Thirteen Senses (13 page)

Salvador breathed. “Well, then, I accept,” he said.

“Good,” said Don Victor, smiling grandly.

All this time Lupe and her mother had been watching, and they didn't really know what the two men were talking about, but it made them feel very good to see such joy and warmth between them.

It had been a long time since Don Victor had shown any spark of his old self.

Salvador picked up Lupe's two bags and carried them down the steps to the Moon. Putting the suitcases in the back, Salvador then opened the car door for Lupe and got her inside. Then he waved his good-byes to his in-laws, and walked around, jumped in the Moon, started the motor, and they were off.

He took Lupe's hand as they sped away. And just the touch of her sent him flying!

Part Three

MOONTALKING

End of August 1929
Carlsbad, California

4

And so they'd now entered into the Garden of Eden, God's first couple—a man and a woman who of their own freewill chose the way of the Almighty!

W
ITH HER OPEN HAND
, Lupe played with the passing breeze outside her window as they drove down the coast from Santa Ana to Carlsbad. The breeze had never felt so delicious on her naked skin. She just couldn't get over it; she was now a married woman going off on her honeymoon. And here was her husband,
su esposo,
sitting beside her, looking so handsome at the wheel of their grand automobile. Lupe purred.

But then, just south of San Clemente, as they came into the great Santa Margarita
Rancho
—which would one day be the Marine Corps Base of Camp Pendleton—Lupe had a problem. She needed to pee, but there was no gas station or any other facilities. And of course, all of her life she'd relieved herself behind bushes and trees when she and her family had followed the crops, but this was different. She was all alone with this man, a stranger, and her mother and sisters weren't here to help give her privacy with a blanket.

But then she once more remembered that Salvador wasn't a stranger. He was her husband. Her
esposo!
She started laughing.

“What is it?” asked Salvador.

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “Just please pull over. Quick.”

Salvador pulled over to the side of the road. Lupe got out and went behind the Moon automobile to relieve herself, but then she realized that she could be seen by oncoming traffic. She quickly walked across a little slope toward the sea. Here, she found a tree and some tall brush.

Finding a small clearing near the end of the slope, Lupe decided that this was a good place. She turned and saw that Salvador was watching her. She waved for him to please turn around. He did so, and when she squatted down to relieve herself, she'd never heard herself pee so loudly. My God, she sounded like a waterfall.

Finishing, she realized she had no paper, so she didn't know what to use to dry herself. Standing up, there was a little white butterfly flying about her. She laughed. Then glancing around, she saw that a whole swarm of these butterflies were coming toward her.

Her face lit up with joy, remembering the tens of thousands of great big orange butterflies that had come into her family's canyon every year back in Mexico.

A hawk now flew over Lupe's head, giving a great cry. It was a Redtail Hawk, which was known to many Native People of the Southwest as the Red Eagle—a human's guide.

Breathing in of the butterflies, Lupe suddenly felt so blessed as she now looked out across the gray-green-brown landscape all about her and to the glistening, dancing, vast blue sea. The Redtail called to her again, telling her that she was surrounded by the Almighty Creator's Beauty!

Laughing, Lupe raised up her arms and the white butterflies danced all about her like Angels. She laughed all the more and the butterflies came in so close that some began to land on the naked skin of her arms. Why, she could hear these butterflies speaking to her, singing to her, whispering good tiding to her just as her mother's plants had whispered to her when she'd drank her coffee on her parents' porch, watching the break of the new day.

Then miracle of miracles, up came a mother deer and her two little yearlings, standing at the edge of this swarm of white butterflies.

Lupe couldn't stop smiling—she was so happy!

The Red Eagle screeched again and again and Lupe felt like she'd been magically transported back in time to her childhood when the whole world had been full of magic and wonder! A time when she and her girlfriends had lived in the Daily Miracle of all plants breathing in and out of the Holy Creator and all animal life was glowing with the Union of Creation.

A time when she and Manuelita, Uva, and Cuca—her best friends growing up—and her sister Carlota had raced up and down the
barrancas
of their box canyon, when the soldiers of the Revolution weren't trying to catch them and rape them.

Lupe now felt so blessed—she COULD BURST! She waved for Salvador to come across the slope and join her.

Love was in every breath she took!

Love was in every sight she saw: the trees, the brush, the sea, the breeze, the butterflies, the deer, and of course, the calling Red Eagle.

Taking her husband's hand, Lupe stepped with Salvador over the dark wet-spot where she'd peed and they walked down to the seashore. The butterflies followed them like they were Angels sent by God.

Suddenly, a covey of quail exploded in a quick-burst, flying from a big bush down by the sand. Lupe and Salvador took off their shoes and walked along the shore. Every step they now took, they walked in God's Beauty. They'd entered Heaven on Earth.

The Father Sun was going down by the time they got back to their car and drove into Oceanside. They stopped on the bluff above the Ocean-side pier and got out of their Moon. There were a few silky-thin clouds out over the sea where the Father Sun, the Right Eye of the Almighty, was setting.

The closer and closer the Father Sun drew to the sea, the whole western sky lit up in colors of pink and gold, red and orange, and the clouds took on beautiful colors of silky-silver.

People gathered on the bluff and watched the miracle of light giving closure to another magnificent day, truly a Gift from the Almighty.

Salvador held Lupe in his arms up against his body as they both watched the Sun now touching the sea and begin to go slipping, sliding into the great Pacific. He could feel the warmth of Lupe's firm, well-rounded
nalguitas
up against him. It was delicious!

Then boom, the Right Eye of God was going, going, gone, and here held a little pyramid-like flash of greenish-blue light for a split-second!

Suddenly, it was much cooler.

Quickly, Salvador and Lupe got back in their car.

By the time they got to Carlsbad—only three miles south of the pier— Lupe was going crazy with hunger! It had taken them nearly six hours just to drive down from Santa Ana, and usually this drive only took about an hour. And her sister Maria had warned Lupe of this timeless time and hunger of love.

In fact, both of Lupe's older married sisters, Maria and her
nina
Sophia, had explained to her of this woman's hunger, of this woman's timeless sense of time that took place when a man and woman united in the full commitment of Holy Matrimony.

Time stood still and all living life burst forth in abundance! And a woman became so hungry that she had to be very careful, for if she opened up, really opened up to her full powers of love too quickly, on her wedding night, why, she could devour the man—skin and bones and all—taking him into her body again and again, until there'd be
nada, nada,
nothing left of the man for even the buzzards.

And it was true, for everything that Lupe now saw, she just wanted to take it and put it in her mouth, chew it up, and pull it down deep into her starving, aching body!

Holding Salvador's hand as they drove—she was tempted to bite the fingers off his hand, one by one, sucking them first, then chewing them, devouring them as she took them deep inside of herself!

By the time they pulled off the road into the tiny town of Carlsbad, Lupe was so hungry, that she knew she was dangerous!

“Tell me,” she said, trying to keep calm, “do we have anything at home so I can fix something for us to eat?”

“No, I don't think so,” said Salvador. “But we can go out to eat later.”

“Later? Oh, no!” she said. “I'd like to stop and buy groceries, so I can fix our first meal for us in our new home.”

That was the other thing that Lupe's two older married sisters, Maria and Sophia, had told her to do: stock the house with plenty of food before they went to bed. “Or else,” Maria had told her, “newlyweds have been known to devour each other, only to be found dead and stinking up the house weeks later!”

“Oh, all right,” said Salvador, turning onto the main street of Carlsbad. “There's a new market just down the street from our house. My friend Kenny—you know, you met him at the wedding—loaned Eisner the money to get his little store started.”

“Didn't Kenny loan you money, too?” asked Lupe.

“Yes, that's right,” said Salvador. “Kenny's a good man.”

A few weeks ago, Salvador had begun telling Lupe about his fertilizer business. After all, he wanted to start building a little trust between them before he stopped all of his lying.

My God, Lupe really had no idea that he was a gambling man, a bootlegger, drank alcohol and carried a gun. She had married him, really thinking that he just moved fertilizer for a living.

The truth was going to shock her. Lies just weren't good traveling companions with love for very long.

Buying two whole bags of groceries—which came to thirty-five cents— they drove back down the main street of town, turned left, went east one block, then they turned left again up a dirt road, and right into an orchard where their little house was located. Salvador had rented the house from his good friends Hans and Helen Huelster, the German couple who owned the Montana Cafe. Hans and Helen had met Lupe at their wedding. Helen thought Lupe was the most naturally beautiful woman she'd ever seen.

It was a good-size, two-bedroom house with indoor plumbing that Salvador had picked up for fifteen dollars a month—a fortune! A dog and two cats had come with the house and a little vegetable garden in back and an enclosed, white picket fence surrounded the whole place. There were roses in the front yard, plus all the fresh flowers Salvador had planted. Their closest neighbors were two blocks away.

Getting out of the car, Salvador didn't know if he should carry in his bride first, or the two bags of groceries that Lupe just kept clutching to her breasts as if she was afraid of losing them.

“Lupe,” he finally said, laughing. “I don't think I can carry you over the threshold, if you don't let go of those groceries.”

Blushing, Lupe put the two bags down and Salvador picked her up in his arms. Looking into each other's eyes, they now drew close, and oh, just the touch of their lips sent them flying!

Quickly, Salvador opened the little, white gate with one hand, then holding the gate open with one foot, he took his young bride through the fence and toward the house. But then, out of nowhere, here came the little dog that belonged to the house and he didn't recognize Salvador and Lupe, and he began growling and snapping.

Salvador yelled at the dog, then made the terrible mistake of trying to kick him away.

The tough, little dog now leaped at him, grabbing Salvador by his pant leg, and he and Lupe both fell to the ground. Salvador was mad as hell, but Lupe couldn't stop laughing. The little, brown dog was now looking so proud of himself that he was actually smiling, and saying, “Look, I may be small, but I'm a real tough little dog, so you two will never have to worry, 'cause I can keep guard with no
problema
!”

Still feeling pissed off at getting his pant leg ripped, Salvador now made the mistake of taking yet another kick at the dog. Instantly, the little beast quit smiling and attacked Salvador again, biting him. Salvador yelped out in pain. And he was such a tiny dog, hardly any larger than the two cats that now came up to be loved, rubbing up against Salvador and Lupe as they lay there on the ground.