In the Shadow of the Bluff
A Story of Migrant Life
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
"Damn it
give me another beer," he demanded.
"You
driving the truck tonight?" Al asked.
"Yah--so
what."
"Think you
better let up a little."
Jose's face
flushed. "You telling me I can't
have anymore?"
"Well,
something like that--just slow up a bit and take it easy," Al told him.
Jose stood up
swaying against the bar. He grabbed the
near empty beer bottle by the neck, raised it and smashed it down onto the edge
of the bar. The glass bottom splintered
off spraying the rest of the beer into his and Al's faces. Shards of glass tinkled to the floor. The two men next to him jumped back off
their stools. Gripping the neck of the
bottle he aimed the broken jagged end at the bartender.
"You
son-of-a-bitch, give me a beer or I'm coming over the bar for one
myself." Jose jabbed the bottle at
Al. He jerked back but not in
time. Jose nicked him like a razor cut
on the cheek with a jagged edge of the bottle.
"Put that
down you bastard," Al ordered as he wiped a hand across his cheek. Blood was already trickling down his
face. He reached back behind him
pulling open a drawer and groped around with his right hand while his eyes
stayed glued on Jose and the jagged end of the bottle. He wiped again at the trickle of blood
tickling his cheek.
Since the first
crash of the bottle on the edge of the bar everyone in the room was silent and
watching. Only the jukebox music played
on. Others at the bar shied away pulling
back among the tables. Chairs could be
heard scraping on the wooden floor as people moved back into the shadowy
corners. Some ran through the door out
onto the street.
"Drop the
bottle," Al repeated.
"Give me a
beer," Jose still demanded.
Jose started climbing
over the bar swinging the jagged end of the bottle.
Al brought his
right hand out of the drawer. He
pointed a pistol at Jose.
"Get
back," Al ordered.
Jose surged
forward and swung out at the gun with the bottle.
The shot rang
out as Al, off balance, pressed back against the mirrored back wall of the
bar. Acrid smelling gun smoke mingled
with the cigarette smoke.
Manuel came out
of the toilet at the back end of the barroom just as the shot rang out. He saw the bartender frozen against the
backside of the bar holding a gun with a ribbon of smoke leaking out the end of
the barrel. Jose was sprawled halfway
across the bar top.
Mariachi music
from the jukebox was the only sound in the room except that of a rush of
footsteps as the others hurried toward the front and back doors. A few others stood fixed in their spots as
though statues.
Al and Jose were
frozen as though in a photograph except that Jose was slowly, slowly sliding
back off the bar. He still clutched the
broken beer bottle in one hand while the other hand tried to cling to the round
fluted edge of the bar.
Manuel paused,
glancing about the room, but his eyes quickly came back to Jose, Al and the
gun.
"What's
going on?" he asked someone headed out the back door.
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Book Details
About the Book
The North Platte
River, seeking its confluence with the Missouri River, flows from Wyoming into
western Nebraska along the base of Scotts Bluff, an historic Oregon Trail
landmark. This region of Nebraska is
the locale for In The Shadow of the Bluff. The time is about 1960 as migrant workers from Mexico and the
Texas Rio Grande Valley perennially swarmed in and out of the area each spring
and summer to work in the sugar beet and bean fields.
At that time,
the author was a young editorial staff member of the daily Scottsbluff
Star-Herald newspaper. Consequently,
many of the novel’s incidents have a similarity to events she covered as a news
reporter. However, all of this book’s
characters are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or
dead, is purely coincidental.
In the book,
Manuel Cepeda, a young boy trapped inside his typically dysfunctional migrant
family, struggles to break away. Maria,
a young girl of an equally troubled migrant family, is instrumental in his efforts. As Manuel stumbles along a local Catholic
priest aids him.
In The Shadow of
the Bluff vividly portrays the travails of life
among the migrant workers.
About the Author
Betty Dunn, a long time journalist, presently lives on a Texas ranch where she actively raises purebred beef animals with the help of her retired engineer husband. She has three sons, and three grandchildren.
A native of
York, Nebraska, Dunn was a reporter for several daily Nebraska newspapers at
York, Scottsbluff, North Platte and Lincoln, as well as Columbus, Ohio. Her
work currently appears in many national publications.
Dunn’s previous
books include, Ju-Ju Swallowed a Penny, a socio-economic study and
memoir of her Nebraska childhood; and Legends Lost, a collection of
little known or forgotten U. S. historical facts and anecdotes.
In The Shadow of
the Bluff is Dunn’s first fiction effort. A second, The Courthouse, is underway.