Thirteen Senses (75 page)

And so Adam and Eva stepped forward, not blaming each other but united in Love, Respect, and a Natural Awe for One another—REFLECTIONS of the CREATOR.

S
ALVADOR WOULD NEVER SEE
Lupe the same ever again. She just wasn't the same young, innocent girl that he married. Coming in that afternoon with their wedding ring all intact, she walked up to him with her eyes glowing with a power he'd never seen before. Her whole body moved differently.

“Look, Salvador,” she said, with tears of joy running down her face, “I found our ring.”

“My God!” he said.

“And she found the rolling pin that our mother gave her, and they were both with her rosary.”

“It's a miracle,” whispered Salvador.

“Of course,” said Maria, making the sign of the cross over herself. “I told you so. There is no other way for us women to survive, but in the making of miracles.”

Lupe now moved with the grace of an inspired woman,
el eje,
of her
familia.

Salvador watched Lupe scrub the ring with such care and love and devotion, that it brought tears to his eyes. He was truly in awe of Lupe. From her would come all of his children. From her would come their whole future. His mother had been absolutely right. The lessons that Lupe would teach him about Life,
la Vida,
would dwarf his in the end.

He felt so proud to be married to this creature that just the curve of her hips, her breasts, the tilt of her neck sent chills of fire to his groin.

Once the ring was scrubbed and clean, Lupe brought it over to Salvador—who was still lying down on the mattress on the floor—and he took it. admired it, kissed it, and put it back on her finger, then kissed her fingertips, his eyes glowing.

THAT SAME NIGHT
Archie came by and asked which one of them had been over at the house a few days back and had been hiding in the barn.

“And I can see that it wasn't you,” he said to Salvador, “because you're still pretty well fuc—I mean, screwed up, but one of you was in there.”

“How do you know that someone was in the barn?” asked Lupe.

Archie looked at Lupe and licked his big, loose lips. “An owl told me,” he said.

Lupe turned all red.

“Look,” he said, “you can't take any more chances like that, Lupe. It's a good thing the two guys I was with don't talk owl. You see, Domingo has disappeared on old man Palmer, revoking his parole, and so maybe I can turn this whole thing around and pin it on him—the damn fool—since he's going back to prison anyway. But you two are going to have to get the Hell out of the whole area so I can pull this off. You see, the sheriff's department of Orange County has decided to make an example out of you, Sal, and is combing the whole area. Can you travel,
amigo?
” added Archie.

“Do I have a choice?” said Salvador.

Archie only laughed.

“No problema,
” said Doña Margarita, who'd come in a few hours earlier and she was attending to Salvador's and Lupe's burns with chicken fat and herbs and having them drink gallons and gallons of her special tea. “They won't have to travel very far to disappear.”

“Whadda you gonna do,” asked Archie, laughing, “kill 'em with your medicine weeds or use your witchcraft like Salvador told me you did to make those barrels of whiskey disappear?”

Refusing to be insulted, Doña Margarita looked straight up at the huge, towering lawman and said, “No, Archie, when you need miracles, you go to God, but when you need protection from the law, you go to the man who owns the law.”

“And who might that be?” asked Archie, still laughing. “The governor up in Sacramento?”

“No, that's too far for me to travel,” she said, “so I won't go to him, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't go to the governor to get my way.” And saying this, she turned and asked Epitacio to get their truck and drive her. “We'll be back within the hour,” she added, going out the door, “and the Will of God will be done!”

“Hey, did I upset her?” asked Archie. “I didn't mean anything. I was just having fun.”

Salvador shook his head. “You're not big enough to upset her, Archie. You just showed her how small of faith you are. She'll move mountains, you'll see. And within the hour, as she said.”

Archie blew out, tipping back his Stetson. “Yeah, I believe it. My grandmother, she was the story-keeper of our people back in Texas. The keeper of our language and—oh, her chants could move mountains, too! I just don't see how we lost to the White Man with all the powers of our old people.”

“My mother says we didn't,” said Salvador. “It's just taking us a little time to gather ourselves up again.”

Hearing this, Archie laughed so hard he almost choked.

ONCE THEY WERE OUTSIDE
and on the road, Doña Margarita told Epitacio to take her to see her old
amigo
Irvine. “He owes me one,” she said, “just as God, Himself, has owed me many in the past. And it's late and so he'll be home with his goats at this hour. I don't care what people say, Eee-rvine is a very good
hombre
in his
corazón.”

And so Doña Margarita was back within the hour and Salvador and Lupe disappeared from the face of the Earth, hiding out on the back side of Irvine's huge ranch in the Trabuco Canyon while the law hunted for them everywhere.

All over the Southland, the Mexican people were being rounded up by the thousands like cattle and being shipped back to Mexico. Many of these people had been born here in the United States and had never even set foot across the border, but the authorities didn't care. The whole country was falling apart, so someone had to be blamed and there just weren't enough Jews in the area to take it out on.

Everywhere
familias
were being broken up.

Among all this, Salvador and Lupe's Moon automobile was stolen from the parking lot in front of the railroad station at San Juan Capistrano. And when Salvador was told, he started screaming like a madman with vengeance. He'd loved his Moon! He wanted to kill, to put a curse on that damn car thief!

But his wise old mother, Doña Margarita, only said, “Be happy,
mi hijito,
that you had such a fine car to get stolen. Most people will never have such a fine, beautiful car even for one minute in all their lives.”

“But
mama,
” screamed Salvador, “how can you say this! My coat was in that car! Cash was in the glove compartment! Lupe's coat with the fur collar was in the back!”

“All the better,” said his mother, refusing to be turned. “Look what a great find these people will get to enjoy who stole your car. Maybe they were hungry. Maybe they have a bunch of children. Maybe they have never had such good fortune in all their lives. No,
mi hijito,
let that car go. It's gone, and so now just enjoy, here inside you, the good memories you had
con tu carro”

“But
mama,
how can you talk like this?” he yelled.

“But how can I not talk like this,” said the old Indian woman calmly “This is exactly what I had to do with each and every child I lost ... in the Revolution.”

Her eyes filled with tears. They were under a grove of oak trees, camping on the little creek that ran through the Trabuco Canyon. Salvador and Lupe were now living like wild Indians, hiding from the law. Epitacio and Doña Margarita had just driven out with some groceries for them and gave them the news of their Moon automobile.

“I loved each child so much,” she continued. “Alejo, tall and strong and brave and blue-eyed like your father; Teorodo, looking so much like Alejo but a poet here inside of his heart; Emilia, as beautiful and delicate as an angel; Jose, small and dark with his whole soul here in his liquid-black eyes; Lucha, always laughing and dancing ever since a child; Jesus, Maria, Lupe—sixteen children in all I lost, each one a passing here between my legs with sacred blood, each one a joy of hope and dreams—
esperanzas!
And then, just like that, they were brutally taken away from me by that Revolution. So, of course, I hold, here in my heart, only the joy I had with them,
mi hijito,
or I would've gone
crazy-loca
with grief long ago.”

She Breathed in of
Papito.
“Let these next people enjoy your
carrito, mi hijito.
Wish them well, in fact, for only then will you be free and fate can then stay open to you, giving you no end of surprises. Do you see,
mi hijito,
to close in with hate and anger is to kill yourself. I know, I tried that, too, and it doesn't work. We must keep open, in order to Breathe of
Papito
with each Holy Breath we take.”

She smiled, making the sign of the cross over herself. And Salvador—didn't want to—but he started smiling, too. He just couldn't help it. His old mother was truly the wizard of the whole UNIVERSE!

“All right,
mama,”
he said. “I'll do it! May those no good dirty son-of-a-bitches who stole my car have a great time! May they find that money in the glove compartment and have a feast with their kids!”

“There, that's it,
mi hijito!”
said the old lady with
gusto.

Just then, as if on cue, old man Irvine himself drove up in his truck and he had a side of beef with him, a sack of flour and vegetables, and also his last jug of Salvador's whiskey.

Laughing and drinking, they gathered up fallen oak wood, swept clean an area with brush so that they wouldn't start a range fire, and got a barbecue going.

Old man Irvine just couldn't stop laughing when he visited with Doña Margarita.

And it was said that he was a man who never laughed. But around Doña Margarita, the rich, powerful old man laughed and laughed
con carcajadas,
finding
gusto
in all of life's awful twists. Also, he'd brought Doña Margarita a case of toilet paper—which was hard to find these days. And why this was so funny, nobody could figure out.

Then as if this wasn't a big enough turn of events, the next day, Archie drove up. Salvador was making jerky with the rest of the beef. Archie took Salvador aside and told him that he had a deal for him. But no, it had nothing to do with Domingo or the law. In fact, this deal had everything to do with a situation outside of the law. It had to do with Salvador's reputation of having castrated those two little pigs in Carlsbad to teach Tomas a lesson and then cutting that hog open in bed with the farmer in Santa Ana to teach him a lesson, too.

“But this job is a little more delicate,” said Archie, pulling at his big nose. “This involves a rich, powerful man who has a horse ranch just north of Los Angeles. It seems that this rich man was originally from back east and he needs to be reminded that money alone don't buy you security out here in the wild west with us Indians still running loose.”

“And how much is this job worth?” asked Salvador.

“It's worth, well, I won't lie, I'll be truthful with you, Salvador, five hundred big ones, with two hundred up front in cash.”

Salvador's heart leaped. This was very serious money. Hell, in the can that Lupe had saved from the fire they'd only had sixty dollars, which was a fortune compared to what most people had nowadays. But still Salvador now just looked at Archie in the eyes, not saying a word, because if Archie said that he wasn't lying and was being truthful, then this meant that he was really lying, and big time. And if he said that this was a delicate job and was worth $500, then this meant that the job was probably almost impossible and going for at least a thousand dollars and that Archie was pocketing $500 right off the top.

Also, Salvador figured if these people, who wanted this job done, had gone to all the trouble of finding out who it was who'd done those pigs' balls in Carlsbad and then had put the pig in bed with that farmer, then these were very powerful, intelligent, well-organized people.

“But I'm not supposed to kill anyone, right?”

“Yeah, no killing. Just put the fear of the Devil into this man.”

“Okay, Archie, but for a job like this, I'll need to hire a couple of good men to go with me,” said Salvador. “Men who really know horses, so we'll be able to get some jobs on the ranch, learn the ropes, and pull off the job with no
problemas.
So I'll need a couple more hundred, because, after the job is done, we'll all need to disappear for a while.”

And saying this, Salvador never took his eyes off of Archie's eyes, looking to see if this lawman's eyes would go to the left to prepare another lie, or if they'd go to the right to really think the matter over carefully.

But Archie's eyes held, not moving either way, meaning he was an experienced liar. Then they quickly went to the left, and then to the right, so this meant he was considering the matter, but also preparing another lie.

“Okay, I'm sure I can get this for you once I explain the situation to these two men,” said Archie. He pulled up his gunbelt and reached into his pocket, handing Salvador the two hundred dollars in cash.

Salvador felt the blood come back to his face. He and Lupe had already spent all their money and they'd been getting desperate. Salvador now began caressing this money like a beautiful woman, just as he'd seen his brother, Domingo, do that day by the lagoon. Money really was like water; when you had none, that was all you could think of, but once you had some, then just like water, it wasn't that important anymore.

That same night, Salvador took Lupe and their baby over to her family in Santa Ana and dropped them off, not really telling her what was going on. He then took off with Epitacio and his mother over to Corona to drop them off, too, and he went to go see the Moreno brothers. He made a deal with the two Moreno brothers—the same two level-headed horsemen he'd used in Carlsbad—and they headed north to this big exclusive horse ranch on the other side of Los Angeles.