Title: "Half Breed"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: Little Vin's question made Inez's blood run cold.
Warnings: Drabble, LB
Word Count: 300
Date Written: 20 November, 2011
Challenge: For the Fanfic-Bakeoff LJ comm's monthly challenge
Disclaimer: JD Dunne, Inez Recillos, all other recognizable characters mentioned within, and The Magnificent Seven are ᄅ & TM CBS, The Mirisch Group, MGM, and Trilogy Entertainment, not the author. Everything else is ᄅ & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"Mz. Inez, can I ask you somethin'?"
Inez smiled down into the expectant, sweet face of her friend's son. "Of course, Vin," she said, kneeling to his level. "What is it?"
"What's a media casta?"
Her blood ran cold; Inez's face fell. "Who called you that?" she demanded.
"My friend."
"Your friend?" Her brown eyes flashed fiercely. No friend would call their friend a media casta!
Yet, before she could begin condemning his friend, little Vin spoke up again. Nodding, he told her, "Uh huh. He's a Metican like you, and I helped him out the other day."
Inez cocked her head to the side as she studied the little boy dressed in a fringe jacket and matching trousers. He did look every bit the Indian that his birth father had been, but it was still no reason for any one, especially not one of their peoples, to call him a half breed! "What did you do?"
He smiled shyly. "I stopped a bully."
"And your friend called you a media casta for that?"
"Uh huh. He said he never thought anybody would help, but then he'd never met a media casta and he reckoned that was the reason why I helped him. What's a media casta, Mz. Inez?"
She hugged him. "It's a very special person, Vin. It's some one who's different and has been hurt because they're different. The good ones try to help others who are different, because they know how bad it hurts when other people are mean to you because you're different."
"Oh. So that's what he meant?"
"Si. He knew you'd help him, because you know how it hurts when somebody picks on you because you're different." She hugged him tightly. She'd never tell him the true translation, but she was proud of her young friend.
The End
