The rest of the day, Salvador was hardly able to work. Every time he and Lupe glanced at each other, they’d blush with embarrassment.
Getting back to the barrio that afternoon, Lupe knew she was in trouble. Carlota hated Salvador.
“I’m telling Mama,” said Carlota as soon as they got off the flatbed truck.
“But what are you going to tell her?” asked Lupe. “That we gave lunch to a stranger who helped Papa and me?”
“Don’t play the fool with me!” snapped Carlota. “You were disgusting! And he’s no good, I tell you. You should be thinking of Mark and your future; not this man!”
“All right, Carlota,” said Lupe, stopping outside their tent, “think what you want. You always do!”
“Ho, ho, ho,” said Carlota, “look who’s getting mad. And when he comes over to see you tonight, I’m telling Mama to get rid of him!”
“You know,” said Lupe, “maybe you’re upset because it’s you who’s really interested in him.”
“Me?” screamed Carlota. “Don’t be ridiculous! He’s too short and his ears stick out!”
“Well, you sure noticed a lot for not being interested,” said Lupe, laughing.
“Oh, you’re in trouble now, Lupe!” yelled Carlota, rushing into the tent.
Inside, their mother was lying down on a mat, resting. The years had truly come down on her in the last few months.
“Mama,” said Carlota, “Lupe made a fool of herself.”
“Where’s your father?” asked the old lady.
“He went with the other men to buy liquor,” said Lupe, coming in behind her sister.
“I see,” said their mother, sitting up. “Well, at least it will relax him and he’ll sleep tonight.”
“But Mama,” said Carlota, “Papa shouldn’t be drinking! And we met this man today and he’s no good and Lupe was flirting with him!”
“No, I wasn’t,” said Lupe, taking off her hat. “I was simply grateful to him because he helped Papa and me.”
“Ha!” said Carlota. “You were being more than just grateful, giving him the biggest tortilla and then being all goo-goo-eyed over the bees with him!”
“All right, all right,” said the old lady, “enough! Both of you! Now, Carlota, you start your bath and, Lupe, you sit down here and tell me about this man.”
“A no-good, Mama!” called Carlota, going to the wash basin at the back of their rented tent. “Ask Victoriano, he’ll tell you. And I’m going to ask Archie, too; you’ll see!”
Lupe clenched her hands. Her sister was going too far. Victoriano had only spoken well of Salvador.
“Well, who is he?” asked her mother.
Lupe shrugged. “Who knows, Mama? We just met him. His name is Salvador and he knocked down that big foreman who’s always bullying us when I went to get water for Papa.”
“I see, and did he also go with the men to that lady’s house to buy liquor?” asked the old woman.
“No, Mama, he went the opposite way, to the American part of town,” said Lupe. “To do some business, he said.”
“I see,” said her mother, smoothing out the apron on her lap. “So, maybe he doesn’t drink, eh?”
Lupe shrugged once more. “Who knows? We don’t know him, Mama. He was nothing but considerate, so I don’t know why Carlota degrades him so.”
Doña Guadalupe studied her daughter for a long time, searching her eyes. “Do you like him?” she asked.
Lupe shrugged, avoiding the question. “Mama,” she said, “I don’t think I’m ready to like any man.”
Her heart was pounding. Lupe fully realized that she’d lied, because she was interested in Salvador, plus she’d promised Mark to have an answer for him when they returned.
But the crafty old lady wasn’t about to be fooled. She’d seen that her daughter had glanced off toward the left before she’d answered her. The left eye never lied. When it did lie, it always said that it was lying by glancing off to the left.
“Kenny!” said Salvador, bursting into the old man’s garage. “I need to buy a new car! Right now!”
“All right,” said Kenny, calmly chewing his tobacco. “Sit down and let’s talk. I know a gent in Oceanside named Harvey Swartz. He sells good used cars.”
“I can’t sit down,” said Salvador. “Let’s go!”
“What you got up your ass?” asked Kenny, laughing. “Did you fall in love or something?”
“Better!”
“Better?”
“Yeah, I found my dream! My miracle of life! My, my, everything!”
“Jesus Christ!” said Kenny, laughing. “Sounds good!”
There was still plenty of daylight when Kenny and Salvador got to the car lot in Oceanside. Salvador saw it, parked over in the far side of the lot. It was the most beautiful roadster that he’d ever seen, looking as long and sleek in the dimming sunlight as a desert jaguar crouched down low, ready to leap into action.
“That white one!” yelled Salvador to Kenny.
“A Moon, eh?” said the old man, approaching the grand-looking roadster. “Good car, Sal, but it’s gonna cost a fortune.”
“Hell, just one?” laughed Salvador excitedly. He could already see Lupe sitting beside him, looking like his queen, his wife, the mother of his children.
Kenny grinned. “Let me do the talking, Sal,” he said. “You just keep still. I know Harvey, he’s a drinking man, so maybe we can work out something.”
“Sounds good!” said Salvador. “But hurry! We got to move! I need to be there before sundown!”
The sun was going down when Salvador cruised down the long line of tents in his Moon. He’d shaven and showered and he was wearing his navy blue, pin-striped suit and his white panama. He drove his ivory-white roadster real slow, snaking along, truly enjoying all the stares he was getting from field hands.
He thought of the first time that his mother had seen his father come riding into their village on a great sorrel stallion, the sunlight turning his reddish-brown hair to gold under his great sombrero and the conchos of his riding pants to eyes of dazzling silver. Oh, Salvador just wished that he could push a magic button and make his Moon rear up on its back wheels, like a stallion taking a bow.
This was wonderful! In Santa Ana she’d been the queen of the parade, and now here in Carlsbad he was the king of the barrio!
In the back of their rented tent, Lupe was finishing up her bath. Drying off, she threw her bath water out the rear flap of the long tent. She’d just put on her dress when Manuelita came rushing in.
“Lupe!” said her best friend, “he’s coming in a beautiful car!”
Spotting Victoriano in front of one of the tents, Salvador pulled up. Lupe was nowhere in sight. Carlota was cutting her father’s hair. The old man waved at Salvador, but Carlota gave him a dirty look.
“My God,” said Victoriano, coming up to the grand automobile, “you have more than one car?”
“Well, not exactly,” said Salvador. “I’m selling the Dodge.” He got out of the Moon. “You like it?” he said to Victoriano, “take it.”
“You mean around the block?”
“Sure,” said Salvador. “Check it out for me and see what you think.”
“My God,” said Victoriano, “come on, Papa! And you, too, Carlota!”
“No, you two go on,” said the old man, carefully removing the towel from his shoulders and brushing the hair off his pants.
“All right,” said Carlota. And even though she didn’t like Salvador or want him around her sister, she couldn’t resist the temptation of going around the block in such a fantastic automobile, and showing off to everyone.
She handed her comb and scissors to her father and rushed to the car. Salvador and Don Victor watched them drive down the long line of lit-up tents, with everyone watching.
“So,” said the old man, getting a twinkle in his bloodshot eyes, “you came by to see me, no doubt.”
“Of course,” said Salvador.
“And that fore
man, he just went crazy by himself, eh?” he said, laughing. “Oh, you are a first-class wonder, aren’t you?” he added, truly enjoying the memory. “The way you rammed that bottle into his mouth, almost killing him, then lying so beautifully to the boss. Hell, a man like you is used to getting anything he wants, isn’t he?”
Salvador glanced around. He didn’t want anyone to overhear Don Victor, but it was too late.
Looking through the crack of the flap, Doña Guadalupe saw how well her liquored-up husband and the young man in the fine clothes were getting along. She rushed about like a she-boar getting ready to do battle.
“Lupe, you go to the back and do the dishes. And you, Manuelita, go get your mother. Tell her I need her right now!”
“Yes,” said Manuelita, shrugging to Lupe and going out the rear flap.
“But, Mama,” said Lupe, “I already did the dishes.”
“Well, then, do them again!” snapped her mother, fixing her dress. “And don’t come up front until I call you.”
“Oh,” said Lupe sarcastically, “and should I hide behind the boulder, too?”
“That’s enough,” said her mother.
“Yes,” said Lupe, and she went out the rear flap to do as she’d been told. But she couldn’t figure out what was going on. Other boys had been coming over to see her and Carlota for years, and her mother had never behaved like this.
“Querida,” said Don Victor, opening the front flap of the tent, “come outside. I’d like you to meet our champion, Salvador Villaseñor!”
“A sus órdenes,” said Salvador, taking off his hat and bowing with a flair.
“Con mucho gusto,” said Doña Guadalupe, coming outside. “Guadalupe Gómez.”
Salvador took her hand.
“Well, sit down, make yourself at home,” she said, making room for Salvador to sit on one of the crates that they’d gotten from the orchard across the road. “Or would you prefer to go inside?” she asked.
“Whatever you wish, Señora,” said Salvador, looking at the short, plump old lady very carefully. She had beautiful white hair and large, wonderful, hazel green eyes that sparkled with mischief and contrasted with her dark, serious Indian features.
“Well, then, come in,” she said, deciding that she could best handle this innocent, girl-stealing coyote inside.
Ongoing into the long tent, Salvador felt like he’d entered the web of a spider, the old woman was eyeing him so deliberately.
“So, where are you from?” she asked, sitting down on the crate that Don Victor had brought in for her.
“Los Altos de Jalisco,” said Salvador, sitting on a crate.
“I see, and are your parents living?”
“Thank God, my mother is,” he said, smiling grandly. “She’s the love of my life!”
The old lady raised up her left eyebrow, smoothing out the apron on her lap. Either this man was too good to be true or he was the worst kind of coyote, a man capable of stealing a woman’s heart and soul.
“And where does your mother live?” she asked.
“In Corona, just north of here.”
“I see. And may I ask, how do you manage to do so well here in this country?” she said, eyeing his fine clothes.
Salvador was taken by surprise. He hadn’t expected such direct questioning. Especially before he’d even made his intentions known regarding Lupe. He looked at the old lady, choosing his words carefully, staring straight back at her as she studied his eyes. After all, he wasn’t a professional gambler for nothing.
“I move fertilizer,” he said, lying to her, staring at her, eye-to-eye, giving absolutely nothing away. “I have trucks and contracts with several ranches.”
“Oh,” she said, noticing that neither of his eyes had moved. “And this pays well, eh?” she added.
He laughed. She’d accepted his words. Duel had, indeed, taught him well. “Yes, very well, if you got enough manure,” he said.
Watching the whole exchange, Don Victor burst out laughing, thinking of all the times that his wife had outwitted him. Doña Guadalupe gave him a dirty look. Getting to his feet, Don Victor returned his wife’s dirty look and went outside to smoke. He could see that his crafty, old wife had her hands full.
For the next ten minutes, Doña Guadalupe pounded Salvador with question after question, but Salvador only smiled, answering whatever she asked.
The sun was going down and it was getting late. Salvador still hadn’t seen or heard Lupe. He began to feel trapped. Yes, of course, he remembered that his mother had told him that he had to get to know Lupe’s mother, but this was ridiculous.
Then Doña Manza came through the front flap. She, too, had fixed her hair and changed her dress.
“You’ve come just in time, Doña Manza,” said Doña Guadalupe to her old friend. “I’d like you to meet Salvador Villaseñor.”
Standing up, Salvador pulled at his collar nervously. He’d seen this before, back home when the she-boars got together, going after the lion that had gotten into their den.
“Glad to meet you, Señora,” said Salvador, taking Doña Manza’s hand. Salvador could hear Don Victor laughing outside, truly enjoying his predicament.
Out back, Lupe was done re-washing the dishes. She was watching the little children play in the sewage water that ran down the line between the tents. She couldn’t figure out what was going on. Her mother was behaving as badly as Carlota.
Manuelita came running up. She’d changed clothes and fixed her hair, too.
“But what is going on?” asked Lupe. “First, Carlota doesn’t like Salvador and then my mother fixes herself up to meet him, and now you come all dressed up like we’re going to a dance.”
“Oh, Lupe, don’t you really know what’s going on?”
“No, I guess not,” said Lupe.
“Well, remember back in La Lluvia when the Colonel decided to stay at your house above all other houses in the village?”
“Well, yes, but that was only because he didn’t want his wife near the plaza where the soldiers stayed.”
“But then why didn’t he stay at someone else’s house?” she asked, watching Lupe’s eyes. “Oh, Lupe, you really don’t see it, do you? This is why Rose-Mary hated you so much and still does. No matter how many private finishing schools Don Manuel sends his daughters to, they will never have the dignity that you acquired from your own home.
“Lupe, that’s why our mothers are best friends. They have a sense of values that cannot be taught. They are el eje of their casas, the inspiration of our lives. And now this man who slayed the dragon out in the fields has come to court you with the force of the heavens! Every girl in the camp is excited with envy!”
“Of me?”
“Yes, of you!” said Manuelita.
Lupe looked her friend in the eyes and she knew deep down inside that Manuelita spoke the truth. This man, Salvador, did cause excitement, just as her Colonel had done.
Doña Guadalupe was just beginning to continue her questioning when Victoriano and Carlota drove up in Salvador’s grand automobile.
“Mama!” said Carlota, rushing inside the tent, “come outside and see his car; it’s beautiful!”
“Here,” said Victoriano, giving the keys back to Salvador, “that’s the most powerful car I’ve ever driven! It’s even more powerful than your Dodge!”
“Yes,” said Salvador, taking the keys. “It is nice, isn’t it?” he added, hoping that the interrogation had ended. But he was wrong.
“All right,” said Doña Guadalupe, “enough about cars.”
“But don’t you want to see it?” asked Victoriano.
“No,” said the old woman, “I know nothing about them. Now, please, keep still while Doña Manza and I continue talking with Salvador. And you, Carlota, go to the back and help your sister make some tea for us.”
“Maybe I can help,” said Salvador, jumping to his feet, hoping he might get away from this old lady and see Lupe before it became too late.
“Certainly not,
” said Doña Guadalupe, “you sit down. They’ll bring us the tea.”
Salvador sat back down.
“Well,” said Victoriano, giving Salvador a look of sympathy, “you three talk. I’m going outside to look at the car some more.”
Salvador tossed him the keys. Victoriano caught them.
“Well,” said the old woman, smoothing out her apron once more, “as we were saying, Doña Manza and I saw the Revolution ruin many familias. But, still, we both think that the greatest threat to a marriage is alcohol and cards. Don’t you agree?”
“Well, yes, in a way,” said Salvador.
“Good, I’m glad you agree with us,” said Doña Guadalupe, “because speaking quite frankly, I want you to know that we will never permit one of our daughters to marry a man who drinks alcohol. In fact, we’ve both instructed our daughters since they were small of the terrible vices of liquor and cards.
“I worked hard, Salvador,” said the old woman, tears suddenly coming to her eyes, “to keep my family together through the war, and I will protect my flesh until my last breath! Do you hear me?”
“Well, yes, I do,” said Salvador, taken aback by her sudden outburst. Hell, he hadn’t even asked for the hand of any of their daughters, so why were these two old ladies saying all these things to him? Was his love for Lupe so obvious that everyone already knew his true intentions?
He glanced away, trying to gather his thoughts. This old woman was incredible. On the other hand, maybe his own mother would have done the same thing if she would have had the chance.
Finding Lupe and Manuelita in the back, Carlota picked up a carrot and started munching.
“Mama wants you to make tea for them,” she said.
“But what is she doing to him?” asked Lupe.
“Just showing him up for what he really is,” said Carlota, chewing her carrot.
“Carlota,” said Lupe, “you don’t even know him, so how can you talk like this?”
“You’ll see,” said Carlota. “I’m going over to Archie’s and ask about him while you two make the tea.”
Rain of Gold Page 51
