Thirteen Senses by Victor Villaseñor
“Okay,” she said, “let’s settle this thing once and for all! Come on, let’s not be chickens! Let’s go into the other room and ask papa!”
“Ask him what?” said Gorjenna, looking startled.
“Gorjenna!” screamed Linda. “Don’t act innocent! Come on, you started this whole damn thing!”
“You mean, that you now want me to go ask grandpapa, if he had it all over to do, would he marry grandmama?”
Linda nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Exactly,” she said.
“Oh, no,” said Gorjenna. “I’ve screwed up enough for one day. I’m now gonna keep my mouth shut, just like Tia Tota here. Eh, Tota, you and me, we don’t talk no more, no matter what we’re thinking.”
“Yes, I think you’re right,” said Carlota. “Because no matter what I say, even if it’s the truth, everybody just—”
“Tota!” snapped Teresita. “You heard mama. Quiet! Not one more single word! Lips closed, like this, only opening them to drink champagne!” she added, laughing. “Come on, what the hell; Linda is right. Let’s not be chickens and do things halfway! Let’s use all the crystal, get refills, then go and ask papa, too!”
“But he’ll only lie,” said Carlota, “you know that. Lupe was so beautiful that she could have had her pick of anyone, even that gringo Mark, who was educated and his parents were wealthy, but what did she do, she—”
Lupe saw it first.
Lupe was the first one to see that Linda, with tears streaming down her face, now stepped forward to slap her aunt across the face. And Linda was strong, so this slap would be no little ladylike slap.
But Lupe was able to step in front of her daughter before this great tragedy could occur. She grabbed her daughter Linda’s hand, stopping her in midswing. Then Lupe whirled on her sister. “CARLOTA!” yelled Lupe. “I forbid you to say one more bad thing about my husband while you are under his roof!”
“But—”
“No buts!” screamed Lupe into her sister’s face. “Don’t you see how your words offend his children? Are you so blind in your hate that you can’t see what you’ve been doing all these years! Why, you’ve insulted their very blood!”
“But, Lupe, they also came from you,” said Carlota, still not able to let go. “That’s why they’re good.”
“It’s okay, mama,” said Linda, drying her eyes and gripping her forehead with the hand with which she’d been prepared to slap her aunt. “Let her go on talking. I’m leaving, and I’m never setting foot in this house again as long as I live!”
And saying this, Linda quickly turned to leave once again, hurrying across the large, spacious living room toward the front door, but Gorjenna and Teresita caught her.
“Come on, Linda,” said Gorjenna, blocking the front door with her body, “I’ll ask papa. I’ll do it! But damnit, I just never meant all this to happen.”
“Linda,” said Teresita, taking her sister in her arms, “I love you. We all love you. Remember, no matter what, we’re familia, and we will always be familial! Hell, don’t you remember, papa always said that half the time his mother would say that it was better to have pigs than relatives, because at least you could kill the pigs and eat them, but what could you do with relatives when things got wild?”
“Papa’s mother didn’t say that,” said Linda, wiping her eyes. “It was mama’s papa who always said that, and he said it about kids; not relatives.”
“Well, whatever,” said Teresita. “Now, come on back, and we’ll ask papa. But first, more champagne!”
“Oh, Lupe, God forgive me!” Carlota was saying at the other end of the room. “I never meant to offend your children, it’s just that Salvador has always been a liar and a no—”
“Can’t you keep quiet, Carlota?” yelled Lupe. “You see how you offend, and yet you just keep talking! He wasn’t your husband, Carlota, he was mine, and still is, have respect!”
Opening up another couple of bottles of Mumm’s champagne, Tencha and Barbara filled everyone’s new crystal glasses, and then they all started across the living room to the dining room, where the men were sitting around the long dining table, smoking cigars.
This time Carlota didn’t try to take the lead as she’d done when they’d gone outside to do the family portrait. She stayed behind, along with Lupe.
At the far side of the long, narrow dining room sat Salvador in his large, burgundy, all-leather office chair that he’d purchased especially to use in the dining room. He just loved to lean back between bites and leisurely chew his food like a bull chewing his cud in a peaceful, green meadow.
He was now leaning back in the tall-back chair, smoking his long, fat cigar, truly enjoying to look at the gray-white smoke rising from the burning end of his fine Mexican cigar made in the state of Veracruz.
“Papa,” said Teresita, who even as a child had always had a very quiet, strong way about her, “we’ve come to ask you something very important.”
“What might that be?” said Salvador, looking up from his cigar at this youngest daughter of his. He could see that they all looked nervous; all these young women who stood here before him, ranging in age from their early twenties to late forties. He saw their anxiousness, their excited faces, and yes, their apprehension, too. He breathed, taking a deep breath. He could see that Lupe and Carlota had stayed behind in the other room.
“So ask,” he added. “Papa” said Teresita, “we want to know that if you had it all over to do. would you still marry mama, knowing her like you know her now?”
“Of course,” he said, “absolutely!”
“But papa,” continued Teresita, “would you still lie to mama if you had it all over to do?”
“Lie?” said Salvador, now glancing around at all the young men, who were anxiously listening, too.
“Yes, about your bootlegging and gambling,” said Teresita.
“Oh, that! Of course,” he said, laughing with gusto. “How else can a man catch an angel?” He looked at Lupe in the next room. “Just look at your mother. She was so young and innocent when we got married.”
Everyone turned and looked across the dining room to the living room, where Lupe had remained to play with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And there she was, old and gray, but still looking like an angel as she sat telling a story to the children.
“I was an outlaw!” shouted Salvador with power. “A bootlegger! Everything that Lupe had been raised to hate, but once she saw that we were married and going to have a baby, I saw this young angel of mine rise up with the power of a shooting star to protect her nest!
“This is a woman to live for with all your heart! How do you think men have been getting good women to marry them since the beginning of time. All men lie, mi hijita.’’
“See!” shouted Carlota from the other room. “I told you so! He even admits it! He lied! He’s a liar! And he’s no good!”
“Oh, shut your damn stupid mouth!” bellowed Salvador, leaping out of his grand chair and the cords of his old, wrinkled-up neck coming up like ropes. “At least I’m honest about my lies! But you, you lie to yourself so much that you couldn’t see the truth if it hit you! Admit it, you’ve always been jealous of your sister since the day she was born, and still are!
“It takes guts for any woman to marry, have children, and make a home! You’re nothing but a loudmouth, coward pendeja! Men are good! Nothing wrong with a real macho a lo cabrón! Let’s not play the constipated fool! You show me a man, Carlota, who’s all nice and wonderful like you women pretend that you want ’em, and I’ll show you a man who you women don’t wet your pants for when he touches you!”
“Salvador!” said Lupe, having come rushing into the room behind her sister once she’d heard Carlota’s voice, yelling at Salvador. “Have respect! These are your daughters and granddaughters who are listening to you! Isn’t it enough that you ruined my life?”
“RUINED YOUR LIFE, HELL!” bellowed Salvador. “Admit it, Lupe, you’ve loved your life with me, and still do! I
“No, you’re drunk! And you stink of cigar!” she added.
“So, what’s new?” he said. “Men drink and smell like goats; this is the real perfume of life, those juices BETWEEN OUR LEGS!”
And he reached out for her . . . softly, gently, tenderly, gazing into her eyes the whole time. And she didn’t move away. No, she held still as a hummingbird, fluttering in midair. He touched her cheek with his fingertips, ever so gently, but didn’t move in any closer. You could hear a pin drop, the whole room had become so quiet.
“Lupe,” he said, gliding his fingers across her cheek and neck, “come, let’s make that kiss, mi amor?”
“No, Salvador!” she snapped.
“Lupe, Lupe,” he said softly, never taking his eyes off her eyes as he continued to stroke her oh, so gently, “come on, just one little kiss.”
She shook her head, then moved her weight from one foot to the other, but still she didn’t move away. No, she held close to him, behaving just like a mare in heat by shifting her weight, and keeping in close.
And Gorjenna, having bred many mares, caught it first, then so did Linda and Victor. This was so basic, so natural, if people just knew anything about their animal husbandry.
“Come on, Lupe,” Salvador now said, “let’s see that little smile of yours, that little, cute, twisted smile.” He grinned.
“No,” she snapped, being annoyed and stomping her foot, “I will not smile! I am not your toy!”
Gorjenna had to cover her mouth to not shriek. This stomping of the foot was right on schedule in the mating game between a stud and a mare. She glanced at Linda and Victor—who were also into horses—and she saw that they had seen it, too.
“Not even one little, tiny smile?” continued Salvador.
“No!” snapped Lupe again, moving the whole of her hips.
“Oh, yes, here, here it’s coming, Lupe. It’s coming, that little smile,” he said, showing his teeth with a big grin, just as a stud would now do.
“Oh, Salvador!” said Lupe, not being able to stand it anymore. And she now suddenly smiled, showing her own teeth, and she stuck her tongue out at him. “I don’t want to smile! Because, well, it’s all still true,” she said, hitting him, “if I’d known you then, as I know you now, I never, never would’ve married you, and that’s the truth, and you know it! Those first few years of our marriage were awful!”
“Yes, of course they were,” he said, calmly. “I agree completely; those first two or three years were awful, and yes, you never would’ve married me, and I knew that, and so that’s why I lied. Oh, querida mia, you are still my angel! Just look at you, your eyes, your lips, your little smile—even when you don’t want to smile—and your hands.
“I was watching your hands, querida, when you were in the other room playing with our grandchildren as you told them a story, and the way your hands moved, flying like birds as you spoke to them—oh, Lupe, you still fill my heart with as much love today as you did the first day I saw you! Ah, te amo con todo mi corazón!’’ he shouted with gusto.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the whole room. Even the guys were choking.
“But Salvador, you were MONSTROUS! I can’t forgive you for some of the things you did! The distillery blowing up in Tustin, and the police sirens were coming, and I thought you were dead, and Tencha here, still breast-feeding, and oh, it was awful!”
“DON’T FORGIVE HIM!” yelled Carlota from across the room. “You should’ve married Mark, Lupe! He was good! He was decent! He didn’t eat like a pig! He had table manners!”
Salvador exploded! “My God, I’m going to kill this woman yet! Not one moment of peace have we had with her around! And where she gets this mouth of hers, I don’t know. Your mother, Lupe, she treated me with respect and intelligence!”
Saying this, Salvador let go of Lupe and started across the room to grab Carlota by the throat and choke her to death. But Carlota was fast, and she quickly shuffled out of the room with her cane in her hand, scurrying across the living room and down the long hallway.
And she was so fast, so quick with her bad hip and all, that everyone started laughing, even Linda. Life, la vida, was so full of turns and twists! And there went Tia Tota, running with that old cane of hers, and Salvador after her.
“Why did you marry a man like Archie,” he was yelling, “if you hate men so much! He was a bull! Then in Oceanside down by the pier, you were always flirting with all those young men who came into that bar, leaning up over the pool table to fix the balls for them with your short skirt so high that they could see up your underwear! You were el escándalo del barrio! A hypocrite, and a liar!”
“Salvador!” Lupe was shouting. “Stop it! Please, stop it! One of you has to have the intelligence to keep respect!”
Everyone was laughing now. The whole thing was hilarious.
“RESPECT, HELL!” Salvador shouted. “Yes, I agree with you, Lupe, the first few years of our marriage were AWFUL, like they are for most married people when they finally really start getting to know each other after all that bullshit goodie-goodie shit of courtship! But,” Salvador added with power, “it wouldn’t have been so awful if this damn sister of yours hadn’t been there at every turn putting in her two cents!
“Admit it, Lupe, if she hadn’t been there with us, we could have planted our Holy Seeds of marriage in the first three years of nuestro matrimonio, as my mother told us that every young couple must plant, instead of always having to listen to this little barking-bitch-voice of your crazy-loca jealous sister!”
“Lupe, don’t listen to him!” yelled Carlota from down the hallway, waving her cane as she spoke. “He’s lying! You two wouldn’t be here today with all your wonderful children if it wasn’t for me! Who forced Archie to wire you money when the distillery blew up and you two were running from the law! Who loaned you the money when you wanted to buy this ranch that we’re standing on right this very minute? It was me, me, me, Salvador! And you know it!”
“No, I don’t know it!” Salvador yelled back at Carlota. “All I know is you got a tongue so big and fat and twisted that even the words that come out of your mouth don’t know their own origin!”
“ABORTO del DIABLO!” screamed Carlota. “That’s what you are! An abortion of the Devil!”
Lupe had tears running down her face, she was so upset. Salvador came back across the room and took her in his arms.
“Lupe,” said Salvador, “Lupe. Lupe. Lupe. It’s okay,” he added, stroking her gently. “It’s all right. God’s just having a little fun with us like He always does, that’s all. Kiss me. Come on, let’s make the kiss.”
She nodded, and they were kissing softly, gently, and fully.
Linda had tears running down her face.
Teresita, Gorjenna, RoseAna, they were all crying, too.
This was love!
This was the key of living between a man and a woman . . . after fifty years of marriage to kiss and kiss again with an open heart and soul!
Part Two
HONEYMOON
August 18, 1929
Santa Ana, California
2
And so he, the nineteenth child, having come to his mother at fifty years of age, now found his second truelove, and . . . they married.
COMING OUT of the Holy Catholic Church of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on Third Street and Grand in Santa Ana, California, Salvador and Lupe were met by a crowd of well-wishers who showered them with rice and flowers.
Cameras flashed!
People shouted with gusto!
Lupe and Salvador lowered their heads, hurrying down the steps of the church, and quickly got into their beautiful ivory-white 1926 Moon automobile and drove to their reception across town.
&
Deputy Sheriff Archie Freeman, who was dating Carlota, had barbecued a whole beef á la Archie Freeman. And Doña Guadalupe, Lupe’s mother, had cooked fifty chickens in mole, her specialty. There were barrels of rice and beans and chopped-up salsa. And next door, hidden from the nondrinkers—particularly Lupe’s family, who were totally against drinking—was a ten-gallon barrel of Salvador’s finest bootleg whiskey.
People had come in from all over the Southland and Mexico. Manuelita’s family—Lupe’s closest female friend since childhood—had come in from Arizona, too.
For months Salvador and Lupe had planned this event, wanting to see their two families finally intermingling, and especially their two great, old mothers, Doña Margarita and Doña Guadalupe. Salvador and Lupe were each the baby of their familia, and so this celebration—after so much hardship—was now the crowning event of their two mothers’ lives, a pure blessing straight from God!
The Father Sun was going down when Lupe and Salvador were finally able to steal away from the wedding crowd. They went behind Lupe’s parents’ home into the walnut orchard to be alone. Here in the privacy of the walnut trees, they finally began to really kiss after months of courtship and preparation for their great wedding.
The light of the world was going, and the magic of the night was coming, and they were finally alone, married—having taken their wedding vows before God and all the world—and they were now putting a fire of passion to their very center.
Salvador gripped Lupe close, smelling deeply of her long, dark, beautiful hair, but then—just as they were both beginning to tremble with desire—Lupe turned away.