Dusty and the Desert Conspiracy

“Your mother was careless.”

The sun beat down on the man’s dark skin, turning it a deep shade of crimson. “She was…just a girl.” The large man shifted in his seat and stared off into the distance for a moment before he continued. “She was young, beautiful, and she fell for my charm, but she was not wise. She didn’t understand what I truly wanted until it was too late…and now, you are here…getting involved in things that do not concern you.” His eyes bore into mine and he removed his hat to wipe the sweat away from his forehead with a dirty cloth. It came back blackened with grime and dust. After he replaced his hat, he looked up at me and smiled. His teeth were bright white against the blackness of his skin, contrasting sharply with his dusty attire. He moved his hand along the length of his rifle barrel to point it at me. “You should go home Princess…while you still can.”

I looked down at my feet and kicked at the sand beneath them as I sat on my horse facing him from across the small valley between us. The heat radiated upward like waves from the sand below and I could feel its intensity prickling at my skin through my clothing.

“Why don’t you just leave your people alone? You are obviously keeping them in poverty for some reason, so why not let them live as free people? Why not teach them how to fish or grow their own crops? They are dying out here! You are killing them! And for what purpose? Do you really think they will support you once they know the truth? Once they realize that you have been lying to them all this time? That your lies have kept them hungry and impoverished? What will they think when they discover that your land is rich in oil that you have simply been ignoring because it is easier to keep them all living like beggars than to allow everyone to prosper together? When they finally understand that you have traded their lives for your own selfish interests? Will they support you then? Or will they cry out for justice as I do right now?”

Rodolfo cocked back the hammer on his rifle and leveled it directly at my head. He pulled back on the trigger slowly so that I could hear every movement of metal sliding against metal as he prepared to fire on me. “I do what I must Princess…but if only more women had understood their role in life like my mother did…none of this would be necessary…but then again, she was just a girl herself when she gave birth to me…she never learned her lesson either…but rest assured dear Dusty, I am hardly alone in this endeavor. There are others like me who will stop at nothing until every last one of these poor souls has been sacrificed for our cause…so please get off your high horse before someone decides to put an end to your quest for justice here today! And return home where you belong with your head held high; there are plenty of other causes out there worthy of your time better spent than trying to save a bunch of ignorant fools who would rather die than fight for themselves! Now go! Before I decide that your pursuit is even worth wasting my bullets on! Begone from our land forever! Never return! Go home!"

Tears flowed freely down my face as I turned my horse around to return home through the desert sands once more and Rodolfo returned to his camp without ever looking back at me again…or giving any thought whatsoever that perhaps there might be someone else out there working against him who could help save these people after all…