Thirteen Senses (76 page)

Salvador and the two Morenos had no trouble getting jobs grooming horses and cleaning out stalls. Within a week, they knew the whole layout of the place, and so the night of the Full Moon with the
coyotes
howling, they beheaded a big, beautiful, newly imported stallion, cut off his balls and cock, and served them up at the breakfast table for the owner of the ranch.

At daybreak, the screams of the rich man were heard all through the house. Their job was done. Salvador and the Morenos took off immediately. The story of the horse amputation exploded all over the Southland, adding to Salvador's reputation that the Devil lived and he walked on two upright legs and his name was Juan Salvador Villaseñor!

Buying some clothes and a new, used truck, Salvador came by later that week to pick up Lupe. They were going to have to get out of the country and return to Mexico. And there was a good chance that they'd never be able to return. Salvador and Lupe were now wanted people.

Lupe's sister Sophia, who was normally so sweet and cheerful, went into a rage, cursing Salvador for being such an awful beast that he was taking Lupe, their baby, away from her
familia!
And Carlota, who'd never liked Salvador at all, surprised everyone by now standing up and defending Salvador and assuring her sister Sophia and their parents that everything would turn out for the best, because Archie, her fiancé, would be helping them.

Salvador brought out a hundred dollars in crisp, new twenty-dollar bills and tried to hand them to Don Victor. But the old man was so vivid with rage that he just shoved the money away.

“You can't buy our daughter!” he said.

“I'm not buying her,” said Salvador. “Please, be reasonable. Times are hard. I'm doing the best I can. Here, take it.”

But Don Victor didn't take the money and he watched his youngest child and his granddaughter go to the truck to go off with this beast whom now everyone knew was the real
el capon,
the castrator of the Southland!

Doña Guadalupe was crying with tears running down her face, but she kept her opinions to herself. “Go with God,” she said, giving her daughter a final
abrazo de amor,
“go with God here in your
corazón, mi hijita,
and everything will always turn out for the best. Did not my mother with her last dying breath, tell me to run into the arms of our enemy who were shooting at us, and I'd be safe when I saw the Light of God in one man's eyes? Miracles do happen, remember this above all else, my angel,
milagros
are a woman's sustenance.”

“I know,
mama,
” said Lupe, pressing the money into her mother's hand that Salvador had handed her. Her mother received it. “Not only did I find my wedding ring, but I found my rosary that you gave me and the rolling pin that
papagrande
made for you out of that rosewood.”

Hearing this talk about the rolling pin that his father-in-love—also a finish carpenter—had made for his daughter with his own two hands, Don Victor hugged Lupe, too, kissing her again and again with trembling hands. Then he stepped back, dried his eyes, and took his wife's arm.

Doña Guadalupe and Don Victor continued crying as they watched their youngest drive off with her husband and child. It was starting to rain.

“
Vayan con Dios!
” yelled the old Yaqui Indian lady.

“Yes,
con el favor de Dios!
” yelled back Lupe, waving out the window to her father and mother and sisters.

Salvador and Lupe drove in silence. There was nothing either one of them could say.

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of their own Freewill Adam and Eva now chose to go out of the Garden, away from their familias, and into the Wilds of the World—for they had absolute Faith in GOD and in their AMOR!

L
UPE WOULD NEVER FORGET
as long she lived the night they drove out of Santa Ana. It was storming. Lightning was striking all about them as they started to climb over the mountains to the east. It seemed even worse to Lupe than when she'd been a child and she and her family left their box canyon back in Mexico and she'd thought it was the end of the world. At least, then, she'd been going with her
papa
and
mama,
her sisters and brother. She'd never, never been away from her
familia
before.

The wind was sweeping across the road in freezing cold gushes at the top of the mountains. It felt like their little truck was going to be blown off the road and down a cliff. Coming around a sharp curve, they almost crashed into a fallen tree that had been split in half by lightning and lay across the road. Lightning flashed all about them. Twice a landslide of rock and mud almost devoured them. The narrow, little, two-lane road just didn't give a driver much room to move from one side to the other.

Lupe held Hortensia close and prayed with all of her Heart.

Then suddenly, it looked like they'd come to the end of the world, and they were driving straight down into Hell, as they descended from the steep mountains, toward the desert way down below. Suddenly they were hot. Lupe couldn't believe it—just like that—they'd gone from freezing cold to muggy hot, and yet it wasn't raining anymore.

The storm was behind them and out before them like a dark roof, and underneath the roof, was the coming of a whole new day in bright colors of yellow and glorious blue sky.

They smiled, looking at each other, feeling blessed that they'd gotten safely through the terrible storm. But then, before they had time to really enjoy this marvelous feeling, they lost their brakes and now . . . they were SCREAMING down the last part of the curvy mountain road at a reckless speed!

Salvador was all eyes as he tried to brake and steer the runaway truck with a bottomless cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other. Lupe held Hortensia in her arms, wondering if she wasn't better off to open her door and jump, maybe just breaking her arms and legs instead of plunging over one of the thousand-foot canyons to sure death!

Wrapping Hortensia in her blanket, Lupe got hold of her door handle.

“NOOOO!” screamed Salvador. “DON'T JUMP! We'll get out! Believe me, this road straightens up in just few more turns—I think!”

Taking in a deep Breath of
Papito,
Lupe decided to trust her husband's judgment. She let go of the door handle and they continued speeding down the road and around the hairpin turns. Lupe was getting sick, but trying hard not to vomit. Then it looked like they were coming out to the bottom of the grade when they were suddenly hit from behind.

A huge old truck was right behind them. He'd obviously lost his brakes, too, and was up against their bumper, ramming them off the road toward the boulders and cactus.

Seeing themselves being pushed off the road to certain death, Salvador threw a kiss to Lupe, and gave their pickup all the gas, going even faster so he could get away from the runaway truck. Lupe was holding Hortensia to her chest, trying not to scream so she wouldn't terrify their little child anymore. Oh, their poor baby, she'd been through so much Hell in Life already and she couldn't even talk yet!

Then, Lupe couldn't believe it, here among all this endless terror, what did her husband now do, he suddenly gave a
grito de gusto,
“AAAAA-YYYAAAYAAAIIII!” with such joy, that Lupe found herself laughing as they continued barreling around the last couple of curves and then hit the straightaway of the desert.

Lupe was peeing in her dress, she was laughing so hard! But they'd made it! They'd done it! They hadn't been killed!

“AAYIII QUE VIDA LOCA,
eh?” yelled Salvador.

“Yes,” said Lupe, “
LOQUISIMA!
”

But the truck behind them didn't make it and went flying off the road into the deep canyons of boulders and gray-green cactus, crashing, rolling, and EXPLODING into FIRE!

Salvador used the handbrake, trying to stop so he could go back and maybe help the truck driver, but it felt like he had no handbrakes left, either. They continued going down the steep straightaway. It took all of Salvador maneuvering with what was left of the handbrake to finally get the truck going slow enough so he could pull into the little gas station about three miles further down the road at the foot of the mountain.

Salvador told the gas attendant about the truck. The man told Salvador that this was the third truck that had gone off the road this month, and he immediately sent his assistant with their tow truck to go and see what he could do.

It took several hours for the gas station owner to fix their brakes with some used truck parts and a length of barbwire that was lying around. He was an old Anglo, a good guy a lot like Kenny. He suggested for Salvador and Lupe to hold up under the trees by his gas station and wait out the heat of the day before they continued east across the desert.

Underneath the trees was an Anglo family sitting around their old truck looking pretty beat down.

“They're Okies,” said the gas station owner, “can't get rid of them. They broke down, got no money, and nowhere to go. But they wouldn't bother you. They're good people, too.”

“What are Okies?” asked Salvador.

“People from out of Oklahoma, a state east of here out towards Texas. Thousands of them lost their ranches 'cause of a drought, then an endless dust storm. They're coming out in droves to California, hoping to find work. Damn poor sight, but the transmission they need for their truck, I'd have to buy, and so I can't help 'em.”

Salvador could see that these “Okies” had three little blond kids with them and an old woman who reminded Salvador a lot of his own mother.

“How much would that transmission cost?” asked Salvador.

“Even used they're expensive,” said the station owner. “About six dollars, my price, then another two or three dollars to put it in.”

Salvador thanked the gas station owner for his offer that he and his family could stay underneath the grove of trees, but he told him that they had to go on. What Salvador didn't tell the man, was that he was afraid that any minute the law was going to show up and question them because they'd been the ones who'd seen that truck go off the road.

“All right,” said the old desert rat, “but then you'd better take along a couple of extra water bags.”

“We got water for the baby,” said Salvador, not wanting to spend any money that he didn't have to. Between buying this truck and giving money to his mother and Lupe's mother, he didn't have much left out of the $500 he'd been paid.

And they'd need money to set themselves up in Mexico. After all, his bootlegging trade would be worthless across the border. Mexico wasn't a dry land. Liquor was legal down there.

“No, this isn't for you or your child. This is for your truck in case it overheats. You're going to have to be careful,” added the man, spitting a stream of chewing tobacco juice on the ground. “Very, very careful,
amigo,
especially in those damn sand hills. People die out there.”

Salvador paid the man for his work on the truck and the two canvas water bags. The bill came to $2 and the man had worked on their truck for well over an hour. This gas station owner had charged Salvador 20 cents an hour for his labor. Just like Kenny, this Anglo was a good, honest man.

“And here,” said Salvador, “six more dollars for that transmission for those people and two dollars for you to put it in.”

The gas station owner was stunned.

“You've saved that family's life,
amigo!”

“We all need a little saving now and then,” said Salvador.

And Salvador got in his truck and he and Lupe were gone.

Part Nine

REBIRTHING

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