Thirteen Senses (15 page)

Then she heard a series of low, growling cries, and at first she thought that these cries came from the dogs outside. But then, as they grew louder, closer, and more numerous, she suddenly realized these were also coming up from deep inside her ... as she now grabbed at Salvador with such terrible power that she thought she'd crushed him.

Lupe could hear herself SCREAMING so loud, then giving tight cries as she'd never heard herself give before!

Her whole body was breaking, EXPLODING, ERUPTING in WILD SPASMS with each SCREAMING CRY!

Then, suddenly, she couldn't stand it anymore and she just flung Salvador away from herself across the bed and to the floor, so she could catch her breath again!

“I'm sorry!” she yelled, desperately trying to catch her breath. “I hope I didn't hurt you again.”

This time, she hadn't just pushed Salvador away. Oh, no, this time she'd flung him clear across the entire length of the bed to the floor, where he now lay staring at her in disbelief. He was shocked. He outweighed her by a good fifty pounds, and yet she'd tossed him away like a toy.

He shook his head, grinning. “No, you haven't hurt me yet,” he said, smiling. “I think I'm still okay.”

“Good,” she said, taking one more big breath, trying to calm her pounding heart. “Then come back on the bed,” she said, reaching out to bring him close again. Oh, she was so hungry! She truly had to be careful. She was starving!

He took her outstretched hand. He was now very glad that they'd had over a week to cool off after their wedding. Two people truly could kill each other on their wedding night.

Moonlight was coming in their bedroom window, moontalking to them through the white lace curtains. The Mother Moon was truly every young lover's best friend, helping them, guiding them in this miraculous moment of power and youth.

“I don't want to hurt you,” said Lupe, as she helped him back in bed. “But I really thought I was going to die, so I had to push you away.”

He nodded. “You don't have to explain,” he said. “I'm okay.”

“Really?” she said.

“Yes, really,” he said, smiling. “Like I said, don't worry, I can take this for two or three days. You don't frighten me. But I'll tell you, I've never been tossed across a bed like a little toy doll before.”

“Well, maybe I don't frighten you,” she said, smiling, “but I'm kind of frightening myself,” she added, truly enjoying the thought of her own power.

She now took hold of him again, pulling him across the wide bed to herself, licking her lips. She was feeling real
chingona.
And, oh, just the touch of him, sent her skin itching, singing, glowing, burning hot all over again!

Suddenly, Lupe forced herself to stop. “Wait. Please, stop. I want to undress now,” she said, not wanting to ruin her dress any more. And saying this, Lupe got up and went into the privacy of the bathroom, while he began to strip so he could get under the covers.

In the bathroom, Lupe undressed, folded her clothes, and slipped the beautiful beige-white gown over her naked body that Harry's wife, Bernice—the Jewish couple that Salvador had introduced her to—had given her as a wedding gift.

“This gown, you change into on the first night of your honeymoon in the privacy of the bathroom after you've made him hot with kisses,” had said Bernice, a woman who kept herself so shapely and well that she looked twenty years younger than her age. “Then you turn off the light, my dear, as soon as you come back into the bedroom, because this quick little sight of you in this gown, your husband will treasure with excitement even after fifty years of marriage!

“For a honeymoon, after all, is for the building of memories that help keep us married people together in the years to come. And if he says to turn the lights back on so he can see you, you say no! And say it with conviction! But then add very suggestively, ‘Later, honey, please, when I'm less shy.' But you are not shy, my dear,” had explained Bernice. “Oh, no, you know what you are doing. You are building the foundation of the fantasies that every successful marriage is based upon!”

Lupe sat down on the toilet, listening to her waterfall-like pouring, then she wiped herself, flushed, washed her hands, fixed her hair, drank some water from the sink with her cupped hand—when she could find no glass—then she breathed, looking at herself in the mirror, and by God, it truly surprised Lupe to see how truly beautiful she was every time she looked in the mirror.

After all, she'd never been one to spend much time before mirrors. Why, she, Lupe Gomez—no, Lupe Villaseñor—was a breathtaking beauty . . . and she was a married woman!

She laughed, she smiled, she giggled, and she thanked God, made the sign of the cross over herself, and came out of the bathroom, let Salvador feast his eyes on her for only a split second, then she turned, turning off the light of the bedroom.

“But, Lupe,” said Salvador, “don't turn off the lights! I want to see you; you look so beautiful!”

“No!” she snapped. “I will not turn them on! Please, Salvador, later, maybe, when I'm, well, you know, not so shy,” she added, softly.

“Oh,” he said, truly loving the sweet, innocent tone of her voice.

She, Lupe, now slipped under the covers with Salvador, her truelove, and they drew their two bodies close together on the cool, smooth sheets, then began to kiss and smell each other. He was naked, and she'd never smelled a naked man before.

She giggled, liking it!

And so He, the Day ended and She, the Night began, as the Mother Moon spoke to them, Moontalking.

5

The Devil saw their happiness, their joy of being in Holy Union with the Almighty, and so he smiled, creeping down from the Tree of Knowledge to intercept them.

F
OR THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS,
Salvador and Lupe were together in their little honeymoon cottage, moontalking to the stars and getting to know each other as they'd never known anyone else ever before.

Lupe told Salvador stories of her childhood, of what it had been like to grow up in a gold mining town in Mexico . . . high in the mountains of
la Barranca del Cobre,
which was owned by a big American company. She told him of her pet deer, of running up and down the steep hillsides with her deer, like a wild Indian.

Salvador told Lupe stories of growing up in
los Altos de Jalisco,
where the Earth was red and all men carried a gun, and of his pet bull, Chivo, the greatest fighting bull in all the region, and how life had been a happy, wild adventure 'til the Revolution of 1910 had come exploding into their mountainous area when he'd been nine years old.

They talked and made love and talked some more, little by little coming to feel so close together that it almost felt to them as if they'd known each other forever.

Two hearts becoming one.

Two minds becoming one.

And soon their stories intermingled in each other's dreams, and their bodies began taking on each other's smells.

Smells and dreams uniting them into a feeling of oneness that they'd never known before.

Dreams and smells, two very powerful means of communication, and here, at this crossroads of smells and dreams, the whole world disappeared, and they were now all-new and so happy, so very happy giving love and more love to each other again and again!

They slept when they were tired and they talked when they awoke, and little by little, this stranger that they'd married became each other's best friend.

Lupe now felt safe enough to ask Salvador questions about sex and men and life that she'd always been too embarrassed to ask her mother or sisters. And he, too, little by little, told her things about his life that he'd never told anyone before.

But it wasn't until the third night, when they'd worn themselves to exhaustion, that they finally shed their outer skins like snakes in the springtime, and they forgot all their past lives, and now nothing else existed, but this new, brave world that they'd created between themselves in lovemaking.

And the smell of their bodies, and the smell of their wet-scented bed, became a Universe for them to explore as they came to know each little curve, each secret little crevice of their two bodies.

They continued to make love again and again.

Slowly, gently, Lupe came to know for the first time in her young life, why the Sun was always referred to as a male member when he came rising up with his hot-burning power each morning, just before he burst forth, shooting sunlight to all the Female Earth!

Love! Love!
Amor
was the mating of Heaven and Earth!

Lupe now took Salvador deep inside of herself again and again, finally beginning to satisfy that growling hunger that she'd been feeling ever since they'd left her parents' home.

Now, here they finally were, a man and woman of One Soul: the First House of every Home.

The First House of the Three Sacred Worlds of Creation, the place where
Papito Dios
resided with each New Couple, breathing in and . . . breathing out.

The drums were beating!

The Drums were beat, Beat, BEATING!

They, Lupe and Salvador, had re-united with the Heartbeat of the Universe; One Song, One Verse, the SYMPHONY of CREATION!

THEN, THERE CAME A KNOCKING
On their front door.

It was midmorning, and Kenny White had come to tell Salvador that Fred Noon was in town and that he needed to see him, something about his brother, Domingo, in prison.

“All right,” said Salvador, glancing behind himself, wanting to make sure that Lupe hadn't overheard. “I'll be over at your place in an hour.”

“An hour, eh?” said Kenny, grinning. “Hell, I remember the days when you'd be ready in two minutes! Just joking,” added Kenny. “We all know you're on your honeymoon. Don't worry. I'll go have breakfast with Fred over at the Montana Cafe. We'll meet you there. Also, I think it's about time I took your car in for service.”

“Thank you, Kenny,” said Salvador, rubbing his face and trying to get the sleep out of his eyes, “you're a good
amigo
.”

“Hell, you keep me in the best liquor since I last tasted Canadian Whiskey,” whispered Kenny with a big, shit-eating grin. “See you, Sal! Man, if I felt any better, I'd get arrested!”

“Who was that?” asked Lupe, when Salvador came back into the bedroom.

“Kenny,” said Salvador, rubbing his eyes and still trying to wake up. My God, he almost hadn't recognized Kenny when he'd first opened the door. It was like he and Lupe were so far away . . . in another world! “He came to tell me that, well, my attorney, Fred Noon, from San Diego is up here to see me.”

“You have an attorney?” asked Lupe. “But why would you need one for moving fertilizer?”

Salvador took a deep breath. Lupe was really quick. She was no dummy. She'd put two and two together real fast. He'd have to be very careful around her while he was hiding all these lies from her. Lies and love didn't mix very well. Love just opened you up too much.

“When I get back, we'll talk,” he said. “There are, well, quite a few things that I need to explain to you.”

“Like what?”

“Not now,” he said. Damnit, she was fast! “I have to meet Fred and Kenny in an hour.”

“In an hour,” she said, snaking her left leg out from under the warm covers and hooking him gently between his legs with her foot, “then we still have a little time, don't we?”

“Lupe,” he said, feeling excited and yet pushed, “I need to clear my head and think. My God, I almost didn't recognize Kenny when I saw him at the door. It feels like, well, we've been drugged, or, well, at least lost for years or something.”

She pursed her lips together, not liking it, looking a little hurt, but still she didn't release him with her foot. She wiggled her toes. It felt so delicious being
chingona.
It felt so all daring, and new to her.

Feeling her toes playing with his private hanging parts, Salvador grinned. “Okay,” he said. “But only a quickie. I got to bathe and dress. Man, I bet we smell worse than two deer in rut.”

She nodded, remembering when her pet deer had come in rut and how he'd become so wild and unmanageable and yes, smelly. Wiggling her toes, she now drew him close to herself, then with a smile, she reached out with her hand, grabbing hold of him. And Salvador loved it.

In the last three days and nights, Salvador had truly come to learn why it was that all through the ages men had put such a high value on a virgin wife. Lupe had blossomed before his very eyes, becoming almost a slave to her own sexuality.

She was like a beautiful, young filly coming into her own, a flower,
una flor,
opening petal by petal, a fruit tree sprouting forth with its new leaves and blossoms—just bursting with vitality!

Just the look of her eyes sent his heart dancing!

SALVADOR WAS DRESSED
and ready to go out the door.