Thirteen Senses (5 page)

“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.

C
OMING 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.

And it was a huge, glorious reception with an abundance of food, announcing to all the people of the
barrio
that the terrible days of the Mexican Revolution were over, and it was now time for all of them to start a new life in this fine country of the United States!

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.

“Look,” said Lupe, pointing Indian-style with puckered lips for Salvador to turn.

He did so, and there walking together were their two grand, old mothers, looking so beautiful, each carrying a cup in her hand as they made their way away from the lights of the party. Their old mothers were laughing with such
gusto.

Salvador's whole chest swelled up with pride. Only twelve years before, he and his mother and sister, Luisa, had been at the Texas border, caught in a sandstorm, choking to death, but his short, dark, little Indian mother had never given up. No, she'd taken him in hand—when he'd been ready to roll over and die—and she'd sworn to him before the Almighty, that they would live and she'd see him grow and marry and . . . she had.

Tears came to Salvador's eyes, and he turned Lupe, placing her in front of himself so they could both keep watch over their mothers, then he pressed Lupe up against himself, and lowered his head, smelling her naked neck.

Lupe shivered, feeling his hot breath on her neck, and she rolled her head back, wanting to get more of his hot, good breathing on herself. After all, they were married now and so whatever they did together was sacred— her sisters had explained this to her.

Salvador started kissing her ear, using his tongue ever so lightly. Quickly, she turned her head around to face him, and they began kissing once again, as his hands moved smoothly over the small of her waist, stroking her full
Latina
hips.

Now she could feel the fire of Salvador's loins getting hard as molten lava as he pushed up against her backside. Oh, she was on fire, too!

But then suddenly, Lupe broke from her truelove's arms, just like that, without any explanation, and rushed out of the orchard, going past the party, and into her home.

Salvador was left standing in the walnut orchard feeling like a fool. People were glancing at him, wondering what had happened.

Doña Guadalupe, seeing her daughter Lupe rush into their house, quickly followed her.

Salvador went over to his own mother, shrugged his shoulders, and then together they walked next door to where the whiskey was hidden to have a couple of good shots.

“What happened?” asked his mother, Doña Margarita.

“I don't know,” said Salvador.

“Don't worry,” she said, stroking her son's arm. “Just look around. God is with us. It has been another wonderful day in paradise here on Mother Earth.”

But everything didn't feel that wonderful for Salvador or Lupe right now.

When Salvador had rubbed his molten hardness up against her
nalgui-tas
and he'd begun touching the inner part of her ear with his tongue— quick little hot-flashes had gone shooting all through her body. Suddenly, Lupe had trouble catching her breath, and she'd felt something break inside of her. She'd jerked her ear away from Salvador, tore loose from his arms, and ran with terror as fast as she could for the back door of her parents' home.

Bursting in through the back door of her parents' home, Lupe immediately rushed to the bathroom, which, thank God, was empty, and she'd no more than pulled up the yards and yards of her wedding dress, jerking them to the side and sat down on the toilet, than all these molten-hot juices had come pouring out of her, hitting the toilet bowl with a mighty bang!

Lupe didn't know if she was pissing, or having her period, or if she'd just—God forbid—had her first sexual experience that she'd heard her sisters and girlfriends talking so much about in the last few weeks.

All she knew was that if she'd stayed in Salvador's arms for one more second, she would've never had the presence of mind to leave his embrace. When he'd put the tip of his thick tongue into her ear, that had been—oh, she'd felt all these little quick wonderful hot-flashes go shooting through her!

“
Mi hijita,
” Lupe heard her mother calling her through the door, “are you all right?”

“I don't know, mama,” said Lupe. “I think I am.”

“Can I come in?”

“No, please,” said Lupe, flushing the toilet and trying to get to her feet. But she felt so lightheaded that she immediately had to sit back down on the toilet.

“I'm coming in,” said Doña Guadalupe.

“Oh,
mama,
I don't know what happened,” said Lupe, taking her mother's hand. “We were so happy, then I suddenly felt something break and had to rush to the bathroom.”

“Don't worry,
mi hijita,
a woman's body can have many complications. This is nothing new,” her mother told her. “In fact, this often happens with a young woman when she is a virgin. After all these years of yearning, her female body just bursts open,” she added, laughing. “Why, one of your very own sisters—but which one I will not say—had so much going on before her wedding night, that she burst like a ripe watermelon, not really knowing if she'd peed, or had a sexual outburst. After all, our female openings are all pretty close together, whether goats, pigs, cows, or us women. So
calmate, mi hijita,
for you are not the first or the last to be a little overwhelmed with your body's reactions on your wedding day.”

“But,
mama,
what should I do? I'm afraid of going to bed on those fine sheets that my
nina
Sophia hand-embroidered with pink flowers and little, tiny green leaves and vines, and soil them.”

The older woman burst out laughing. “Spoken just like a real woman! Of your husband, you are not even thinking, but of those pretty sheets that make up your nest—you are thinking completely!”

Lupe's eyes filled with tears. Being with her mother felt so safe.

“Look,
mi hijita,
” said her mother, “you don't have to go on your honeymoon if you don't want to,
querida.
The truth is that half the women I know would have been better off, if they'd met their husbands a week later. With the preparation of a wedding, and the men all drinking, it's a wonder any marriage ever gets off on the right foot. Rape is more often what happens on a girl's first night, if the truth be known.”

“But
mama,
Salvador has worked so hard to prepare our house in Carlsbad.”

“So?” said the tough, old, warrior-woman, refusing to be moved. “Then all the more reason for you to go when you are ready and he's not crazy from all these activities!”

“But what will I tell him?” Lupe asked.

“I'll tell him for you,” said her mother. “Don't you worry about that. You'll have plenty of opportunity over the course of your marriage to have to speak up for yourself, but . . . that doesn't have to start today. Now, tell me,
mi hijita
,” she added in a gentler tone of voice, “what was it that you flushed; blood, pee, or
el caldo de miel
?”

Oh, Lupe would've died if her mother had spoken to her like this just a week ago. For
“el caldo de miel
” meant “the soup of honey,” as the sexual juices were referred to in Mexico. But something had happened to Lupe with the preparations for the wedding, and so she wasn't embarrassed at all. It was as if, well, in some way she and her mother had become more like friends over the last few weeks, than mother and daughter.