Well, that's a matter of opinion.

We're already renting cells to the feds for overflow.

There was a mandate...

It wouldn't happen to be your construction company

gonna get the bid on building this thing, would it, Fenton?

And, Jorge,

well, you wouldn't be thinking about a couple of dozen new jobs

to dangle in front of the voters when you run for mayor next election?

Damn it, Sam. The people are concerned about crime.

Hey, look, I'm not gonna campaign against your deal here.

But if anybody asks me, I got to tell them the truth.

We don't need a new jail.

Now, when we backed you...

When you backed me, you needed somebody named Deeds

to bump the other fella out of office.

- Hi, Sam. - Hey, folks.

- Fenton, what's up, buddy? - Hi. Hello.

- How you doing? Good to see you. - Get this thing over with.

I never thought I'd see the day a buddy of mine would be dating a woman

with three bars on her shoulder.

I think it's beyond what you'd call "dating."

You're gonna get married?

- Maybe. - You met her family?

They're gonna be cool about you being a white guy?

Priscilla says they think any woman over 30 who's not married

must be a lesbian.

She figures they'll be so relieved that I'm a man.

It's always heartwarming

to see a prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice.

But marriage, man, I don't know.

Let's see…

I did two tours of duty in Southeast Asia,

and I was married for five years.

I couldn't tell you which experience was worse.

- Hey, Mikey. - I knew she was Japanese going into it,

but she didn't tell me the ninja-assassin part.

Mikey.

Parents acted like I was gonna blow my nose on their curtains.

- Mikey. - If I stayed out past 10 with the guys,

she'd go into this Madam Butterfly routine.

Hey, Mikey, look at this.

What? It's a bullet. I'm lousy with bullets here.

- It's a .45. - Oh, yeah?

This is the stuff we picked up the other day, right?

Rest of this is all .30 caliber.

- They were using M1's. Yeah. - Yeah.

So, what's a pistol slug doing on a rifle range?

We'd better call that sheriff.

Back in the early '70s,

a reporter from a national magazine asked the governor of our Lone Star State:

"Governor, what's your ideal of what a real Texan ought to be?"

The governor said, "Son, that's easy.

"Just go down to Rio County and get a look at Sheriff Buddy Deeds."

Thank you.

There's, uh, one more person we ought to hear from,

and I think he's somebody that knew Buddy better than any of us.

Sam, uh, say a few words?

Well, you folks who remember my father knew him as sheriff.

But at home he was also judge, jury and executioner.

This is a real honor you're doing him today.

And if Buddy was around,

I'm sure his hat size would be getting a lot bigger every minute.

I used to think there wasn't a place in this town

you could hide from my old man.

And now I'm sure of it.

I do appreciate it, though.

And wherever he is, Buddy's putting the beer on ice for the bunch of you.

So thank you.

And now my favorite council member

and one of Frontera's most respected businesswomen,

Mrs. Mercedes Cruz, will do the honors.

It does look kinda like Buddy.

He's gonna run that Mexican kid in for loitering.

Nice to see you, Mrs. Cruz.

Field trip?

Lunch hour.

My next class isn't until 1:30.

You wanna take a walk?

They cooked the whole thing up without asking me.

People liked him.

Most people did, yeah.

I remember him watching me once when I was little,

before you and I…

I was on the playground with all the other kids.

I thought he was only looking at me.

I was afraid he was going to arrest me.

He had those eyes, you know, and that…

- Yeah. - Hmm.

It's weird what you remember.

- Your boy there. - Amado.

- Nice-looking kid. - He hates me.

No.

With Paloma, it's more like she pities and tolerates me,

totally age-appropriate.

But with Amado…

You know, he's always had difficulty reading,

and me being a teacher and caring about those things,

it's like a betrayal.

Well, Fernando did okay.

He dropped out.

Fernando wasn't pissed off at everybody.

He just wanted to fix their cars.

I spent my first 15 years trying to be just like Buddy…

the next 15 trying to give him a heart attack.

So why did you come back here, Sam?

I got divorced.

And I wasn't gonna work for my father-in-law anymore.

And the fellas down here,

they said they'd back me.

You don't wanna be sheriff.

I gotta admit, it's not what I thought it'd be.

Back when Buddy had it…

Hell, I'm just a jailer.

Run a 60-room hotel with bars on the windows.

Do you remember this?

I, um…

I oughta head back.

- Pilar… - It looks real bad

if the teacher's late for class.

It's real nice to talk with you, Sam.

Are you gonna tell her?

Are you gonna tell him?

He doesn't need to know all my business.

He's gonna find out.

So, what's he gonna do, arrest us?

It's supposed to be some big sin even if you love each other.

Do you believe that?

No.

Me neither.

Private Johnson.

Report to the sergeant in the orderly's room.

- The doctor's gonna have a look at you. - No, I'm feeling okay.

I'm real happy to hear that, private.

Now you go put some pee-pee in a cup for Dr. Innis,

and I'm gonna be feeling okay too.

You testing me?

You and 119 other fortunate individuals.

Put it in gear.

- Take this shit off now. - You've been talking so much trash today,

you got us thinking you're a dangerous criminal.

- You better be good, boy. - "Boy"? You're the one who's a good boy.

- The man say "Fetch," and you fetch. - Just doing my job.

The white man's using you to keep the Black man down.

This isn't Houston. We're pretty much running things now.

Our good day has come.

You chumps ain't had a good day since the Alamo.

Hey, Lupe.

Can you get me Ben Wetzel up in Austin?

Wetbacks again.

Hello?

Border Patrol?

- Mom? - Yeah.

- You gonna stay out here? - Mm. Yeah, for a while.

- What's she singing about? - What do you think?

Hey. Morning, sheriff.

Hey, Pete. How's it going?

Oh. Time marches on.

- How much you got left? - Three months.

Stop growing that locoweed at your place, you'd see a lot more daylight.

It was for personal consumption.

You gonna smoke an acre and a half of marijuana?

Look, I got a bad stomach. It helps me to digest.

Your father never bothered me about it.

Leastways not till those drug people got on his case in the late '60s.

I thought he busted you a couple of times.

No. Different charge.

I had a still.

I made my own mescal. That's how come I ruined my stomach.

I'm surprised he bothered with it.

He was afraid I was going to poison somebody.

Your father tried to do good for people.

So I heard.

And your mother, she was a saint.

Remember that summer when I built that patio at your house?

She made me lunch every day.

Well, you were working there.

Well, it could have just been another box lunch from the jail.

So you built our patio while you were on the county?

Out in the fresh air?

Nice gringa lady making you pies?

Who the hell's gonna sit back in a little jail cell all day?

Oh, Sheriff Buddy, man.

And after that cabrón Charlie Wade.

I heard Wade was a bit tough on the Mexicans.

He murdered Eladio Cruz.

Is that tough enough for you?

Murdered him?

Chucho Montoya saw it with his own eyes.

Shot him in cold blood.

Sam!

Uh, Sam, wait... Wait up.

- You're out early. - Yeah.

Haven't seen much of you at the jail lately.

Well, I'm working on a few things.

- Uh-huh. - I'm going over to the other side.

Republicans?

- No, Mexico. - Oh.

Gotta talk to someone.

Well, they got telephones.

No. It's gotta be in person.

Sam, um…

I, um…

Committee…

Jorge and Fenton and all, they, uh… Well, they've asked me if...

They want you to stand for sheriff next election.

Yeah.

You'd do a good job.

Thanks.

What about you?

I don't know if I'll still want it.

I, uh, just didn't wanna go around your back, that's all.

I appreciate you telling me.

You think we need a new jail?

Well, Sam, uh…

it's a complicated issue.

Yeah, Ray.

You'd be a hell of a sheriff.

Down here, we don't throw everything away like you gringos do.

Recycling, right?

We invented that.

The government doesn't have to tell people to do it.

Oh, you own this place, huh?

This place, the one across the street,

three or four others in Ciudad León.

"King of the Tires."

A lot of your people rolling over that bridge on my rubber.

So you lived in the States for a while?

Fifteen years.

Made some money, came back here?

Something like that.

Uh, you ever know a fella named Eladio Cruz?

You're the sheriff of Rio County, right?

Un jefe muy respetado.

Step across this line.

Ay! Hey, milagro!

You're not the sheriff of nothing anymore.

Just some Tejano with a lot of questions I don't have to answer.

A bird flying south,

you think he sees this line?

Rattlesnake, javelina,

whatever you got…

you think halfway across that line they start thinking different?

Why should a man?

Your government's always been pretty happy to have that line.

The question's just been where to draw it.

My government can go fuck itself, and so can yours.

I'm talking about people here.

Men.

Mi amigo…

Eladio Cruz is giving some friends of his a lift one day in the back of his camion.

But because they're on one side of this invisible line and not the other,

they gotta hide in the back, como criminales.

And because over there he's just another Mex bracero,

any man with a badge is his jefe.

What's in the back?

Not much, jefe. Some watermelons.

I'm driving them up for the market. They could bring a pretty good price.

I heard somebody's been hauling wets on this road.

I haven't seen anybody doing that.

Same person's been bragging all over the county

how he doesn't have to cut that big gringo sheriff in on it.

He can run his own operation without any help.

Cómo se llama, amigo?

Eladio Cruz.

You know, this road's got a bad reputation, Eladio.

Reputation?

Bandidos, Injuns.

There's many an unfortunate soul who's been ambushed down on this stretch.

I hope you're carrying some protection.

Protection?

You carrying a firearm, son?

Don't lie to me, now.

Just a shotgun.

Just a shotgun, huh?

You'd better let me have a look at that.

Oh, Jesus.

Little greaser son of a bitch is running a goddamn bus service.

Think he can make a fool out of Charlie Wade.

Get them wets out of the back, Hollis. See what we got.

You killed him.

You got a talent for stating the obvious, son.

Steve called for you.

Steve?

Steve. Board of Education Steve? Who likes you?

He goes for us hot-blooded Mexican girls, I can tell.

Spanish, please. My mother would have a heart attack.

Your mother's family is Spanish?

Sure, they go back to Cortés.

When he was riding by, they were squatting in a hut cooking hamsters for dinner.

You've got to be interested in somebody. All you do is work.

All my mother does is work. That's how you get to be Spanish.

How about this sheriff?

Sheriff?

The old high-school-heartthrob sheriff?

I thought you were crazy about each other.

He's available. You're available.

I'm unmarried. I'm not available.

You told me one time it was true love.

Nobody stays in love for 23 years.

- Come on, get up. - I can't.

Get up!

Let's go.

Goddamn it.

Come here.

- What the hell are you doing, you asshole? - How old is that girl, huh?

Let go, pendejo!

Come on, missy, get your clothes in order.

- Where's your goddamn sense, son? - You got no fucking right.

- Stay out of my life. - Give me the keys.

Give me the goddamn car keys.

What am I supposed to do with her, Buddy?

Drive her home. Tell her mother where we found her.

- Sam! - Leave her alone.

Move it, boy.

Please don't tell my mother. She's gonna kill me.

Pilar!

Don't eye me. Git.

Follow me.

We thought we were something, didn't we?

Yeah.

You know, I look at my kids in school,

10th, 11th graders…

that's who we were, children.

I mean, what did we know about anything?

Nothing.

When Nando died…

it was so sudden…

I kind of went into shock for a while…

and then I woke up,

and there was the rest of my life,

and I had no idea what to do with it.

You know, the other day you asked…

why I came back.

Yeah?

I came back because you were here.

My mother hasn't changed the songs since I was 10.

Wow.

Yeah.

How come it feels the same?

I don't know.

It just feels good.

Always did.

So, um…

what are we gonna do about this?

More…

I hope.

How long have you lived here?

Two years.

There's nothing on the walls.

No pictures.

I don't have kids.

The other pictures…

I don't know. It's nothing that I wanna look back on.

Like your story's over.

I've felt that way, yeah.

It isn't.

Mm-mm.

Not by a long shot.

Pilar…

what was your father's name?

Eladio.

Eladio Cruz.

That's John Horse.

The Spanish down in Florida call him Juan Caballo.

John Horse.

He a Black man or an Indian?

Both.

He was part of the Seminole Nation

got pushed down into the Florida Everglades

back in pioneer days.

African people run off from slaveholders

hooked up with 'em,

married up, had children.

When the Spanish give up Florida,

the U.S. Army come down to move all the Indian people to Oklahoma.

A couple of 'em held out.

That man, John Horse,

his friend Wild Cat,

another fella named Osceola

put together a fighting band, held out for another ten, 15 years.

Beat Zach Taylor and a thousand troops at Lake Okeechobee.

So they stayed in Florida?

One night they packed up, rode out to Mexico.

Men went to work for General Santa Anna down there.

After the Civil War, they came north to Texas, put up at Fort Duncan,

and the men joined up what was called the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts.

They were the best trackers on either side of the border.

They chased after bandits,

rustlers, Texas rednecks, Kiowas, Comanches…

They fought against the Indians?

Just like they did in Mexico.

But they were Indians themselves.

They were in the Army,

like your father.

You know who I am?

I got a pretty good guess.

That guy who got shot…

You didn't go telling your father you were here?

Are you kidding?

And face a court-martial?

Pretty tough old man, huh?

Every time he moves up a rank, it's like he's gotta tighten the screws more.

Just because he did...

You know, he didn't have…

Didn't have a father?

He's still pissed off about it.

When you're his age…

you'll still be pissed off about him.

How come you got into all of this?

These are our people.

There are Paynes in Florida, in Oklahoma, Piedras Negras…

So I'm part Indian?

By blood you are.

But blood only means what you let it.

My father says from the day you're born you start from scratch.

No breaks and no excuses.

You gotta pull yourself up on your own.

He's living proof of that, son.

Living proof.

Morning, Hollis.

Sam. Sit down.

Big to-do the other day.

Meant a lot to folks you said something.

You thought any more about our murder?

I wish I could tell you I remembered something new, but I can't.

Well, I got an idea what happened.

You do?

I think somewhere between Roderick Bledsoe's club and his house,

Wade ran into Buddy Deeds.

I think Buddy put a bullet in him,

waited for him to die,

threw him in the trunk of the sheriff's car,

and drove him out by Fort McKenzie.

I think he buried him under four feet of sand and never looked back.

You lived in the man's house how long

Seventeen, 18 years?

But you didn't get to know him any better than that.

I gotta go see somebody up in San Antonio.

If your memory gets any better,

I'll be back tonight.

She finally got up.

It's Saturday.

You got in late last night.

I had some, um…

Some school business.

Could I get this?

Oh. Paloma. Nobody really wears that stuff.

Just because you went to Catholic school and wore a uniform.

I only went for my last two years.

How come?

My mother wanted to keep me away from…

From boys.

Did it work?

Longhorns go for ten times the price.

But longhorns are hard to come by these days.

Sell much out here?

How am I gonna sell things? Nobody comes around.

This stretch of road

runs between nowhere and not much else.

A hell of a spot to put a business.

Don't see much competition, do you?

Used to sell these things like hotcakes.

Now, if it can't play those discs, they won't look at it.

I like it here.

Once I tried going onto the reservation to live.

Couldn't take the politics.

Damn Indians will drive you crazy with that.

Now, your father, this wasn't what he had in mind.

He come out of Korea, bought a Chevy with too much engine.

Used to come roaring up and down this road all hours of the day and night,

looking for somebody to race.

Here.

Buffalo chips.

Fella down in Santa Fe told me

he sells these things as fast as the buffalo can squeeze them out.

You think he killed anybody in Korea?

They don't hand those medals out for hiding in your foxhole.

Would you buy this?

No.

Yeah, neither would I.

If he hadn't found the deputy's job,

I believe Buddy might have gone down the other path, got into serious trouble.

It settled him right down.

That and your mother.

Of course, he had that other one later.

He had another woman?

Your mother was not one to be chased off her patch.

Half the damn county knew about it.

Nobody thought the worse of her for seeing it through.

You know who it was?

The other one?

Hell, at my age, you learn a new name, you gotta forget an old one.

Here.

This big fella was sleeping in a crate at Cisco's junkyard.

Right when I was gonna open to see what was in there,

jumped right at my face.

Scared me so bad I had to kill him without thinking.

You gotta be careful where you go poking. Who knows what you'll find?

After clearing immigration, go directly…

Private Johnson…

are you unhappy in the Army?

No, sir.

Then how would you explain

that out of 120 people, you were the only one

who came up positive for drugs?

I'm sorry, sir.

When you were given the opportunity to enlist,

a kind of contract was agreed upon.

Now, I think the Army has honored its part of that agreement.

Yes, sir.

Do you believe in what we're doing here, Private Johnson?

I can do the job, sir.

What exactly do you think your job is, private?

To, um, follow orders, do whatever they say.

- Who's "they"? - The… The officers.

And that's the job?

Nothing about serving your country?

These are not trick questions, Private Johnson.

You'll be offered an Article 15

and we will go through the process one way or the other.

I'm just trying to understand

how someone like you thinks.

Well, you really wanna know?

Please.

Well, it is their country.

This is one of the best deals they offer.

How do you think I got to be a colonel?

Being good at your job. Do what they tell you.

- "Do what they tell you"? - I mean, follow orders, sir.

With your attitude, private, I…

I'm surprised that you want to stay in the service.

I do, sir.

Because it's a job?

I mean, outside, it's such a mess.

It's, um…

Chaos.

Why do you think…

they let us in on the deal?

Because they got people to fight,

you know, Arabs, yellow people, whatever.

Might as well use us.

It works like this, private.

Every soldier in the war doesn't have to believe

in what he's fighting for.

Most of them fight just to back up the other soldiers in their squad.

You try not to get them killed.

You try not to get them extra duty.

You try not to embarrass yourself in front of them.

Why don't you start with that?

Yes, sir.

Dismissed.

Thank you, sir.

Fred Zenito for Pager,

and the Aggies jump to a 14-point lead.

Late in the second quarter, Sooners back to punt on their own 27...

Longhorns are gonna kick some serious butt this Saturday.

You just watch.

We got a kid, a tailback, from down your way, out of El Indio.

Well, that's in Maverick County.

- Oh, right, and you're in? - In Rio.

Right. This kid, Hosea Brown, he does the 40 in 3.4.

Soft hands, lateral movement, the whole package.

- Only a sophomore. - You still going to all the home games?

Daddy's got his box in the stadium,

and I'll fly to the Cowboy away games when they're in the conference.

Friday nights there's high school, of course.

Churchill's got this boy, 6-foot-6", 310, moves like a cat.

High school, we're talking. Guess how much he can bench-press.

Bunny, you, uh…?

You on that same medication?

Why, do I seem jumpy?

No. No, you look good. I was just wondering.

Last year was awful rough with Mama passing on

and this whole business with O.J.

It's not like it's Don Meredith or Roger Staubach or one of our boys,

but it kind of threw me for a loop.

Well, you look good.

Then there was that squeaker the Aggies let drop to Oklahoma.

That son of a bitch stepped in some lucky shit before he kicked that goal.

If they hadn't pulled me off that woman, I would've jerked a knot in her.

You were in a fight?

Well, Daddy calls it an altercation.

How you doing, Sam? You look skinny.

No, I'm the same weight I always was.

Daddy hired a pinhead to take your job. Says so himself.

"Even my son-in-law was better than this pinhead I got now."

Bunny, uh…

that stuff I left in the garage still there?

Least he never called me that. With me it was always "high-strung."

"My Bunny would've done something with her life

if she wasn't so high-strung or tightly wound." That's another one.

You haven't had one of your fires, have you?

The stuff I left in the garage, some of it was my father's.

- Did you watch the draft this year? - No.

Of course you didn't. Idiot question. They try to make it dramatic

like it's a big surprise who picks who in the first round.

Only they've been going over it for months with their experts and their computers,

doctors' reports, coaches' evaluations,

highlight reels, psychological profiles.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised

if they collected stool samples on these boys, had 'em analyzed.

All that to pick a football player for your squad.

Compared to that,

what you know about a person when you get married to 'em

doesn't amount to diddly, does it?

No, I suppose not.

You kinda bought yourself a pig in a poke, didn't you, Sam?

That whole time we were first seeing each other,

you didn't know that I was tightly wound.

It wasn't just you, Bunny.

No, it wasn't, was it?

You didn't exactly throw yourself into it heart and soul, now, did you?

Your shit's still in the garage, if that's what you came for.

Three hundred and fifty pounds.

That boy Churchill's got.

He plays tackle both ways.

Bench-presses 350 pounds.

Imagine having that much weight on you, pressing down.

Be hard to breathe, hard to swallow.

I think they have another fella there to keep it off your chest.

A spotter.

"I only got my little girl now," he says. "She's my lifeline."

Then he tells me I can't sit in the box anymore if I don't control myself.

Son of a bitch doesn't even watch the games.

He just sits there drinking with his business friends.

Looks up at the TV now and then.

I'd be better off sittin' in the cheap seats with some real football people.

You look good, Bunny.

It's nice to see you.

Thanks.

I like it when you say that, Sam.

"Dearest Buddy."

Hey.

Hey, it's the general.

Colonel. Is, uh, Otis in?

- Come on in. - Listen, if it's too late,

- I can always come... - Come on in.

Otis sittin' up with some people at the club. I don't think he'll be long.

His hot-sauce recipe won a contest last year.

They're selling it as far away as San Antonio.

Um, you've been in this house for a while?

I've been here with him eight years now. He built it when he was with Leora.

Never met her.

There's a bunch of them you never met.

Well, me neither.

Let me, um, show you around.

He got into all this cowboys-and-Indians stuff a while back.

Spent half his time poking around the library, way up to Austin.

Kind of like a shrine, isn't it?

Where did he get all this stuff?

Your mother's got a brother, Alphonse.

- Uncle Al. - Otis stood on good terms with the man.

Whenever you do something makes the news, he sends it on.

When they made you general,

Otis just about drove away all our customers going on about it.

I'm a colonel.

Yeah, I know.

The man made me memorize the whole damn Army chain of command

before he'd marry me.

Um…

My mother said that he never asked about me.

He never asked her.

Tell him I stopped by?

Thanks.

Catch you later…

colonel.

Enrique!

Senora Cruz.

Who is it?

Enrique, what are you doing out here? Are you crazy?

In English, Enrique. We are in the United States.

I have some friends, and they have had a accident.

You have somebody else out there?

We was by the river, and I heard my friend calling for help,

and I look,

and she has falling in the water.

Don't tell me lies. What happened?

We was crossing the river.

Enrique, what are you doing out there?

Wait. Who are those people? How could you bring them here?

I need help, senora.

Senora.

I'll call the Border Patrol. They'll get her to the hospital.

You think you're doing these people a favor?

What are they going to do?

Either they get on welfare or they become criminals.

This girl is a friend of yours?

I thought you were married.

I am married to the cousin of a friend,

but only for to live here.

This is the mother of my child.

Typical.

Homework?

Mm, I finished that. I'm just messing around.

Tanks, huh?

Yeah, well, gotta be in the Army,

you might as well have something slick to drive.

So… you're going in the Army?

That's the general plan, isn't it?

That's up to you.

You know, the Army isn't for everybody.

It's not that I don't think you wouldn't be good at it.

It's… you know…

I wouldn't be disappointed if you decided to do something else with your life.

You wouldn't?

No.

So, um…

So how's your room shaping up?

It's fine. I'm pretty much moved in.

Good.

Are we ever gonna see your father?

- My father? - Yeah. He lives here, right?

Yes, he does.

Maybe we'll, uh…

We'll fix that thing out back up and have a barbecue next weekend.

We could invite him and his wife over.

He makes his own sauce.

Vamos! Rápidamente!

Everybody in the world is going to see.

He used to be a doctor on the other side.

Don't worry about it. He owes me a few favors.

In English, Enrique. In English.

Hollis!

Hollis!

You in there?

Hollis!

Fellas.

Sam.

You're open late.

I'm not open. We're just talking.

So Hollis probably told you…

we found Charlie Wade.

Is that right?

Start digging holes in this county, no telling what'll come up.

You two saw it, didn't you?

You two saw it when Buddy killed him.

I'm gonna find out one way or the other.

Your father had the finest sense of justice of any man I've ever known.

Yeah, and my mother was a saint.

For 15 years the whole damn town knew he had another woman on the side.

He stole $10,000 and set her up in business,

but, hell, what's that?

You got a problem, old Buddy will fix it.

You facing some time in jail?

Buddy will knock half of it off if you do what he says when he says.

You got some business that's not exactly legal?

Just talk to Buddy.

- Buddy Deeds... - Buddy Deeds was a murderer.

That night at the café,

he didn't stay long after you left, did he, Hollis?

Maybe he decided he'd gone too far with Wade.

Maybe he figured he'd better not wait for the sheriff to get behind him.

So he stepped out to see if he could catch up.

And you were here at the club that night,

weren't you, O?

I was here.

I'd been running a game on the side after hours.

Craps.

Draw poker on the weekends.

Roderick didn't know about it.

More important,

Charlie Wade didn't know about it,

because I didn't want to cut him in on it.

I was pretty full of myself back in those days.

Hell, I just didn't expect the man so early.

Charlie Wade!

Easy.

Easy, easy.

Sheriff Charlie was the whip hand for old Judge Tibbs,

who pretty much owned this county back then.

If the truth came out, he wasn't gonna go easy on Hollis.

I don't know why I trusted Buddy with it.

Don't know why he trusted me.

The first time I talked with him was right there and then,

with a dead white man leaking blood on the floor between us.

The three of us cleaned up and took him out by the post

and put him under.

I can't say I was much help.

And the 10,000?

Widow's benefits.

He figured it'd make the disappearance look better.

And Mercedes was just scraping by after Charlie killed her man.

Buddy and her didn't get hooked up till later.

Time went on, people liked the story we told

better than anything the truth might have been.

It's your call, Sam.

I don't think the Rangers are likely

to find out any more than they already know.

As for me…

it's just one of your unsolved mysteries.

Word gets out who the body was,

people are gonna think Buddy done it.

Buddy's a goddamn legend.

He can handle it.

Night, fellas.

Hey.

When does the picture start?

You gonna tell your mother we've been seeing each other?

She'll find out sooner or later.

I don't have to ask permission anymore, if that's what you mean.

You have any idea when your father died?

Eladio?

Couple of months before I was born.

Try a year and half.

Buddy bought the café for her with money he took from the county.

They can't pull this on me.

It's not fair.

I don't believe this.

He paid the hospital bill when you were born.

Your mother…

she always called you

"our beautiful daughter"

in the letters she wrote to him.

You know, from the first time I saw you in school…

All those years we were married to other people, I always felt like…

Like we were connected.

Yeah.

I remember thinking, mm…

that you were the one part of my life

that Buddy didn't have a piece of.

I can't have any more children.

After Amado, I had some complications.

I can't get pregnant anymore, if that's what the rule is about.

No.

So that's it?

You're not gonna wanna be with me anymore?

If I met you…

for the first time today…

I'd still wanna be with you.

Start from scratch?

Yeah.

All that other stuff and all that history…

the hell with it, right?

Forget the Alamo.

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