Thirteen Senses (50 page)

“Yes, she told me,” said Lupe. “She was very nice to me.”

“Also, he told me that beautiful, young Mexican couples come to him after only a few months of marriage, just like us, and they keep coming back like clockwork every sixteen or eighteen months, like that woman out in the waiting room with me, and she's only twenty-six. So, I don't want that to happen to you,
querida.
I love you, and I want you young and beautiful as long as possible! Just like his wife! And they only had three children, and so maybe we should just have three or four and not too close together so your body can, can, you know, replenish, get strong again between children,” he said. “Lupe, I don't want you losing your teeth like my mother.”

Lupe was stunned. She'd never seen Salvador like this before. And the doctor hadn't told her anything about this. He'd just checked her to see if she was pregnant, and that was all. “But, Salvador,” she said, “isn't it up to God how many children we have?”

“Exactly! Me, too, that's what I always thought, but the doctor told me no, that it's also up to us, that we can plan on how many children we want.”

Lupe was flabbergasted. “But he's not a priest,” said Lupe. “So how can he speak like this?”

“That's what I thought,” said Salvador. “And then he asked me if I'd take my car to be fixed by a man who didn't drive or own a car. And when I said no, of course not, he then asked me why would I then talk with a priest about marriage and children when they aren't married and they have no wife that they love or children to raise.”

“He said all that?” said Lupe, making the sign of the cross over herself. She was astonished. She had to sit down. “But he's Catholic!” she said. “This is why Sophia went to him in the first place!”

“Yes, I know,” said Salvador, “and that's when he brought out a bottle and gave me a drink. I guess, I was beginning to look sick.”

“You mean that he gave you a drink of liquor in his office?” she asked, getting even more shocked.

“Yes, German schnapps, or something like that. It was awful, but, still, it did the job. I got to feeling better.”

Lupe gripped her forehead. This was just awful. She'd never dreamed that their doctor was a drinking man.

“Salvador,” said Lupe, “I just don't know what to do. Maybe we're not going to be able to go back to that doctor anymore. How could a doctor possibly tell someone to not listen to a man of God?” She took a deep breath. “Come, let's go to bed,
querido.
This whole thing has made me very tired.”

“Me, too!” said Salvador, trying to get to his feet, but he was too wobbly and fell back in his chair. “But Lupe, you got to promise me that we don't . . . don't do it, or, oh,
querida,
I DON'T WANT YOU LOSING YOUR BEAUTIFUL TEETH!” he screamed to the high Heavens!

Lupe began to laugh. “But, Salvador,” she said, taking his hands and pulling him up to herself, “it's too late. I'm already pregnant.”

“Oh, that's right,” he said. “Then it's okay, we can still do it tonight!”

“Yes,” she said.

And so they hurried down the hallway together.

A SOFT, TIP-TAPPING SOUND
awoke Salvador. It was raining.

Lying in bed alongside Lupe, Salvador listened to the rain. The raindrops were gathering together on the large, dark, green avocado leaves in the tree outside of their bedroom window, bending the leaves with their weight and slip-sliding down the large smooth leaves with quick-moving little waterways of sounding drip-dropping water.

Lupe stirred, and Salvador drew her close, and the rain continued washing the dust off the avocado leaves, brownish trickles of water drip-dropping off the ends of the leaves, making a ping-ponging music when they hit the cold, smooth metal of their Moon automobile. The soft, gentle rain continued, and soon the entire dirt driveway in front of their little rented home was filling up with small water puddles.

The whole world was changing all around Salvador and Lupe. They were in love, they were at peace, and yet it felt like their
heart-corazones
had been ripped apart. All of their cultural beliefs felt like they'd just been shattered. Like the very ground on which they stood had been plowed under.

The raindrops continued gathering on the avocado leaves outside of their window, drip-dropping in long, steady streamlets. Here and there, high overhead the clouds would break up and startling patches of bright night sky would burst through.

Salvador thought about what the doctor had told him and he moved his hand over the curves of Lupe's wonderful body, gliding his fingertips oh, so softly, gently, back and forth over her valleys and hills. The feel of her was intoxicating. And the smell of her sent him flying to Heaven. But still he couldn't get the doctor's words out of his mind. Because . . . if people could really plan the size of their families, then they could also do other things that he'd always thought were of the domain of God alone.

The clouds broke up and the last of the droplets of water cascaded off the large leaves of the avocado trees. Lupe awoke, and she saw that Salvador, her truelove, was awake and looking down upon her with such tenderness as he sat here in bed at her side.

Smiling, she reached out and touched his left cheek with her right hand. And as she soothed his face, she continued feeling his fingertips gliding back and forth over her back so gently, so softly, so just right. Why, he just knew how to stroke her body so perfectly. His touch was magic!

She breathed and breathed again, then snuggling in closer to him, she put her head into the crook of his arm, and now she could feel his heart beating to her ear. And in the distance she could also hear the last of the raindrops falling off the avocado leaves and ping-ponging on their Moon automobile parked outside of their window. Now and then a small patch of bright moonlight would come in and dance on the far wall of their bed-room.

Lupe also couldn't get the doctor's words out of her mind.

It felt to her as if the very soil on which they'd been raised, had been ripped out from under them, putting them on very unstable land.

She closed her eyes, listening to Salvador's heartbeat. She felt very unsure of their future. But, also, down deep inside, she just knew that they'd do fine, because she felt so warm and safe in his arms up against his thick, full chest.

And so the Mother Earth continued to turn and the centuries came and went, but the matters of the
Heart-Corazón
held fast.

Part Six

HEAVENTALKING

12

And so Humanity was now being called upon to Sing and Dance and Praise the SECOND COMING of the LORD!

I
N THE LATE MORNING,
Salvador and Lupe decided to go out for breakfast to the Montana Cafe. It felt very strange for Lupe to go eat in a restaurant in the morning. The morning was when people did their best work out in the fields before the Father Sun became so hot that it drained them of their strength. Also, she and Salvador had now eaten out together more times than Lupe had ever done with her family in all of her life.

Walking into the cafe, directly across the street from the famous Twin Inns, Helen immediately came to Lupe, taking her in her arms. “Oh, you got a little color again!” she said. “I knew you just needed to eat good and go to the doctor! And you, Salvador, you needed that talking I gave you, so you'd get smart! No woman can just be locked up all day, especially when she's pregnant!” added Helen with conviction!

Lupe laughed. Here was this German woman, telling Salvador off once again. “Helen, we already talked it over with my sister Carlota,” said Lupe, “and this morning we're going up to bring her back to stay with me.”

“Good!” shouted Helen, “I'm glad to hear that! Women need company. Not just men. Come, sit down, and let me feed you. The beef stew is very good today, Lupe!”

“Oh, no, I don't think I could eat all that,” said Lupe.

“Then how about just some mashed potatoes with a little gravy and some veggie-tables?”

“That sounds perfect,” said Lupe.

“I'll take the beef stew,” said Salvador, “and plenty of your homemade bread, too!”

“Of course,” said Helen. “Fresh from the oven, just like our butter is fresh from the cow!”

Hans and Helen had five acres with avocados, lemons, oranges, livestock and chickens. Their dream was to get a big 4o-acre place inland in Vista where they'd have a house on a hill with an ocean view, so even on hot summer nights they could enjoy the cool ocean breeze as they looked down on their domain.

Salvador went to the kitchen to say hello to Hans, as Helen and Lupe visited. Lupe and Helen truly seemed to enjoy each other's company, even though the German woman was about twenty years older than Lupe. Also, Salvador wanted to run past Hans what the doctor had told him. Hans was a smart man and over the last couple of years, Salvador had truly come to value Hans's opinion. He wondered what Hans would now say to him about this crazy idea that children didn't just come from God, but that people could actually plan the size of
their familia.

After saying hello to Hans, Salvador straight-out told him what the doctor had said and that they'd had schnapps together.

“So the reason I bring this whole thing to you,” added Salvador, “is because, well, Hans, I'd always understood that each child was a gift from God; a blessing is what my mother always told me.”

“Your mother is right,” said Hans, becoming very excited by the conversation. Hans had wanted to be a teacher in Germany, but hadn't had the finances to complete his studies. “Children are a gift from God, a true blessing, exactly. But,” added Hans, taking Salvador aside so they wouldn't be overheard by the others, “so are the fields and the hills and the trees and the flowers and everything else, a true blessing from God. And yet, we don't just run wild through the hills and fields anymore. No, now we cultivate the fields. We prune the trees and flowers.

“Just look at these new avocado trees that George—you know George Thompson—is grafting here in Carlsbad. These new avocados are going to revolutionize the entire avocado industry,” said Hans, glowing with excitement. “Because these avocados have a thicker skin and can be shipped all the way east, and big money is going to now be made with the avocados.

“I tell you, Sal, we live in a very exciting time in history! The whole world has changed faster in the last ten years than a thousand years before. So, of course, I agree with this doctor that you can plan your family, Salvador! And nowadays, every civilized man and woman should start doing it!”

“Really, Hans?” said Salvador.

“Yes,” said Hans. “Absolutely! You see, here, in California, people are spoiled, thinking that they have land that goes on forever! But I tell you, there are people bunched together in Europe by the millions, and once they find out about this fine weather we got in California, there is going to be a gold-rush of people coming—not by the thousands, like for the California Gold Rush—but by millions for the California weather! Those days of the big families are gone forever, Salvador. Helen and I have one boy, and we'd like to have a girl, too, but no more after that, because we want our children educated and ready to handle this world of changing times.”

“I'll be damn,” said Salvador. “I never would have thought of it like this, Hans. And this doctor, he also said that I wouldn't take my car to a man who didn't drive or own a car, so why would I go to a priest about matters of marriage and wife and children.”

“And this doctor is German? And he's Catholic? Well, Salvador, I'll tell you, he spoke to you man-to-man. You see, Sal, not too long ago,” continued Hans, “the farmers in Europe always used to kill to eat their biggest and finest cattle and chickens and ducks, and then what happened?” He was on fire, he was so excited! “Well, the runts would breed each other and pretty soon all the livestock on the farms began getting smaller and sickly.