Water and Stone (36 page)

"Later, though, she felt guilty. The last thing she did before leaving Guthrie for good was to take the box containing the stone to give to Evalena Gutiérrez on the Triple Six ranch. She left it on the porch of a little shack at the end of Cherry Creek Road where Evalena said she was staying. When she arrived she started to knock at the door. At the last minute, though, Allison thought better of it. What if the girl thought she was insane and called the authorities? She was already under suspicion for the disappearance of Beth Patterson. So she simply left it there. That's how you ended up with it, Yani."

"Am I responsible for your death, Billy?"

She wasn’t sure if she said the words out loud but suddenly someone was gently shaking her. At first she thought she was waking to another dream... Church stood over her with a look of incredulity on his face.

The only part he understood was señor.

"¿Dónde te gustaría ir, señor?"

Never did he wish more fervently that he'd learned the language as a child, but mother had been adamant he speak only English. Not that he actually knew where he wanted to go anyway, but still, he might not have felt like such an imbecile.

Getting to the island was far easier than he thought it might be. For some reason he had visions of a blockade of iron boats surrounding Cuba, ugly men with uglier guns and dressed in matching uniforms checking everyone's identification, and sending back those who didn't qualify to be there.

Instead, he'd been able to charter an old derelict fishing boat for the day. The captain didn’t seem particular about where Church wanted to go as long as he had the money to pay for the trip. A thousand dollars seemed a bit steep but he figured there was no sense being cheap now.

"Busco a la señora Evalena Gutiérrez?"

He had no idea where the words came from and could only hope they meant what he thought. Apparently he'd said something wrong for a moment later he found the taxi driver dragging him unceremoniously from the cab while simultaneously genuflecting as if warding off the devil himself.

Standing in the warm Cuban street surrounded by buildings that seemed hundreds of years old Church watched as the old '61 Chevy with no muffler and bald tires threw gravel and belched out a cloud of white exhaust fumes in its driver's haste to be gone.

"Ah... you are searching for Evalena Gutiérrez... is that so?"

Startled to hear the name he turned to see a young man approaching him speaking English and wearing a crooked smile that made Church immediately suspicious. Unlike most everyone else he'd seen on the island the boy was dressed impeccably wearing khaki jeans and a polo shirt with shoes so shiny he could see his reflection in them.

Though the day was warm and Church was perspiring heavily the boy seemed as cool as a desert night though when he looked more closely he could see tiny beads of sweat breaking out on the boy's brow and his upper lip as if he was doing his best to hide his nervousness yet couldn't quite succeed.

"Who is asking?"

"Oh, please forgive my impertinence... allow me to introduce myself. I am Hajdani... a distant relative of Evalena's. When I heard the name Gutiérrez spoken I could not contain my excitement. It is the name of many of my relatives. And you are?"

"My name is Church Gutiérrez. Evalena is my aunt."

"How wonderful! We two must be related as well! It is not often that I get to meet an extended part of my family I never knew existed. Tell me, Church Gutiérrez, what are you doing here on our precious island? Are you vacationing?"

"Not exactly... mine is more of a business trip. Do you know where I can find Evalena?"

"Most certainly, Church Gutiérrez... please allow me to take you there myself. My car is just around the corner."

"No, that's good of you, Senor Hajdani, but I prefer walking. If you could just give me some pointers on how to get there I'd be forever in your debt."

"Oh, but Church Gutiérrez... the way is far. Our island may seem tiny but to get to where your aunt resides will take you many hours of walking. Come... I will have you there in only a matter of minutes. Besides, those wonderful boots of yours do not appear to lend themselves well to walking."

"This man's been waiting for you, Church. Beware of him for he doesn't have your best interests in mind."

Lorraine's voice sounded as clearly in his head as if she was standing right next to him but he knew better. Still, he had grown used to the woman's warnings. She'd yet to be wrong or to lead him in unwise ways.

The boy was looking at him oddly as if wondering if his ruse would be successful while pushing his bowler hat to the back of his head with an index finger before adjusting the beads on his bolo necktie. He noticed how the boy kept eyeballing the backpack Church was carrying... the piedra was inside, singing softly. Apparently Hajdani shared Evalena's tone deafness for he didn't seem to notice anything.

When first traveling to Cuba Church had been a little leery of carrying the derringer in his boot but now having it along lent him a feeling of power he might not otherwise possess. He reckoned if he was caught with the pistol that he'd end up in a Cuban prison but that seemed preferable to being chucked into a shallow grave.

"I appreciate the offer, Senor Hajdani, my long lost cousin, but I have a prior engagement. Do you live close by? Perhaps we could meet up later."

"By all means, Church Gutiérrez... please go to your appointment. I am always around. If you do not see me, just ask for me by name. All these people know who I am."

As he twirled a hand in a circle there was an unease in Hajdani's eyes that reminded Church of a rodeo bull who knew he was going to be ridden into the dust and yet had steeled himself for the fight. He had a feeling the boy would know if he asked around about Evalena... that he had his fingers in all the pies here in Cuba.

Did Hajdani know he had the piedra? He doubted it... otherwise the boy wouldn't have been so agreeable about waiting until later to go to Evalena's house... he would've insisted they go now... he might even have used muscle to enforce his wish. Could he trust Hajdani to leave him be? No, Lorraine was right... this was a boy to watch.

Shouldering his backpack and tugging his cowboy hat down over to shield his eyes from the bright tropical sun, Church walked across the street to what looked to be an outdoor café. He felt rather than saw Hajdani watching his every move. Taking a seat under a sickly looking palm tree at an unoccupied table he set his backpack between his knees whereby the feel of it he'd know if anyone attempted to steal it from him.

He was still wondering about Tree. The girl seemed to genuinely enjoy his company... she'd doubtlessly saved him from being arrested or worse back in Guthrie. She'd run off with him on a moment's notice driving half way across the country in a broken down pickup truck. They'd made love.

Where did she go?

Had she suddenly gotten cold feet and gone back to Texas? He couldn’t blame her. But from what he understood she didn’t have more than twenty dollars in her purse and she'd left that behind. If she'd asked him for the money to buy a bus ticket home he'd have given it to her... but then again perhaps she had someone wire her what she needed.

He wondered if he should've filed a missing person report before leaving Miami. What if Tree had been abducted? Stranger things happened in big cities and even not so big towns. Had he been remiss in leaving so quickly for Cuba?

"Huevos y café por favor."

It was all he knew how to order. The waitress—who appeared to be no older than twelve and who didn't look at him or write down his order—turned and disappeared into the hovel of a restaurant. Several surly looking hombres in tattered clothes with dirty bandanas to match threw dark glances his way as he did his best to ignore them. Discreetly looking out across the street he noticed Hajdani had disappeared. The boy was probably still about, spying on him. He wondered if the café had a back door.

A sea breeze rustled a sign hanging from frayed rope over the outdoor counter that read: el baño with an arrow pointing into the shack that probably housed the kitchen. From his seat Church could see a hallway leading off what seemed to be the main room. He wasn’t hungry... he'd ordered eggs and coffee on more of a pretext to ditch Hajdani.

Leaving a five dollar bill on the table under the salt shaker, he rose and walked into what seemed little more than a thatched hut as the darkness inside momentarily blinded him. Growing up at the chabola Church was used to using outdoor bathrooms and though he wasn’t sure, from the obvious signs of poverty he saw all around him and the distinct outhouse smell wafting in the wind, he suspected there weren’t many indoor toilets in La Fé, the small town just off the western peninsula where he came aground. The Faith... though his Spanish was nearly nonexistent he knew the translation, and wondered if it was more than chance that he landed there.

As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting he noticed another crooked el baño sign tacked to the wall that pointed to a doorway leading into the back where two outhouses squatted in the high weeds and the stench of the summer sun. Flies buzzed around him as he made his way past the odiferous toilets, hopped a low chicken wire fence, and made his way down an alley that shielded him from sight.

If Hajdani wanted him that badly the boy was going to have to work for it... he wasn’t giving himself up willingly.

While the old woman slept Evalena softly peeled away the clothes covering her back.

The marks were still there, etched into the skin like translucent tattoos no artist could ever hope to duplicate. Now that Hajdani knew she was here, he'd come for her. Yani'd been promised to him and Evalena knew he hadn't forgotten that vow.

She told herself she shouldn’t feel sorry for the old woman... she'd stolen from her, betrayed her, and even tried to kill her. She should summon Hajdani immediately and give Yani over... but something stopped her.

Was it love?

That seemed impossible. So far as she could remember, she'd never loved anyone or anything, unless it was the piedra. She had a sudden urge to gather up Yani and make a run for it... go back to Mexico and hide. But the old woman wouldn’t last out the week.

She remembered the night Yani was born. A squall had rolled in from the west as buckets fell on the tin roof of the house. The island boy who acted as a surrogate—his name was Juan Pedro Molina—came to her in the evening with shooting pains in his swollen stomach only minutes apart.

She'd fixed him a sleeping potion all the while assuring him he'd be fine, cut the child from his body, and unable to save his life she'd buried his badly abused carcass in the sea that same night. Rowing the small fishing boat out into the bay had been the most harrowing part... twice she thought other fishermen had spotted her with the cadaver but the night was moonless and she was able to slip past them soundlessly.

She still saw the boy at times in her dreams. Though she always thought he'd hate her for what she'd done to him, instead he continued to profess his undying love. His words made the guilt she felt more palatable though it still wore on her at times, especially when she'd see a boy who reminded her of him.

Yani was a great source of pride and joy in the household... a baby born out of an impossible situation. Evalena was incapable of carrying a child to term due to a venereal disease she contracted after being raped. The world was still a young and a wild place in those days without the scant protection offered by civilization and she'd yet to learn of the powers of the stone. She'd been kidnapped off the street and held for days while being subjected to all manner of atrocities by more men than she could count.

The ordeal had left her with an intense hatred of any man who dared to approach her. In time she learned to use certain properties of the piedra to pay them back for the brutalities that they had heaped upon her, even those innocent of any crime, only related to those who were. By feeding them a special mixture of sand she poured through the stone and the right combination of bodily fluids she was able to collect by doing work for a local doctor and breathing over the potion Evalena discovered how she was able to implant living embryos inside of males.

Yani had been born of such an experiment, the first successful trial after many sordid and horrifying failures. The father was a boy who fell in love with Evalena, who believed everything she told him, and who endured more pain than she'd heretofore thought humanly possible. He did it for her.

She called each of them father for as her conquests fell under her dominion they invariably aged well beyond their years in only a matter of months. A boy of eighteen soon grew feeble, his organs failed, and his hair turned white. Anyone looking upon him would take him for an old man, thus to hide her actions she learned to masquerade as their daughter rather than a lover.

Hajdani was no different than all her fathers, at least not in the beginning. He was simply another boy in an endless stream all of whom seemed to become enamored with Evalena within minutes of meeting her and whose loves engendered countless opportunities for her to enrich herself.

He was a wily one, however. Perhaps Evalena had grown reckless with the ease of her never-ending conquests or maybe Hajdani had gone into the relationship having heard rumors that she wielded a power beyond any normal woman, but either way, he fooled her.

Though he'd begun to age like all the others, sudden the process reversed itself. Unbeknownst to her, he'd found the stone and what was more he taught himself to use it. That was bad enough but worse was how Hajdani recruited others to his service by laying claim to a long dormant priesthood of the piedra.

It soon became clear to Evalena that she was the weaker one... that Hajdani had not only mastered her own knowledge of the stone but had improved upon it. She was now the one in danger of being supplanted in the changing times.

Being in possession of the piedra would've made things easier but in a moment of weakness—or perhaps it was strength—she'd given it to her father, to hide, to keep it safe. The villagers were growing increasingly hostile to Evalena and her seemingly eternal youth and though she knew it was time to move on she hadn’t been able to find the will to do so.

"Take it for me, Hajdani, and please keep it safe. I know I can trust you."

Instead of helping her though, he turned on her. He disappeared from the island taking the stone with him. It all began with the siege... a dozen men converged upon her home demanding that she give over whatever treasure they had heard that she held.

Hajdani had gone like a sacrificial lamb into their midst as her emissary obstinately to bargain with them for her survival. In fact, however, and as she later learned, they were in cahoots with each other... Hajdani had hired the mob to frighten Evalena into giving over the piedra. Once he had it, he promptly vanished.

It'd all been an elaborate ruse. When the gang of thugs showed up, they waited until Hajdani confronted them before appearing to beat him senseless. By the time he was able to escape and make it back into the house, she was ready to give over the stone in order to save the both of them.

Yani was just a child. She didn’t deserve to see what transpired that night, especially after Evalena learned it had all been a set up... that Hajdani hired the men who attacked the house, and had done so knowing Yani would be witness to the man who she thought was her father being slaughtered.

Some months later, Hajdani returned... not to the house, but to the island. When she got wind of it she ignored his entreaties to come back to her. Even when the man told a tale of single-handedly dispatching the dozen or so attackers bent upon forcing him to give up the piedra using but a handful of sand, she smiled and filed the information away for future reference. When she inquired about the stone, however, his demeanor changed. He told her it was lost somewhere, that someone had stolen it from him, and then he asked to see the child.

"You promised to allow me into her life, Evalena... otherwise I never would have agreed to act as her father."

Hajdani once told her how he had learned of a method that might duplicate the piedra many times over. It entailed treating the skin of a young girl with powder that had been dropped through the stone... in time, the outer surface of the victim would be harvested. He'd chosen Yani as the target for his atrocities partly because he knew how much Evalena cared for the girl but mostly on account of lusting after her himself.

"Allow her to celebrate her quinceañera, Hajdani... then you may have her to do as you will."

She had hopes the intervening years might diminish his heartlessness but her expectations were misplaced. The man had no heart to soften. Now, here she was decades later with Yani in hand and still without the piedra.

She now wondered why Hajdani hadn't taken Yani already... he had ample opportunities both in Miami and in Cuba from what Yani told her. What sort of game was he playing now? He had his eternal youth... he was obviously wealthy, and he apparently had mastered the magic of the piedra even without having possession of it.

How much greater would his powers be if he obtained it again? No one would be safe from his wrath. But then again, was it really Hajdani? Perhaps he was only a descendant of the man, a son or a grandson taking his name and glory.

A soft knock sounded at the door.

Expecting no one she hesitated to answer it fearing who might be standing there. Her curiosity got the better of her, as always, so she padded barefoot to the window where she had a vantage point of the front door.

Church was there. Of course it would be him... who else would dare approach la casa de la bruja? Only a fool, and a desperate one at that. She hastened to open the door to allow him entry before he knocked more loudly and awakened Yani.

"I came as quickly as I could, Tia Evalena. Is my mother here?"

He had the piedra with him... she could sense it in his voice, see it in his eyes, feel it in the air suddenly electric like just before a sudden storm. The time of reckoning was finally upon her... the moment she'd dreamed about, planned for, and sacrificed in order to bring it to fruition.

"Come in, boy... you might be too late but she yet lives."

Wishing to give the boy a few private moments with his mother before the inevitable, Evalena went into her own bedroom after pointing out where Yani was at. She hadn’t realized how incredibly sleepy she'd grown... she couldn't remember the last time she caught a few winks. Lying down upon her bed she told herself she'd simply close her eyes for a moment... no longer.

A bright radiance pried open her eyelids. For a second she thought someone had come into her room with a floodlight and was playing it upon her face but looking to the naked window she realized it was the sun. Day had broken... she must have been so tired she slept the night away.

Rising from the sofa where she slept she couldn’t help but note how badly her throat hurt. When she spoke she scarcely recognized her own voice and for some reason she felt as old and tired as Yani looked when she walked into the house the day before. Where was the joy she should be feeling in knowing the passion was back in her life once more? The stone was hers again. She had only to ask for it and it would be given over.

Someone must have carried her to the living room while she was asleep. She distinctly remembered lying down in her bed the night before... Yani was sleeping on the sofa.

She barely had the strength to totter across the room before she had to sit down. Glancing into the darkling and dirty mirror hanging above the long unused fireplace she saw an old woman sitting in the same place where she sat. For a second she wondered who was sitting in her chair and why when she moved the old woman moved too.