Thirteen Senses (9 page)

“Relax,” said Salvador, “just relax,
amigo
,” he added, reaching out and stroking Tomas's leg like you'd do for a woman. This he'd seen done in prison. This small, innocent-looking act caused a frightened man's balls to draw completely up into his body, leaving him as available as any female who'd lost all self-respect.

“It's all right,
amigo mio
,” continued Salvador, talking softly, gently, “I know that you didn't intentionally mean any harm. But, well, you know how it is, a man's livelihood is a man's livelihood, and just because—” Salvador now had to swallow hard to keep himself calm, “—I got married doesn't mean that I still can't take care of business.”

Salvador wanted to scream, to turn into a jaguar and rip this man's throat out with his teeth, but he didn't. He calmed down, breathing easy like a reptile in the hot midday desert.

Up ahead, in the canyon, Salvador pulled off the dirt road of El Camino and took a trail across a meadow toward some abandoned horse corrals.

Inside the barn were the two little pigs, which Salvador and the Morenos had brought by earlier when they'd checked things out. And now, in no time at all, the Moreno boys had a good little fire going.

By now Tomas was so confused, not knowing what was going on, that he just couldn't shut up. Salvador just loved how the unknown rattled people, particularly those who weren't at home with themselves. The changing forces of living life,
la vida,
could kill a man who didn't have his feet well planted into the Mother Earth.

“But Salvador, I never brought them down here!” Tomas was now saying. “You need to believe me! I swear it on my mother's grave! I respect a man's territory!”

Salvador almost laughed on this one. Years ago he'd learned, that anytime a man swore to something, especially over his mother's grave, this meant that then this was exactly what this man was lying about. Lies were such good company to fear.

“Yes, you respect a man's territory,” said Salvador. “But do you respect a man's marriage?”

“But what are you talking about?” yelled Tomas, eyes jumping.

“Marriage,” said Salvador, “do you respect a man who's gotten married? Or do you—like so many little two-bit pimps who handle women with a slap in the face—think a man's gone weak in the head when he's in love and he marries?”

“Salvador, I swear, I don't know what you're talking about! I have never even spoken to this girl you married. I—I—oh, God, I think there's been a misunderstanding here! I deal in cards and, you know, prostitutes; not in decent women, Salvador!”

Salvador only smiled. “Exactly. I know. I know,” he said as he continued to sharpen his knife, realizing that yes, indeed, he'd struck pure gold here inside this man's private hell.

Why, it was this little two-bit Tomas who'd told the
Filipino
and the
Italiano
that the North County San Diego was for the taking because Salvador was getting married and couldn't control his area anymore. Why, this little son-of-a-bitch had probably even told 'em, “Come on, hurry, before someone else moves in! For we all know that a man who marries has lost his nerve!”

Salvador turned and looked at Tomas, and yes, Tomas was tall, well-built, and very handsome with a rugged appearance to him. But looking at his eyes, especially into his left eye, the female eye, it was easy to see just how very little Tomas really was.

Why, Tomas was nothing but a rabbit, a cottontail, facing his worst nightmare, the She-Fox, herself!

Salvador now rolled up the left sleeve of his own shirt, and licked the hairiest part of his forearm, then he put the blade of the knife that he'd just sharpened to this licked part of his forearm to test the sharpness of the blade. The knife shaved a little, two-finger-wide portion of his forearm as clean and smooth as a baby's ass.

“Pretty good, eh?” said Salvador, seeing how Tomas had watched the whole procedure very carefully. “But I think I should still strap it first.”

“But what are we going to do?” asked Tomas, having finally got caught up in the details of what was going on about him.

Salvador loved details; they were the lifeblood of any well-laid plan.

“Well, of course, I'm going to castrate these two little pigs,” said Salvador.

Tomas glanced at the two little pigs, who were rooting happily in a corner of the barn, digging at the earth with their noses. They looked so cute and happy and peaceful.

“Poor little things,” said Tomas, suddenly looking greatly relieved. “But then why did you bring me along? I don't understand.”

Just then, Archie's big Hudson car came roaring up outside, right on schedule.

“Who's that?” asked Tomas.

“Archie,” said Salvador, “but don't worry. I'll tell him that everything is okay.”

The barn door burst open and in stepped Archie, filling the entire doorway like a big studhorse. “Just stopped by,” he said, full of power, “to say hi and see if everything is okay.”

“Everything is fine,” said Salvador, calmly.

“Oh, yes, everything is fine,” said Tomas, looking even more relieved to see the law.

“Good, then I'll be seeing you,” said Archie, and he turned and left as quickly as he'd come, and they could all hear his big Hudson changing gears as it went roaring back up on El Camino and headed north back to town.

“But I don't get it,” said Tomas, feeling very confident now. “If you're just going to castrate some pigs, then why did you bother to bring me all the way out here?”

“Because,” said Salvador, suddenly stepping in close, as the two Moreno boys—who were some of the greatest horsemen in all the Southland—now roped Tomas with the
riatas
that they'd been playing around with, before he ever knew what was happening, “I'm going to cook up those pigs' balls and feed them to you, before we castrate you and feed your own
tanates
to you, too!”

All the blood left Tomas's face.

“No man,” continued Salvador, “should have to eat his own balls before knowing if he likes balls cooked with
salsa verde
or
salsa colorada
!”

Tomas screamed to the heavens, startling the two little pigs, as the Moreno boys tied him in a chair and then tied the chair to one of the horse stalls and jerked down his pants.

Then when the first little pig was caught and his legs were held wide apart for his cutting, you couldn't distinguish the screams of Tomas from the little pig's SCREECHES!

The first pair of balls were tossed in the frying pan of the little fire with
salsa verde,
because no matter how much Salvador kept asking Tomas which
salsa
he preferred to start with first, he couldn't speak, he was screaming so much as Salvador shoved the first burning-hot pig's ball down his throat, almost choking him to death!

By the time Salvador and the two Moreno boys dropped Tomas back off in the
barrio de Carlos Malo,
he was no longer ever going to be a Doubting Thomas again for as long as he lived! He was a true believer now, for he'd seen
el Diablo
as sure as he breathed.

Half
crazy-loco
out of his mind, that very night Tomas drove up to the City of the Angels, and with a gagging, burned mouth and throat, he told his two partners to never venture to the North County San Diego again, for the Devil lived!

And the Devil's name was Juan Salvador Villaseñor, and Archie, the law, was in full partnership with
el Diablo,
and my God, he prayed for the day that he'd be forgiven for ever having dreamed of interfering in another man's territory!

By the end of that week, after taking care of . . . well, a little more unfinished business, Salvador's reputation grew in such leaps and bounds that people now said that his blood ran backward from his heart and his earth-body cast no more shadow in the full Moon, for his soul was now at one with the Devil, himself!

3

And so she, the child who'd been conceived on the night that a meteorite struck the Earth, was now a married woman and she was in love!

F
OR THREE MORNINGS
Lupe slept in late, while the rest of her family got up before sunrise so they could go to work in the fields. And each morning Lupe would get herself a cup of coffee and go out on the front porch to watch the light of the new day.

Lupe had never done this before in all her life. She and her family had always been at work in the fields before the first light of the day. But now. being a newly married woman—who was getting herself healthy and ready for her husband to come and get her on Friday so they could go on their honeymoon—she had leisure time for the very first time in her life.

Several people came by that week to visit with Lupe, wanting to tell her of the rumors that were spreading like wildfire about Salvador having castrated a man and tortured another one to death, but Lupe always cut them short, saying, “No, not one word!” For her mother had taught her that a smart woman never listened to gossip, and she wasn't going to start now.

After all, she and Salvador had taken their wedding vows before God, and he was now her husband and she loved him with all her heart and soul, and so she wasn't going to allow even one ill word spoken about him in her presence.

Sitting on her parents' porch with a cup of coffee with plenty of sugar and milk, Lupe watched the coming of the new day. Oh, this was such a luxury! Lupe had never known that sleeping in late and getting up slowly felt so good! Lupe now sat here on her parents' porch steps, all cuddled together in her nightgown and robe, warming her hands with her cup of coffee and watching the morning sunlight come in through the tree branches and dance on her mother's flowers, herb garden, and beautifully scented plants.

For as long as she could remember, her mother had explained to Lupe and her sisters that a woman had to talk to her plants and trees and flowers on a daily basis in order to feel complete. For
Papito Dios
had made woman from the plant-world, just as He had made man from the mineral-world.

Lupe could now see so clearly that her mother had, indeed, been correct. It was a miracle how each tree branch, each flower, each plant took on the life of the coming of the Sun. Why, the plants were beginning to smile, to sing, to whisper good tidings to Lupe as she sat sipping her coffee, mesmerized by the coming of a whole new day.

“Hello,” said Lupe to the plants all around. “Good morning. I hope you all slept well.”

The plants purred and Lupe knew they'd had a wonderful night. Lupe continued to sip her coffee.
Papito Dios
had truly been very wise when He'd taken the strength from the tree, the beauty from the flower, and the healing powers from the herbs to make woman strong, beautiful, and a healing force.
Papito Dios
had also truly been very wise when He'd taken wind, rock and the molten fire to make man. That was why men liked to be on the move like wind and go to rock caves to find peace. Where women, on the other hand, went to their garden of
maize, frijoles,
and
yerbas buenas
to reconnect themselves with these quiet, invisible, holy mysteries of life,
la vida.

“Always remember that men are mineral,” her mother had told Lupe and all her sisters ever since Lupe could remember, “and women are vegetation. That's why the two will always have difficulties. Men were formed from the clay along the river's edge. Women were formed from the roots of the great tree that grows on the river's edge. It's a miracle that they ever come together at all.”

Having heard this story all of her life, Lupe now felt so happy that her mother had had the wisdom to not let her go on her honeymoon when she'd been passing blood and not feeling well—for now, on Friday, when Salvador came to get her, she'd be feeling well and clean and ready.

She could hardly wait!

She was, after all, now a married woman!

Her heartbeat quickened with just the thought of the delicious kisses that they'd had in the walnut orchard behind her parents' house. Then, when Salvador turned her about, so that the backside of her body came up against the full length of his—she'd truly understood for the first time in all her life why men came from rock and molten hot fire!

She shivered, sipping her coffee, and remembered Salvador's kisses and the feel of his body up against her buns as she now watched the early-morning light giving color and life to her mother's garden.

IT WAS FRIDAY
, and Salvador was washing up and changing his clothes so he could go and pick up his bride over the coastal hills from Corona to Santa Ana. He was at Luisa's. There was no running water in his mother's little shack in back, so Salvador was bathing and getting dressed in his sister's house in the front.

“Salvador,” Luisa was now saying as she watched Salvador prepare to shave his face in front of the old, broken mirror, “forget Lupe! Don't go get her! Admit that you were a fool to have ever married that girl! You spent a fortune on that fool girl. Nobody ever bought me a diamond ring!” shouted Luisa. “Nobody ever got me furniture and set up a house for me. Then her mother came out to tell you that Lupe wasn't ready to go on her honeymoon, this is an outrage! She didn't have the guts or decency to come out and tell you herself!”