Thirteen Senses (83 page)

“ALMOST isn't good enough!” screamed Salvador, cramming the barrel of the gun into the man's mouth. “Was your mother ALMOST pregnant when she gave you birth! Are you ALMOST full of shit when you pull down your pants to crap! No, your mother was fully pregnant when she gave you birth, and you're completely full of shit RIGHT NOW! Why, I can smell you shitting!”

“I apologize!” said the banker, tears coming to his eyes. He was terror-stricken! He, too, had now seen the Devil and the Devil stood here before him upright on two legs and his name was Juan Salvador Villaseñor, who'd seen his beloved sisters raped and killed before his eyes and he was the Avenging Angel of God, who of his own freewill had volunteered to take the Light to Darkness! And he was insane with hate because of all the Love that he carried inside of his Soul! “May I burn in Hell for all eternity if I don't take back my behavior! Please, accept my apology,
señora,
I didn't mean anything! Oh, my God! Please! Please!”

“Is this now an apology?” said Salvador, turning to Lupe. “Or do you want more!”

“This is a real apology,” she said. “It's enough.”

“Good,” said Salvador, “and in the future you will treat every woman who comes in here with respect!”

“I will! I WILL!” yelled the banker. “I swear it on my mother's grave!”

“Excellent,” said Salvador, throwing the man back across his desk. “Now,
señor
, please, give us our money. And understand that the only reason I'm being so kind to you today is . . . because you caught me in a good mood, you lucky
cabrón
son-of-a-bitch!”

Salvador and Lupe got their money, and were quickly out the door. No one followed them. They were all still too stunned.

23

GOD and Lucifer were Dancing and Mary and Jesus were clapping—all the Forces of the Heavens were at last working Together once more.

D
RIVING BACK TO THEIR HOTEL,
Salvador figured that everything was settled and they'd be able to continue on their way to the gold mine in Navojoa, Sonora, until Lupe spoke.

“No, Salvador,” she said again. “I still don't want us returning to Mexico.”

“But I stood up for you,” said Salvador.

“Yes, you did, and I love you for that,
querido
, but I still don't want to go back to a country that treats women like this. My mother and sisters worked too hard for too long for me to go backward, Salvador.”

Domingo was grinning ear to ear when they pulled up to the hotel. “Did you get your money, or should I go back down to the bank with you and teach them how us
hombres de Los Altos
handle matters?”

“We got the money,” said Salvador, looking beaten down.

“Then why the long face?” asked Domingo.

The door was open to Domingo's room and Salvador and Lupe could see that Socorro was still in bed.

“Lupe still doesn't want us going back to Mexico,” said Salvador.

“She what?!?” said Domingo, suddenly getting red-faced as a tomato with rage. “Well, then, just slap her, Salvador!” he yelled. “Don't be letting a woman tell you what to do! You got to be strong to be
el hombre de tu casa
! You're not some little
puto cabrón
crybaby!”

“That's not it,” said Salvador. “She's right,
our familias
are back in California, and it's also true what she says, we've been drinking so much and dreaming so high, Domingo, that I'm afraid that it could all just—”

“OUR FATHER is DEAD!” roared Domingo. “We got no family until we've rebuilt our
rancho
with cattle as far as the eye can see! SLAP HER! Teach her her PLACE! Here, if you don't have the
tanates
to do it, I'll do it for you!”

And Domingo lunged at Lupe, to hit her, but Salvador stepped in, grabbing his brother in a bear hug. “DON'T, Domingo! Lupe's my wife! Not yours!”

“Then treat her like a wife, you fool! Or she'll ruin everything that's between us! Here, I'll show you,” he yelled, breaking loose from his brother's grip, “I'm not afraid to show you my love, brother to brother!”

And saying this, Domingo rushed into his room like a madman, and yanked Socorro out of their bed. She screamed and tried to hide her nakedness with a blanket as he dragged her out of their room. Outside, he began to slap her across the face in an insane rage, trying to show his brother how much he loved him, and that no woman would stand in the way of their love.

The poor terrified woman screamed and SCREAMED. People came out of their rooms.

Salvador had to hit his brother across the back of the skull with his gun to stop him from killing the woman. But this didn't silence Domingo, he continued screaming!

Lupe took Socorro back inside, bolted the door and began to attend to her. Lupe just couldn't believe all this. In the last few weeks all Hell had broken loose!

“We got gold,
hermano
!” bellowed Domingo. “Don't you see, we got GOLD, the KING of the EARTH! We're going to be RICH! Don't throw it all away for a woman!”

Domingo's eyes had looked completely
crazy-loco
with hate when he'd lunged to strike Lupe. Obviously, hitting women was something he'd done many times before. Of course, Lupe fully realized that striking women went on in many Mexican households, but for all of her father's faults of drinking and gambling, he'd never once struck their mother.

Lupe now soaked a towel in cold water and put it to Socorro's face and the back of her head where Domingo had kept hitting her, even after she was down. My God, he might have killed her if Salvador hadn't knocked him down with his gun. Lupe just couldn't believe all that was happening to them ever since Kenny had been shot in front of their home. Where was all this going to end?

Socorro couldn't stop shaking.

“Lupe,” she said, shaking like she was freezing to death, “my husband used to beat me, too, but at least I knew why. Domingo just attacked me like a wild dog! Oh, my God, my God! What did I ever do to deserve such abuse! All I've done is give him love and money!”

“You did nothing to deserve this beating,” said Lupe. “My mother always told us girls there's absolutely no reason for a man to ever beat his wife. Do not twist things around and blame yourself. You are a fine, generous human being, Socorro, and I recommend that you get away from Domingo right now, while you still have some money left.

“Look, I was born in a gold mining town,” continued Lupe, “so I know how men's minds get wild and twisted with the thoughts of getting so rich that now they are above all the realities of life. You need to get away from Domingo immediately, before it's too late!”

“Then you don't think there's really a gold mine?”

Lupe could see that this woman just didn't understand what she was saying. “Socorro, it doesn't matter if there is a gold mine or not. Men go crazy when they get to thinking of gold.”

“Then I should leave him now?” asked Socorro.

“Yes,” said Lupe. “And I'm going to get Salvador to take us back to the United States and I'm—I'm—I'm going to tell him that he can no longer do any more bootlegging, either. That I've followed him long enough, and now it's time for him to follow me, and I say that we are going to be law-abiding people and have a normal life, so help me God, or I will leave him and take my daughter and this child I carry here inside of me, and return on my own to my family, and that's that!”

Socorro was no longer shaking or crying or even seemed concerned with her bruises and pains. She was just staring at Lupe in utter shock. “You'd do this,” she said, “you'd really face your husband and tell him everything to his face that—that you've just told me?”

Lupe nodded. “Of course, why not?”

“Oh, Lupe!” said Socorro, and both women now took each other in their arms, holding Heart to Heart.

Outside, Domingo was down on his knees, hugging his brother and crying with all of his might! “We had EVERYTHING,
hermanito
! Don't you see, we had EVERYTHING when our beloved father was alive! So how could you and
mama
have left him!”

“Domingo, I've told you a thousand times, we didn't leave our father,” said Salvador.

“Of course, you did!” said Domingo. “Don't you see, or we'd still have everything, if you hadn't left him.”

And in that moment, Salvador finally saw in a flash what it was that his brother was really saying. Domingo was confusing God with their own father. He had the story of Adam and Eve being put out of the Garden all mixed up with his own story of coming back to
Los Altos
and finding everything gone.

“Yes,” said Salvador to his brother, “I can now see that we did have everything when our father lived and you're right, we did leave our father. We went down the mountain to find food and he chose to stay up on our
rancho
drinking and racing off on his horse to the distant mountaintops, screaming that God had abandoned him and all of his sons were dead!”

“See!” yelled Domingo. “You could have helped him if you hadn't abandoned him!”

“Domingo, I don't have blue eyes like you. He never acknowledged me as a son. It was you he wanted, it was you that he screamed for on every mountaintop!”

“Then I did it?” asked Domingo, his snake eyes suddenly being able to see in a whole new way. “Then I'm the one who abandoned our
papa
!” said Domingo, “and all I'd been trying to do was good!” he yelled. “To surprise him where he was working with a team of horses on that new highway that they were building from San Diego to Del Mar, but those
rinchi
bastard Texans beat me, arrested me for a crime they knew that I'd never done, and shipped me to Chicago to work in the steel mills! I LOVED OUR FATHER, Salvador! I never meant to abandon him!

“SOCORRO!” he then screamed. “SOCORRO! I didn't mean to hit you! I'm sorry! I only meant GOOD! My mother didn't abandon my father! She, too, only meant GOOD!”

And Salvador could now see so clearly that at this moment, Domingo was forgiving—not just his own mother—but all women, including
Eva.
our original mother, for having lost the Garden of Eden for all Mankind!

Inside the hotel, Lupe couldn't believe it, hearing Domingo's shouts of agony, Socorro forced herself up from the bed. And against all the pain she felt from the beating, she began to grip the walls as she made her way out of the room and to the door so she could go and be with Domingo.

And when Socorro opened the door, there was Domingo kneeling on the ground by his brother with his arms open to her, shouting to her with all his heart. “Socorro! SOCORRO! Forgive me! Forgive me! I DIDN'T KNOW!”

“Domingo!” she yelled, staggering with pain as she went to him.

And they were then hugging and crying and kissing.

Domingo was begging for forgiveness, and she was saying yes, yes, yes, she'd forgive him, and he was saying that he loved her.

Lupe was enraged!

Salvador had tears running down his face.

And above both couples, hovering in the Sky, were Jesus and the Virgin Mary and Doña Margarita along with Moses and Lucifer. The Mother Moon was coming and the Father Sun was going. Another Day had come to pass Here on this
planeta
, passionately situated between Hell and Heaven!

24

The SIXTH SUN was now arising fast for an All New Day. People would no longer be able to tell where the Heavens ended and the Earth began.

L
UPE DIDN'T WAIT.
That very night she kept her word that she'd given to Soccoro and she told Salvador, “No, not only don't I want us going any further into Mexico, but when we return to the United States, I also want you, Salvador, to not do any more of your bootlegging, or any other illegal activities!”

Salvador was stunned!

“What in God's name has gotten into your mind, Lupe? Have you gone completely crazy-
loca
? How in the world do you expect us to return to the United States and make a living without my bootlegging? Everything in the U.S. is stacked against us,
los Mejicanos
, from the word go. And Father Ryan told you that—”

“I DON'T CARE about ANY of THAT!” shouted Lupe. “This is our life! Not his!”

Salvador couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was flying beyond reason.

“Look, Salvador,” she now continued more calmly, “I want us to be legal and have a home where we are no longer running from the law. I will not bring another child into this world of violence like we did with poor little Hortensia! She has nightmares, Salvador!”

“Lupe, you were born in the middle of the Revolution. You saw much more than our daughter has seen, and you're fine.”

“And because I had to witness our village being burned to the ground time and again, we need to do this to our daughter, too?!? Oh, no, Salvador, WE WILL NOT!” shouted Lupe. “Because before we married, Salvador, I asked you if you were a bootlegger, and you told me that you were not a bootlegger, and I took you at your word with ALL MY HEART and SOUL, and so now you will make that word of yours COME TRUE, and that's that, do you hear me!” she yelled. “I have spoken!”

Salvador looked at Lupe, not knowing what to think or do. It was true, she had, indeed, spoken. He could well see that she wasn't a woman who would be moved anymore. No, she was now a woman who'd taken up ground like he'd seen his own mother do so many times, declaring that this piece of Mother Earth where she stood was Holy and she, the Tree of Life, would move Earth and Rock with her roots and do whatever it took to Live.

But, also, he truly wondered if Lupe had any idea with whom she was dealing. He was also a man who wouldn't be moved! Did she really think for a minute that she could tell him how to run his life? If they were giving up a gold mine and returned to the United States, then bootlegging was his only possible livelihood. It was what got him—not just money—but RESPECT in a country that looked down its nose at his people.