The Second Ring of Power (28 page)

"Don Juan told me that sorcerers have to have an omen before they
choose someone. Was
there something of that sort with you,
Pablito?"

"Yes. Genaro said that he got curious watching the stand shaking
and then he
saw
that two
people were making love under the
counter. So he sat down to wait for the people to come out; he
wanted
to see who they were. After a while the girl appeared in the stand but he
missed me. He
thought it was very strange that he would miss me after
being so determined to set eyes on me.
The next day he
came back with the Nagual. He also
saw
that two people were making love,
but when it was time to catch me, they both missed me. They came back again the
next day; Genaro went around to the back of the stand while the Nagual stayed
out in front. I bumped into Genaro while I was crawling out. I thought he
hadn't seen me because I was still behind the piece of cloth
that
covered a small square opening I had made on the side wall. I began to bark to
make him
think there was a small dog under the drape. He growled
and barked back at me and really made
me believe that there was a huge
mad dog on the other side. I got so scared I ran out the other
way
and crashed into the Nagual. If he would have been an ordinary man, I would
have thrown
him to the ground because I ran right into him, but
instead, he lifted me up like a child. I was absolutely flabbergasted. For
being such an old man he was truly strong. I thought I could use a
strong
man like that to carry lumber for me. Besides I didn't want to lose face with
the people who had seen me running out from under the counter. I asked him if
he would like to work for
me. He said yes. That same day he went
to the shop and started to work as my assistant. He
worked there
every day for two months. I didn't have a chance with those two devils."

The incongruous image of don Juan working for Pablito was extremely
humorous to me.
Pablito began to imitate the way don Juan carried
lumber on his shoulders. I had to agree with la
Gorda that
Pablito was as good an actor as Josefina.

"Why did they go to all that trouble, Pablito?"

"They had to trick me. You don't think that I would go with them
just like that, do you? I've
heard all my life about sorcerers and
curers and witches and spirits, and I never believed a word of it. Those who
talked about things like that were just ignorant people. If Genaro had told me
that
he and his friend were sorcerers, I would've walked out on them. But they were
too clever for
me. Those two foxes were really sly. They were in
no hurry. Genaro said that he would've waited
for me if it
took him twenty years. That's why the Nagual went to work for me. I asked him
to, so it was really me who gave them the key.

"The Nagual was a diligent worker. I was a little bit of a rascal
in those days and I thought I
was the one playing a trick on him. I
believed that the Nagual was just a stupid old Indian so I
told
him that I was going to tell the boss that he was my grandpa, otherwise they
wouldn't hire
him, but I had to get a percentage of his salary. The
Nagual said that it was fine with him. He gave me something out of the few
pesos he made each day.

"My boss was very impressed with my grandpa because he was such a
hard worker. But the
other guys made fun of him. As you
know, he had the habit of cracking all his joints from time to
time.
In the shop he cracked them every time he carried anything. People naturally
thought that
he was so old that when he carried something on his back
his whole body creaked.

"I was pretty miserable with the Nagual as my grandpa. But by then
Genaro had already
prevailed on my greedy side. He had told me that
he was feeding the Nagual a special formula
made out of
plants and that it made him strong as a bull. Every day he used to bring a
small
bundle of mashed-up green leaves and feed it to him.
Genaro said that his friend was nothing without his concoction, and to prove it
to me he didn't give it to him for two days. Without the green stuff the Nagual
seemed to be just a plain, ordinary old man. Genaro told me that I could
also
use his concoction to make women love me. I got very interested in it and he
said that we
could be partners if I would help him prepare his
formula and give it to his friend. One day he
showed me some
American money and told me he had sold his first batch to an American. That
hooked
me and I became his partner.

"My partner Genaro and I had great designs. He said that I should
have my own shop, because
with the money that we were going to
make with his formula, I could afford anything. I bought a
shop
and my partner paid for it. So I went wild. I knew that my partner was for real
and I began
to work making his green stuff."

I had the strange conviction at that point that don Genaro must have
used psychotropic plants
in making his concoction. I reasoned
that he must have tricked Pablito into ingesting it in order to
assure
his compliance.

"Did he give you power plants, Pablito?" I asked.

"Sure," he replied. "He gave me his green stuff. I ate
tons of it."

He described and imitated how don Juan would sit by the front door of
don Genaro's house in a state of profound lethargy and then spring to life as
soon as his lips touched the concoction.
Pablito said
that in view of such a transformation he was forced to try it himself.

"What was in that formula?" I asked.

"Green leaves," he replied. "Any green leaves he could get
a hold of. That was the kind of
devil Genaro was. He used to talk about
his formula and make me laugh until I was as high as a
kite. God, I
really loved those days."

I laughed out of nervousness. Pablito shook his head from side to side
and cleared his throat
two or three times. He seemed to be
struggling not to weep.

"As I've already said. Maestro," he went on, "I was
driven by greed. I secretly planned to dump my partner once I had learned how
to make the green stuff myself. Genaro must have
always known
the designs I had in those days, and just before he left he hugged me and told
me
that it was time to fulfill my wish; it was time to dump
my partner, for I had already learned to make the green stuff."

Pablito stood up. His eyes were filled with tears.

"That son of a gun Genaro," he said softly. "That rotten
devil. I truly loved him, and if I
weren't the coward I am, I would
be making his green stuff today."

I didn't want to write anymore. To dispel my sadness I told Pablito that
we should go look for
Nestor.

I was arranging my notebooks in order to leave when the front door was
flung open with a
loud bang. Pablito and I jumped up involuntarily
and quickly turned to look. Nestor was standing
at the door. I
ran to him. We met in the middle of the front room. He sort of leaped on me and
shook me by the shoulders. He looked taller and stronger than the last time I
had seen him. His
long, lean body had acquired an almost feline
smoothness. Somehow, the person facing me,
peering at me,
was not the Nestor I had known. I remembered him as a very shy man who was
embarrassed
to smile because of crooked teeth, a man who was entrusted to Pablito for his
care.
The Nestor who was looking at me was a mixture of don
Juan and don Genaro. He was wiry and agile like don Genaro, but had the
mesmeric command that don Juan had. I wanted to indulge in
being
perplexed, but all I could do was laugh with him. He patted me on the back. He
took off his
hat. Only then did I realize that Pablito did not have
one. I also noticed that Nestor was much
darker, and
more rugged. Next to him Pablito looked almost frail. Both of them wore
American Levi's, heavy jackets and crepe-soled shoes.

Nestor's presence in the house lightened up the oppressive mood
instantly. I asked him to join us in the kitchen.

"You came right in time," Pablito said to Nestor with an
enormous smile as we sat down. "The
Maestro and I
were weeping here, remembering the Toltec devils."

"Were yon really crying. Maestro?" Nestor asked with a
malicious grin on his face.
"You bet he was," Pablito
replied.

A very soft cracking noise at the front door made Pablito and Nestor
stop talking. If I had been
by myself I would not have noticed or
heard anything. Pablito and Nestor stood up; I did the
same. We
looked at the front door; it was being opened in a most careful manner. I
thought that perhaps la Gorda had returned and was quietly opening the door so
as not to disturb us. When the
door was finally opened wide enough to
allow one person to go through, Benigno came in as if he
were
sneaking into a dark room. His eyes were shut and he was walking on the tips of
his toes.

He reminded me of a kid sneaking into a movie theater through an
unlocked exit door in order to see a matinee, not daring to make any noise and
at the same time not capable of seeing a thing in
the dark.

Everybody was quietly looking at Benigno. He opened one eye just enough
to peek out of it
and orient himself and then he tiptoed across the
front room to the kitchen. He stood by the table
for a moment
with his eyes closed. Pablito and Nestor sat down and signaled me to do the
same.
Benigno then slid next to me on the bench. He gently
shoved my shoulder with his head; it was a
light tap in
order for me to move over to make room for him on the bench; then he sat down comfortably
with his eyes still closed.

He was dressed in Levi's like Pablito and Nestor. His face had filled
out a bit since the last
time I had seen him, years before, and
his hairline was different, but I could not tell how. He had
a
lighter complexion than I remembered, very small teeth, full lips, high
cheekbones, a small nose
and big ears. He had always seemed to
me like a child whose features had not matured.

Pablito and Nestor, who had interrupted what they were saying to watch
Benigno's entrance,
resumed talking as soon as he sat down as though
nothing had happened.

"Sure, he was crying with me," Pablito said.

"He's not a crybaby like you," Nestor said to Pablito.

Then he turned to me and embraced me.

"I'm so glad you're alive," he said. "We've just talked
to la Gorda and she said that you were the Nagual, but she didn't tell us how
you survived. How did you survive, Maestro?"

At that point I had a strange choice. I could have followed my rational
path, as I had always
done, and said that I did not have the
vaguest idea, and I would have been truthful at that. Or I
could
have said that my
double
had extricated me from the grip of those women.
I was measuring
in my mind the possible effect of each alternative
when I was distracted by Benigno. He opened
one eye a
little bit and looked at me and then giggled and buried his head in his arms.

"Benigno, don't you want to talk to me?" I asked.

He shook his head negatively.

I felt self-conscious with him next to me and decided to ask what was
the matter with him.
"What's he doing?" I asked
Nestor in a low voice.

Nestor rubbed Benigno's head and shook him. Benigno opened his eyes and
then closed them
again.

"He's that way, you know," Nestor said to me. "He's
extremely shy. He'll open his eyes sooner
or later. Don't
pay any attention to him. If he gets bored he'll go to sleep."

Benigno shook his head affirmatively without opening his eyes.

"Well, how did you get out?" Nestor insisted.

"Don't you want to tell us?" Pablito asked.

I deliberately said that my
double
had come out from the top of
my head three times. I gave
them an account of what had happened.

They did not seem in the least surprised and took my account as a
matter of course. Pablito
became delighted with his own
speculations that dona Soledad might not recover and might
eventually
die. He wanted to know if I had struck Lidia as well. Nestor made an imperative
gesture for him to be quiet and Pablito meekly stopped in the middle of a
sentence.

"I'm sorry. Maestro," Nestor said, "but that was not your
double
."

"But everyone said that it was my
double
."