Bless Me, Ultima (22 page)

“¡Jodido!” the heavier man grunted. It was Narciso!

When I recognized Tenorio my first impulse was to run, but now I could not move. I remained frozen against the wall, watching the fearful scene.

“¡Hijo de tu chingada—!”

“¡Pinche—!”

Blood from their battered faces stained the snow. They dropped to their knees clawing for each other’s throats. It was only the bartender and the two men who followed him into the street that prevented them from killing each other.

“¡Basta! ¡Basta!” the bartender shouted. He grabbed Narciso and tried to pull him off Tenorio. One of the men helped him while the third one got in front of Tenorio and pushed him back.

“¡Por la madre de Dios!” they pleaded.

“I am going to kill that bastard!” Tenorio screamed.

“You do not have the huevos!” Narciso shouted back. “You are only good for raising putas—”

“¡Ay maldecido!” Tenorio grunted and hurled himself at Narciso. The two came together again, like two rams locking horns, and the bartender and the other two men had to pull with all their strength to pry them loose.

“¡Cabrón! Cuckold of the devil himself, who slept in your bed and left your wife fat with brujas for daughters!” Narciso taunted, and even as the men struggled to separate them his huge arms flew out and landed with dull, sick thuds on Tenorio’s face and body.

“No more! No more!” the bartender cried as the three men struggled and grunted to hold the two apart. Finally Tenorio pulled away. His face was dripping with sweat and blood. He had had enough. I thought I would vomit and I wanted to run away, but the frightful scene held me spellbound.

“¡Borracho! ¡Puto!” Tenorio called from his safer distance. When he backed away I thought he would see me leaning against the wall, but the snow was thick and his attention was focused on Narciso.

“Old woman with a hot tail for gossip!” Narciso retorted. Both men stood trembling with rage, but they would not clash again. I think they both realized that a second encounter would mean death to one of them. The three men did not have to hold them anymore.

“It is not gossip that another of my daughters is sick!” Tenorio shouted, “and she too will die, like the first one! And it is because of the old witch Ultima from Las Pasturas—”

It isn’t true I wanted to shout, but my voice stifled in my throat. The wind snapped around us and flung our words away.

“It was your daughters who started the evil!” Narciso retorted, “and if you seek to do evil to la Grande I will cut your heart out!”

“We shall see!” Tenorio sneered and backed away with a parting threatening gesture. “I shall find a way to get to the bruja, and if you get in my way I will kill you!” He stumbled across the wind-swept street to his truck.

“¡Ay que diablo!” Narciso cursed, “he is up to no good!” The other men shrugged and shivered in the cold.

“Ah! Only words. Forget this bad thing before it gets you in trouble with the sheriff. Come and have a drink—” They were relieved the fight was over, and wet and shivering they moved back into the bar.

“That devil is up to evil, I must warn la Grande!” Narciso muttered.

“It is nothing!” the bartender called from the door. “Come in before you freeze out there! I’ll buy you a drink!”

Narciso waved them off and the door closed. He stood and watched Tenorio’s truck pull away and disappear in the blinding snow. “I must warn la Grande,” Narciso repeated, “but in this storm I cannot go to Márez!”

I was trembling from fright, but now the nausea left me. I was covered with snow and wet, but my face and forehead felt hot. Like Narciso, I was now concerned with Ultima’s safety. I thought that no man in his right mind would take on Narciso’s brute strength, but Tenorio had and so he must be desperate because of what was happening to his daughter. I was about to approach Narciso to tell him I was going home and would warn Ultima, but he stumbled off into the snow and I heard him mumble, “I will go to Andrew!”

I thought Andrew was at home but Narciso set off down the street, in the direction of the river. If Andrew was in town, he would be at Allen’s store or at the Eight Ball shooting pool. Concerned for Ultima’s safety and feverish with the cold, I struggled to keep up with him because in the thick snow a person quickly disappeared from sight. I followed the stumbling figure ahead of me, and between the blasts of wind I could hear him talk to himself about Tenorio’s threat and how he would warn Andrew.

He turned on the church road and went towards the bridge, and I believed that his intentions were to go to my father’s house anyway, but when he came to Rosie’s house he paused at the snow-laden gate of the picket fence.

A single red light bulb shone at the porch door. It seemed like a beacon of warmth inviting weary travelers in from the storm. The shades of the windows were drawn but light shone through them, and from somewhere in the house a faint melody seeped out and was lost in the wind.

“Cabronas putas—” Narciso mumbled and walked up the path. The snow quickly covered his footprints.

I did not know why he would pause here while delivering such an important message. I did not know what to do. I had to get home before the storm got any worse, but something held me at the gate of the evil women. Narciso was already pounding at the door and shouting to be let in. Without thinking, I ran up the walk and around the side of the porch. I peered over the porch wall and through the screen.

The door opened and a crack of light illuminated Narciso’s face. His face was puffed and bloody from the fight, and the wet snow made the blood run in trickles down his face. He would have frightened anyone, and he did. The woman who opened the door screamed.

“Narciso! What has happened!” she cried.

“Let me in!” Narciso roared and pushed at the door, but it was held by a chain inside and would not budge.

“You are drunk! Or mad! Or both!” the woman shouted. “You know I allow only gentlemen to visit my girls—”

Her face was painted red, and when she smiled at Narciso her teeth were shiny white. Her sweet perfume wafted through the open door and mixed with the music from within. I could hear laughter inside. Something told me to flee the house of the naked women, and another thought whispered for me to stay and know the awful truth. I felt paralyzed.

“I did not come for pleasure, whore!” Narciso roared. “I have to see Márez! Is he here?”

My ears seemed to explode with a ringing noise. I felt as if I had stood for an hour with the cold wind drumming at exposed nerves. I felt free, as if the wind had picked me up and carried me away. I felt very small and lonely. And in reality the realization of the truth discovered swept over me in a few seconds.

“Which Márez?” I heard the woman cry out, and her laughter was echoed by a burst of laughter from within.

“Don’t play games with me, whore!” Narciso shouted, “call Márez!” He reached through the opening and would have grabbed her if she had not jumped back.

“Hokay! Hokay!” I heard her shout. “Andrés! Androooooo!”

I did not want to accept the knowledge of her words, but I did. I think I knew now that I had followed Narciso and that I stood with the wind whipping at my back because I had expected to hear my brother’s name called. For a while I had even dreaded that the Márez at the house of the sinful women might be my father, because I remembered the way he and Serrano had whispered jokes about the women here when the bull was humped over the cow.

“Androooooooooo…” The wind seemed to taunt me with the name. My brother.

I felt very feverish now. I felt weak and useless. I remembered the day my brothers left for the big city, how they shouted about coming here before they left. And Andrew always lingering here, not telling my mother who his girl was, all seemed to fit. And I remembered my dream. Andrew had said that he would not enter the house of the naked women until I had lost my innocence.

Had I already lost my innocence? How? I had seen Lupito murdered… I had seen Ultima’s cure… I had seen the men come to hang her… I had seen the awful fight just now… I had seen and reveled in the beauty of the golden carp!

Oh God! my soul groaned and I thought that it would burst and I would die huddled against the evil house. How had I sinned?

“¿Quién? Who? Ah, Narciso, you!” It was Andrew. He threw open the door. “Come in, come in,” he motioned. One arm was around a young girl. She was dressed in a flowing robe, a robe so loose it exposed her pink shoulders and the soft cleft of curving breasts.

I did not want to see anymore. I pressed my forehead against the cold wood of the porch wall and closed my eyes. I wanted the cold to draw all the heat out of my tired, wet body and make me well again. The day had been so long, it seemed to stretch back to eternity. I only wanted to be home, where it was safe and warm. I wanted to hate Andrew for being with the bad women, but I could not. I only felt tired, and older.

“No! No!” Narciso resisted the pull. “There is trouble!”

“Where? You’re hurt—”

“No matter—not important!” Narciso nodded, “You must get home and warn your parents!”

“What?” Andrew asked in surprise.

“Tell him to go away and close the door,” the girl giggled.

“Tenorio! Tenorio, that cursed dog! He is making trouble for la Grande! He has made threats!”

“Oh,” Andrew laughed, “is that all. You had me worried for a moment, amigo—”

“Is that all!” Narciso cried. “He has made threats! Even now he might be up to no good! You must get home, I cannot, I am too old, I cannot get there in this storm—”

“Shut the door! It’s cold!” the girl whimpered.

“Where is Tenorio?” Andrew asked. I prayed that he would listen to Narciso. I wanted him to leave this evil place and help Ultima. I knew that Narciso was exhausted, and the storm was too much for him. I even doubted that I could get home. My body was numbed and feverish, and the way home was long and hard.

“He drove off in his truck! Just now we fought at the—”

“At the saloon,” Andrew finished. “You two have been drinking and quarreling. Now you make a big story out of it—”

“¡Ay Dios! For the sake of your mother please come!” Narciso implored.

“But where?” Andrew answered. “If there is trouble, my father is home. He can take care of things, and Tenorio would not dare to face him again, you know that. Besides, Tenorio has probably crawled into a warm bed by now, to sleep off his drunk!”

The girl giggled. “Come in, Andrew,” she pleaded.

“If you won’t go, get the sheriff to go!” Narciso cried in exasperation. But it was no use, Andrew simply did not see the urgency of the situation.

“To the sheriff!” he said in disbelief, “and make a fool out of myself!”

“He would throw you both in the drunk tank,” the young girl scoffed, “then I would be alone all night, and—” Her voice was sweet with allurement.

Andrew laughed. “That’s true, Narciso. But come in. I’ll get Rosie to make an exception—”

“¡Ay, pendejo!” Narciso pulled away. “The diablas putas have turned your mind! You do not think with your brains, but with your balls—I tell you, Andrés, you will be lost, like your brothers—” He stumbled away from the door.

“Close the door, Andrew,” the girl begged, “only fools and drunks would be out in that storm—”

“¡Narciso!”

The door banged shut. Narciso stood in the dark. “Fools and drunks and the devil,” he mumbled. “So the young buck will sleep with his whore while that devil Tenorio is out plotting evil on his family—there is no one else that will cross the bridge and climb the hill—then I will go. Am I so old that a storm of the llano can frighten me? I will go warn Márez myself, just as I did before—”

I looked over the edge of the porch and saw him fumbling in his pocket. He retrieved a bottle and gurgled down the last draft of sweet wine. He tossed the bottle aside, shrugged his shoulders and walked into the blinding snowstorm. “The llano bred and sustained me,” he murmured, “it can bury me—”

I lifted myself up from where I had crouched and followed him. My clothes were wet and ice was beginning to form on the outside as the cold increased. I did not know what time it was nor did I care. I followed Narciso mechanically, weak and disillusioned I tramped after him into the dark twilight of the storm.

I clung to him like his guardian shadow, staying just far enough behind so that he would not see me. I wanted no one to see me, and the storm swirled its eddies of snow around me and obscured me from the world. I had seen evil, and so I carried the evil within me, and the holy sacraments of confession and the holy eucharist were far away. I had somehow lost my innocence and let sin enter into my soul, and the knowledge of God, the saving grace, was far away.

The sins of the town would be washed in the waters of the golden carp…

The two lightposts of the bridge were a welcome sight. They signaled the dividing line between the turbulence of the town and its sins and the quiet peace of the hills of the llano. I felt somewhat relieved as we crossed the storm-swept bridge. Beyond was home and safety, the warm arms of my mother, the curing power of Ultima, and the strength of my father. He would not allow Tenorio to intrude upon our quiet hills.

But could he stop the intrusion? The townspeople had killed Lupito at the bridge and desecrated the river. Then Tenorio and his men had come upon the hill with hate in their hearts. My father had tried to keep his land holy and pure, but perhaps it was impossible. Perhaps the llano was like me, as I grew the innocence was gone, and so too the land changed. The people would come to commit murder on it.

My leaden feet turned at the end of the bridge and I felt the pebbles of the goat path beneath the drift of snow. I was very tired, and lightheaded. I was not able to control my thoughts, I walked as if in a dream. But the closer we got to home the more assured I was of Ultima’s safety. I did not worry about Narciso getting ahead of me now. I was concerned only with struggling up the slope of the hill. Perhaps if I had been closer to Narciso what happened would not have happened, or perhaps we would both be dead.

I heard a pistol shot just ahead of me. I paused and listened for the report that always follows a shot, but the screaming wind muffled it. Still I was positive it had been a shot and I bolted forward. It was beneath the big juniper that I caught sight of the two figures. As before, I was almost upon them before I knew what was happening. They were locked together in a death-grip, rocking back and forth in their death-dance. They cursed and pounded at each other, and this time there was no one to stop them.