Cocoposts

They came from the north. Slowly at first.

We were here already.

Sadie flipped her thick blond braid back. Her little mutt ducked. Chocky glanced over at Cat who rolled her eyes.

People were here six hundred years before your family, Sadie.

White people.

That’s not true either.

First to legally claim the land.

Nope.

Well what then? Tell me why Cozy Y exists if its not because of the Simpson family – my great grandfather and what he started…

She sighed deeply and sort of petered out, knowing what she was in for.

Nevermind. Just nevermind.

Chocky was braiding leather at his workbench in the small adobe they called the bar.

Catherine “Cat” Dobs wouldn’t “nevermind.”

Marriage! That’s why! Your great grandfather married into the richest and oldest family in the valley.

That and the 30,000 acre land theft.

Chocky added this quietly but Sadie was out the door, slamming the screen in her little dog’s face.

She knew all this now. She’d read the first draft of Cat’s book about her family. But it was obvious to her friends she was in denial.

.

I’ll tell you what he was first to do. Cat had that edge to her voice that made Chocky duck like Sadie’s dog.

He was the first to systematically loot all the ancient sites within reach of his bulldozer. That’s what he was the first to do.

Chocky shook his head again. Not exactly. He wasn’t the first at that either. Treasure hunters were looking for the San G