_Talented William Logan, though he hails from Dodger territory, tells a quiet story from down near the Mexican border, where men are very close to ancestral memories and to the things which dwell in the shadows. Logan is one of the more interesting of the newer writers. _

mex

_by ... WILLIAM LOGAN_

 Perhaps it was just as well that I did not tell them what I was.... 

What they called me, that was what started it. I'm as good an Americanas the next fellow, and maybe a little bit better than men like that, big men drinking in a bar who can't find anything better to do than tospit on a man and call him Mex. As if a Mexican is something to hide orto be ashamed of. We have our own heroes and our own strength and wedon't have to bend down to men like that, or any other men. But whenthey called me that I saw red and called them names back. 

"Mex kid, " one of the men said, a big red-haired bully with his sleevesrolled back and muscles like ropes on the big hairy arms. "Snot-nosedlittle Mex brat. "

I called him a name. He only laughed back at me and turned his back, waving a hand for the bartender. Maybe in a big city in the North itwould be different and probably it would not: this toleration we hearabout is no more good than an open fight, and there must beunderstanding instead. But here near the border, just on the Americanside of the border, a Mexican is called fair game, and aseventeen-year-old like me is less than nothing to them, to the whiteones who go to the big bars. 

I thought carefully about what to do, and finally when I had made mymind up I went for him and tried to hit him. But other men held me back, and I was kicking and shouting with my legs off the ground. When Istopped they put me down, so I started for the big red-haired man againand they had to stop me again. The red-haired man was laughing all thistime. I wanted to run, back to my own family in their little house, andyet running would have been wrong; I was too angry to run, so I stayed. 

"My sister, " I said. "My sister is a witch and I will get her to put acurse on you. " I was very angry, you must understand this. 

And of course they had no idea that my sister is a real witch, and hercurses are real, and only last year Manuel Valdez had died from theeffects of her curse. Of all people, sometimes I wish I were my sistermost of all, to curse people and see them shrivel and sicken and chokeand die. 

"Go ahead, half-pint, " one of the other men yelled. "Get your sister toput a curse on me. I bet she knows who I am; I been with every Mex girlthis side of the border. "

This made me see red; my sister is pure and must be pure, since she is awitch. And she is not like some of the others even aside from that. Ihave heard her talk about them and I know. 

I called him a name and ran up to him and hit him; my fist against hissolid side felt good, but some other men pulled me off again. Yet it wasimpossible to leave. This was wrong for me, and I had to make it right. "I shall get my father to fight you, since he is a giant ten feet tall. "

The men laughed at me, not knowing, of course, that my father is a giantten feet tall in truth, and my mother a sweet siren like those in thebooks, the old books, with spells in her eyes and a strange power. Theydid not know I was not a daydreaming child but a man who told truth. 

And they laughed; I grew angry again and told them many things, callingthem names in Spanish, which they did not understand. That only madethem laugh the more. 

Finally I left; it was necessary for me to leave, since I was notwanted. But it was necessary, too, for me to make things right. Nightslater they were dead for what they had said and done. 

For I tell the truth always, and I had told them about my sister and myfather and my mother. But one thing I had not told them. 

I am sorry they could never know I was the winged thing that frightenedand killed them, one by one.... 

Transcriber's Note:

 This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ January 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.