Thirteen Senses by Victor Villaseñor
“You do?” said Lupe.
“Sure,” said Salvador.
Sitting down Salvador asked to speak to the owner and when the owner came, he spoke to him in Chinese, ordering things that weren’t on the menu. Lupe and Carlota weren’t the only ones who were impressed.
“Where in the hell did you learn Chinese?” asked Archie.
“In Mexicali,” said Salvador.
“Then,” said Archie, “you must be that son-of-a-bitch that no one’s been able to catch who’s been smuggling in all those slant-eyed bastards!” And saying this, Archie started laughing, then grinning ear to ear.
But Salvador gave Archie nothing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Salvador. “I just have a few good friends over in Mexicali, that’s all.”
“What do you do, smuggle ’em from Mexicali over to Chinatown in Hanford in the central valley of Fresno, or all the way to San Francisco?” said Archie. “A bunch of hot, slanted-eyed girls, eh?” And he would have continued talking and laughing if he hadn’t seen the sudden look of death that flashed across Lupe’s face. “Hey, man, I’m only kidding, Lupe,” he added quickly. “No harm meant. Shit, man, Salvador’s probably a virgin as far as I’m concerned!”
Saying this, Archie started laughing again. He just couldn’t help himself because—in his estimation—he’d just found out how Salvador got all his money. The son-of-a-bitch was a Chinaman importer! A much bigger crime than bootlegging!
Salvador still said nothing. He now knew why Archie would always be a deputy, and never the sheriff himself. He was a stupid big-mouth. He and Carlota truly deserved each other. Neither one of them knew when to keep their mouths shut. Hell, if Archie had been smart, he should never have tipped his hand and just let him, Salvador, keep on talking like a fool, and he could’ve then maybe found out how truly big this whole Chinese smuggling business really was. And it was huge!
Yes, Salvador knew how to speak a little Chinese, and he also knew how to speak a lot of Greek. This country was made up of people from all over the world. Spanish and English weren’t enough to help a man get into people’s hearts in this fast-growing nation.
Salvador also spoke a little Yaqui and a little of the native tongue of his mother’s people from their village in Oaxaca, Mexico. He never could have gotten his smuggling jobs in Mexicali if he hadn’t spoken several languages. It was a very poor man, indeed, who couldn’t at least pronounce another’s name in his own native tongue.
When the food arrived, it was a banquet. There was a whole duck roasted to a beautiful golden color, a platter of rice covered with beautiful vegetables and big succulent shrimp, and another platter of gravy and chicken and nuts. And then, the most special of all, here came the owner himself, carrying the biggest platter with an entire fish baked in a golden-orange sauce and decorated with greens and fruit.
“Oh, beautiful!” said Salvador, smiling proudly at the owner. “It’s even more than I expected!”
“Good!” said the owner, full of pride and elegance.
“A fish?” said Carlota, making a face of pure disgust as the owner set the elegant platter down in the middle of the table. “That’s disgusting!”
Lupe kicked her sister under the table. But Carlota wasn’t to be silenced.
“Don’t kick me!” she yelled. “Its eyes are open and it’s staring at me!”
Archie let out a howl of laughter that could be heard across the entire restaurant. “Great!” he said, winking at the ashen-faced owner, “that just leaves more for me to enjoy!”
Saying this, the huge lawman dug into the big fish. Salvador was glad that Archie had come along. Oh, he’d felt ready to flatten Carlota across the face! Why, she was the most stupid, self-centered human being he’d ever met!
Lupe took Salvador’s hand underneath the table, petting him gently. He turned and looked at her and she looked so kind and gentle and understanding that all his anger disappeared. He just couldn’t believe that Lupe and Carlota were really sisters—they were so different.
Going home that night, Lupe and Salvador rode in the back of the big Hudson and they held each other close and watched the Mother Moon follow them home, slipping between the clouds.
GETTING OUT OF THE BIG HUDSON, Lupe went inside with her sister to get her things so she and Salvador could now drive down to Carlsbad to start their honeymoon. Archie and Salvador stayed outside. Archie suggested that he and Salvador take a little walk down the street and stretch their legs.
“All right, you son-of-a-bitch!” said Archie, letting Salvador have it once they were out of earshot from Lupe’s house. “You used me, you bastard! Now the word is out all over the Southland that I’m in cahoots with you—and my God, you really were gonna castrate that sorry son-of-a-bitch, weren’t you? He still can hardly talk—his throat’s all burned—and he’s still terror-stricken!”
But then, before Salvador could say anything, Archie, who’d been raging-angry—just a second ago—was now happy and laughing to beat hell. “You’re a genius, Salvador!” he said. “Even I never thought of using baby pigs to work a man’s mind! Good God, can those little pigs scream! You’re lucky he didn’t die on you from a heart attack or choke to death with those hot burning balls you shoved down his throat! It’s gonna cost you two more barrels, Sal!”
Salvador breathed deeply. Why, this wild Indian, deputy son-of-a-bitch was never going to fail to amaze him. He wasn’t angry with what he’d done to Tomas; oh, no, he was jealous!
“All right,” said Salvador, now laughing, too, “two more barrels it is, but I can’t give ’em to you for a few weeks, Archie, ’cause I’m short right now, and, well, we still got to go on our honeymoon.”
“All right,” said Archie, calming down, “I’ll buy that, but also, I want you to know that your little war ain’t over yet. Those two guys, the Filipino and Italiano, they’re still fishing. I just don’t know what it is between you guys. But don’t worry; I didn’t leave you out to dry. People really think I’m backing you, you son-of-a-bitch, cabrón genius!”
“Thanks,” said Salvador, smiling. “It really did go pretty smooth.”
“But next time, you let me in on what you’re doing—you crazy Indian son-of-a-bitch! Little pigs, my God!”
Just then Lupe’s brother Victoriano came walking up, saying that their mother needed to speak to him, Salvador.
Archie started laughing, saying under his breath to Salvador as they all headed back up the street to Lupe’s house, “That’s why I’d never marry a virgin,” he said. “Hell, I don’t want a woman running in terror when I drop my pants, showing my studhorse!”
It took all of Salvador’s power to not whirl about and slug the huge lawman in the face. My God, what was wrong with everyone? Didn’t anyone have respect for the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony anymore?
AND SO IT CAME TO PASS one more time Salvador was told that Lupe wasn’t feeling very well again, and she wanted to stay home for another night, so could he please come by and pick her up in the morning.
“Also,” said Lupe’s mother Doña Guadalupe, “I think she wants to arrive at your little house in the daylight, so she can see the flowers that you told her you planted for her.” The old Yaqui Indian woman then took Salvador’s hand. “Please be patient, Salvador,” she’d added. “Lupe is a fine young woman, and strong, too, you’ll see, when the difficult times of life come, she will not fail you.”
Salvador breathed deeply, looking at Lupe’s mother’s dark, wide-set eyes. He well knew that this old Indian woman, who was sitting before him, came from the Yaquis of Northern Sonora, and that many of them had relocated across the border to Tucson, Arizona, after the terrible Yaqui-Mexican War of the eighteen hundreds. Salvador knew, that when this old lady said that her daughter Lupe was strong and that she wouldn’t fail him when the hard times of life hit them, she really knew what she was talking about. The Yaquis had endured the same terrible kind of fate that his own mother’s people had endured down in the lower boot of Mexico.
r /> “All right,” said Salvador to Doña Guadalupe, “then tomorrow it is, so tell Lupe that I’ll be by for her about midmorning, and to please be ready.”
“I’ll tell her, and you won’t regret this, Salvador,” she said. “Believe me, many a marriage has been ruined at the start because of the man’s impatience.”
Saying this, she took a deep breath, and Salvador well knew that she was trying to tell him volumes of information, and no doubt that this was the catastrophe that had happened to her in her own marriage.
But, also, Salvador figured that this was only half the story, because his own mother had always told him that it took two people to make or ruin a home, and that as many marriages were ruined by a woman’s indecision as by a man’s aggression.
He said nothing of this. He got in his Moon automobile and drove off. feeling pretty damn disappointed once again. He headed east out of Santa Ana over toward Corona to spend another night with his mother and his sister Luisa. But then, on the way there, he decided that he really didn’t want to have to face his sister’s words again of how he’d married the wrong woman.
He turned south, headed for Carlsbad. He’d spend another night of their honeymoon alone in the house that he’d fixed up for Lupe and himself.
Getting past San Juan Capistrano and coming out along the sea just north of San Clemente, Salvador saw the Mother Moon dancing on the flat, rippling water, and a surge of frustration ripped into his body.
Salvador almost turned around, to go to that famous whorehouse in Pasadena so he could get himself to calm down!
He didn’t want to wake up with aching balls again!
Maybe his sister Luisa was right. He’d made a terrible mistake in marrying Lupe. He should have married a woman of experience who wouldn’t be playing these damn stupid little games with him! Because, if the truth be known, he was going crazy-loco with wanting Lupe so much that—oh, my God, he was hurting between his legs.
Just south of San Clemente, Salvador pulled over to relieve himself. Standing there, he saw the moonlight dancing on the sea, then he spotted a dozen well-fed horses below the bluff on the shoreline.
It looked like a mare was in heat, and two studs were fighting to see who would get to her. One stud looked dark and lean and compact. The other looked speckled-white and fuller and larger. The two male animals looked truly magnificent rearing up on their hind legs as they pawed at each other with the bright moonlight dancing on the rippling sea behind them.
It was a magic moment of pure beauty with the Mother Moon giving a silvery glow to the horses and glistening sea. And the stars, oh, they were out by the millions dancing on the water, too!
Southern California was still, for the most part, an uninhabitable land of ranchos and open space. There weren’t any city lights to dilute the bright vastness of the Heavens.
Salvador finished relieving himself.
Oh, God, how he yearned for Lupe. All his life, his old mother had put him to sleep, telling him that it was written in stars how one day each of us would find our truelove and marry.
“But how will I know her?” he’d asked his mother.
“Her hands will fly like birds when she talks, her eyes will dance like leaves in the breeze when she looks at you. She will be the most beautiful woman in all the world to your eyes! And her voice will soothe the worries of the day from your mind.”
Tears now came to Salvador’s eyes. For it had all come true. Lupe’s hands did fly like birds when she spoke and her eyes did dance like leaves in the breeze when she looked at him. And yes, indeed, she was the most beautiful woman in all the world and when he closed his eyes and listened closely her voice soothed his very soul.
Below, one of the studs had won and he was now sniffing underneath the mare’s tail. With a screeching scream, he mounted her—and oh, my God, it made Salvador dizzy just to watch!
GETTING INTO THE OCEANSIDE-CARLSBAD AREA, Salvador couldn’t bring himself to go to their honeymoon cottage alone again. He decided to stop by and see old man Kenny White at his garage and give him some of the money he owed him. Salvador wouldn’t have had the money for his wedding, if it hadn’t been for that old gringo.
Salvador could now see that his mother was right, there was no bad from which good didn’t come if a person just kept going and didn’t get bitter. Hell, if it hadn’t been for his brother Domingo’s stupid behavior— which almost got them both put in jail—then he, Salvador, would have never discovered who were his real friends when all the chips were down.
And it wasn’t his own people, los Mejicanos, who’d come through for him; oh, no, it had been an Anglo, a Jew, and the German couple Hans and Helen who’d come through for him.
Not Archie, not his Mexican friends whom he’d helped so many times over the years. No, it had been Kenny, an Anglo, who’d loaned him the money, and Harry, a Jew, who’d helped Salvador get Lupe’s diamond wedding ring and then had given Salvador credit for all of the wedding clothes, and then it had been the German couple Hans and Helen who’d given him six months’ free rent and helped fix up the little white house for Lupe and him.
It shocked him.
It truly amazed him. It was as if his own people really didn’t have much faith in their own gente.
It was well after midnight when Salvador pulled up in front of Kenny’s garage. He was now glad that he hadn’t gone all the way up to that famous whorehouse in Pasadena where they had those beautiful, young women who looked and dressed like the movie stars of the day.
He needed time to himself. Oh, tonight when he’d held Lupe in his arms there in the backseat of Archie’s big Hudson, it was crazy, but he’d felt more wonderful than when he’d had sex with any woman!
IT WAS ALMOST DAYBREAK when Kenny White came out of his garage and found Salvador asleep. “Up and at ’em!” yelled Kenny, pounding on Salvador’s window. “Jerry Bill came by yesterday, and wants to know if you’re still in business?!?”
“Jerry?” said Salvador, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He felt terrible. There was a Mexican serape over his body.
“I put that Mexican blanket over you last night after you came in,” said Kenny. “You were tossing and turning, so I figured you was just cold. What happened to your honeymoon, anyway? The woman ain’t supposed to throw you out ’til you’ve been married at least a couple of weeks.”
“She didn’t throw me out,” said Salvador, yawning. “I haven’t even brought Lupe home yet.”
“I’ll be,” said Kenny, his eyes suddenly full of mischief. “But now tell me, were you really gonna cut that guy? Pigs, I’ll be damned! When I told old Archie, he got jealous that he hadn’t thought of that trick himself. So I guess they’ll now be keeping some pigs down at the jail in Oceanside when they wanna get a prisoner to talk.
“Come on in,” added Kenny, “I got the coffee brewing. Man, I feel good! Hell, if I felt any better, I’d get my ass arrested! The world just can’t stand to see a man too happy! You look terrible, Sal!”
Salvador nodded and got out of the Moon and walked around to the back of the garage to take a leak, before going inside. Kenny’s garage was just east of the railroad tracks, down the street from the Twin Inns Hotel.
“Jerry Bill said that he’d probably be up today to see you,” added Kenny.
Jerry Bill was a good friend of Salvador’s. Jerry Bill and Fred Noon, Salvador’s big-time lawyer from San Diego, were both good, solid, straightforward, hard-drinking men. It was strange, but ever since Salvador had learned the art of liquor making, he was hiding from the law, on the one hand, but he was also in close with more good, solid, leading citizens than he could’ve ever met with any legitimate job.
This was a fine country for an outlaw, as long as you had a good mechanic to keep your car and truck ready to go, and a big-time lawyer to cover your ass if your car or truck wasn’t fast enough.
Inside, Salvador had a cup of coffee with Kenny, and he handed the old man fifty dollars. “Here’s a little more of the money I
owe you,” said Salvador.
“Hell, no,” said Kenny, sipping his steaming hot coffee. “You keep that money ’til your marriage is on its feet! You’re a real man, Sal. And your word is good enough for me.”
“Kenny, you’re the best,” said Salvador. “The absolute best!”
“All right, I’ll accept that,” said Kenny, putting his coffee down, “but now don’t start any of your damn hugging abrazos, Sal.” Kenny put both of his hands out in front of himself, so Salvador wouldn’t try to hug him. “I wasn’t raised up with all these compliments and hugs—make a man nervous is what they do!”
But Salvador was an experienced horseman, so he shifted his eyes to look over Kenny’s right shoulder, and said, “Who’s that?” in a sudden tone of voice. When Kenny turned to look, Salvador grabbed him in a big abrazo, hugging him close. Kenny fought it, but only for a split-second, then he was hugging Salvador in return with such power that Salvador had to hold strong to not have his ribs broken.
Over the years, Salvador had found this to be true with so many gringo men, they just didn’t like to be touched or hugged. It seemed to threaten their manhood. But then once they got hugging, then my God, it was like they were so hungry for male contact, that they’d hug back in desperation.
It was eight o’clock by the time Salvador started up the coast to pick up Lupe. He’d stopped by their little honeymoon house in the orchard—four blocks north of the barrio, where someday the new Carlsbad post office would be built—and he’d shaved, showered, and changed clothes.
He just didn’t know what had gotten into him last night. But he’d felt lost and lonely inside. He’d actually begun to resent Lupe.
It was good that it was daytime now, because the things of the night just didn’t seem to sit well with a man when he was in love.
Salvador was just north of Oceanside when he remembered the two stallions of the night before. He had to pull at his crotch. What a beautiful sight that had been!
WHEN SALVADOR PULLED UP to Lupe’s home in Santa Ana in his Moon automobile, both of her parents were playing cards on the front porch. Doña Guadalupe and Don Victor each had a pile of pinto beans in front of them and they both looked very intent on the game.
“Sure,” said Salvador.
Sitting down Salvador asked to speak to the owner and when the owner came, he spoke to him in Chinese, ordering things that weren’t on the menu. Lupe and Carlota weren’t the only ones who were impressed.
“Where in the hell did you learn Chinese?” asked Archie.
“In Mexicali,” said Salvador.
“Then,” said Archie, “you must be that son-of-a-bitch that no one’s been able to catch who’s been smuggling in all those slant-eyed bastards!” And saying this, Archie started laughing, then grinning ear to ear.
But Salvador gave Archie nothing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Salvador. “I just have a few good friends over in Mexicali, that’s all.”
“What do you do, smuggle ’em from Mexicali over to Chinatown in Hanford in the central valley of Fresno, or all the way to San Francisco?” said Archie. “A bunch of hot, slanted-eyed girls, eh?” And he would have continued talking and laughing if he hadn’t seen the sudden look of death that flashed across Lupe’s face. “Hey, man, I’m only kidding, Lupe,” he added quickly. “No harm meant. Shit, man, Salvador’s probably a virgin as far as I’m concerned!”
Saying this, Archie started laughing again. He just couldn’t help himself because—in his estimation—he’d just found out how Salvador got all his money. The son-of-a-bitch was a Chinaman importer! A much bigger crime than bootlegging!
Salvador still said nothing. He now knew why Archie would always be a deputy, and never the sheriff himself. He was a stupid big-mouth. He and Carlota truly deserved each other. Neither one of them knew when to keep their mouths shut. Hell, if Archie had been smart, he should never have tipped his hand and just let him, Salvador, keep on talking like a fool, and he could’ve then maybe found out how truly big this whole Chinese smuggling business really was. And it was huge!
Yes, Salvador knew how to speak a little Chinese, and he also knew how to speak a lot of Greek. This country was made up of people from all over the world. Spanish and English weren’t enough to help a man get into people’s hearts in this fast-growing nation.
Salvador also spoke a little Yaqui and a little of the native tongue of his mother’s people from their village in Oaxaca, Mexico. He never could have gotten his smuggling jobs in Mexicali if he hadn’t spoken several languages. It was a very poor man, indeed, who couldn’t at least pronounce another’s name in his own native tongue.
When the food arrived, it was a banquet. There was a whole duck roasted to a beautiful golden color, a platter of rice covered with beautiful vegetables and big succulent shrimp, and another platter of gravy and chicken and nuts. And then, the most special of all, here came the owner himself, carrying the biggest platter with an entire fish baked in a golden-orange sauce and decorated with greens and fruit.
“Oh, beautiful!” said Salvador, smiling proudly at the owner. “It’s even more than I expected!”
“Good!” said the owner, full of pride and elegance.
“A fish?” said Carlota, making a face of pure disgust as the owner set the elegant platter down in the middle of the table. “That’s disgusting!”
Lupe kicked her sister under the table. But Carlota wasn’t to be silenced.
“Don’t kick me!” she yelled. “Its eyes are open and it’s staring at me!”
Archie let out a howl of laughter that could be heard across the entire restaurant. “Great!” he said, winking at the ashen-faced owner, “that just leaves more for me to enjoy!”
Saying this, the huge lawman dug into the big fish. Salvador was glad that Archie had come along. Oh, he’d felt ready to flatten Carlota across the face! Why, she was the most stupid, self-centered human being he’d ever met!
Lupe took Salvador’s hand underneath the table, petting him gently. He turned and looked at her and she looked so kind and gentle and understanding that all his anger disappeared. He just couldn’t believe that Lupe and Carlota were really sisters—they were so different.
Going home that night, Lupe and Salvador rode in the back of the big Hudson and they held each other close and watched the Mother Moon follow them home, slipping between the clouds.
GETTING OUT OF THE BIG HUDSON, Lupe went inside with her sister to get her things so she and Salvador could now drive down to Carlsbad to start their honeymoon. Archie and Salvador stayed outside. Archie suggested that he and Salvador take a little walk down the street and stretch their legs.
“All right, you son-of-a-bitch!” said Archie, letting Salvador have it once they were out of earshot from Lupe’s house. “You used me, you bastard! Now the word is out all over the Southland that I’m in cahoots with you—and my God, you really were gonna castrate that sorry son-of-a-bitch, weren’t you? He still can hardly talk—his throat’s all burned—and he’s still terror-stricken!”
But then, before Salvador could say anything, Archie, who’d been raging-angry—just a second ago—was now happy and laughing to beat hell. “You’re a genius, Salvador!” he said. “Even I never thought of using baby pigs to work a man’s mind! Good God, can those little pigs scream! You’re lucky he didn’t die on you from a heart attack or choke to death with those hot burning balls you shoved down his throat! It’s gonna cost you two more barrels, Sal!”
Salvador breathed deeply. Why, this wild Indian, deputy son-of-a-bitch was never going to fail to amaze him. He wasn’t angry with what he’d done to Tomas; oh, no, he was jealous!
“All right,” said Salvador, now laughing, too, “two more barrels it is, but I can’t give ’em to you for a few weeks, Archie, ’cause I’m short right now, and, well, we still got to go on our honeymoon.”
“All right,” said Archie, calming down, “I’ll buy that, but also, I want you to know that your little war ain’t over yet. Those two guys, the Filipino and Italiano, they’re still fishing. I just don’t know what it is between you guys. But don’t worry; I didn’t leave you out to dry. People really think I’m backing you, you son-of-a-bitch, cabrón genius!”
“Thanks,” said Salvador, smiling. “It really did go pretty smooth.”
“But next time, you let me in on what you’re doing—you crazy Indian son-of-a-bitch! Little pigs, my God!”
Just then Lupe’s brother Victoriano came walking up, saying that their mother needed to speak to him, Salvador.
Archie started laughing, saying under his breath to Salvador as they all headed back up the street to Lupe’s house, “That’s why I’d never marry a virgin,” he said. “Hell, I don’t want a woman running in terror when I drop my pants, showing my studhorse!”
It took all of Salvador’s power to not whirl about and slug the huge lawman in the face. My God, what was wrong with everyone? Didn’t anyone have respect for the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony anymore?
AND SO IT CAME TO PASS one more time Salvador was told that Lupe wasn’t feeling very well again, and she wanted to stay home for another night, so could he please come by and pick her up in the morning.
“Also,” said Lupe’s mother Doña Guadalupe, “I think she wants to arrive at your little house in the daylight, so she can see the flowers that you told her you planted for her.” The old Yaqui Indian woman then took Salvador’s hand. “Please be patient, Salvador,” she’d added. “Lupe is a fine young woman, and strong, too, you’ll see, when the difficult times of life come, she will not fail you.”
Salvador breathed deeply, looking at Lupe’s mother’s dark, wide-set eyes. He well knew that this old Indian woman, who was sitting before him, came from the Yaquis of Northern Sonora, and that many of them had relocated across the border to Tucson, Arizona, after the terrible Yaqui-Mexican War of the eighteen hundreds. Salvador knew, that when this old lady said that her daughter Lupe was strong and that she wouldn’t fail him when the hard times of life hit them, she really knew what she was talking about. The Yaquis had endured the same terrible kind of fate that his own mother’s people had endured down in the lower boot of Mexico.
“I’ll tell her, and you won’t regret this, Salvador,” she said. “Believe me, many a marriage has been ruined at the start because of the man’s impatience.”
Saying this, she took a deep breath, and Salvador well knew that she was trying to tell him volumes of information, and no doubt that this was the catastrophe that had happened to her in her own marriage.
But, also, Salvador figured that this was only half the story, because his own mother had always told him that it took two people to make or ruin a home, and that as many marriages were ruined by a woman’s indecision as by a man’s aggression.
He said nothing of this. He got in his Moon automobile and drove off. feeling pretty damn disappointed once again. He headed east out of Santa Ana over toward Corona to spend another night with his mother and his sister Luisa. But then, on the way there, he decided that he really didn’t want to have to face his sister’s words again of how he’d married the wrong woman.
He turned south, headed for Carlsbad. He’d spend another night of their honeymoon alone in the house that he’d fixed up for Lupe and himself.
Getting past San Juan Capistrano and coming out along the sea just north of San Clemente, Salvador saw the Mother Moon dancing on the flat, rippling water, and a surge of frustration ripped into his body.
Salvador almost turned around, to go to that famous whorehouse in Pasadena so he could get himself to calm down!
He didn’t want to wake up with aching balls again!
Maybe his sister Luisa was right. He’d made a terrible mistake in marrying Lupe. He should have married a woman of experience who wouldn’t be playing these damn stupid little games with him! Because, if the truth be known, he was going crazy-loco with wanting Lupe so much that—oh, my God, he was hurting between his legs.
Just south of San Clemente, Salvador pulled over to relieve himself. Standing there, he saw the moonlight dancing on the sea, then he spotted a dozen well-fed horses below the bluff on the shoreline.
It looked like a mare was in heat, and two studs were fighting to see who would get to her. One stud looked dark and lean and compact. The other looked speckled-white and fuller and larger. The two male animals looked truly magnificent rearing up on their hind legs as they pawed at each other with the bright moonlight dancing on the rippling sea behind them.
It was a magic moment of pure beauty with the Mother Moon giving a silvery glow to the horses and glistening sea. And the stars, oh, they were out by the millions dancing on the water, too!
Southern California was still, for the most part, an uninhabitable land of ranchos and open space. There weren’t any city lights to dilute the bright vastness of the Heavens.
Salvador finished relieving himself.
Oh, God, how he yearned for Lupe. All his life, his old mother had put him to sleep, telling him that it was written in stars how one day each of us would find our truelove and marry.
“But how will I know her?” he’d asked his mother.
“Her hands will fly like birds when she talks, her eyes will dance like leaves in the breeze when she looks at you. She will be the most beautiful woman in all the world to your eyes! And her voice will soothe the worries of the day from your mind.”
Tears now came to Salvador’s eyes. For it had all come true. Lupe’s hands did fly like birds when she spoke and her eyes did dance like leaves in the breeze when she looked at him. And yes, indeed, she was the most beautiful woman in all the world and when he closed his eyes and listened closely her voice soothed his very soul.
Below, one of the studs had won and he was now sniffing underneath the mare’s tail. With a screeching scream, he mounted her—and oh, my God, it made Salvador dizzy just to watch!
GETTING INTO THE OCEANSIDE-CARLSBAD AREA, Salvador couldn’t bring himself to go to their honeymoon cottage alone again. He decided to stop by and see old man Kenny White at his garage and give him some of the money he owed him. Salvador wouldn’t have had the money for his wedding, if it hadn’t been for that old gringo.
Salvador could now see that his mother was right, there was no bad from which good didn’t come if a person just kept going and didn’t get bitter. Hell, if it hadn’t been for his brother Domingo’s stupid behavior— which almost got them both put in jail—then he, Salvador, would have never discovered who were his real friends when all the chips were down.
And it wasn’t his own people, los Mejicanos, who’d come through for him; oh, no, it had been an Anglo, a Jew, and the German couple Hans and Helen who’d come through for him.
Not Archie, not his Mexican friends whom he’d helped so many times over the years. No, it had been Kenny, an Anglo, who’d loaned him the money, and Harry, a Jew, who’d helped Salvador get Lupe’s diamond wedding ring and then had given Salvador credit for all of the wedding clothes, and then it had been the German couple Hans and Helen who’d given him six months’ free rent and helped fix up the little white house for Lupe and him.
It shocked him.
It truly amazed him. It was as if his own people really didn’t have much faith in their own gente.
It was well after midnight when Salvador pulled up in front of Kenny’s garage. He was now glad that he hadn’t gone all the way up to that famous whorehouse in Pasadena where they had those beautiful, young women who looked and dressed like the movie stars of the day.
He needed time to himself. Oh, tonight when he’d held Lupe in his arms there in the backseat of Archie’s big Hudson, it was crazy, but he’d felt more wonderful than when he’d had sex with any woman!
IT WAS ALMOST DAYBREAK when Kenny White came out of his garage and found Salvador asleep. “Up and at ’em!” yelled Kenny, pounding on Salvador’s window. “Jerry Bill came by yesterday, and wants to know if you’re still in business?!?”
“Jerry?” said Salvador, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He felt terrible. There was a Mexican serape over his body.
“I put that Mexican blanket over you last night after you came in,” said Kenny. “You were tossing and turning, so I figured you was just cold. What happened to your honeymoon, anyway? The woman ain’t supposed to throw you out ’til you’ve been married at least a couple of weeks.”
“She didn’t throw me out,” said Salvador, yawning. “I haven’t even brought Lupe home yet.”
“I’ll be,” said Kenny, his eyes suddenly full of mischief. “But now tell me, were you really gonna cut that guy? Pigs, I’ll be damned! When I told old Archie, he got jealous that he hadn’t thought of that trick himself. So I guess they’ll now be keeping some pigs down at the jail in Oceanside when they wanna get a prisoner to talk.
“Come on in,” added Kenny, “I got the coffee brewing. Man, I feel good! Hell, if I felt any better, I’d get my ass arrested! The world just can’t stand to see a man too happy! You look terrible, Sal!”
Salvador nodded and got out of the Moon and walked around to the back of the garage to take a leak, before going inside. Kenny’s garage was just east of the railroad tracks, down the street from the Twin Inns Hotel.
“Jerry Bill said that he’d probably be up today to see you,” added Kenny.
Jerry Bill was a good friend of Salvador’s. Jerry Bill and Fred Noon, Salvador’s big-time lawyer from San Diego, were both good, solid, straightforward, hard-drinking men. It was strange, but ever since Salvador had learned the art of liquor making, he was hiding from the law, on the one hand, but he was also in close with more good, solid, leading citizens than he could’ve ever met with any legitimate job.
This was a fine country for an outlaw, as long as you had a good mechanic to keep your car and truck ready to go, and a big-time lawyer to cover your ass if your car or truck wasn’t fast enough.
Inside, Salvador had a cup of coffee with Kenny, and he handed the old man fifty dollars. “Here’s a little more of the money I
“Hell, no,” said Kenny, sipping his steaming hot coffee. “You keep that money ’til your marriage is on its feet! You’re a real man, Sal. And your word is good enough for me.”
“Kenny, you’re the best,” said Salvador. “The absolute best!”
“All right, I’ll accept that,” said Kenny, putting his coffee down, “but now don’t start any of your damn hugging abrazos, Sal.” Kenny put both of his hands out in front of himself, so Salvador wouldn’t try to hug him. “I wasn’t raised up with all these compliments and hugs—make a man nervous is what they do!”
But Salvador was an experienced horseman, so he shifted his eyes to look over Kenny’s right shoulder, and said, “Who’s that?” in a sudden tone of voice. When Kenny turned to look, Salvador grabbed him in a big abrazo, hugging him close. Kenny fought it, but only for a split-second, then he was hugging Salvador in return with such power that Salvador had to hold strong to not have his ribs broken.
Over the years, Salvador had found this to be true with so many gringo men, they just didn’t like to be touched or hugged. It seemed to threaten their manhood. But then once they got hugging, then my God, it was like they were so hungry for male contact, that they’d hug back in desperation.
It was eight o’clock by the time Salvador started up the coast to pick up Lupe. He’d stopped by their little honeymoon house in the orchard—four blocks north of the barrio, where someday the new Carlsbad post office would be built—and he’d shaved, showered, and changed clothes.
He just didn’t know what had gotten into him last night. But he’d felt lost and lonely inside. He’d actually begun to resent Lupe.
It was good that it was daytime now, because the things of the night just didn’t seem to sit well with a man when he was in love.
Salvador was just north of Oceanside when he remembered the two stallions of the night before. He had to pull at his crotch. What a beautiful sight that had been!
WHEN SALVADOR PULLED UP to Lupe’s home in Santa Ana in his Moon automobile, both of her parents were playing cards on the front porch. Doña Guadalupe and Don Victor each had a pile of pinto beans in front of them and they both looked very intent on the game.