Thirteen Senses (84 page)

“All right,” he now said, “I quit my bootlegging like you say, Lupe, then how in the name of Hell do you propose that we make our living in the United States, eh?”

“Well, we can work in the fields like everyone else, Salvador.”

He took a big breath, and blew out. “Lupe, a depression is going on. Our people are being run out of the country. Your own family would be starving if I hadn't given money to your brother to buy that truck. And that truck, remember, I bought with my BOOTLEGGING MONEY!” he shouted into her face!

“Salvador,” she said, closing her eyes so she could avoid his wild intimidating look, “we will find a way. God will provide.”

“Sure,” he said, “but also God needs a little help in life, damnit!”

And saying this, he stopped talking, stepped back, and just stood, looking at this young wife of his. Long ago he'd learned that all demands in life,
la vida
, had a price, and most people weren't willing to pay that price. It took real
tanates
to put your life on the line day in and day out.

He now wondered if Lupe—for all her talk—was really willing to pay the price if she didn't get her demands. For to make any demand, without being willing to pay that price tag, then that demand was just a hollow and empty voice of a chickenshit, all-talk
pendejo
!

“All right, Lupe,” he now said in a calm voice, “if I don't agree to your demands, then what?” He was feeling so damned tired of this whole conversation that he wasn't going to take Lupe seriously anymore unless she was really willing to pay the full price of being taken seriously. And to be taken seriously carried a formidable price tag, and this price tag had to be paid in full just as Jesus Christ, Himself, had paid it in full on the cross so that every mortal since then could feel it down here in his guts that Jesus was, indeed, real and not just talk.

This, one's wedding vows never addressed.

This had nothing to do with whether two people loved each other or not.

No, this, of being the lead horse of
la familia
, was not just an automatic part of the honeymoon package.

He took a deep breath. “So come on, Lupe,” he repeated himself as he saw the tears streaming down her face, “speak up, what will you do if I don't agree to your demands?”

It was stuck in her throat. She didn't really want to say it, but here it came at last.

“Salvador, I will leave you,” she said, finally stepping forward into the darkness of the unknown and becoming her own self lead horse and now each shadow, each fallen branch, every puddle along the trail was looking dangerous, but she still wasn't going to be stopped.

“I will take Hortensia,” she continued, “and this child I carry here within me, and I will survive without you, somehow, so help me God!”

Seeing her face and knowing how she'd risked her life by going back into the burning
infierno
to save him, Salvador now knew that this woman, this girl, standing before him had truly come into her own. For she was now, indeed, willing to pay the price for the Song she wanted to Dance to in Her Life.

He blew out. And she wasn't just wild in her assessment of herself. No, instinctively she'd taken his gun and their money out of that burning Hell and had the presence of mind to put them up in a fork of a tree, so if they'd gotten caught driving off, their money and gun would still be safe. She was brilliant! A genius! And tough! She didn't panic when the chips were down! Rich or poor, in sickness or in health, this woman could be the best lead horse around!

“Okay,” said Salvador, “so then what you are saying, Lupe, is either we now do things your way, or that's it. You will leave me and go home to your parents.”

She nodded, and nodded again. “Yes, Salvador, that's it. I've made up my mind,” she added calmly.

Salvador took in a big breath. He really couldn't believe all this that was happening to him and Lupe. They'd been to Hell and back, and yet the power, the strength, the conviction that was now radiating from this young woman before him was so great that most men would feel the need to slap her face and bring an end to this Formidable Force that Lupe now Possessed!

And a man could do this, a man had the brute strength within him to put the fires out of almost any woman, but then what would this man have—a shell. A frightened gun-shy horse.

And so no, he, Salvador, wasn't about to slap Lupe. For to do this, he fully realized that he, Juan Salvador Villaseñor
de
Castro, would be slapping his very own mother. And his mother had warned him that this day— where he now stood—would come to be. And his mother's voice now RANG OUT IN HIS HEAD like a great DRUM, saying:

“And when God comes asking who ate of that forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, you will not blame Lupe as Adam blamed
Eva
! Do you hear me, you will take it like a man,
un Mejicano de los buenos
, and with your
tanates
in hand you will say, ‘God, I did it! I did it!' And you will take full responsibility, for believe me, this young bride of yours will then rise up with the Love of the Night Star and make all the lessons that you've taught her seem small by comparison to the great lesson that she will then teach you in ONE GREAT STROKE!

“And this will happen to you when you least expect it, and it will drive you to the wall! And all this I know, for when your father and I reached this point in our marriage—as all couples do—my poor lost husband, didn't hit me as so many men do, but he lost his love for me, and started blaming me for all of his
problemas
, saying that all these misfortunes had come down upon him because he'd married beneath himself.

“I was
Eva
being blamed all over again! But you will not do this,
mi hijito
, do you hear me, you will understand that at this moment—with your
tanates
in hand—you can now step forward and ARISE
CON AMOR
! Do you hear me, no slapping, no blaming!”

Salvador burst out laughing!

What else could he do? Here was his mother inside of his head, having brainwashed him, on what to do and what not to do ever since he'd been a child, and here was his wife, standing before him, and giving it to him right in the face with both barrels. He was trapped between two women. He was engulfed by WOMEN-LEAD-HORSES!

He laughed until his belly ached!

He laughed until he had tears rolling down his face!

He laughed until he was hopping about from one foot to the other, doing a little
crazy-loco
dance!

And he Knew to the bottom of his Soul that this was the exact Power that he'd been looking for in a Woman all of his Life! And that this was the Power that every healthy
macho-cabrón
searched for, too, whether he knew it or not.

“Anything else, Lupe?” he asked.

“No,” said Lupe, “that's all I can think of right now.”

Hearing this, he started laughing all over again, and this time she was laughing with him, too.

“Okay, Lupe,” he said, “I don't know how, but we'll do it your way! Hell, my way hasn't turned out so good lately anyway.”

The joy, the
gusto,
that erupted from Lupe's
Heart-Corazón
as she heard her husband's response was so great, so wonderful, that she didn't really know what she, Lupe, was doing until she realized that it wasn't Domingo and Socorro's headboard that was pounding against the wall!

It was theirs, Salvador and hers!

Why, she'd thrown him across the bed, and she was now on top of him, skin to skin and trying to get all of him up inside of her as deeply as she could!

She was a Wild Woman in HEAT!

She was a Wild Woman who'd come into her Own!

And she was starving, wanting to DEVOUR the WORLD!

Salvador's eyes opened wide and he now knew where the old Mexican saying came from that said, “Men do it until they can't do it anymore, but a Woman does it until she DIES!”

For the screams that Lupe now heard weren't Socorro's, either. Oh, no, Lupe was now screaming WILDLY with LOVE, and it was her husband, her
esposo
, for whom she was WILD
con AMOR
!

The headboard was Beat, BEAT, BEATING! POUNDING!

The One Collective
Heart-Corazon
of all Humanity was Beat, BEAT, BEATING-POUNDING!

25

All was back in Balance, All was back in Harmony and at peace, generating Wisdom through our Thirteen Senses from HEAVEN to EARTH —ALL ONE SONG!

T
HE NEXT DAY
each couple was ready to go their own way. Domingo had ripped the trunk lid off their beautiful new Packard and piled up everything in the trunk like it was a pickup bed.

“If you two change your mind, you know where to find us,” said Domingo. “Just outside of Navojoa.”

“Thank you,” said Salvador, “but I think this is best for Lupe and me.”

“You're giving up millions in gold!” said Domingo.

“Yes, we know,” said Salvador. “But, well, we're already rich with something no money or gold can ever buy.”

“Damnit!” said Domingo. “But what the Hell!
Cada cabeza es un mundo
!”

Salvador smiled. This was a saying that their grandfather Don Pio, on their mother's side, always used to say, each head was a different world.

They parted with a big
abrazo
, hearts pounding with love between brothers. Then Domingo and Socorro, who was wearing so much makeup that you couldn't see her black and blue bruises, headed south, and Salvador and Lupe headed north.

Getting to the border, there were a few cars in line ahead of Salvador and Lupe. The United States authorities weren't allowing anyone to cross anymore who wasn't an American citizen or couldn't show a means of support. Lupe could see that Salvador was getting very uneasy. She took his hand.

“Lupe, do you really realize what you're asking of me? To give up a gold mine, to return where they don't want us, and then to give up the one trade that I know can make us a living.”

Lupe took in a large Breath of
Papito.
“No, Salvador,” she said, beginning to feel much more comfortable with this word no. “I'm not asking any of that. What I'm asking is for us, simply, to have more Faith that everything is going to turn out well for us, because we have health and we have love and we have one beautiful child here and another on the way We're
a familia
, Salvador.
And familias
have somehow been making a living since the dawn of time!”

Salvador had to smile. His mother couldn't have maneuvered him about anymore tactfully. “I hope you're right,” he said.

“You know I am,” she added.

He laughed. Then it was their turn to be asked questions by the border patrolman. The man looked tired and sweaty and in an awful mood.

Quickly, instinctively, Salvador prepared himself for battle.

But what did Lupe do, why, she just leaned across in front of Salvador, taking the lead, and said in a happy, bird-like, cheerful voice, “Officer, you must be burning up in this hot weather! Be sure to have your wife make you a big, tall glass of lemonade when you get home tonight!”

“Thank you,” he said. “Pass right on through. Good to have you back!”

And that was that. The patrolman hadn't even noticed that they were Mexicans or that they were driving a beat-up, old truck. He'd just seen them as good people, and that was all there was to it, and they were back in the United States.

“Lemonade?” said Salvador.

“Yes,” said Lupe, “I saw it in a movie, lemonade is very American, that and apple pie.”

Salvador couldn't stop laughing, every time he'd glance at Lupe. She'd been so quick and ready!

“Do you know what day this is?” asked Lupe when they came into the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona.

“No,” said Salvador, “I don't.”

“It's my birthday,” said Lupe. “It's May 30, 1932, and I'm twenty-one years old today!”

“Really, it's your birthday?”

“Yes, and I want us to go to the movies tonight, then afterward sleep underneath the Stars.”

“Anything else? God, you're getting wild again, Lupe!”

“Yes, I'd like warm apple pie for dinner with vanilla ice cream and nothing else.”

“All right, you got it!”

And so that Holy Night they had hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream and they went to the movies in Tucson, Arizona, and it was a wonderful, talking movie with music and dancing.

Then they slept under a million Stars, and when they made Love, Lupe and Salvador just Knew they were in Heaven Here on Earth—the happiest, richest couple in the Universe, GOD'S ONE SONG, ONE SYMPHONY!—OUR DREAM!

Afterword

Y
ES, DOMINGO DID FIND
the gold mine just outside of Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico, and he became very rich for about fifteen years. Then he sold the mine for a lot of money and started drinking himself to death, leaving women and children all over the place.