Thirteen Senses (46 page)

“Yeah, I guess you could call this a revolution,” said Archie. “You see, from what I've been told, all of our main banks for our whole country are all located back in New York City and, as someone tried to explain to me yesterday, those banks loaned out too much money on too little collateral to their rich friends for stocks and bonds, and now these rich people are broke and can't pay back the banks.”

“Now I get it,” said Salvador. “That's the oldest trick in gambling! You put out a bunch of extra chips on credit, then when the time comes for the house to cover the chips, they don't have enough money, so they go broke.”

“Exactly!” said Archie. “So now our local bankers are just as broke and all screwed up as those big banks back in New York City, Sal.”

“I see, I see,” said Salvador, scratching his head, “but how can a country be so stupid? It don't make sense. Somebody knew, Archie. And this somebody who knew made a lot of money on everybody else going broke.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” said Archie, “some of those rich people in New York must've known, so they just stole all the chickens from all the chicken coops across the country before the crash!”

Salvador nodded. “I've seen many a'gambling house do this. They just let the house go broke, because the house people, they aren't held responsible. Hell, if the law was that we hang the ones who run the house, then this would never happen!”

“Jesus, you're right!” screamed Archie, and he now picked up a brick and threw it at the bank building himself. “You greedy, scheming bastards ought to be hung 'til dead!”

Seeing Archie, the law, do this, the people cheered, and Archie laughed, throwing another brick.

Quickly, quietly, Salvador slipped off, got in his Moon, and drove away He hoped to God that he and Lupe could get to their bank in Corona before it closed its doors, too.

He never should have listened to Lupe and put their money in the bank. This was exactly what the entire Mexican Revolution had been all about, too. Don Porfirio, the big wolf, instead of guarding the chicken coop for the good of
la gente,
he'd given Mexico away to all his rich foreign friends, piece by piece, all in the name of progress.

Getting to their little rented house in the avocado orchard in Carlsbad, Salvador breathed deeply, trying to calm down. But his heart
-corazón
kept racing. A large part of him just felt like rushing in and telling Lupe that it was all her damn fault that they'd lost everything! That he'd never wanted to put their money in the bank in the first place!

But, also, Salvador realized that this wouldn't help. That what he really needed to do was take both of his
tanates
in hand, face the Devil of Blaming, and get Lupe out of the house as quickly as possible and to Corona to their bank.

Breathing deep, Salvador got out of the Moon and went inside of their home. And there was
Chingon
, their little dog, in the house.

“Lupe,” he said, coming up behind her, “we got to go to Corona,” he added as calmly as he could.

“But I have lunch ready,” she said.

“Lupe, this is an emergency,” he said, still trying to keep tame his heart, which was beating wildly!

“Oh, your mother! Why didn't you say. I'll just get my purse, and coat!”

“Good!” he said, grabbing up the food that she'd been cooking in the frying pan with a couple of
tortillas.
“And bring our bankbook!” He ate the food as they went back out to the car. As they drove, he told Lupe what he'd seen in Oceanside and how Archie had ordered him to get him a barrel of whiskey.

“The people were going crazy,” said Salvador. “And Archie explained to me that this is just the beginning, that now people are going to be losing their homes and little ranches, too. And then that he, Archie, the law, will have to start coming after them when they start robbing and stealing to feed their families.”

Lupe was silent. She didn't say one single word. Tears were running down her face.

“You hate me, don't you, Salvador?” she finally asked.

He took a deep breath. “Lupe,” he said, “we don't know if we've lost our money yet. Corona is little, not big like Oceanside. So, well, maybe people out there don't read the newspapers.”

“Thank you, Salvador,” said Lupe.

“For what?”

“For finding hope,” she said. “For not yelling at me, for not throwing it in my face how I got you to put our money in the bank.”

“Don't be thanking me yet,” said Salvador, taking in a big breath. “Let's just keep hoping right now, that we draw some good cards in this game that we're now in.”

Hearing this, Lupe asked, “Then to you, Salvador, everything is a gamble?”

“Exactly. All of life! Completely! To live is to gamble.”

“I see,” said Lupe.

And they didn't say another word. Each retreated to their own world, trying to make sense of what was happening to them in terms that they could understand. And their “terms” were very different.
Cada cabeza, un mundo,
every head a different world.

Then getting into Corona, Salvador immediately drove over to the Anglo part of town where they'd deposited their money in a bank. Parking, they both quickly got out of the Moon and approached the bank. There was no one around, like at the bank in Oceanside.

Salvador grinned, figuring that maybe everything was okay. But then, walking up to the front doors, they saw that the doors were all boarded up.

Salvador's whole heart went crashing down into his gut, then came leaping up into his throat! And he was gagging, choking, tasting this sour-metal green gunk that came to his mouth from out of his stomach!

Their bank had already gone broke and closed its doors! They, too, had lost all of their money in all the world. My God, why had he ever listened to Lupe. Men did get weak and stupid in the head once they married!

If it weren't for the fact Lupe was pregnant with their child, he'd send her packing home to her parents right now! He couldn't afford to have a weak, ignorant woman around him who had absolutely no idea what went on in the world, and yet kept acting so high-and-mighty, trying to tell him what to do!

To hell with his mother's advice, too, about men needing to listen to women. He'd just lost all of his money, because he'd listened to a woman's advice! And he'd worked so hard for this money, putting in days of sixteen and eighteen hours, and he'd just been getting ready to finish paying off his friend Kenny White!

And Salvador now found himself ready to start screaming just as those people had been doing in Oceanside! He was devastated. And Archie had said that this was just the beginning, that businesses were going to start closing down right and left.

Holding his stomach so he wouldn't throw up, Salvador was just turning around go back to their car, when he saw that Lupe was reading a small sign over at the side of the doors.

“Salvador,” she was saying, “come and look, this sign says that the bank has moved around the corner to a new location.”

“What?” said Salvador.

“This sign says that the bank has moved around the corner to a new location,” she repeated.

“My God,” said Salvador, coming over and looking at the sign that had an arrow pointing toward the right, “then maybe, Lupe, just maybe, this bank hasn't gone broke like the one in Oceanside, but has, well, maybe, just moved to a new location!”

“Yes,” said Lupe, “I think that this might be the case.”

Suddenly, Salvador's whole heart came back down into his chest and it was pounding something fierce! He turned, walking briskly up the street in the direction that the arrow pointed, then ... he was running! And Lupe, she was right behind him, running, too!

Rounding the corner, still running, Salvador and Lupe saw a new building halfway down the block on the other side of the street. Salvador didn't even bother to look right and left as he raced across the street through the traffic, causing vehicles to slam on their brakes!

Getting to the other sidewalk, Salvador stopped to catch his breath, then he took Lupe's hand when she came up. She was holding up much better than he. Oh, my God, he felt lightheaded! He'd been holding his breath the whole time that he'd been running. He was pouring with sweat!

Blowing out, Salvador caught his breath, then he and Lupe walked up to the new building together. And yes, this new building was, indeed, the bank, and yes, this bank was open. They could see people inside doing business.

Salvador had to take several deep breaths, before he could open the door for Lupe. Following Lupe inside, the blood was finally beginning to come back into Salvador's face.

It smelled so good inside of the new building. The paint, the wood, the marble flooring. They both had to breathe deeply several times to tame their
corazones.
Then their eyes met and—oh, it was like magic between them, they were so happy!

Salvador squeezed Lupe's hand. And she squeezed his hand back There were just a few people in the bank, so Salvador and Lupe quickly walked up to the first available cashier. Lupe opened her purse and brought out their bankbook, and asked for their money. The teller didn't even bat an eye.

“Certainly,” he said, “do you want it in twenties or fifties?”

“I guess, a few of each,” said Lupe. “But mostly twenties. Is that all right with you, Salvador?”

“Oh, yes, that's very all right with me!” said he.

“Good,” said the teller.

“Yes, good,” said Salvador. “Very good!”

And Salvador and Lupe would never forget the joy, the absolute
gusto.

that came to their hearts as they stood there watching the teller pull open his drawer and bring out a pile of crisp, new twenties and fifties, counting out their money for them with a quick little snapping sound.

It was money music to their ears!

No man and woman had ever walked taller out the doors of a bank than Salvador and Lupe when they came strolling out arm in arm, with a bulge of money so big and fat that it was pressing to break the seams of Lupe's purse!

“Salvador,” said Lupe, once they were outside and walking up the street, “I'm going to need to get a bigger purse if we keep doing this.”

“Okay, honey,
no problema.
We'll get you a bigger purse.”

They strolled up that street, there in the Anglo part of Corona, looking like the most proud and happy couple ever seen on
toda la planeta de esta Tierra Madre
!

11

HEAVEN was laughing con carcajadas! Love, love, AMOR was now Creating a whole new PARAISO on EARTH as it was in HEAVEN!

T
HE DRUMS WERE BEATING
!

The Drums were Beat, BEAT, BEATING, POUNDING in Unison with the Heartbeat of the Universe! GOD'S One Song!

Salvador and Lupe were now in Love in a whole new deeper and fuller way. Theirs was now a life of being out on their own!

But their challenges were not to cease. Lupe was now getting morning sickness and she felt terrible half of the time. And Salvador was gone so much, that it was causing her a new kind of fear. What if an emergency came up and she had to go to the doctor? Their doctor was way up in Santa Ana, more than an hour away and she had no means of getting there.

To make matters worse, this morning Salvador left before daybreak, saying that he'd be gone a couple of days, that he was going to stop by and pay Kenny White the rest of the money that he owed him, then he was maybe going to have to go north to see a Chinese man way up in Hanford near Fresno.

Lupe had said nothing, for she could see how hard Salvador was working, but when he didn't come home that night—she got scared. He was in danger once again. She could just feel it here inside of herself. By the next day she was sick and lying in bed feeling so weak and terrible that she could hardly move. This was when a knocking sounded on their front door. Lupe listened to the knocking, trying to figure out what was going on. For
Chingon,
their trusty little dog, hadn't barked any warning.

Cautiously, Lupe got out of bed, wondering who it could be and if this person was coming to tell her that Salvador had been killed or put in jail. Lupe had to put her left hand to the small of her back. She felt so weak and now, for the last few days, her back was hurting, too. She'd never had any idea what a woman went through with a pregnancy.

“Coming!” shouted Lupe, going to the bathroom, sitting on the toilet, then brushing back her hair. The knocking continued. Walking across the living room to the front door, Lupe could hear that their dog,
Chingon.
was happy with whoever had come.

Lupe licked her lips and tried to straighten herself up as best she could. “Who is it?” she said through the closed door.

“Helen,” said the German woman. Helen and Hans rented this house to Salvador and Lupe. “Salvador asked me to come by and have a little look in on you, honey!”