Thirteen Senses by Victor Villaseñor
But it didn’t work out as Salvador planned.
After a few drinks, Domingo didn’t want to hear anything. He wanted to fight!
“Whadda the hell you mean, I got to go to work for Palmer and you got no money for me?!” bellowed Domingo. “I’ve been locked up, you hear me?! Locked up como un perro! I don’t wanna work! I want to live!”
“Domingo, we got you out of prison early on the condition that you’d be an avocado doctor, don’t you see?”
“No, I don’t see shit! I only know that I’ve been locked up and you’ve been free all this time! You owe me!”
“I owe you?” yelled Salvador. “Hey, you just hold on to your horses, Domingo! I don’t owe you NOTHING! It was your own doings that got you caught in the first place!”
“Bullshit! If that was true, then why have you worked so hard to get me out!”
“Jesus Christ!” said Salvador, shaking his head in disbelief. “I try to help you and now I owe you once again.”
“Help me!?!” yelled Domingo. “Hell, it was me who helped you get your liquor making operation going! I, Domingo, who learned all about la bootlegada in Cheee-cago!”
Salvador rolled his eyes to the Heavens again. There was just no talking to his brother. Domingo hadn’t taught him anything about liquor making. He’d learned how to make liquor from Al, the Italiano. His brother had snake eyes, meaning eyes that saw everything in reverse, so he could then blame everyone for everything.
“Look, Domingo, you better understand this right now,” said Salvador. “You’ve cost me a fortune. First to pay my attorney to defend you when you got us caught, then I paid more to get you out early, not to say anything of the money and liquor I lost because you got us caught when you took that damn agent over to our distillery for a drink.”
Salvador stopped. His brother was staring at him with this strange, faraway look, like he was maybe really seeing things for the first time from another human being’s point of view.
“Well, if this is all true,” said Domingo, “then why’d you wanna get me out early if I’m such a terrible expense to you every time you turn around? Eh, you tell me?”
Salvador bit his lower lip and tears suddenly came to his eyes. He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, “I guess, it’s because, well, we’re brothers, Domingo.”
Seeing his brother’s tears, Domingo burst out laughing. “Well, then, you fool, you should’ve left me in prison, pendejo, if you really got no money for me!” yelled his brother. “I had everything I wanted there in San Quentin! Food, bed, amigos, the best amigos I’ve ever had, and respect! Real respect! And plenty of mota a lo cabrón!” His face was all red and his eyes were bloodshot. He licked his lips.
“Oh, no,” he added, not laughing anymore, “you got me out of jail, hermanito, and now you got to come through for me. You’re not going to cheat me, you cheap son-of-a-bitch, and just leave me hanging as you did our father!”
And shouting this, Domingo leaped forward like a wild-looking wolf, trying to grab Salvador by the throat and choke him to death, but he was too drunk and Salvador was able to shove him away. Domingo went falling backward over a log into the grass and mud.
“Don’t start all this,” said Salvador. “I’ve told you a dozen times, we didn’t leave our father, Domingo. He left us!”
“Bullshit! How can a man leave his familia, eh, you tell me that?”
“How could you leave children all the way from Texas to Chicago?”
Hearing this, Domingo eyed his brother with his red, bloodshot eyes. His eyes truly did look like a snake’s eyes. “Oh, you’re really looking for a beating, aren’t you,” said Domingo, putting his left hand on the log and pushing himself up to his feet—never once taking his eyes off his brother.
And here they stood face to face, two brothers ready to grab hold of each other and go down fighting.
AND IN CORONA, California, some sixty miles to the northeast, Doña Margarita was just lying down to take a little rest when in her Heart, she felt a pain, but she didn’t quite know what it was at first. She Breathed in of God, then she Knew. The story of Cain and Abel was at work once again.
SUDDENLY, with this wild-eyed scream, Domingo lunged at Salvador again, ripping his left sleeve halfway off his coat as he tried to wrestle him to the ground. But the mud and grass were slick and mushy, so Salvador was able to break loose from his brother’s grip and shove him away once again.
“You owe me!” yelled Domingo, grabbing a tree limb so he wouldn’t fall this time. He looked desperate. “You hear me, I want half of everything that you and Lupe made while I was locked up! That’s only fair, you son-of-a-bitch!”
He shook his head in grief. “Back home in Mexico we had everything when I left to go find our father. Everything! Cattle, horses, a home, and when I got back—after being trapped in Cheee-acago like a slave—everything was gone. There was nothing left, but burned out ruins!”
“Domingo, Domingo,” said Salvador, “we’ve been over this a hundred times. It was wartime. Everything got destroyed. We thought you were dead. You just disappeared one day without saying anything.”
“I wanted to surprise our father who’d gone to work, you know, on that highway from San Diego to Del Mar, California, but those tricky son-of-a-bitch Texas Rangers arrested me at the border for nothing, and sent me to Chicago to work off a crime I never committed in the steel mills. I was fourteen years old! I KNEW NOTHING!”
“Look, Domingo, we can’t just keep going over this or we’ll go crazy,” said Salvador. “We got to stop this and figure out what to do here, today, right now. What happened to that peace you had when I saw you in prison? You were making so much sense then, Domingo.”
“Well, yeah, sure,” said Domingo in a drunken slur. He was still holding on to the thin tree branch for support. “Everyone finds peace and makes sense when they’re locked up, Salvador. But turn that dog or horse loose, and he goes crazy again, wanting everything! It’s only natural. That’s what’s wrong with the pinchee world! We’re all starving with greed!
“Oh, I tell you, God as my witness, I’m going to get rich, hermanito!” he said, slipping and sliding in the grass and mud as he held on to the thin branch. “I can feel it here in my bones! I’m going to find that gold mine—the one I told you about before I went to prison—and I’m going to get so damn rich, that I’m going to be able to re-buy all the lands that our grandfather Don Pio settled, and I’m going to rebuild our village and be ‘mister’ out here in the world, just as I was in prison!”
And he smiled this wild, drunken smile. “Mister Señor Domingo Villaseñor, they’ll call me. And . . . and then I’m going to find all my children from Texas to Chicago and . . . and . . . what’s wrong with you, Salvador,” he said, seeing his brother shaking his head. “Why, I swear you’re looking at me like some pussy-whipped hombre that has forgotten the realities of life?! Men want everything! And you know that, cabrón! It’s our pinchee nature, so don’t play the fool with me! I want it all, Salvador! Todo! TODO! TODO! Now empty your pockets,” he said, “and give me half of your money, and then let’s go find some women with plenty juicy, hot nalgas! Oh, I love a woman con carne on her ass, so I can grip her close with two hands full!”
Salvador could see there was just no speaking with his brother. He reluctantly brought out his roll of money, and he was just beginning to count it out, when Domingo leaped forward, grabbing it.
“Good,” said Domingo, his eyes wild with greed. “I knew you were just holding out on me! I’ll take it all! And after I spend this, I’ll want half of what you and Lupe have hidden at your house, too!”
Salvador swallowed. This was all the money he and Lupe had in all the world, but his brother would never believe him. No, he was now caressing the money as if it was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Suddenly, Salvador realized why a good man like Kenny White had taken the law in his own hands and shot old man Eisner with his 30/30. There was no doubt about it, h
Salvador pretended to walk off to a private distance to take a leak, but instead he opened up his coat—which was ripped and muddy—and brought out his pistol. It was getting late. The last of the big mallards were coming into the lagoon. The frogs and crickets were getting louder and louder. The Sun had just gone down and the Sky was full of spectacular colors of blue and pink and orange with streaks of gold.
Domingo sat down on the fallen log behind Salvador and began to sing an old ranchera from their beloved mountains of Jalisco, clutching the money close to his heart. Salvador took a deep breath. This was it. His brother was crazy and dangerous, so there was no other way. He turned, pistol in hand, coming up behind Domingo.
“NO!” SCREAMED DOÑA MARGARITA, sitting up in her bed in her little shack behind Luisa’s house. The Father Sun had just gone down and she’d lain down to take a nap. “You will not! Do you hear me, Salvador! YOU WILL NOT!”
And in her mind’s eye, the old woman saw Salvador holding his pistol to the back of his brother’s neck ready to fire. Quickly, Doña Margarita stopped her yelling and began to pray. For only in Prayer did One then Unite with the Almighty, and hence were able to bring the Heavens down Here to the Earth.
THREE GREAT WHITE BIRDS came out of the evening Sky in Carlsbad, California, circling above the rosy-colored waters of the lagoon. Pistol in hand, Salvador looked up and saw the magnificent birds. He lowered his pistol. He couldn’t do it. The three great white Snow Geese came in with a flare of flapping wings and lit upon the water. Salvador took a deep breath, feeling overwhelmed with the Beauty of the closing Day and coming Night. He slipped the pistol back into his pants and sat down on the fallen log beside his brother.
Still singing, “Jalisco no te rajes,” Domingo turned with a drunken smile and put his arm about his brother’s shoulders. Watching the ducks and geese out on the water, Salvador opened his mouth wide and began to sing, too, joining his brother.
LATER THAT WEEK, Lupe was in the front bedroom sleeping with Hortensia. Salvador was down the hallway in the back bedroom sleeping on the floor on a mat. For three days and nights Salvador had been working around the clock at the distillery process. He’d lost a lot of time helping his brother Domingo to settle in and get to work as an avocado doctor.
It was just past midnight and the flames of the fire underneath the copper kettle were singing, burning blue-hot when the kettle suddenly EXPLODED like a BOMB!
Salvador’s body was thrown across the entire room against the wall, knocking him unconscious.
Lupe, in the next room, was knocked out of her bed. Hortensia was SCREAMING! The whole room of the distillery had erupted into flame! Lupe was on her feet and rushing down the hallway to see what happened, but she couldn’t get the door open to their back bedroom no matter how hard she pushed. Salvador’s body was blocking the door. But Lupe didn’t know that. All she knew was that her daughter was screaming in terror and the whole place was becoming a burning infierno!
Lupe finally turned and rushed back down the hallway, picked up Hortensia, wrapped her in a blanket, then she saw Salvador’s gun and why, she’d never know, but she picked it up. Then she remembered their can of money and she rushed out of the bedroom, down the hall, into the kitchen, got their money and was out the front door with money, gun, and daughter.
Lupe raced across the yard, put Hortensia in their car and closed the door. Then for some reason, she put the gun and money up in a fork of the tree under which their car was parked. She turned, and saw that their whole house was now engulfed in huge flames, shooting twenty, thirty feet up into the night sky.
Lupe made the sign of the cross over herself, and never hesitated once as she ran back across the yard and into the burning infierno. She rushed back down the hallway and put her shoulder to that door again and again with all her God-given power, shoving and pushing. Finally it opened up just enough for her to see that something on the floor was blocking the door. And when she got down low, under all the smoke and flames to see what it was, her whole heart leaped up into her mouth. It was Salvador’s leg.
“Salvador!” she yelled. “SALVADOR!”
But he didn’t answer her. She reached in through the crack, grabbing hold of his leg and shook it. There was no response, so she figured he was already dead until she heard his voice.
“Lupe,” he said, ever so softly, “Looo-pe.”
Hearing him call her name, filled Lupe with a power that she’d never known before. She was now her mother who’d gone down to the plaza in their village back in Mexico to save her brother, Victoriano, from being hung by renegade soldiers. She was now her Yaqui Indian grandmother who’d also been touched by the hand of the Almighty when she’d had the faith to send her youngest child out of their burning hut to find a man whose eyes were filled with the Holy Light of the Creator.
Lupe stood up and put her shoulder to the door again, and with the power of all her ancestry, she gave a SCREAMING shove, and the door opened enough for her to get down low and crawl into the room as the flames shot over her head.
She got hold of her husband’s foot and dragged him away from the door so she could open it all the way, then—gagging and coughing—she dragged his body out of the burning Hell and down the hallway. This was when the first barrel of whiskey exploded, shattering walls and windows like toys!
The siren was coming!
Lupe could now hear the siren screaming closer and closer as she dragged Salvador’s body off the porch and across the yard to their car. He was still unconscious and truly heavy. Lupe opened the driver’s door and tried to get Salvador up into the Moon so he could drive them off before the firemen and the law arrived. But he wouldn’t come-to and he was all loose, like a bag of water.
Finally realizing the hopelessness of the situation, Lupe dragged Salvador around the car to the passenger side. And how she did this she’d never know, but she just suddenly grabbed Salvador up in her arms and threw him into the Moon, closing the door. Then she ran around and got into the driver’s seat. She tried to remember how she’d watched Salvador start the car a hundred times. But every time she’d press down on the starter, the Moon would just leap forward and die. Finally, pushing the clutch all the way down to the floor, she got the car started and was backing up so she could take off when she remembered the gun and the money.
She braked, trying to figure out what to do, but the fire truck was almost at their driveway, and Hortensia was crying once again. She couldn’t get the gun and money right now. She tucked her daughter in with her blanket, soothed her face with a loving touch, got hold of the steering wheel again, and drove off just as the siren came screeching into their driveway She almost hit the fire truck head-on, but didn’t, and she sped off—eyes closed, praying as she went.
Halfa mile down the road, Salvador began to regain consciousness.
“You almost got yourself killed!” Lupe yelled at him. “You almost got us all killed, Salvador! Oh, I’m so mad at you that I could kill you!”
She pulled off to the side of the road. They could see the leaping flames of the fire even from this distance, and every time another barrel of whiskey exploded, the whole infierno would leap hundreds of feet into the night sky!
“What happened?” asked Salvador. He still didn’t quite understand what had happened. “Did the stove blow up?”
“Can you drive, Salvador?” asked Lupe.
Two sheriff’s cars were coming toward them, their sirens screaming in the night.
“I don’t think so,” said Salvador.
“Oh, my God,” said Lupe, tucking in her daughter once again, then she took hold of the steering wheel and got their Moon automobile back on the road. She didn’t know how to drive, but she had no choice. Once more Salvador was unconscious.
Lupe continued down the road, driving toward the oncoming sheriff’s cars; eyes focused, face determ
Lupe drove on, passing right alongside the two screaming sheriff’s cars.
DOÑA MARGARITA had both of her hands over her eyes. She was exhausted. She didn’t want to keep seeing what it was that her Heart Vision saw. But oh, she was so proud of Lupe. Her daughter-in-love was truly on her way to becoming el eje, the hub of her familia.
“Thank You, Lord God,” she said once again. “Thank You with all my Heart and Soul. Your Will is being done!”
“Thank you,” she heard the voice of the Almighty Creator say right back at her.
Tears of joy came to the old woman’s eyes. “We’re doing pretty good, You and I, eh, Papito? We’re doing very good.”
“Yes, We Are.”
LUPE DROVE UP to her sister Maria’s house, which was just a few miles up the road. Even though Salvador hadn’t spoken to Maria since she’d kidnapped their daughter, Hortensia, and taken her to be baptized, Lupe wasn’t going to let herself be concerned with this.
Maria and her short little husband, Andres, were standing in their front yard when Lupe drove up. The two of them had woken up when the sirens screeched past their home. And even from this distance, they could see and hear the explosions of the whiskey barrels.
“Oh, my God,” said Maria, rushing up to her sister as Lupe came wheeling into their driveway and crashed into their front porch. “What happened? Is that your house that’s on fire?”
“Yes,” said Lupe, “and Salvador is half dead and they’ll be looking for us. But I can’t drive.”
“You’re telling me!” said Andres, looking at the damage that she’d done to their porch.
“I almost ran into the fire truck, too, and then the two sheriff’s cars!” added Lupe. She was beside herself.