Water and Stone (13 page)

Seeing the boy up close and personal for the first time had awakened something deep inside of him that he'd forgotten ever existed.

His own father had been a distant man from his family—hateful really—and a hard person to love. Rancher Ford swore that he'd never be the same way toward any son of his... and yet other than the vicious beatings the man handed out like so much candy he discovered he repeated the cycle nearly verbatim.

"Tell me about your day, Billy."

"I met a boy on the bus this morning, father."

He still recalled Billy's exact words from that day years ago when Rancher had asked him an innocent question about school and how his first day back had been. He knew the boy that Billy had met but for the life of him he couldn't understand how the two brothers were drawn together despite Rancher's attempt at keeping them apart.

He should've sent them away. The thought occurred to him more than once yet the thought of never seeing Yani again caused his heart to ache in ways it'd never done before. The girl meant more to him than he cared to admit and the boy...

There was no doubt the boy was his. Rancher saw shades of his own father shining in Church's eyes as he bent down to shake his hand and introduce himself to his son for the first time.

"Do you know who I am, Church?"

"You are my father."

The boy said it as if it had been preordained... as if he'd always known it and had waited for that day for an eternity. Perhaps he had. It bothered Rancher Ford a good deal that he'd procrastinated for so long before coming to the boy but as always he rationalized it by telling himself it had been for the better.

Lorraine had left the Triple Six hacienda about that same time. At first, she said she was going east for a month to help her father in his Senate campaign which occurred with regularity every six years. The man had been a fixture in the government for so long he was virtually assured of reelection yet the old buzzard still campaigned like he was the underdog.

The month turned into another and then a third. When they spoke on the phone things were cordial as always yet Rancher Ford thought he could hear a distance in Lorraine's voice that had never been there before. He put it off to their long absence from one another.

As time wore on he found he had less and less to say to his wife and she in turn seemed at a loss for words as well. Sometimes it seemed as if they spent an hour simply listening to each other breathe.

A year later—or was it two?—she wrote to tell him she had purchased a townhouse in Georgetown to be closer to her father's Senate office. It didn't trouble him as much as he expected it might have when she informed him she had put off coming back to Texas indefinitely. In fact, it gave Rancher Ford more time for his dalliances with the ladies of Guthrie.

He couldn’t help noticing how Billy was spending more of his days and nights with a girlfriend too. Though the boy hadn't brought her home to meet his father, Rancher Ford trusted to his son's good instincts and breeding. He wouldn't take up with just anyone.

Billy had several offers to attend Ivy League universities out east yet he had come to him with a request to put off going away to college for a year. Since Rancher Ford had never found the time to get an education other than the one offered at the ranch and from itinerate hobos he could see no real purpose in Billy doing so either though he knew his wife had long set her hopes upon his going to the same university where her father was an alumni and an ardent Yale supporter.

"What are your plans, son?"

"So far as...?"

"You're too smart to play stupid, Billy. You know what I mean."

"You've been talking to mom again."

"You're nearly twenty now. She's just concerned about your education... so what are your plans?"

"I'm not ready to go away to school yet, father."

"I'd hate to see you put off something that you may never take up again unless you've good reasons."

"I just bought the old Craven place, father. I thought I might try my hand at ranching, like you."

Lester Craven had rebuffed every offer Rancher Ford brought to him over the years. The place was as run down as any ranch in the state of Texas... the barns were beyond salvaging and from the looks of it so was the house.

None of that mattered. He wanted the property for a practical reason... it would tie together two vast tracts of land that were otherwise separated from one another by an interstate highway. The Craven place had a tunnel bored under the highway making it possible for livestock and farm implements to traverse beneath the ever-present traffic.

"How on earth did you get old Craven to part with his ranch, Billy? I've been trying to buy it for years."

"It was Evalena's doing... she made a suggestion on how to approach the man and it worked."

"Evalena, Church's aunt? Is that the girl you've been seeing, Billy?"

"Yes, Evalena's Church's aunt, father... she's Yani's younger sister. And no, I'm not seeing her like a girlfriend. We just talk. She gives me advice sometimes... good advice. Without her help I never could've bought the Craven place."

"Why on earth do you want that old place, Billy?"

"It's not for me... I know how badly you wanted that ranch, father. Now we have it. Give me another year to put it into shape and then I promise I'll go to school. Is it a deal?"

"I don't understand how you got the money to buy a place like that, Billy."

"Evalena helped me with that too."

"Are we talking about the same woman who lives in that shack at the end of Cherry Creek Road, Billy? I always got the impression she's itinerant. How could she come up with enough money to buy a ranch?"

"She had property down in Mexico that she wanted to get rid of. She told me how she's looking to invest it in land here. So we struck a deal with Lester Craven. He traded his ranch for Evalena's holdings in Mexico."

"So it's actually Evalena's ranch... is that what you're telling me, Billy?"

"She didn't want it to be in her name... something to do with her not being a citizen, I guess. So she insisted the ranch be put in my name, father. I added your name to the deed too. I hope you don't mind."

"What does Church think about you being partners with his aunt?"

"He's okay with it. He did say something strange, though. He told me that she's not really his aunt."

"So they aren't related? Is that what you mean, Billy?"

"Oh, they're related... Evalena is his grandmother, at least that's what Church said. I can't see how that's possible though. She's not much older than I am."

"Well, I have heard stories of girls down in Mexico having babies at an extremely young age... eleven, twelve years old. Maybe it's better not to spread gossip like that, Billy."

"You're the only person I ever told, father. I wouldn’t go around spreading rumors. You know me better than that."

"You're right, Billy, and I apologize. I shouldn’t have said that."

Rancher Ford found it strange as the years went by and the boys grew into men and his own hair turned gray that the two women who claimed to be sisters never seemed to get any older. Himself, he had turned forty more than a few years ago and fifty was fast approaching. He felt the rigors of time building in his bones and each look into a mirror reminded him he was no longer the boy who had ridden to Texas in a boxcar.

And now Billy came to him with the news he and Evalena had purchased the same parcel of land that he had been trying to buy for decades. It didn’t make sense. What on earth could Evalena have by way of property in Mexico that was worth more than the money he had offered Lester Craven for his rundown excuse of a ranch?

Something bothered him about the woman though he couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was. He assumed the girl had come to Texas to help raise Church... for the first few years of the boy's life another girl—her name was Maria—lived with Yani but she up and left so abruptly he didn’t know the girl was gone for six months.

"Rancher... I'm worried about Yani's boy. She leaves him all alone while she works. Did you realize that?"

Lorraine didn’t often voice her opinions about the doings of the hired help and she seemed unduly concerned over the lack of a babysitter for Church. He wondered not for the first time if his wife had gotten wind of the rumor blowing around the ranch concerning who the father of the boy might be.

"I imagine if Yani needed help she'd say something, Lorraine. I sure hate sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong."

His wife wasn’t one to argue... he had to give her that. Still, it soothed his nerves when Evalena appeared, moved in with Yani and the boy, and proceeded to help raise Church.

Though she was every bit as beautiful as Yani and while he did love the women something about the sister set the tiny hairs growing upon the back of his neck to standing on end. Perhaps it was the haughty way she carried herself, as if everyone owed her something, or maybe it was the way she had of looking at him like she was judging how good he might taste in her evening stew.

Either way he knew it wouldn’t pay to dabble with the girl. He wanted to someday be a part of his son's life and screwing the aunt was the quickest way he could think of to ruin any prospect of that.

Besides, he reckoned the price might be more than he was willing to pay. He had long ago grown used to betraying his wife but to deceive Yani was more than he could stomach.

It was strange how he felt more loyalty to Church's mother than to Lorraine, but there it was.

It did no good to warn the boy.

She knew it wouldn’t. Evalena was too much the temptress for any man to resist, much less a boy like Billy Ford. She saw him getting carried away with the same obsession as she had done when Rancher Ford first came into her life.

Still, she had to try to caution him about seeing too much of her sister. If she didn’t she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Boys like Billy had no notion of what a woman like Evalena was capable of... he probably thought she was simply a pretty girl showing interest in him.

He spent nearly all his free time at the chabola now. It wasn’t that she minded... Billy'd often come to her home to take Church riding. Many nights when they returned late Yani fed them both a dinner of tortillas and beans before sending Church to bed and Billy back home to the hacienda.

She'd stepped outside with the boy. It was a cold night and the sky was alive with stars that hung so low she thought she might strike her head upon them. While walking with Billy down to the corral where his horse was tethered she took a chance at voicing her concerns though just as she suspected the boy only made light of it.

"My sister isn't who she seems, Billy. She'll take you to places you'd rather not go. Please take care around her."

"What do you mean, Yani? Is your little sister a heartbreaker?"

"Yes, Billy... that and lots more... you're but a boy while Evalena's much older than she appears. She'll make you want her and then you'll give yourself to her."

"Well, I surely appreciate you looking out for me, Yani. I better be going now... it's late and father'll wonder where I am."

As he swung up to the saddle and nudged his horse into a slow canter she could sense that he took her admonition as a joke. And where in all of Texas did Billy get the idea that Evalena was her younger sister? The girl must be filling his head with nonsense... Yani remembered Evalena as a grown woman when she was just a girl.

Or did she? It'd been so long ago that she sometimes wondered if her memory played tricks on her. Perhaps the woman she thought was Evalena was actually someone else. She'd no way of verifying the facts one way or the other... father was gone, and Evalena wasn’t going to volunteer the information she needed to confirm or deny the woman's identity.

They were sleeping together.

A few months after trying to warn the boy about her sister Yani had noticed Billy exiting the chabola early one March morning just as the sky was turning a different shade of black with the far off coming of the dawn. He was tucking his flannel shirt into his trousers as like a wraith he quietly slipped out of the shack. She wouldn't have noticed at all if she hadn’t felt the need to urinate about that same time and made her way to the outhouse.

She hid in the shadows and watched. The boy spent a minute rummaging through the shed where they kept the gardening tools. When he emerged she noticed he had a spade in his hands as he walked to his horse. He stood there tying it onto the side of his saddle as she approached as stealthily as she might.

She wondered if she should say something to Rancher Ford about his son and Evalena but the boy was of the age now to make his own decisions and knowing his father's proclivities towards the women she imagined he might be proud of his son even if she was to inform on him.

Then again Rancher was probably already alert to the affair. Nothing much happened on the Triple Six without the man being aware of it. She noticed long ago how he made a point of hobnobbing with all the hired hands and catching up on all the latest gossip.

Evalena wanted something. Yani knew the girl too well to accept that she'd fallen in love with Billy Ford. She was grooming the boy like her own father had done to her for so many years. She decided boldness was needed, otherwise the boy would succumb to her sister's charms and never know what hit him.

"Billy... we have to talk... please wait a moment."

She could see it startled him to hear her words coming out of the darkness. He turned as if expecting someone else... did she sound that much like Evalena? Did he expect the girl to be running after him?

"Oh... hi Yani... I didn’t mean to wake you."

"You didn’t wake me, Billy. I never sleep well. We need to talk though... Evalena's broken many hearts and she'll break yours too, if you're lucky."

"What do you mean by that, Yani?"

"As I said before to you, Evalena isn't who she seems... she has an agenda which may include you in the beginning but the ending will be bad. There's magic at work in the world which few people recognize these days, and it's not always good."

"Speaking of magic I noticed that altar Evalena keeps in her room... I have to admit it's a little spooky."

"You've no idea of the powers Evalena worships, Billy Ford... should anyone cross her she has the ability to summon... oh... I've said too much... just know that the woman you love doesn't share your affections... she's manipulating you into doing her bidding."

"Well, ma'am... I sort of get the idea all women do that to the men they're with... I've noticed it with my father. I've seen how he kowtows to every pretty girl he comes across. Isn't that sort of the way of the world, Yani?"

"I guess it depends on which world you're talking about, Billy Ford. The world you know—the one where your father beds all the beauties—is a normal place even if one of great suffering too. The world which Evalena inhabits is a far different place full of omens and magic."

"You make her sound spooky, Yani. But I love Evalena and she loves me. We're going to make a life together."

"In that case I'll enlighten you to something now if you give me your word you'll never repeat it... especially to my sister. If she knew what I'm telling you she'd fly into a rage and there's no telling what she might do."

"I promise... though I don’t know what you could possibly tell me that'd change my mind about your sister."

"Swear to me, Billy Ford... swear to me on your mother's life... that she might be struck dead should you ever repeat what I'm about to tell you."

"I swear on my mother... may she be struck dead if I repeat your words to anyone."

"Evalena's a bruja... a witch. She's far older than she appears. She's not my sister or even my mother or grandmother though we're indeed related. Evalena comes from a time long ago when the magic she works was more pronounced in the world, more respected."

"Come on, Yani... you don't expect me to believe that, do you?"

"Listen, Billy... my father was her familiar."

"What's a familiar?"

"A demon from beyond this world, Billy... she enchanted him the same way she's doing to you. Should you fall under her sway you'll become hers to order as she will, if that hasn't already occurred."

"Your little sister's an enchantress, I'll give you that. But I'm no demon... except maybe in bed."

She ignored the dig at her. The boy was obviously already under Evalena's spell and nothing she could say would break it. Still, she had to try.

"You must go to her of your own free will, Billy. She cannot take you unless you surrender yourself to her."

"Well, ma'am... I'm afraid she's gone and charmed me."

"Listen to me, Billy... once she has a grip upon your heart, she'll never let you go. She'll make you do unspeakable things even to those you love the most and you'll be powerless to stop."

"Why are you telling me this now, Yani?"

"You're right, Billy. It's better that I should keep quiet but I also understand how much you mean to my son. He adores you and I trust you love him as well. Unless you break free of the spell Evalena has cast over you, that love will mean nothing in the end."

"I surely appreciate you telling me all this, Yani... I better be going though. I've a chore to do before the sun comes up."

She could see right off that the boy didn't believe her. Who would? Evalena might be a temptress but to accuse her of being a witch ran counter to everything in the world that Billy Ford knew so well. Even she had a hard time accepting it as fact.

"What are you going to dig up, Billy Ford?"

"How do you know what I'm doing?"

"I saw you come out of the shed and tie that shovel on your horse. Most times anyone takes a shovel with them it means they're planning on doing some digging."

"Yeah... well, I'm not sure, Yani... I think it might be something Evalena's been searching for... I had a dream about a tree and I know it's sort of stupid but I'm going to see what happens anyway. I mean, it can't hurt. The worst I can do is waste some time."

"She's been looking for the stone. That's what you're going to dig for."

"Yes... that's right."

The boy seemed surprise that she guessed his secret so easily. She wondered if Billy Ford could hear the song of the stone too or if he was telling the truth that he'd dreamed of it. Perhaps the piedra was ready to be found.

"Evalena is subject to hallucinations, Billy. She has a form of epilepsy that makes her think her delusions are real. This stone that she seeks is all in her mind."

"She seemed pretty sure that I've been around it though, Yani. Evalena told me she could read its effects in the palm of my hand."

"Come on, Billy... does that sound rational to you? What kind of stone could do that to anyone?"

"To tell the truth, I have no idea what sort of stone she means. She told me I'd know it when I saw it. I had the strangest dream just now that I heard music coming from under the sycamore tree that grows inside that old church... you know, the one they call the Church of the Five Angels. I figured I might try my hand at digging under that tree and see what I can find."

"Stay here for a little while, Billy... let me make you some breakfast before you set out on your quest."

"I better not, Yani... thank you though. I best be getting on... I don’t want anyone to see me digging."

"Come, Billy... whatever's buried has been there a long while and it'll wait. And no one ever goes to that old church anyway. You've no worries about anyone seeing you. Fill your empty belly and the digging will be easier."

"Well, I am a might hungry now that I think about it. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have a bite before I set out."

She wanted to drag the boy from his saddle, to take the shovel hanging from the side of his horse, and beat him to death with it. She saw it happening right before her eyes—his brains staining the yellow dirt red and his split skull pale and white under the moon—as if she was a silent witness to murder. It was the only way to stop what was about to happen... she knew it, and yet she couldn't bring herself to harm Billy Ford.

It was strange. The boy could well be her own son and despite the gulf of time and wealth that separated them she loved him as much as she loved Church. If she couldn't dissuade him from seeing Evalena, perhaps there was another way to solve the problem.

After tying off his horse to the fence Billy followed Yani back to the chabola where she cracked eggs to prepare a breakfast for him. Sprinkling the concoction liberally with ganthoda powder she added salt and pepper to cover the slightly bitter taste of the sedative... Billy was yawning already so all he needed was a slight push and he'd be asleep at the table.

She could not allow the piedra to fall into Evalena's hands. Yani had no idea how Billy knew where to look for it but she'd soon have the stone moved to a safe place where no one could ever find it again.