Thirteen Senses (21 page)

Quickly, Salvador began to pray, remembering how his dear old mother had taught them to kneel down and pray when the bullets of the Revolution had showered like rain all about them.

Immediately, Salvador's heart calmed and the whole world slowed down, giving him time to think. Instantly, he knew what to do. He slammed on his brakes, cutting viciously to the right, directly toward the two oncoming officers.

The Moon behaved beautifully, and the driver of the vehicle was taken by such surprise—seeing the Moon coming straight at him—that he braked hard and cut away and his red-faced partner with the gun flew out the window of their car, face-first into some cactus!

Seeing the shocked man's face as he went flying out the window into the cactus, Salvador laughed with
carcajadas,
feeling wonderful, as he now turned around and headed back toward Mexico.

The officers had won!

They'd stopped him from getting across the border, but also, Salvador felt good about getting the gun-happy young officer full of cactus thorns.

Hitting the smooth, dry salt flat, Salvador was gone.

The two remaining cars were just no match for his grand automobile. Salvador now left the six officers behind in the distance as he sped away back into Mexico, across the smooth, white, forgotten sea.

The Sun,
la cobija de los pobres,
the blanket of the poor, was just coming up in the east and shooting rays of golden light across the land. It was a magnificent sight with the light dancing all around Salvador's automobile with a wonderful display of silvery brightness.

Approaching the end of the lagoon, Salvador glanced up at the sky to the west, and to his complete surprise, he saw the Mother Moon. And she was huge and full, holding there in the pale blue sky of the coming day.

Juan Salvador was filled with such a feeling of wonderment, that he hit the brakes!

The Sun was rising and the Moon was setting, and he could see them both at the same time!

The Right and Left Eyes of the Holy Creator!

Salvador opened the door of his car and got out in the middle of the dry sea and he suddenly just knew . . . here inside of his soul that yes, indeed, Lupe, his new truelove, had been praying for him when he'd been in trouble. Yes, she, too, had been sending him her
amor just
as his mother had come to help him in the form of an eagle.

Realizing this, Salvador heard the Golden Eagle screech again and he glanced up and here she was, just barely above him, looking huge. Why, he could actually see her dark, magnificent eyes, she was so close.

Tears of joy came to Salvador's eyes as he looked at Mother Moon, holding here in the pale blue sky of the coming new day. He could now see so clearly that all the world was alive and singing to him. The Moon was moontalking to him, telling him deep inside of himself that Lupe was still praying for him at this very moment, just as his sacred mother had prayed for him all these years.

His eyes filled with tears and he stood here rooted to this white, flat, forgotten-sea with the Father Sun coming up on his left and the Mother Moon going down on his right, and he just knew to the very depths of his soul that we, human beings, were instruments of God's love when we prayed.

Smiling, Salvador felt a gentle breeze caress him. He now sent his love to Lupe, too, telling her that he was fine, that he was out of danger.

Instantly, he realized that Lupe had, indeed, gotten his message.

His mother had always told him, that the conversations of the heart knew no distance for they traveled through the Almighty!

Then Salvador heard a knocking, a banging. He glanced about himself, and saw that the banging sound was coming from the trunk of his car. He suddenly remembered the doctor and opened up the trunk and let the doctor out. The man was pissed! And he was pouring with sweat and blood. He wanted nothing more to do with Salvador.

“I almost got killed and cooked to death!” yelled the doctor. “Bang, bang, up and down! Bang! BANG! BANG! Up and down! Look at my head, it's all bloody and cut and—oooooo, it hurts!”

And why, Salvador didn't know, but he started laughing.

“NOT FUNNY!” screamed the big doctor.
“A lo chingon,
not funny! NOT FUNNY,
A LO CHINGON!
”

“Look,” said Salvador, still not able to stop laughing, “just thank God, you weren't shot. So we're doing fine. And now, guess what I've decided to do,” said Salvador, grinning, “I'm going to buy a whole railroad car of lettuce just for you, so you can hide in that lettuce, and I can then ship you in luxury all the way to Los Angeles, California. No more
problemas
from now on,” he added with a smile, wondering where this whole idea of lettuce had come from. Hell, he'd never thought of buying a railroad car of lettuce. “You just sleep and rest on a nice, cool bed of lettuce, and I'll get you across in no time!” added this voice within him, talking as if it had a life all of its own.

“Oh, no!” yelled the big doctor. “I want our money back! You're a bad man! Very bad, bad, bad
a lo chingon
—you!”

“Bad, me?” said Salvador. “Hell, I'll show you bad!” And he drew his .45 again, firing by the man's feet. “Get the hell back in that trunk, you chickenshit bigmouth!” he yelled. “Hell, I've taken Chinese women across the border with more guts than you! Old women!”

“You mean you bring old Chinese women across the border?” asked the doctor, looking suddenly very interested.

“Absolutely! And these old women had a lot more guts than you,” added Salvador.

“Okay, I'll go then,” said the big doctor. “But oh, I don't like any more of this
a lo chingon
,” said the tall, dignified man. “I ride with you up front. And I'm hungry! I no eat!”

Salvador laughed, closing the trunk lid. They were on the Mexican side of the border, so it would be okay for the doctor to ride up front with him, but there was no way that he was going to take the doctor back into Chinatown in Mexicali to eat, and maybe run the risk of him running out on him.

Driving off across the dry, white, flat sea with the doctor at his side, Salvador just knew that something quite extraordinary had happened to him.

He'd been shot at, he'd barely escaped with his life intact, and yet he felt so calm, so relaxed. He suddenly knew that he'd finally come to this Blessed Place between the Sun and Moon where his mother Lived and Miracles were Created.

There were no accidents.

He was on his way, learning how to be a married man of Daily Miracles.

All those truckloads of lettuce that they'd been loading on those railroad cars this morning before dawn came flashing to his mind. He really would buy a railroad car full of lettuce, hide the doctor in the sea of produce, and ship him across the border to wherever the train was going. Oh, life was so easy, so effortless once you “saw” with the clarity of God.

Salvador made the sign of the cross over himself, saying, “Thank You,
Papito.
Thank You, God,
gracias
.”

BUYING THE BOXCAR
of lettuce cost Salvador all the cash he had, so there'd be no going back now.

He then drove down to the river, way south of town, so they could cool off, and the doctor wouldn't get the idea of running out on him. And together they washed in a stream and then covered the whole car with mud, hiding the two bullet holes that Salvador had shot through the trunk lid. Miraculously, yes, miraculously, not even one bullet from the officers' guns had hit the vehicle.

They rested on the river's bank and a couple of times the big doctor asked Salvador if those old Chinese women that he'd taken across the border had really been tougher than him.

Salvador laughed, seeing the big man's concern, then assured him that yes, they had been a whole lot tougher than him. The doctor was much quieter after that. Then it was dark and they headed back to town.

Getting to the railroad yards, they looked around, making sure that no one was watching. Then Salvador checked his receipt to be sure he had the right boxcar, and he had the big man climb into the railroad car and, in the light of the full Moon, dig his way down into the lettuce.

“And keep still like a brave, old woman,” said Salvador to him. “Understand, no move 'til I come and call you, eh?”

Salvador then drove to the border stop in town and saw that there was only one guard on duty. The man checked Salvador's papers, searched his car, and passed him on through.

It was after midnight when Salvador watched the long train come across the border, heading north. He drove along the highway, catching glimpses of the train now and then as it sped across the desert. The Mother Moon hung low in the night sky, talking gently to Salvador as she played in and out among the clouds. Salvador thanked Lupe again and again. He could just feel the steady flow of Lupe's love coming to him as she prayed. Love truly didn't know any distance when it was sent through God.

Just before daybreak, the train stopped at a place at the foot of the towering, dark mountains to refuel. Here, Salvador had them unhitch his boxcar of produce, telling them that he had his own personal trucks coming for his lettuce. As soon as the train started up the grade, Salvador climbed up on the boxcar and started looking for the doctor, but he couldn't find him.

“The son-of-a-bitch ran out on me!” yelled Salvador. “You no-good,
crazy-loco cabrón!
You
crazy-loco
fool didn't have the guts to stay put
a lo chingon
like a good woman!”

“
A lo chingon
like a good woman I do, too!” Salvador heard a weak little echo come up to him from out of the lettuce.

“A lo chingon!”
repeated Salvador.

“A lo chingon!”
came the echo again. “I tough like good woman!”

“Oh, you
crazy-loco
son-of-a-bitch!” said Salvador joyfully. “So you did stay put like a good woman!”

“Yes, you crazy son-of-a-bitch,” said the echo as the lettuce started moving under Salvador's feet. “I stay put
a lo chingon
like a good woman!”

Salvador started laughing, and when he saw the doctor's big face suddenly erupt out of the lettuce, he took the doctor's face in his two hands and kissed him on the lips. “You're absolutely beautiful!” he said.

“Beautiful, oh, no,
a lo chingon!
” said the doctor, smiling ear-to-ear. “I no good woman that way, you
crazy-loco
son-of-a-bitch!”

And they started laughing and laughing. They'd done it! They'd really done it! They'd gotten across the border!

IT WAS DARK
when Salvador and the big doctor pulled into Chinatown in Hanford, California—fifteen hours to the north. And all the way, the big doctor and Salvador drank
tequila
and talked.

Salvador came to learn a lot about China and Chinese medicine and herbs and these things called pressure points. Salvador told the doctor that his own mother was
una curandera,
meaning that she was a healer who healed people with local weeds and the massaging of the bottoms of the people's feet, which mirrored the soul, his mother always said.

“You see,” said Salvador, “my mother is old and walks barefoot a lot. She says that for good health, people need to get rooted to the dirt,
la tierra,
every day with their bare feet, so that the love of the Mother Earth can keep them strong with power inside!”

“Your mother is yes, right,” said the doctor. “The bottoms of the people's feet work all the pressure points of the whole body. This is why they brought me from China. The American doctors are good for bones broken, but don't understand our Chinese medicine, which brings good healing to the mind and soul, not just the body.”

Then he showed Salvador a little box in which he kept pieces of bark and dirt and tree leaves.

“Yes,” said Salvador very excitedly, “just like
mi mama!
Then you people also know that men are rock and mineral, and women are tree and bark and leaves!”

“Yes,” said the doctor, “ying and yang!”

“You mean, men and women?”

“Yes, ying and yang, men and women, the same!”

“Oooooooh,” said Salvador. “I see! I see! You know, I'll bring my mother to meet you. She, not the American doctors, saved the lives of hundreds of people in Arizona when the influenza hit the
barrio
,” continued Salvador. “The American doctors didn't know what to do, but my mother did. She cooked up all these tomatoes with different
yerbas
and then wrapped the people's feet and chest, opening up all the windows so they could breathe in fresh air. And the American doctors got so mad at my mother, saying that they'd told everyone to close their windows, and she was going against their orders.”

“Yes, and American doctors are mad at me, too,” said the big Chinese doctor, drinking down another shot of
tequila.
“That's why I couldn't get legally into country. I want to meet your mother,” he added. “Maybe we can teach each other.”

“Sure,” said Salvador. “My mother loves talking
yerbitas
. You know, she ended up saving the lives of hundreds of Americans, too. Oh, were the American doctors mad!”

By the time they pulled up in front of the restaurant in Chinatown in Hanford, California, Salvador and the big doctor were best friends, and they were singing Mexican songs together. Salvador went inside to get the owner. The man was thrilled to see Salvador and came racing outside with three other people to see the doctor.

Seeing the big, tall man, the restaurant owner got so excited that he began shouting at the doctor. The other people explained to Salvador that this man was a famous doctor in China, and that they were so proud that he'd finally agreed to come to be with them here in the United States.

And now, of course, they were also eternally grateful to Salvador, for once more he'd been able to miraculously get someone across that treacherous border for them.