When the Elephants Dance (45 page)

Fausto covered his eyes immediately and looked away, ready to flee.

But Diagos was not alone. To the right was another creature such as he, with hair a dark copper, the color of fire. To the rear were two more, one with hair like a cloud and the other gray like the wind. They were his brothers, and they spoke as one. “Who dares bother one of His favored?”

Fausto trembled. He was blinded by their presence. He could not look upon them. He tried to flee, but he could not move past their four corners. “What do you want from me?”

“The time of the great battle approaches. He may show mercy on you yet. We watch for now. How shall your name be recorded?”

“Leave me in peace,” he begged, writhing like a serpent on the ground. “I shall bother this family no more.”

“Go, then, and await your trial,” Diagos declared.

From then I knew that I was in touch with a great power, and I bowed low before the Four.

W
EEKS PASSED, AND
Pidring retold the story of our graveyard prank again and again to our friends.

“I wish I could have been there. What a treat it would have been to see those rich biddies running and tripping over themselves,” our friend Danilo remarked. “But the part about the rich girl holding on to Pedro all night. That I would have to see to believe.”

I laughed. “So would I.” I waved to one of the children swimming in the filth. Our sewers had overflowed from the rain again, and the high tide had not helped. The sewer water was the same level as the top steps to our house and threatened at any moment to come in uninvited.

Children brought out rowboats and rowed between the houses. It did not matter that their mothers came out to scold them. Within seconds of a spanking, they would be swimming in the fetid water again.

“My God, our entire village is a toilet.” Pidring fanned the air.

“I have to go to the market.” I stood and waved the young Ocampos boy in a rowboat over to our steps.

The boy rowed quickly, bumping the bamboo stilts and shaking our house. “Be careful, be careful,” I called out. “I will give you a peso to take me over to the higher ground. If you get me wet, I will not even pay you a thank-you. Can you do it?” I asked.

“Yes, yes, get in.” The boy gestured with his thin arms.

“I don’t know.” I pretended to think. “It looks tricky. Maybe I should call one of the older boys.”

“No, I can do it. Here, step in. I will not fail you.”

The boy got me to shore without one drop of filth entering the boat.

“Call me when you are ready to cross back.” He waved and went back to the business of playing chicken with the other children in their makeshift rafts, trying to tip one another into the filth. I winced as the brown water splattered the porch. Pidring and Danilo began to shout.

“Just in time.” I shook my head.

I turned in the direction of the market, with Danilo’s question about Socorra Villanueva still on my mind. Her image had haunted me night and day.

“So this is where you live.”

I turned and felt a sickening in my stomach. Socorra stood before me, her fine leather sandals sprinkled with sand. She was wearing a long rose-colored summer dress. It was short-sleeved, with a square neckline and arched sleeves. The stiff silk fell straight, where two small slits showcased her ankles on opposite sides. She was accompanied by her father. The man stood with his arms folded, surveying the area. He wore a white linen suit with a wide-brimmed hat. His wealth impressed me more than Diagos’s brethren.

She had to shake his arm before she could gain his attention. “Father, this
is Pedro, the man I told you about. His family is very respected in this village. His word has much power here.”

I waved off her words in embarrassment.

“This place is a rat’s nest,” he said, rubbing his chin with manicured fingers. He wore a wide ring, a flat ruby set in pale gold, in the shape of a pear. Along the band were fine etchings of other fruits. I shuffled my feet in anger, yet I was too embarrassed to reply. Obviously, what he said was true. Before I could let the anger grow, he paid me a compliment.

“You look like a smart young man. I deal only with intelligent people. You may need a little polish, but I see that you could become a shrewd businessman. How would you like to better the conditions of your community and make a large amount of money at the same time?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but again he interrupted.

“Socorra mentioned the unfortunate incident with your sister’s eyes. If you had had better resources, that would not have happened.” He frowned, dismissing the accident with a certainty emphasized in a simple shake of his head. “Come, let us discuss this at length.”

I nodded and went along without having said a word to him. He urged us forward, placing his hand on my shoulder. I flinched, thinking of how soiled my clothes were from trolling that morning.

A
T THE BAKERY
, her father ordered coffee and cakes for us. I could not afford to have a cup and asked only for water.

“You do not drink coffee?” he asked.

“Oh, no.” I waved my hand. “I have had my morning cup already.”

“Nonsense. Miss”—he raised his hand, and immediately a young woman was by our side—“bring us another cup of coffee here, and also, do you have
braso de Mercedes?”
The girl nodded.
“Leche plan?”
Again the girl nodded. “Bring us both.”

The girl was gone within seconds. Never had I seen such speedy service given at that establishment. Never had I been treated with such admiration. The man ordered everyone about, and it fascinated me. Socorra did not need to speak; her clothes, her manner, demanded authority. I could see the shop owners, their eyes calculating the money we would spend at their stores. I caught many glances that day, and I felt my chest expand at the jealous looks I received.

“Your village respects you greatly,” her father said.

“They know my father. It is he they admire.”

“Do not be modest. It gets you nowhere. Modesty is for virgins and old maids.”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

“Now, here is what we shall do. I am willing to invest a large amount of money to build decent houses, at a low cost, allowing your people to purchase them. I will build bigger houses on the hillside above that the upper class will be willing to buy, since the area will be cleansed of all these straw debacles.”

“And what am I to do, sir?”

“You shall be my right hand. You shall oversee all my projects, and I will pay you handsomely. The people trust you. You are to assure them that they will be paid for the land they sell, and with the money they can buy the smaller houses I build, at a low cost. I will make my profit from the bigger homes.”

I thought of the nice homes we could all have. It would be a step up for our community. All the while Socorra sat close.

“How long do you plan to stay silent?” Her voice held the authority of a man on business. I immediately snapped to attention, and she smiled sweetly.

Her father leaned back in his chair. “Are you ready to better yourself?”

“I am ready.” I shook his hand.

T
HE FOREST WAS
taut with Diagos’s anger. He dug at the ground with his giant hooves.

“You cannot have both. Riches and purity do not match. Humility hates pride.” He paced in a circle. “You have been warned.”

“What are you telling me? That I have become proud?” I demanded.

“Your sight will be lost. It is not too late. You are humble still, pure. Let go of this fascination with earthly riches. You have so much more than they.”

“I can see ghosts.” I shrugged. “What good did my visions do me when Addie’s eyes were blinded?”

“There exist earthly circumstances in which I cannot intervene. Only her one eye was damaged. It was when she was taken to the clinic that the other was harmed.”

“And yet you did not warn us that would happen.”

“There are situations with which I am not allowed to interfere.”

“You are jealous. You do not have these opportunities, so you wish to take them from me.”

“You know not what you say.”

“Must I forever be a servant as you are?” I shouted.

He raised himself on his hind legs, and the earth shook when he landed his
gigantic forelegs beside me. “You fool,” he snorted. “You were given the keys, but you choose to throw them away. It will happen like lightning.”

His tail lashed out like a whip. The forest resounded like a clap of thunder, cutting a huge tree in half. I watched him go. I did not know that would be the last time I saw him with my eyes.

O
F COURSE, IT
was easy to convince the people to sell their land, they held so much respect for me and my family. I led them all to sign away what little they had, and they trusted me. When the smaller houses were built, they were at a lower cost, but not low enough for the people to afford.

I became wealthy, but my father lost his face in the village. No one spoke to him, and he wasted away until he had a fatal stroke. Mama could not live with the shame, and she followed Father. I went to their gravesite to beg their forgiveness, but I had lost my gift of sight. I could no longer see the spirits. It all happened in the time it takes for lightning to strike.

A
DDIE DID NOT
grow sick immediately. It was much later, when Socorra’s father cut down the trees. Addie grew delirious, and three bumps appeared on her throat the size of apples.

“What is it, Pedro?” Pidring asked. “What is wrong with her?”

“I have angered the creatures in the forest. I have cut down their trees. The
mangkukulam
told me so.”

“What? This is nonsense, take her to the doctor. What is this bump on her neck? She may have broken a bone.”

“She has a fever; I have sent for the
mangkukulam
.”

“The
mangkukulam?
Addie does not need a witch doctor, Pedro.”

“I have failed them. All of our friends and neighbors. They will not accept my money. The least I can do is allow the village witch doctor to cure Addie. Then I can pay them a large amount and my conscience will be at peace.”

“This is ridiculous, I will take her myself.” Pidring shoved me aside.

“Leave her!” I shouted. I was half-crazed. “Leave her here. The
mangkukulam
will be here soon.”

Pidring begged me, “Ped, your sister is sick. You can afford to take her to a hospital. The
mangkukulam
does not have a cure. She is armed only with incense and her anger at your family. Take Addie to a real doctor.”

“I will give the
mangkukulam
money. I will begin to repay the people,” I insisted.

When the witch doctor came, I was happy. I had the maids prepare a feast. “I have faith in you,” I told the woman. She smiled tightly at me in return.

The woman burned incense, she said prayers. “You have angered the people of the forest. A member of their family was hurt when you cut down their homes. They want to take Addie in repayment. I will try to appease them.”

I was guilty. I let the woman burn smoke over my sister, even as Addie called out to me. I stood by the window and looked toward the houses Socorra’s father had built. Addie’s fever grew worse; the lumps on her neck would not disappear. The
mangkukulam
finished her chanting, and she let me pay her a large sum. I have made a little progress, I told myself.

In the morning Addie’s lumps were gone and I shouted for joy. I hugged my sister, but her body was cold as the wind.

“You have killed her with your guilt!” Pidring screamed.

I
WENT TO
the forest one last time. It was sheared of its beautiful palms; the life-giving streams had run dry. The birds were gone. I felt Diagos’s presence immediately, though I could not see him.

“You risk your life coming here. The
duendes
wish you dead. You have ruined our home, you have killed many
duendes
. It is only I who protects you. You have fallen. Yet you come still to ask.”

“You let them kill her,” I accused, my eyes searching the area. His voice was everywhere.

“I let them take vengeance. At any time you could have taken her to a doctor.”

I fell to my knees at his words.

“You were humbled by your sister’s sickness and yet still too proud to come to me, to ask for help. You are no longer pure.”

“Give me back my sight, let me help the people once again, let me serve them my entire life.”

He laughed scornfully. “You carried your visions as a burden, but it was a gift. You still think of it as such. You think He above would reward you after what you have done? You have ruined lives with your obsession. It became your curse. When have you known a gift to be given twice? Once the package is open, is it still a gift?”

“How can I repay them? I have my entire life.”

“Yes, you must live your entire life.”

I could feel he was about to leave. “Diagos, forgive me,” I cried out.

There was a long silence. “I have not the power to forgive or damn. I am
Diagos, and only the purest and the most humble can see me. I am only a watcher, and in your own way, so shall you be.”

~
M
ANG
P
EDRO STUDIES ME
, to see if his story has had an effect. “My visions come now only in blurred, incoherent dreams and images. A sore reminder of what I once had. So I ask you again, Domingo. When there is no family, what else is there to fight for? I was blinded with obsession, for something that could never fill me. I lost everything that mattered. Not the visions, I could do without those, but my family, my sister, the village where I grew up, and the love of my people. Heed my words. Leave this obsession to be a guerrilla. It will end only in death. It is vanity that calls to you. Do you truly believe you can lead a hundred men to go against the Japanese, when the Amerikanos, with all their power, could not defend us three years ago? Lay this stubbornness to rest. It will bring you only death. Your place is here, with your wife and children. What else is there?”