Thirteen Senses (41 page)

Epitacio told him and they drove over and went inside. Salvador had his .45 under his shirt and his .38 in his back pocket. Who knew, maybe these people had set up Epitacio, stolen all the barrels of whiskey, and were now selling it out of their store. But he had to keep calm, calm as a reptile in the desert, eyes half closed and hardly breathing, so he could study these people in a calm manner.

Watching carefully, Salvador saw that the store people really liked Epitacio, especially the woman. And they weren't nervous at all. They seemed very relaxed and straightforward. Epitacio and Salvador bought a few things and went back out to the Moon. Seeing the car's shattered window, Salvador remembered his sister Luisa and took a big breath.

“You've been playing
el coo coo cooooo
with that woman in there, haven't you?” said Salvador to Epitacio. “That's why you bought so many groceries, to impress her, eh?”

Epitacio said nothing. He just turned all red once again.

Salvador shook his head in disgust.

“You're not going to tell Luisa, are you?” asked Epitacio as they got back in the Moon.

“I'm not thinking about that right now,” said Salvador. “Now, we got business to do.”

They drove back by the house, then parked in a large, open field way behind the house. They watched the place as they ate some of their groceries. They never saw any movement. Finally, this was it. Here was no more waiting or watching or hoping. Salvador opened the door of his Moon and got out, brushing the crumbs off his pants and shirt.

“You know, Epitacio, I don't even know how a man like you thinks inside of his head. And I'm not saying this with anger or malice, I'm just saying that I can't understand how you, or my brother Domingo, really think. My God, Epitacio, we had a good thing going, a little gold mine, so how could you be so stupid and careless?”

Epitacio sat in the Moon just nodding and listening. “Maybe, Salvador,” he finally said quietly, “Domingo and I don't think. Maybe that's the whole thing.”

Salvador's left eyebrow went up. “I'll be damn,” he said. “Very good. Maybe you're right. Hell, my father didn't know how to think, either.”

“Most people don't, Salvador. Not all people had a mother like yours.”

Salvador's eyebrow arched up once again. “I'll be damn,” he said. “Maybe you're right. But no more talking, this is it, Epitacio. You get in the driver's seat of the car and drive around to the front of the house, park, get out, and go to the front door. If everything is okay, you'll see me inside of the house, already.”

“But how will you know to go inside or not?” asked Epitacio.

“Why, I'll do what my sister did,” said Salvador, smiling. “I'll throw a big rock in the window, and if there's no shooting, we're home free! Damn, I owe Luisa one for teaching me this.”

“That's it!” yelled Epitacio, excitedly. “That's it, Salvador!”

“That's it, what?” asked Salvador.

“That you think!”

“That I think?”

“Yes,” he said excitedly. “Don't you see it? Luisa threw a rock at your car and broke your window and even from this you think about it, and learn! And most people wouldn't. No, they'd still just be so mad at their sister for ruining their car, that they couldn't think about it any other way. See, you and Luisa have learned how to do this from your mother, how to see things so differently than other people see.”

“I'll be damn,” said Salvador. “I think you're right. I think, you're really right.”

“And this, you and Luisa learned to do since kids, to think, to see all of life so clearly from so many different angles. And most people don't know how to do this, especially not big, strong men who always try to get their way by force.”

“I'll be damn,” said Salvador again. “I think you maybe really got something. Because my mother always said to us that the great cunning of the She-Fox came to her—not because she was so smart—but because she was so small. That the
coyote
was so big and strong that he never had to learn how to be cunning. Oh, you are one smart
cabrón
, Epitacio!”

The short little man got all embarrassed. “I was never brave, Salvador, and so I've had to figure out other ways to live, too.”

“I see, and you really love Luisa, don't you?”

He turned red faced again, and nodded.

“Fat and round and warm, eh?”

“And smart, too,” added Epitacio. “She knows my weaknesses, but she doesn't hate me for them. She forgives me my other women.”

“Then, about this other woman,” said Salvador. “Luisa knows?”

Epitacio breathed. “Luisa knows everything! She's a
bruja
, a witch, you know, just like your mother. And believe me, I don't mean this in an offensive way, but well, this is what we men call women who are so capable.”

Salvador nodded. “I guess you're right. Okay, no more of this. Let's get back to business, and do it,
a lo chingon
!”

And so Salvador checked both of his weapons, put them under his belt, then calmly lit another cigar.

Epitacio got in on the driver's side, started the motor and drove the Moon around the field to the front.

Smoking with his cigar in mouth, Salvador now began walking directly up to the house in a steady, well-measured stride, watching for movement at the windows very carefully.

Once he was close, he quickly tossed his cigar, picked up a rock, and threw it through the closest window as he rushed up on the side of the house, getting in so close that now no one from inside could open fire on him.

Heart pounding, he held. He breathed. He could hear no shots or cops inside, so he then nodded to Epitacio, who was out in front. Salvador went crashing in the back door as Epitacio came in the front door. To their shock, there was a family of raccoons scrambling out a hole in the cupboards of the kitchen.

Salvador burst out laughing and laughing. “These raccoons, they were the eyes that you saw staring at you!”

“Oh, no, Salvador, they were great, big, huge eyes!”

“Sure, great big,
grandisimos
! Come on, let's load everything up and get the hell out of here! I'm married, I'm not taking any more chances!”

It was almost midnight by the time they got back to Corona. It had taken five trips in the Moon to get everything out of the house and into the hills. And not one barrel of whiskey had been stolen. Everything was there, except for all the groceries that Epitacio had bought, which the raccoons had, of course, devoured.

Getting to Corona, Salvador stopped by the stone church before going home.

“Oh, you're going to give thanks to Our Lady,” said Epitacio.

“No, not exactly,” said Salvador. “I'm going to give a case of this whiskey to the priest, and ask him for a little favor.”

10

LOVE was in the Air! Amor was Everywhere! The Wilds of Life, la Vida, were now leaping with the FIRES of HELL and HEAVEN Here Upon MOTHER EARTH!

T
HEN YOU LIED TO ME,
Salvador!” shouted Lupe. “Oh, my God! And I asked you if you were a bootlegger, I asked you, Salvador! And you lied to me! YOU LIED!”

“Yes, I did,” said Salvador quietly, “you're right, I lied.”

“Oh, Salvador, I feel like you drove a sword into my heart, I feel so much pain inside of me!” she said, with tears streaming down her face.

They were parked in a grove of oak trees just south of Temecula, about halfway between Corona and Carlsbad.

“Everyone knew, Salvador,” continued Lupe, “but I refused to believe them, because I trusted in you. Tell me, how can I ever trust you again? Oh, if I wasn't pregnant, I'd leave you!”

And saying this, she stared at him eye to eye. “And, also, how dare you compare what you do to my mother having a drink now and then. What you do is dirty! All of my life my mother explained to us girls that liquor and cards ruined more homes than even war! I'd thought we were special, Salvador. I'd thought that people could look up to us in the
barrio
and we could—oh, I feel so dirty, so, so—my God! My God! Tell me, Salvador, at least you're not a gambler, right?”

Salvador breathed and he breathed again. He could hear a little creek running down through the rocks beyond the oak trees. These were huge oaks with big, thick roots going down to underground waters of the streambed. These trees had seen a lot of life; a lot of floods and a lot of droughts. Their roots were exposed where the soil had eroded.

“Lupe,” said Salvador, “gambling is my main profession.”

Her eyes went huge! She tried to speak, but nothing would come out of her mouth. No, all she could now do was just sit in the Moon, staring at this man, this person whom she'd married, but didn't know!

Suddenly, she couldn't stand the feeling that he'd ever put his hands on her, or that she'd ever allowed his “thing” to come into her body.

She began to hiccup, and when he reached out to help her, she lunged at his hand, biting him with such power that she thought she'd torn off his fingers. Then she was out of the car, and running as he screamed in pain!

The whole world was whirling, turning, tossing!

The oak trees were swaying, dancing as she made her way through them, trying to run, but unable to get her legs under herself.

Oh, how she hated that she was pregnant!

She should have married Mark! Her sister Carlota had been right! Salvador was a no-good liar!

She could feel herself going crazy
-loca
as she continued running further and further into the oak and brush. Then the underbrush got so thick, that she had to get down on her hands and knees to crawl.

She stopped. She was pouring with sweat, and she couldn't breathe. She felt like she'd been stabbed in her chest. She began gasping for air. She felt she was dying.

Then she thought she heard something. She held her breath so she could hear better, and yes, she could hear a waterfall. It sounded like the wonderful waterfalls they'd had back home in their box canyon of
la Lluvia de Oro.
This was when she also heard the rustling of leaves and she turned and saw that it was Salvador coming after her through the brush, bent over like a bear as he dodged in and out of the thickets.

“No!” she screamed!

She got up off her hands and knees and took off as fast as she could, running through the brush crouched over, then leaping out and running in the open places just as she'd done back home when she'd been a girl and she'd gone racing up and down
las barrancas
with her pet deer.

And she was fast! And it felt so good to be free again, running in the wild!

Why, only the Tarahumara Indians back home, the greatest runners in all the world, had been faster and more capable than her! Salvador could never catch her! No man would ever catch her again! She was her mother's daughter, after all, a long-legged Yaqui and she hated Salvador!

She hated that she'd ever loved him!

Salvador was leaping through the brush, trying to head her off. But he wasn't watching where he was going and he went running off the embankment of the oaks and brush. The
loco
fool hadn't stopped to listen for the waterfall. Out, out, out off the cliff-like
arroyo
with the stream way down below, he went screaming, “LOOOOOO-PEEE!”

Lupe ran out of the trees and brush to a large clearing at the edge of the steep, narrow wash and there was Salvador, still rolling and falling, and the little waterfall was about a hundred feet beyond him. “Loooooo-Peee!” he still screamed!

She could see that he was going to end up rolling into some cactus plants. She began to laugh, loving it as he hit the cactus, SCREECHING in bloody murder!

“Serves you right,” she said. “Maybe you'll kill yourself! Good riddance!” But then she remembered Salvador's mother and how much she liked her and she didn't want him to die. What would she tell his mother? Tears came to her eyes.

“Lupe! Lupe! Please, help me! I've got cactus thorns all over me!” Salvador yelled.

“Good!” she yelled back down to him. “I hope they hurt!”

And saying this, she looked beyond Salvador, down into the wide, deep wash, and she could see the little stream and the small waterfall. She realized that never before in all of her life had she ever thought of killing herself. Never in all of their suffering back in the Revolution had anyone in her family ever thought of giving up on life, because, well, simply, they'd always had so much love and trust between them.

Trust, she could now see was, indeed, a very big word. Maybe even larger than Love.

Her eyes filled with tears and she thought of their wedding vows and of the words that they had used. They'd said that they'd promise to be True to each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to Love and Honor all the days of their Lives. And then they'd also said, to have and to hold for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death did they part. But never had the word “trust” been used. And yet she could now “see” so clearly that the whole wedding ceremony had been based on Trust. Trust was, indeed, a very important word, and she no longer had this with Salvador.