“And who might that be?” asked Archie, still laughing. “The governor up in Sacramento?”
“No, that’s too far for me to travel,” she said, “so I won’t go to him, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t go to the governor to get my way.” And saying this, she turned and asked Epitacio to get their truck and drive her. “We’ll be back within the hour,” she added, going out the door, “and the Will of God will be done!”
“Hey, did I upset her?” asked Archie. “I didn’t mean anything. I was just having fun.”
Salvador shook his head. “You’re not big enough to upset her, Archie. You just showed her how small of faith you are. She’ll move mountains, you’ll see. And within the hour, as she said.”
Archie blew out, tipping back his Stetson. “Yeah, I believe it. My grandmother, she was the story-keeper of our people back in Texas. The keeper of our language and—oh, her chants could move mountains, too! I just don’t see how we lost to the White Man with all the powers of our old people.”
“My mother says we didn’t,” said Salvador. “It’s just taking us a little time to gather ourselves up again.”
Hearing this, Archie laughed so hard he almost choked.
ONCE THEY WERE OUTSIDE and on the road, Doña Margarita told Epitacio to take her to see her old amigo Irvine. “He owes me one,” she said, “just as God, Himself, has owed me many in the past. And it’s late and so he’ll be home with his goats at this hour. I don’t care what people say, Eee-rvine is a very good hombre in his corazón.”
And so Doña Margarita was back within the hour and Salvador and Lupe disappeared from the face of the Earth, hiding out on the back side of Irvine’s huge ranch in the Trabuco Canyon while the law hunted for them everywhere.
All over the Southland, the Mexican people were being rounded up by the thousands like cattle and being shipped back to Mexico. Many of these people had been born here in the United States and had never even set foot across the border, but the authorities didn’t care. The whole country was falling apart, so someone had to be blamed and there just weren’t enough Jews in the area to take it out on.
Everywhere familias were being broken up.
Among all this, Salvador and Lupe’s Moon automobile was stolen from the parking lot in front of the railroad station at San Juan Capistrano. And when Salvador was told, he started screaming like a madman with vengeance. He’d loved his Moon! He wanted to kill, to put a curse on that damn car thief!
But his wise old mother, Doña Margarita, only said, “Be happy, mi hijito, that you had such a fine car to get stolen. Most people will never have such a fine, beautiful car even for one minute in all their lives.”
“But mama,” screamed Salvador, “how can you say this! My coat was in that car! Cash was in the glove compartment! Lupe’s coat with the fur collar was in the back!”
“All the better,” said his mother, refusing to be turned. “Look what a great find these people will get to enjoy who stole your car. Maybe they were hungry. Maybe they have a bunch of children. Maybe they have never had such good fortune in all their lives. No, mi hijito, let that car go. It’s gone, and so now just enjoy, here inside you, the good memories you had con tu carro”
“But mama, how can you talk like this?” he yelled.
“But how can I not talk like this,” said the old Indian woman calmly “This is exactly what I had to do with each and every child I lost ... in the Revolution.”
Her eyes filled with tears. They were under a grove of oak trees, camping on the little creek that ran through the Trabuco Canyon. Salvador and Lupe were now living like wild Indians, hiding from the law. Epitacio and Doña Margarita had just driven out with some groceries for them and gave them the news of their Moon automobile.
“I loved each child so much,” she continued. “Alejo, tall and strong and brave and blue-eyed like your father; Teorodo, looking so much like Alejo but a poet here inside of his heart; Emilia, as beautiful and delicate as an angel; Jose, small and dark with his whole soul here in his liquid-black eyes; Lucha, always laughing and dancing ever since a child; Jesus, Maria, Lupe—sixteen children in all I lost, each one a passing here between my legs with sacred blood, each one a joy of hope and dreams—esperanzas! And then, just like that, they were brutally taken away from me by that Revolution. So, of course, I hold, here in my heart, only the joy I had with them, mi hijito, or I would’ve gone crazy-loca with grief long ago.”
She Breathed in of Papito. “Let these next people enjoy your carrito, mi hijito. Wish them well, in fact, for only then will you be free and fate can then stay open to you, giving you no end of surprises. Do you see, mi hijito, to close in with hate and anger is to kill yourself. I know, I tried that, too, and it doesn’t work. We must keep open, in order to Breathe of Papito with each Holy Breath we take.”
She smiled, making the sign of the cross over herself. And Salvador—didn’t want to—but he started smiling, too. He just couldn’t help it. His old mother was truly the wizard of the whole UNIVERSE!
“All right, mama,” he said. “I’ll do it! May those no good dirty son-of-a-bitches who stole my car have a great time! May they find that money in the glove compartment and have a feast with their kids!”
“There, that’s it, mi hijito!” said the old lady with gusto.
Just then, as if on cue, old man Irvine himself drove up in his truck and he had a side of beef with him, a sack of flour and vegetables, and also his last jug of Salvador’s whiskey.
Laughing and drinking, they gathered up fallen oak wood, swept clean an area with brush so that they wouldn’t start a range fire, and got a barbecue going.
Old man Irvine just couldn’t stop laughing when he visited with Doña Margarita.
And it was said that he was a man who never laughed. But around Doña Margarita, the rich, powerful old man laughed and laughed con carcajadas, finding gusto in all of life’s awful twists. Also, he’d brought Doña Margarita a case of toilet paper—which was hard to find these days. And why this was so funny, nobody could figure out.
Then as if this wasn’t a big enough turn of events, the next day, Archie drove up. Salvador was making jerky with the rest of the beef. Archie took Salvador aside and told him that he had a deal for him. But no, it had nothing to do with Domingo or the law. In fact, this deal had everything to do with a situation outside of the law. It had to do with Salvador’s reputation of having castrated those two little pigs in Carlsbad to teach Tomas a lesson and then cutting that hog open in bed with the farmer in Santa Ana to teach him a lesson, too.
“But this job is a little more delicate,” said Archie, pulling at his big nose. “This involves a rich, powerful man who has a horse ranch just north of Los Angeles. It seems that this rich man was originally from back east and he needs to be reminded that money alone don’t buy you security out here in the wild west with us Indians still running loose.”
“And how much is this job worth?” asked Salvador.
“It’s worth, well, I won’t lie, I’ll be truthful with you, Salvador, five hundred big ones, with two hundred up front in cash.”
Salvador’s heart leaped. This was very serious money. Hell, in the can that Lupe had saved from the fire they’d only had sixty dollars, which was a fortune compared to what most people had nowadays. But still Salvador now just looked at Archie in the eyes, not saying a word, because if Archie said that he wasn’t lying and was being truthful, then this meant that he was really lying, and big time. And if he said that this was a delicate job and was worth $500, then this meant that the job was probably almost impossible and going for at least a thousand dollars and that Archie was pocketing $500 right off the top.
Also, Salvador figured if these people, who wanted this job done, had gone to all the trouble of finding out who it was who’d done those pigs’ balls in Carlsbad and then had put the pig in bed with that farmer, then these were very powerful, intelligent, well-organized people.
“But I’m not supposed to kill anyone, r
ight?”
“Yeah, no killing. Just put the fear of the Devil into this man.”
“Okay, Archie, but for a job like this, I’ll need to hire a couple of good men to go with me,” said Salvador. “Men who really know horses, so we’ll be able to get some jobs on the ranch, learn the ropes, and pull off the job with no problemas. So I’ll need a couple more hundred, because, after the job is done, we’ll all need to disappear for a while.”
And saying this, Salvador never took his eyes off of Archie’s eyes, looking to see if this lawman’s eyes would go to the left to prepare another lie, or if they’d go to the right to really think the matter over carefully.
But Archie’s eyes held, not moving either way, meaning he was an experienced liar. Then they quickly went to the left, and then to the right, so this meant he was considering the matter, but also preparing another lie.
“Okay, I’m sure I can get this for you once I explain the situation to these two men,” said Archie. He pulled up his gunbelt and reached into his pocket, handing Salvador the two hundred dollars in cash.
Salvador felt the blood come back to his face. He and Lupe had already spent all their money and they’d been getting desperate. Salvador now began caressing this money like a beautiful woman, just as he’d seen his brother, Domingo, do that day by the lagoon. Money really was like water; when you had none, that was all you could think of, but once you had some, then just like water, it wasn’t that important anymore.
That same night, Salvador took Lupe and their baby over to her family in Santa Ana and dropped them off, not really telling her what was going on. He then took off with Epitacio and his mother over to Corona to drop them off, too, and he went to go see the Moreno brothers. He made a deal with the two Moreno brothers—the same two level-headed horsemen he’d used in Carlsbad—and they headed north to this big exclusive horse ranch on the other side of Los Angeles.
Salvador and the two Morenos had no trouble getting jobs grooming horses and cleaning out stalls. Within a week, they knew the whole layout of the place, and so the night of the Full Moon with the coyotes howling, they beheaded a big, beautiful, newly imported stallion, cut off his balls and cock, and served them up at the breakfast table for the owner of the ranch.
At daybreak, the screams of the rich man were heard all through the house. Their job was done. Salvador and the Morenos took off immediately. The story of the horse amputation exploded all over the Southland, adding to Salvador’s reputation that the Devil lived and he walked on two upright legs and his name was Juan Salvador Villaseñor!
Buying some clothes and a new, used truck, Salvador came by later that week to pick up Lupe. They were going to have to get out of the country and return to Mexico. And there was a good chance that they’d never be able to return. Salvador and Lupe were now wanted people.
Lupe’s sister Sophia, who was normally so sweet and cheerful, went into a rage, cursing Salvador for being such an awful beast that he was taking Lupe, their baby, away from her familia! And Carlota, who’d never liked Salvador at all, surprised everyone by now standing up and defending Salvador and assuring her sister Sophia and their parents that everything would turn out for the best, because Archie, her fiancé, would be helping them.
Salvador brought out a hundred dollars in crisp, new twenty-dollar bills and tried to hand them to Don Victor. But the old man was so vivid with rage that he just shoved the money away.
“You can’t buy our daughter!” he said.
“I’m not buying her,” said Salvador. “Please, be reasonable. Times are hard. I’m doing the best I can. Here, take it.”
But Don Victor didn’t take the money and he watched his youngest child and his granddaughter go to the truck to go off with this beast whom now everyone knew was the real el capon, the castrator of the Southland!
Doña Guadalupe was crying with tears running down her face, but she kept her opinions to herself. “Go with God,” she said, giving her daughter a final abrazo de amor, “go with God here in your corazón, mi hijita, and everything will always turn out for the best. Did not my mother with her last dying breath, tell me to run into the arms of our enemy who were shooting at us, and I’d be safe when I saw the Light of God in one man’s eyes? Miracles do happen, remember this above all else, my angel, milagros are a woman’s sustenance.”
“I know, mama,” said Lupe, pressing the money into her mother’s hand that Salvador had handed her. Her mother received it. “Not only did I find my wedding ring, but I found my rosary that you gave me and the rolling pin that papagrande made for you out of that rosewood.”
Hearing this talk about the rolling pin that his father-in-love—also a finish carpenter—had made for his daughter with his own two hands, Don Victor hugged Lupe, too, kissing her again and again with trembling hands. Then he stepped back, dried his eyes, and took his wife’s arm.
Doña Guadalupe and Don Victor continued crying as they watched their youngest drive off with her husband and child. It was starting to rain.
“Vayan con Dios!” yelled the old Yaqui Indian lady.
“Yes, con el favor de Dios!” yelled back Lupe, waving out the window to her father and mother and sisters.
Salvador and Lupe drove in silence. There was nothing either one of them could say.
19
of their own Freewill Adam and Eva now chose to go out of the Garden, away from their familias, and into the Wilds of the World—for they had absolute Faith in GOD and in their AMOR!
LUPE WOULD NEVER FORGET as long she lived the night they drove out of Santa Ana. It was storming. Lightning was striking all about them as they started to climb over the mountains to the east. It seemed even worse to Lupe than when she’d been a child and she and her family left their box canyon back in Mexico and she’d thought it was the end of the world. At least, then, she’d been going with her papa and mama, her sisters and brother. She’d never, never been away from her familia before.
The wind was sweeping across the road in freezing cold gushes at the top of the mountains. It felt like their little truck was going to be blown off the road and down a cliff. Coming around a sharp curve, they almost crashed into a fallen tree that had been split in half by lightning and lay across the road. Lightning flashed all about them. Twice a landslide of rock and mud almost devoured them. The narrow, little, two-lane road just didn’t give a driver much room to move from one side to the other.
Lupe held Hortensia close and prayed with all of her Heart.
Then suddenly, it looked like they’d come to the end of the world, and they were driving straight down into Hell, as they descended from the steep mountains, toward the desert way down below. Suddenly they were hot. Lupe couldn’t believe it—just like that—they’d gone from freezing cold to muggy hot, and yet it wasn’t raining anymore.
The storm was behind them and out before them like a dark roof, and underneath the roof, was the coming of a whole new day in bright colors of yellow and glorious blue sky.
They smiled, looking at each other, feeling blessed that they’d gotten safely through the terrible storm. But then, before they had time to really enjoy this marvelous feeling, they lost their brakes and now . . . they were SCREAMING down the last part of the curvy mountain road at a reckless speed!
Salvador was all eyes as he tried to brake and steer the runaway truck with a bottomless cliff on one side and a rock wall on the other. Lupe held Hortensia in her arms, wondering if she wasn’t better off to open her door and jump, maybe just breaking her arms and legs instead of plunging over one of the thousand-foot canyons to sure death!
Wrapping Hortensia in her blanket, Lupe got hold of her door handle.
“NOOOO!” screamed Salvador. “DON’T JUMP! We’ll get out! Believe me, this road straightens up in just few more turns—I think!”
Taking in a deep Breath of Papito, Lupe decided to trust her husband’s judgment. She let go of the door handle and they continued speeding down the road and around the hairpin turns. Lupe was g
etting sick, but trying hard not to vomit. Then it looked like they were coming out to the bottom of the grade when they were suddenly hit from behind.
A huge old truck was right behind them. He’d obviously lost his brakes, too, and was up against their bumper, ramming them off the road toward the boulders and cactus.
Seeing themselves being pushed off the road to certain death, Salvador threw a kiss to Lupe, and gave their pickup all the gas, going even faster so he could get away from the runaway truck. Lupe was holding Hortensia to her chest, trying not to scream so she wouldn’t terrify their little child anymore. Oh, their poor baby, she’d been through so much Hell in Life already and she couldn’t even talk yet!
Then, Lupe couldn’t believe it, here among all this endless terror, what did her husband now do, he suddenly gave a grito de gusto, “AAAAA-YYYAAAYAAAIIII!” with such joy, that Lupe found herself laughing as they continued barreling around the last couple of curves and then hit the straightaway of the desert.
Lupe was peeing in her dress, she was laughing so hard! But they’d made it! They’d done it! They hadn’t been killed!
“AAYIII QUE VIDA LOCA, eh?” yelled Salvador.
“Yes,” said Lupe, “LOQUISIMA!”
But the truck behind them didn’t make it and went flying off the road into the deep canyons of boulders and gray-green cactus, crashing, rolling, and EXPLODING into FIRE!
Salvador used the handbrake, trying to stop so he could go back and maybe help the truck driver, but it felt like he had no handbrakes left, either. They continued going down the steep straightaway. It took all of Salvador maneuvering with what was left of the handbrake to finally get the truck going slow enough so he could pull into the little gas station about three miles further down the road at the foot of the mountain.
Salvador told the gas attendant about the truck. The man told Salvador that this was the third truck that had gone off the road this month, and he immediately sent his assistant with their tow truck to go and see what he could do.