The Second Ring of Power (25 page)

"I beg your pardon?"

"The
double
needs a tremendous amount of attention. The
Nagual gave that attention to you but not to me. He told me that he had run out
of time."

She said something else about a certain kind of attention but I was
very tired. I fell asleep so
suddenly that I did not even have time
to put my notes away.

I woke up around eight the next morning and found that la Gorda had
sunned my clothes and
made breakfast. We ate in the kitchen,
in the dining area. When we had finished I asked her about
Lidia,
Rosa and Josefina. They seemed to have vanished from the house.

"They are helping Soledad," she said. "She's getting
ready to leave."

"Where is she going?"

"Somewhere away from here. She has no more reason to stay. She was
waiting for you and
you have already come."

"Are the little sisters going with her?"

"No. They just don't want to be here today. It looks as if today is
not a good day for them to stick around."

"Why isn't it a good day?"

"The Genaros are coming to see you today and the girls don't get
along with them. If all of
them are here together, they'll get
into a most dreadful fight. The last time that happened they
nearly
killed one another."

"Do they fight physically?"

"You bet they do. All of them are very strong and none of them
wants to take second place. The Nagual told me that that would happen, but I am
powerless to stop them; and not only that
but I have to
take sides, so it's a mess."

"How do you know that the Genaros are coming today?"

"I haven't talked to them. I just know that they will be here
today, that's all."

"Do you know that because you
see
,
Gorda?"

"That's right. I
see
them coming.
And one of them is coming directly to you because you're
pulling
him."

I assured her that I was not pulling anyone in particular. I said that I
had not revealed to anyone the purpose of my trip, but that it had to do with
something I had to ask Pablito and
Nestor.

She smiled coyly and said that fate had paired me with Pablito, that we
were very alike, and
that undoubtedly he was going to see
me first. She added that everything that happened to a
warrior could
be interpreted as an omen; thus my encounter with Soledad was an omen of what I
was going to find out on my visit. I asked her to explain her point.

"The men will give you very little this time," she said.
"It's the women who will rip you to
shreds, as Soledad did. That's what I would say if I read the omen. You're waiting for the
Genaros,
but they are men like you. And look at this other omen; they are a little bit
behind. I
would say a couple of days behind. That's your fate as
well as theirs, as men, to be always a
couple of days
behind."

"Behind what, Gorda?"

"Behind everything. Behind us women, for instance."

She laughed and patted my head.

"No matter how stubborn you are," she went on, "you have
to admit that I'm right. Wait and
see."

"Did the Nagual tell you that men are behind women?" I asked.

"Sure he did," she replied. "All you have to do is look
around."

"I do, Gorda. But I don't see any such thing. Women are always
behind. They are dependent
on men."

She laughed. Her laughter was not scornful or bitter; it was rather a
clear sound of joyfulness.
"You know the world of people better
than I do," she said forcefully. "But right now I'm
formless
and you're not. I'm telling you, women are better sorcerers because there is a
crack in front of our eyes and there is none in front of yours."

She did not
seem angry, but I felt obliged to explain that I asked questions and made
comments not because I was attacking or defending
any given point, but because I wanted her to
talk.

She said that she had done nothing else but talk since the moment we
met, and that the Nagual
had trained her to talk because her
task was the same as mine, to be in the world of people.

"Everything we say," she went on, "is a reflection of
the world of people. You will find out
before your
visit is over that you talk and act the way you do because you're clinging to the
human form, just as the Genaros and the little sisters are clinging to
the human form when they
fight to kill one another."

"But aren't all of you supposed to cooperate with Pablito, Nestor
and Benigno?"

"Genaro and the Nagual told every one of us that we should live in
harmony and help and
protect one another, because we are
alone in the world. Pablito was left in charge of us four, but
he's
a coward. If it were left up to him, he would let us die like dogs. When the
Nagual was
around, though, Pablito was very nice to us and took
very good care of us. Everyone used to tease
him and joke
that he took care of us as if we were his wives. The Nagual and Genaro told
him, not too long before they left, that he had a real chance to become the
Nagual someday, because we might become his four winds, his four corners.
Pablito understood it to be his task and from
that day on he
changed. He became insufferable. He began to order us around as if we were
really
his
wives.

"I asked the Nagual about Pablito's chances and he told me that I
should know that everything
in a warrior's world depends on
personal power and personal power depends on impeccability. If Pablito were
impeccable he would have a chance. I laughed when he told me that. I know
Pablito very well. But the Nagual explained to me that I shouldn't take it so
lightly. He said that warriors
always have a chance, no matter how
slim. He made me see that I was a warrior myself and that I
shouldn't
hinder Pablito with my thoughts. He said that I should turn them off and let
Pablito be; that the impeccable thing for me to do was to help Pablito in spite
of what I knew about him.

"I
understood what the Nagual said. Besides, I have my own debt with Pablito, and
I
welcomed the opportunity to help him. But
I also knew that no matter how I helped him he was
going to fail. I knew all along that he didn't
have what it takes to be like the Nagual. Pablito is
very childish and he won't accept his defeat.
He's miserable because he's not impeccable, and yet
he's still trying in his thoughts to be like the
Nagual."

"How did he fail?"

"As soon as the Nagual left, Pablito had a deadly run-in with
Lidia. Years ago the Nagual had given him the task of being Lidia's husband,
just for appearances. The people around here thought
that she was
his wife. Lidia didn't like that one bit. She's very tough. The truth of the
matter is
that Pablito has always been scared to death of her.
They could never get along together and they
tolerated each
other only because the Nagual was around; but when he left, Pablito got crazier
than he already was and became convinced that he had enough personal
power to take us as his
wives. The three Genaros got together
and discussed what Pablito should do and decided that he should take the
toughest woman first, Lidia. They waited until she was alone and then all three
of
them came into the house and grabbed her by the arms and
threw her on the bed. Pablito got on
top of her. She thought at first
that the Genaros were joking. But when she realized that they were
serious,
she hit Pablito with her head in the middle of his forehead and nearly killed
him. The
Genaros fled and Nestor had to tend to Pablito's wound
for months."

"Is there something that I can do to help them understand?"

"No. Unfortunately, understanding is not their problem. All six of
them understand very well.
The real trouble is something else,
something very ugly that no one can help them with. They
indulge
in not trying to change. Since they know they won't succeed in changing no
matter how
much they try, or want to, or need to, they have given
up trying altogether. That's as wrong as
feeling
disappointed with our failures. The Nagual told each of them that warriors,
both men and
women, must be impeccable in their effort to change, in
order to scare the human form and shake
it away. After
years of impeccability a moment will come, the Nagual said, when the form
cannot
stand it any longer and it leaves, just as it left me. In
doing so, of course, it injures the body and
can even make
it die, but an impeccable warrior survives, always."

A sudden knock at the front door interrupted her. La Gorda stood up and
went over to unlatch
the door. It was Lidia. She greeted me
very formally and asked la Gorda to go with her. They left
together.

I welcomed being alone. I worked on my notes for hours. The open-air
dining area was cool
and had very good light.

La Gorda returned around noon. She asked me if I wanted to eat. I was
not hungry, but she
insisted that I eat. She said that contacts with
the allies were very debilitating, and that she felt
very weak
herself.

After eating I sat down with la Gorda and was getting ready to ask her
about "dreaming" when
the front door opened loudly and
Pablito walked in. He was panting. He obviously had been running and appeared
to be in a state of great excitation. He stood at the door for a moment,
catching
his breath. He hadn't changed much. He seemed a bit older, or heavier, or
perhaps only more muscular. He was, however, still very lean and wiry. His
complexion was pale, as if he had
not been in the sun for a long
time. The brownness of his eyes was accentuated by a faint mark of
weariness
in his face. I remembered Pablito as having a beguiling smile; as he stood
there looking
at me, his smile was as charming as ever. He ran over to
where I was sitting and grasped my
forearms for a moment, without
saying a word. I stood up. He then shook me gently and
embraced me. I
myself was utterly delighted to see him. I was jumping up and down with an
infantile
joy. I did not know what to say to him. He finally broke the silence.

"Maestro," he said softly, nodding his head slightly as if he
were bowing to me.

The title of "maestro," teacher, caught me by surprise. I
turned around as if I were looking for
someone else
who was just behind me. I deliberately exaggerated my movements to let him know
that I was mystified. He smiled, and the only thing that occurred to me
was to ask him how he
knew I was there.

He said that he, Nestor and Benigno had been forced to return because of
a most unusual apprehension, which made them run day and night without any
pause. Nestor had gone to their own house to find out if there was something
there that would account for the feeling that had
driven them.
Benigno had gone to Soledad's place and he himself had come to the girls'
house.

"You hit the jackpot, Pablito," la Gorda said, and laughed.

Pablito did not answer. He glared at her.

"I'll bet that you're working yourself up to throw me out,"
he said in a tone of great anger.
"Don't fight with me,
Pablito," la Gorda said, unruffled.

Pablito turned to me and apologized, and then added in a very loud
voice, as if he wanted
someone else in the house to hear him,
that he had brought his own chair to sit on and that he
could
put it wherever he pleased.

"There's no one else around here except us," la Gorda said
softly, and chuckled.
"I'll bring in my chair
anyway," Pablito said. "You don't mind, Maestro, do you?"

I looked at la Gorda. She gave me an almost imperceptible go-ahead sign
with the tip of her
foot.

"Bring it in. Bring anything you want," I said.

Pablito stepped out of the house.

"They're all that way," la Gorda said, "all three of
them."

Pablito came back a moment later carrying an unusual-looking chair on
his shoulders. The
chair was shaped to follow the contour of his back,
so when he had it on his shoulders, upside
down, it
looked like a backpack.

"May I put it down?" he asked me.

"Of course," I replied, moving the bench over to make room.