The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 36Villistas, and that chance kept the hope alive in his heart that he would soon get to see his beloved, LaCatrina, once again.The lieutenant was still talking at the front of the formation, and by now he had gotten toinformation that was of more interest to all the troopers of the platoon. Since the American forcesmoving into Mexico would be subject to possible attack from the Villistas at any time and from anydirection, Jose's company was to be detached from the rest of the cavalry regiment and temporarilyplaced under the control of the 1 st Aero Squadron. It was anticipated that this would primarily be forscouting and for guard duty, but war being what it was, the company was to fulfill any mission that theaero squadron's commander was to give them.The lieutenant carried on. Jose thought that it was a fine speech that the lieutenant was makingnow, having worked himself up into a condition full of valor and honor and duty, but Jose was onlypaying half a mind to it, at the very most. The rest of his mind was occupied with thoughts ofaeroplanes, and of what they might look like suspended in the sky if La Catrina came and time sloweditself down for his observation, as it had outside of Agua Prieta. He was certain that he would get tosee the great dragonflies in flight now, even if a ride in one was still practically out of the question.Jose spent the rest of the lieutenant's speech lost in daydreams about flying. He thought that itwould be like riding on the top of a freight car, only much higher up, and without direction beingdictated by the whims of rails he would be free to fly anywhere he wished, at any time. Since anaeroplane only had two seats, he then thought of himself flying around with La Catrina as his lovelypassenger, he in the back seat and she in the front. This he imagined to be a lovely, private, intimatesetting. It was not difficult for his imagination to melt the aeroplane into a flying carpet then, whichwas even more lovely and more intimate, since it was only one big seat with room for two.The platoon mounted up on its wagons and rode back to the barracks after the lieutenant wasfinished addressing the men. They were instructed to pack their gear and be ready to ride, since the