Thirteen Senses (73 page)

“Oh, I tell you, God as my witness, I'm going to get rich,
hermanito!”
he said, slipping and sliding in the grass and mud as he held on to the thin branch. “I can feel it here in my bones! I'm going to find that gold mine—the one I told you about before I went to prison—and I'm going to get so damn rich, that I'm going to be able to re-buy all the lands that our grandfather Don Pio settled, and I'm going to rebuild our village and be ‘mister' out here in the world, just as I was in prison!”

And he smiled this wild, drunken smile. “Mister
Señor
Domingo Villaseñor, they'll call me. And . . . and then I'm going to find all my children from Texas to Chicago and . . . and . . . what's wrong with you, Salvador,” he said, seeing his brother shaking his head. “Why, I swear you're looking at me like some pussy-whipped
hombre
that has forgotten the realities of life?! Men want everything! And you know that,
cabrón!
It's our
pinchee
nature, so don't play the fool with me! I want it all, Salvador!
Todo! TODO! TODO!
Now empty your pockets,” he said, “and give me half of your money, and then let's go find some women with plenty juicy, hot
nalgas!
Oh, I love a woman
con carne
on her ass, so I can grip her close with two hands full!”

Salvador could see there was just no speaking with his brother. He reluctantly brought out his roll of money, and he was just beginning to count it out, when Domingo leaped forward, grabbing it.

“Good,” said Domingo, his eyes wild with greed. “I knew you were just holding out on me! I'll take it all! And after I spend this, I'll want half of what you and Lupe have hidden at your house, too!”

Salvador swallowed. This was all the money he and Lupe had in all the world, but his brother would never believe him. No, he was now caressing the money as if it was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

Suddenly, Salvador realized why a good man like Kenny White had taken the law in his own hands and shot old man Eisner with his 30/30. There was no doubt about it, he, Salvador, was going to have to kill his brother. There was just no way around it. Domingo was right, he should have left him in prison.

Salvador pretended to walk off to a private distance to take a leak, but instead he opened up his coat—which was ripped and muddy—and brought out his pistol. It was getting late. The last of the big mallards were coming into the lagoon. The frogs and crickets were getting louder and louder. The Sun had just gone down and the Sky was full of spectacular colors of blue and pink and orange with streaks of gold.

Domingo sat down on the fallen log behind Salvador and began to sing an old
ranchera
from their beloved mountains of
Jalisco,
clutching the money close to his heart. Salvador took a deep breath. This was it. His brother was crazy and dangerous, so there was no other way. He turned, pistol in hand, coming up behind Domingo.

“
NO
!”
SCREAMED DOÑA MARGARITA,
sitting up in her bed in her little shack behind Luisa's house. The Father Sun had just gone down and she'd lain down to take a nap. “You will not! Do you hear me, Salvador! YOU WILL NOT!”

And in her mind's eye, the old woman saw Salvador holding his pistol to the back of his brother's neck ready to fire. Quickly, Doña Margarita stopped her yelling and began to pray. For only in Prayer did One then Unite with the Almighty, and hence were able to bring the Heavens down Here to the Earth.

THREE GREAT WHITE BIRDS
came out of the evening Sky in Carlsbad, California, circling above the rosy-colored waters of the lagoon. Pistol in hand, Salvador looked up and saw the magnificent birds. He lowered his pistol. He couldn't do it. The three great white Snow Geese came in with a flare of flapping wings and lit upon the water. Salvador took a deep breath, feeling overwhelmed with the Beauty of the closing Day and coming Night. He slipped the pistol back into his pants and sat down on the fallen log beside his brother.

Still singing, “
Jalisco no te rajes,
” Domingo turned with a drunken smile and put his arm about his brother's shoulders. Watching the ducks and geese out on the water, Salvador opened his mouth wide and began to sing, too, joining his brother.

LATER THAT WEEK,
Lupe was in the front bedroom sleeping with Hortensia. Salvador was down the hallway in the back bedroom sleeping on the floor on a mat. For three days and nights Salvador had been working around the clock at the distillery process. He'd lost a lot of time helping his brother Domingo to settle in and get to work as an avocado doctor.

It was just past midnight and the flames of the fire underneath the copper kettle were singing, burning blue-hot when the kettle suddenly EXPLODED like a BOMB!

Salvador's body was thrown across the entire room against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Lupe, in the next room, was knocked out of her bed. Hortensia was SCREAMING! The whole room of the distillery had erupted into flame! Lupe was on her feet and rushing down the hallway to see what happened, but she couldn't get the door open to their back bedroom no matter how hard she pushed. Salvador's body was blocking the door. But Lupe didn't know that. All she knew was that her daughter was screaming in terror and the whole place was becoming a burning
infierno
!

Lupe finally turned and rushed back down the hallway, picked up Hortensia, wrapped her in a blanket, then she saw Salvador's gun and why, she'd never know, but she picked it up. Then she remembered their can of money and she rushed out of the bedroom, down the hall, into the kitchen, got their money and was out the front door with money, gun, and daughter.

Lupe raced across the yard, put Hortensia in their car and closed the door. Then for some reason, she put the gun and money up in a fork of the tree under which their car was parked. She turned, and saw that their whole house was now engulfed in huge flames, shooting twenty, thirty feet up into the night sky.

Lupe made the sign of the cross over herself, and never hesitated once as she ran back across the yard and into the burning
infierno.
She rushed back down the hallway and put her shoulder to that door again and again with all her God-given power, shoving and pushing. Finally it opened up just enough for her to see that something on the floor was blocking the door. And when she got down low, under all the smoke and flames to see what it was, her whole heart leaped up into her mouth. It was Salvador's leg.

“Salvador!” she yelled. “SALVADOR!”

But he didn't answer her. She reached in through the crack, grabbing hold of his leg and shook it. There was no response, so she figured he was already dead until she heard his voice.

“Lupe,” he said, ever so softly, “Looo-pe.”

Hearing him call her name, filled Lupe with a power that she'd never known before. She was now her mother who'd gone down to the plaza in their village back in Mexico to save her brother, Victoriano, from being hung by renegade soldiers. She was now her Yaqui Indian grandmother who'd also been touched by the hand of the Almighty when she'd had the faith to send her youngest child out of their burning hut to find a man whose eyes were filled with the Holy Light of the Creator.

Lupe stood up and put her shoulder to the door again, and with the power of all her ancestry, she gave a SCREAMING shove, and the door opened enough for her to get down low and crawl into the room as the flames shot over her head.

She got hold of her husband's foot and dragged him away from the door so she could open it all the way, then—gagging and coughing—she dragged his body out of the burning Hell and down the hallway. This was when the first barrel of whiskey exploded, shattering walls and windows like toys!

The siren was coming!

Lupe could now hear the siren screaming closer and closer as she dragged Salvador's body off the porch and across the yard to their car. He was still unconscious and truly heavy. Lupe opened the driver's door and tried to get Salvador up into the Moon so he could drive them off before the firemen and the law arrived. But he wouldn't come-to and he was all loose, like a bag of water.

Finally realizing the hopelessness of the situation, Lupe dragged Salvador around the car to the passenger side. And how she did this she'd never know, but she just suddenly grabbed Salvador up in her arms and threw him into the Moon, closing the door. Then she ran around and got into the driver's seat. She tried to remember how she'd watched Salvador start the car a hundred times. But every time she'd press down on the starter, the Moon would just leap forward and die. Finally, pushing the clutch all the way down to the floor, she got the car started and was backing up so she could take off when she remembered the gun and the money.

She braked, trying to figure out what to do, but the fire truck was almost at their driveway, and Hortensia was crying once again. She couldn't get the gun and money right now. She tucked her daughter in with her blanket, soothed her face with a loving touch, got hold of the steering wheel again, and drove off just as the siren came screeching into their driveway She almost hit the fire truck head-on, but didn't, and she sped off—eyes closed, praying as she went.

Halfa mile down the road, Salvador began to regain consciousness.

“You almost got yourself killed!” Lupe yelled at him. “You almost got us all killed, Salvador! Oh, I'm so mad at you that I could kill you!”

She pulled off to the side of the road. They could see the leaping flames of the fire even from this distance, and every time another barrel of whiskey exploded, the whole
infierno
would leap hundreds of feet into the night sky!

“What happened?” asked Salvador. He still didn't quite understand what had happened. “Did the stove blow up?”

“Can you drive, Salvador?” asked Lupe.

Two sheriff's cars were coming toward them, their sirens screaming in the night.

“I don't think so,” said Salvador.

“Oh, my God,” said Lupe, tucking in her daughter once again, then she took hold of the steering wheel and got their Moon automobile back on the road. She didn't know how to drive, but she had no choice. Once more Salvador was unconscious.

Lupe continued down the road, driving toward the oncoming sheriff's cars; eyes focused, face determined. After all, she was a mother now, so come Hell or high water, miracles had to be of her makings, just as they'd been for her mother, and her mother's mother.

Lupe drove on, passing right alongside the two screaming sheriff's cars.

DOÑA MARGARITA
had both of her hands over her eyes. She was exhausted. She didn't want to keep seeing what it was that her Heart Vision saw. But oh, she was so proud of Lupe. Her daughter-in-love was truly on her way to becoming
el eje,
the hub of
her familia.

“Thank You, Lord God,” she said once again. “Thank You with all my Heart and Soul. Your Will is being done!”

“Thank you,” she heard the voice of the Almighty Creator say right back at her.

Tears of joy came to the old woman's eyes. “We're doing pretty good, You and I, eh,
Papito?
We're doing very good.”

“Yes, We Are.”

LUPE DROVE UP
to her sister Maria's house, which was just a few miles up the road. Even though Salvador hadn't spoken to Maria since she'd kidnapped their daughter, Hortensia, and taken her to be baptized, Lupe wasn't going to let herself be concerned with this.

Maria and her short little husband, Andres, were standing in their front yard when Lupe drove up. The two of them had woken up when the sirens screeched past their home. And even from this distance, they could see and hear the explosions of the whiskey barrels.

“Oh, my God,” said Maria, rushing up to her sister as Lupe came wheeling into their driveway and crashed into their front porch. “What happened? Is that your house that's on fire?”

“Yes,” said Lupe, “and Salvador is half dead and they'll be looking for us. But I can't drive.”

“You're telling me!” said Andres, looking at the damage that she'd done to their porch.

“I almost ran into the fire truck, too, and then the two sheriff's cars!” added Lupe. She was beside herself.

“Andres can drive you,” said Maria. “He can take you where you want, but where will you go, Lupe? This fancy car will be recognized anywhere you go.”

“I don't know,” said Lupe. “If only we could just get to Corona and maybe hide before they start looking for us.”

“No, Lupe,” said Maria, getting her sister out of the car, “you're not going anywhere. Just look at you,
mi hijita.
You're all burned, Lupe. This is exactly what my dream was all about when I came and took Hortensia to be baptized. You and Salvador and your child were burned to death in your home! I've been praying for you every night since. Ask Andres, he'll tell you! For weeks I've been telling him that you and Salvador need to get out of your
bootlegada
business,” she said, making the sign of the cross over herself. “Come, we got to get you and Salvador into the house and get some pig fat on these burns.”

“But what will we do with the car?” asked Lupe. “They'll see it here.”

“Andres,” said Maria, “you get in the car and drive it off right now!”

“But to where?” asked Andres.

“You figure that out! Now go! Go! And far, too. And leave it. Just leave it!”

“All right, all right, I'm going,” said the small-boned man. He was really scared, but he knew better than to argue with his wife, who was a bull of a woman, just like Salvador's sister, Luisa.

Andres got in the Moon and drove off as Maria helped her sister and Salvador and their child into her house. Andres was so scared that he wasn't driving any better than Lupe, swerving from side to side. Another fire truck was speeding down the gravel road with a sheriff's car in fast pursuit. Andres almost hit the fire truck, and went off into a ditch as the two screaming vehicles shot past him.