Thirteen Senses (70 page)

She breathed. “You see,
mi hijita,
the Bible is a much, much Greater Book than even the Pope, himself understands. The Bible isn't the story of a people who lived a long time ago. No, the Bible is the Key for the Comprehension of the Ongoing Story of All of Humanity, including Our Cousins on Our Other Six
Planetas.
Noah didn't load up a little boat on this
planeta
with all the animals of the world, but on Our Twin Sister
Planeta
on a Great Sky Sailing Mother Ship of well over sixty kilometers around. And you know this, Lupe, Here inside of yourself, we all do, once we accept who We really Are—Walking Stars of Illumination!

“So, no, you don't need to go on right now, Lupe, but do understand this,
mi hijita,
when Adam comes blaming you like he blamed
Eva,
you stand up in your marriage and face that Fear of the Unknown, putting both of your feet deep into the Mother Earth, and speak up for yourself, because if you don't, believe me, no one will, and that's a Woman's Truth straight from the Bible that you can depend on!

“Your mother, she told me how she had to stand up and take hold of the reins of
your familia
when your father left you in search of work. And I, then, told her how I had to stand up and take up the reins of
our familia
when my husband returned from having left us in search of work, and he disowned us because he thought all his blue-eyed sons were gone and all that was left of our
familia
were females and one Indian-looking son.”

Tears burst from Doña Margarita's eyes. Lupe began to cry, too.

“Are you saying,
señora,
that I, too, will one day have to take up the reins of my family because Salvador is going to—” Lupe couldn't finish her words, the thought was so scary for her.

“No, I'm not saying this,” said the old woman, “because I raised my son to respect women and his family above all else with all his heart and soul, so he will never abandon you, but—
desgraciadamente,
he is a man and so he will drift away from you with dreams of power and riches and maybe other—”

“Don't say it,
señora!
Please, don't say it!”

“Why? To not say it, do you think will cause it to not come true?”

Lupe shrugged, then nodded vigorously.

The old woman laughed. “Oh, no,
mi hijita,
men have been men for millions of years! What they are, they are already! So we, women, must face this and—”

“But not now! We're so happy right now,
señora.”
Tears streamed down Lupe's face.

“Exactly,” said the tough old She-Fox. “You are happy right now, so this is exactly why you can now see what you must see, without Fear or Bitterness. A Woman of Substance does not put all of her Love in the man,
mi hijita.
A Woman of Substance understands how the Universe works and puts her Love in God first, then in her child, then in her nest, so then when that day comes—which it will—that she finds him with another woman—no, don't pull away! Listen!—whether this woman be Power, Riches, or a young coquettish girl, she doesn't panic and run, saying ‘Oh, he has betrayed me!' For no man has ever betrayed any Woman of Substance! A Woman of Substance is a Prepared Woman who realizes that the man has simply done what is in his nature here between his legs.

“So what does a Woman of Substance then do,
mi hijita,
when her husband has drifted off? She digs deep inside of herself, drawing up her most primitive of Wild Powers and she leaps forward and grabs hold of him by his
TANATES
and she says, ‘These are MINE! And I LOVE YOU and I'm your WIFE and we have CHILDREN, and I'll walk through fire and Hell for you, but you bring home to us WHAT IS OURS! Your BALLS!' This is a language that all
hombres
understand, especially when you got a good hold on their
tanates!

“So Believe me, Moses is re-working the commandments even as we speak because of the grip we women got on him between his legs. Open your eyes, Lupe, now while you're happy, and realize that love is no little, cute, romantic game. To Love is to leap with both feet into the middle of the Storm of Creation, in this already emotional
planeta,
and come up laughing
con gusto
and hot juices running down between our legs! You are the VOLCANO! You are the HURRICANE!

“Never beg a man! DEMAND! And YOU WILL BE RESPECTED! Particularly when you take him back to bed without blaming or being a crybaby! I did it! Time and again! Your mother, what did she do after all those years of abandonment? She wrote your father a letter and then got all dressed up and received him in her bed when he returned.”

Lupe wasn't crying anymore. No, she was now wiping the tears from her eyes and remembering that it was true, it was all true, what her mother-in-love was telling her. Lupe took in a long, deep breath and looked at this old woman sitting beside her on the running board of this old abandoned truck.

“Thank you,
señora,”
she said, “with all my Heart and Soul,
gracias!
”

“The thanks are mine,” said Doña Margarita. “You are Our Future,
mi hijita, con el favor de Dios,”
she added, bowing her head.

ACROSS THE YARD,
a huge fire was roaring, leaping, snapping. Salvador had changed clothes and he and the men were teaching the boys how to kill the goat.

“Now, no one make any sudden movements,” said Salvador, “and keep your voices down. Sssssh, we want the animal relaxed and breathing easy, so his meat will taste sweet.”

Salvador had a .22 rifle ready and was now looking for a clear shot as the young pretty goat ate the corn they'd put on the ground for him to nibble. Rodolfo had the knife ready to cut the throat and do the bleeding. The boys were nervous, especially the ones who'd never been in on a killing before. One boy made the bad mistake of giggling nervously and two others joined him. Salvador whirled on them.

“Grab ahold of your
tanates
!” he said under his breath, putting his face into the young men's faces. “I said, GRAB THEM! That's right, and now squeeze! Hurts, eh? Will you keep this in mind when you give death or make Love. Life is tender just like your
tanates,
so don't be getting too cocky, because right here, below your cock, are your balls! And it was no accident that men were made in this way! Do you understand?”

The three boys nodded and one made the sign of the cross.

“Good, now you can let go of your balls. We respect life, and above all else, we never kill an animal in view of the other animals, especially his own kind. You boys watch and you'll see, that in families where they don't know how to kill with respect and honor, they also don't know how to live with respect and honor!”

Turning back to the little goat, Salvador now pet him gently. The goat looked up at Salvador. The little animal had big, dark, beautiful eyes. Salvador spoke calmly, quieting the animal right down again. Then he carefully took aim, and shot the cute little goat between the eyes, at such an angle that the bullet went into the brain—and not downward into the mouth and nose area.

The billy went down in a heap, not knowing what had happened.

Instantly, Rodolfo cut his throat under the chin and put a pan to gather the blood, petting the animal as his blood came out in spurts with his still pumping heart.

“There,” said Salvador, smiling, “another job well done. And next time, you boys do it, then you'll know here in your balls respect of death and life. Now, let's have our first drink,” he said, turning to Rodolfo.

“Orale, mi general!”
said the schoolteacher from Monterey, Mexico. “The honor is mine!”

And so all the grown men now had a drink to Salvador's firstborn child, and then some of the older boys were included in their first drink among men, too.

Back in those days, there was no such thing as a teenager. A boy was a boy until the age of twelve, then on his thirteenth birthday, he was a man with pubic hair, capable of impregnating a girl, and so he was expected to be responsible, go to work, and know how to behave!

The same thing with girls. No exception. Then two years later, at fifteen—on her
quinceañera
—a girl was given a coming-out-party and made available to the world as a woman, with a woman's respectability and responsibilities!

After passing the bottle around, Salvador took his nephew Jose aside,

spoke to him, then gave him the keys to his Moon automobile. The young man quickly went to his uncle's grand car and took off.

“Now it's time to check the fire while the goat's blood cools down and he quits kicking. Two of you stay here with sticks and make sure that the dogs don't help themselves to the goat. And be stern. Don't let the dogs even start sniffing, or they could become livestock killers. Dogs, cats, they're just like people; only one day away from being loving angels or wild killers. This is why our eyes are up front and not to the side like pastoral animals—the cows, the goats, the sheep, the deer, the rabbits. Eyes to the side, watchful grass eaters. Eyes up front, focused killers. There are no mistakes. Creation is Perfect. When people say that they're making improvements on nature, that's bullshit!”

And so the men now went over to check the fire, to move the burning wood about, and put the stones—which they'd dug out of the hole—back into the hole so that the stones would now heat up and distribute the heat evenly once they began cooking.

Having fixed the fire, the men and young boys all went back to the goat. Now it was time to skin-out the little animal, gut him, quarter him, cover each piece of meat in salt, pepper, and
salsa,
then wrap each piece in clean cloth, then wrap these pieces into a wet burlap sack.

Then, when the wood had all become burning coals and the rocks were breaking from so much heat, the bulks of wrapped meat were lowered with shovels very carefully down into the three-foot deep hole. New green poles were put diagonally across the hole, palm branches were placed over the poles, then wet burlap or old cloths over the palm leaves, and now the whole thing was covered over with about three inches of dirt, until not one little puff of smoke was escaping.

They were done!

The Mother Earth would now cook this goat into a mouthwatering feast within a few hours.

This was the way humans had been cooking all kinds of large mammals for thousands of years all over the globe.

And as the men did this work, the women—inside their homes—cooked up huge pots of
frijoles
and rice, and made up big platters of cut fruit and vegetables.

And most important of all, a flat piece of metal was put over a little fire and here stood three women making
tortillas
by hand and cooking them over the little open fire.

And the women didn't drink their
tequila
straight. No, they squeezed sweet limes, added a little honey or sugar, then spiked this with their alcohol. A mixture of this tasty lemonade was taken out to Doña Margarita and Lupe.

All the people were working together. It took a whole
barrio
to put on a
pachanga!

Two men came up with guitars and they began to play
rancheritas.
Another man joined them with a heavy wooden crate for the citrus and he began to beat the crate like a huge drum! Automatically, the people began to clap their hands and move their bodies to the beat as they continued preparing the feast.

The Father Sun was just starting to go down when Lupe saw Salvador's nephew Jose drive up in their Moon automobile with her parents and Sophia and her kids. And her brother, Victoriano, had Maria and Carlota and a whole truck full of nephews and nieces.

Lupe had thought that Salvador had sent Jose to get some groceries in town, not all the way to Santa Ana to get her
familia.
Oh, what a surprise!

Lupe leaped up screeching with joy to see her mother, Doña Guadalupe, getting down from their car.

“Mama! Papa!”
yelled Lupe, feeling a sudden hot rush go all through her. “Carlota! Maria! Victoriano!” Then she started giggling. “What a wonderful surprise!”

“
Mi hijita,
” said her mother, hugging her, “have you been drinking?”

“Of course not!” said Lupe. “Just lemonade! I don't drink, you know that,
mama!”

“Just lemonade,” said her father, licking his lips. “I'd like to have some of this ‘just' lemonade, too!”

“We call them
Margaritas
because of our mother,” said Luisa, coming out of the house with a big jar of this special drink designed for hot weather. “My mother swears that
Margaritas
bring you close to God!”

“I love being close to God!” said the old man, taking a cup.

The Father Sun was just beginning to touch the far horizon when they uncovered the hole. Instantly, the whole neighborhood smelled of the underground feast! Huge pots of beans and rice were brought out of the different homes! The homemade
tortillas
were already piled high!

“Salvador,” said Lupe, taking him aside. She was tipsy. “I want to thank you sooo much for sending Jose to get
mi familia.”
She laughed. “I love you.”

“Thank you,
te amo también,
Lupe.”

Others had joined with their homemade instruments to the drum Beat, BEAT, BEATING of the wooden crate!

The Heavens Opened and ten thousand Angels began to Sing!

GOD was HAPPY!

The whole HOLY FAMILY was SMILING!

Another
familia
had put the Flesh and Blood of Compassion, Forgiveness, and Understanding on their Personal Crucifixion!

Father Ryan showed up and gave his Blessing. By now, everyone's mouth was watering. Even the dogs were licking their chops and just waiting to be thrown bones.

The Father Sun winked his last as he now disappeared into the West. Another Glorious Day was coming to close Here on
PAPITO DIOS'S PARAISO.