Josephine Ashton

RIDE the WILD WIND Josephine Ashton

Sheriff Robert Gallegos, tall, handsome, quiet, friendly, Native American/Hispanic, an ex WWII Marine is determined that the encroaching Juarez, Mexico drug cartel that will stop at nothing to take over his S. E. New Mexico, Aragón Valley - will not, on his watch, succeed. But as intimidation, rape and murder stalk the rural community, the reality of the threat, this summer of 1965, grows ominously closer. Gallegos has no deputies, an office next to his two person jail cell, his apartment above that, and as many friends as enemies. He encounters both over coffee at Connelly's Cafe, a Lucky Lager at Sam's Tavern's Friday night dances, or sharing a "sixties" smoke at Tim Sanderson's Thursday night poker game. Tim boards and "gentles" horses, Phillipe Montez runs his old father's Red Stones Vineyards and Winery. Together, the three, known around town as the 'musketeers;' share a bloody secret known by not even la Senora Bella Aragón or her beautiful granddaughter Lara, both of whom rule the town founded by their Spanish ancestors. A man's man, the Sheriff's real companion is Old Lady Sara Tree-Root Tampoya, the part-Hopi Medicine Woman who communicates with Grey Lady Between the Mountains, bringer of passages of life and of death, as he struggles to stay centered in the present and decipher the past, to understand who he really is. The wild red-dust wind gallops day and night through the streets of this fictional, S. E New Mexico Aragón Valley county and town. Situated near the Rio Grande, somewhere between Las Cruces and the borders of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad de Juárez, Mexico, everyone has a back-story, memories and secrets. Santa Feans, Easterners, Denver and West Coast hippies, and lovers are welcomed, Juarez drug cartel goons are not, and all soon learn to ask no personal questions. A "Cast of Characters", research information, and Spanish language words and conversations translations are provided following the story.