Sangre De Toro (Old Draft - Now Published!)

Chapter 48 - The Nicest Treat of All

Several months later

Pepelito was having a nice happy day. Rita and Dominguez were sitting on the bench Silvio used to sit on. The gate was open, and they were feeding him treats from a paper bag of vegetables they'd picked up on the village market, stuffed between them on the bench.

'I thought you'd blame me,' Rita said, as the bull took a huge courgette in his mouth from the paper bag and chewed messily. Dominguez patted him. I've taken a bit much here, Pepelito thought, trying to eat the enormous courgette and dropping it on the ground.

'Yeah. I was angry, Rita, I admit that, I did blame you a bit.' Dominguez sighed, while Pepelito swallowed most of the courgette.

'But, look. I went into this job knowing people like Castella could target those close to me. Everyone knows that. That's part of being a police officer. But I carried on. And sometimes the right thing isn't the most sensible or safest option. Is it, amigo?' Dominguez seemed relaxed enough, leaning forward to kiss his nose. If his friends were happy, so was he.

He had worried Maribel would be upset with him for leaving her alone so long, and that she wouldn't get on with Chicero. But the old girl had been accepting and kind. They still played together, but she spent a lot more time lying down than she used to on her prosthetic leg. It made him sad.

'You agree, don't you, dulcito,' Rita said, as Pepelito pulled a carrot away from the bag of vegetables, enjoying love and affection from his favourite humans. Recently, he hadn't seen them as much as normal, and he missed them. When they spent lots of time with him, they were less tense and stressed.

The feeling was mutual.

'No! I'm not a cow,' Dominguez yelled, holding his arms in front of him as Pepelito stretched out his long, black tongue. Humans never wanted to be licked. He couldn't work out why.

'What are your family going to do about the farm?'

'You interested, Rita? You're a bit late. We've got a buyer, we're selling the farm to an animal rescue charity. In the meantime, got my brother and the neighbour keeping an eye on this lot, always someone here,' Dominguez said. Pepelito turned his head towards the small, but deep lake down the bottom of the hill where Chicero was swimming, his favourite thing to do. Pepelito loved seeing his friend so happy.

Scratching Pepelito under the chin, Dominguez laughed, 'The attention my family is getting from all sorts of farmers wanting to introduce such 'well-bred bulls' to their cows. It's got well out of hand. The fucking stories I could tell you.'

'Look at Chicero, he's like a water buffalo in there,' Rita smiled.

'Yeah, that one loves it, he's always in there. We made them an obstacle course too, me and my brother, out of some old pallets and tyres. He can't get enough of that either.' Dominguez laughed. Chicero had lost so much fear, but he was still nervous of humans.

Maybe he always would be.

And that was OK.

Nobody kicked or beat the bulls here for not meeting their 'standards', and nobody ever would. They'd never be punished for the lack of bravery they showed before the twisted, baying audience, fighting for their lives in an unwinnable contest. Here, they saw nothing but kindness and love.

They were safe.

'How are you feeling about being back at work, Rita?' Dominguez asked.

'Oh, all right, you know. Alfonso's been really supportive,' she replied, feeding Pepelito a carrot. He was thinking about getting in the water himself. Chicero had told him it helped with the pain in his back. To his surprise, it had worked, although that now rarely bothered him. Pepelito had made some interesting discoveries of his own lately, like a bush of nice tasting berries the other two hadn't found.