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Show All the Variables & Other Love Stories 39 This, the echoed sentiment of Mikey Warren, tavern proprietor, who looked upon the wasted town with resentment and upon the flourishing ranch on the high plane toward Questa with envy. His business and livelihood, the once beloved cantina, had fallen on hard times now the men had no money to spend and the privilege of drinking at home. He wanted to retrieve the women from Hightower's ranch. He knew the women would make their menfolk return to hire and salary, thereby ensuring the cantina patrons would once again possess both the means to drink and the impetus to leave home. He called a meeting of all those who looked on the present circumstances in Taos and saw the need for change. Father Palermo Aguilar, friar, was the only attendee, for the priest had been likewise afflicted. The Taosnos, with no women to force them, had stopped attending mass. "There must be something we can do," brooded Father Aguilar. The two men sat belly to the bar sipping mugs of beer. At one time, Father Aguilar had sworn an oath never to darken the cantina threshold, for he had regarded it the very womb of perdition. He'd agreed to meet here only because it was empty, and had been empty some time, and therefore could no longer be considered an offense to God. Father Aguilar had only once before broken his oath, at the behest of a parishioner, Esther Spinoza, who told Father Aguilar her Ramon would not be ashamed enough to come home if his angry wife fetched him alone-it would take a priest. Father Aguilar could hardly recognize cantina now. The carpet clean of ash and the bar freshly soaped and the jukebox did not pollute the air, which was breathable and smokeless and did not reek of spilt liquor or urine or vomit. There were neither games of chance nor sodden ladies of the night. It had |