Serenade.

"...What was that you said?"

"Yes. Mamma will cook. She cook for us. For the house in Acapulco."

"Oh, I see."

"Mamma cook very nice."

"Listen. I haven"t had the honor of meeting Mamma, but I"ve just got a hunch she"s not the type. Not for the high-cla.s.s joint we"re going to run. I tell you what. Let"s get down there. If worse comes to worst, I"ll I"ll cook. I cook very nice, too. I studied in Paris, where all the good cooks go when they die." cook. I cook very nice, too. I studied in Paris, where all the good cooks go when they die."

"But Mamma, she have the viveres." viveres."

"The what?"

"The food, what we need. I send Mamma the money, I sent last week. She buy much things, we take. We take Mamma, Papa. All the viveres." viveres."

"Oh, Papa too."

"Yes, Papa help Mamma cook."

"Well, will you tell me where you, me, Mamma, Papa, and the viveres viveres are going to ride? By the way, do we take the goat?" are going to ride? By the way, do we take the goat?"

"Yes, this way, please."

It was her car, and I turned into the road. I had gone about a hundred yards when the wheel jerked out of my hands and I had to stamp on the brake to keep from going down a gully that must have been two hundred feet deep. I mean, it was that rough, and it didn"t get any better. It was uphill and down, around rocks the size of a truck, through gullies that would have bent the axles of anything but a Ford, over cactuses so high I was afraid they would foul the transmission when we went over them. I don"t know how far we went. We drove about an hour, and the rate we were moving, it might have been five miles or twenty, but it seemed more like fifty. We pa.s.sed a church and then a long while after that, we began to pa.s.s Mexicans with burros, hurrying along with them. That"s a little point about driving in Mexico they don"t tell you about. You meet these herds of burros, going along loaded up with wood, fodder, Mexicans, or whatever it is. The burro alone doesn"t give you much trouble. He knows the rules of the road as well as you do, and gets out of the way in time, even if he"s a little grouchy about it. But if he"s got a Mexican herding him along, you can bet on it that that Mexican will shove him right in line with your fender and you do nothing but stand on your brake and curse and sweat and cake up with their dust.

It was the way they were hurrying along, though, that woke me up to what it looked like outside. The heat and dust were enough to strangle you, but the clouds were hanging lower all the time, and over the tops of the ridges smoky scuds were slipping past, and it didn"t look good. After a long time we pa.s.sed some huts, by twos and threes, huddled together. We kept on, and then we came to a couple more huts, but only one of them seemed to have anybody in it. She reached over and banged on the horn and jumped out, and ran up to the door, and all of a sudden there was Mamma, and right behind her, Papa. Mamma was about the color of a copper pot, all dressed up in a pink cotton dress and no shoes, to go to Acapulco. Papa was a little darker. He was a nice, rich mahogany after it"s had about fifteen coats of dark polish. He came out in his white pajama suit, with the pants rolled up to his bare knees, and took off his big straw hat and shook hands. I shook hands. I wondered if there had been a white iceman in the family. Then I pulled up the brake and got out.

Well, I said she ran up to the doer, but that wasn"t quite right. There wasn"t any door. Maybe you never saw an Indian hut, so I better tell you what it looks like. You can start with the colored shanties down near the railroad track in New Orleans, and then, when you"ve got them clearly in mind, you can imagine they"re the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and that the Mexican hut is a shanty standing beside it. There"s no walls, or roofs, or anything like you"re used to seeing. There"s four sides made of sticks, stuck down in the ground and wattled together with twigs, about as high as a man"s head. In the middle of the front side is a break, and that"s the door. The c.h.i.n.ks between the twigs are filled up a little bit with mud. Just plain mud, smeared on there and most of it falling off. And on top is a thatch of gra.s.s, or palmetto, or whatever grows up on the hill, and that"s all. There"s no windows, no floor, no furniture, no pictures of the Grand Canyon hanging on the walls, no hay-grain-and-feed calendars back of the clock, with a portrait of a cowgirl on top of a horse. They"ve got no need for calendars, because in the first place they couldn"t figure out what the writing was for, and in the second place they don"t care what day it is. And they"ve got no need for a clock, because they don"t care what time it is. All I"m trying to say is, there"s nothing in there but a dirt floor, and the mats they sleep on, and down near the door, the fire where they do their cooking.

So that was where she came from, and she ran in there, barefooted like they were, and began to laugh and talk, and pat a dog that showed up in a minute, and act like any other girl that"s come home after a trip to the city. It went on quite a while, but the clouds weren"t hanging any higher, and I began to get nervous. "Listen, this is all very well, but how about the viveres?" viveres?"

"Yes, yes. Mamma have buy very good estoff."

"Fine, but let"s get it aboard."

It seemed to be stored in the other hut, the one that n.o.body was living in. Papa ducked in there and began to carry out iron plates for cooking tortillas, machetes, pots, and jars and such stuff. One or two of them were copper, but most of them were pottery, and Mexican pottery means the worst pottery in the world. Then Mamma showed up with baskets of black beans, rice, ground corn, and eggs. I stowed the stuff in the rumble seat, shoving the pots in first. But pretty soon it was chock up to the top, and, when I came to the baskets I had to lash them to the side with some twine that they had so they rode the running board. Some of the stuff, like the charcoal, wasn"t even in baskets. It was done up in bundles. I lashed that too. The eggs I finally found a place for in back, on top of her hatbox. Each egg was wrapped in cornhusk, and I figured they would ride all right there and not break.

Then Papa came grinning out with a bundle, bigger than he was, of brand-new mats, all rolled up and tied. I couldn"t figure out why they were so nuts about mats, but later I found out. He mussed up my whole rumble seat by dragging out the mat she had brought, unrolling his pile, rolling out her mat with the others and tying them up again. Then he lashed them to the side on top of the charcoal. I stood on the fender, grabbed the top and rocked the car. The twine broke and the mats fell out in the dirt. He laughed over that. They got a funny sense of humor. Then he got a wise look on his face, like he knew how to fix it, and went out back of the hut. When he showed again he was leading a burro, all saddled up with a rack. He opened the mats again, split them into two piles and rolled them separate. Then he lashed them to the burro, one pile on each side. Then he led the burro to the car and tied him to the rear b.u.mper.

I untied the burro, took the mats off him, and rolled them into one pile again. I lifted them. They weren"t so heavy. I hoisted them on to the top so one end was on the top, the other on the rumble seat, where it was open, and lashed them on to the top brace. I went in the hut. Juan was tying up one more basket, the old lady squatting on the stove bricks, smoking a cigar. She jumped up, ran out the door and around back, and came back with a bone. Juana had to untie the basket again, and in it was the dog. The old lady dropped the bone in, Juana put the top on and tied it up.

I went out, took the key out of my pocket, got in, and started the car. I had to back up to turn around, and all three of them started to scream and yell. It wasn"t Spanish. I think it was pure Aztec. But you could get the drift. I was stealing the car, the viveres, viveres, everything they had. Up to then I was nothing but a guy going nuts, and trying to get started in time to get there if we ever were going to get there. But the way they acted gave me an idea. I put her in first, hauled out of there, and kept on going. everything they had. Up to then I was nothing but a guy going nuts, and trying to get started in time to get there if we ever were going to get there. But the way they acted gave me an idea. I put her in first, hauled out of there, and kept on going.

Juana was right after me, screaming at the top of her voice, and jumped on the running board. "You estop! You steal auto! You steal viveres. viveres. You estop! You estop now!" You estop! You estop now!"

I did like h.e.l.l stop. I stayed in first, so she wouldn"t get shaken off, but I kept on over the hill, sounding like a load of tin cans with all that stuff back there, until Mamma and Papa were todo todo out of sight. Then I threw out and pulled up the brake. out of sight. Then I threw out and pulled up the brake.

"Listen, Juana. I"m not stealing your car. I"m not stealing anything--though why the h.e.l.l you couldn"t have bought all this stuff in Acapulco where you could get it cheap, instead of loading up here with it, that"s something I don"t quite understand. But get this: Mamma, and Papa and the burro, and that dog--they"re not coming."

"Mamma, she cook, she--"

"Not tonight she doesn"t. Tomorrow maybe we"ll come back and get her, though I doubt it. Tonight I"m off, right now. I"m on my way. Now if you want to come--"

"So, you steal my car, yes."

"Let"s say borrow it. Now make up your mind."

I opened the door. She got in. I switched on the lights and we started.

By that time I would say it was about seven o"clock. It was dark from the clouds, but it still wasn"t night. There was a place down the line called Tierra Colorado that we might make before the storm broke, if I could ever get back to the main road. I had never been there, but it looked like there would be some kind of a hotel, or anyway cover for the car, with all that stuff in it. I began to force. I had to go up the hills in first, but coming down I"d let her go, with just the motor holding her. It was rough, but the clock said 20, which was pretty good. Well, you take a chance on a road like that, you"re headed for a fall. All of a sudden there was a crash and a jerk, and we stopped. I pedaled the throttle. The motor was dead. I pulled the starter, and she went. We had just hit a rock, and stalled. But after that I had to go slower.

Up to then I was still sweating from the air and the work. So was she. Then we topped a rise and it was like we had driven into an icebox. She shivered and b.u.t.toned her dress. I had just about decided I would have to stop and put on my coat when we drove into it. No sheet of water, nothing like that. It just started to rain, but it was driving in on her side, and I pulled up. I put on my coat, then made her get out and lifted up the seat to get the side curtains. I felt around in there with my hand. There wasn"t a wrench, a jack, or tool of any kind, and not a piece of a side curtain.

"Nice garage you picked."

In Mexico you even have to have a lock on your gasoline tank. It was a wonder they hadn"t even stripped her of the lights.We got in and started off. By now it was raining hard, and most of it coming in on her. While I was hunting for curtains she had dug out a couple of rebozos rebozos and wrapped them around her, but even that woven stuff stuck to her like she had just come out of a swimming pool. "Here. You better take my coat." and wrapped them around her, but even that woven stuff stuck to her like she had just come out of a swimming pool. "Here. You better take my coat."

"No, gracias." gracias."

It seemed funny, in the middle of all that, to hear that soft voice, those Indian manners.

The dust had turned to grease, and off to the right, down near the sea, you could hear the rumble of thunder, how far off you couldn"t tell, with the car making all that noise. I wrestled her along. Every tilt down was a skid, every tilt up was a battle, and every level piece was a wrench, where you were lifting her out of holes she went in, up to her axles. We were sliding around a k.n.o.b with the hill hanging over us on one side, and dropping under us on the other, so deep you couldn"t see the bottom. The drop was on my side, and I had my eyes glued to the road, crawling three feet at a time, because if we took a skid there it was the end. There was a chock chock overhead, all the top braces strained, and something went bouncing down the gully the size of a five-gallon jug. I was on the brake before it hit the ground, and after a long time I heard her breathe. The engine was still running and I went on. It must have been a minute before I figured out what that was. The rain had loosened a rock above us, and it came down. But instead of coming through and killing us, it had hit the end of the mat roll and glanced off. overhead, all the top braces strained, and something went bouncing down the gully the size of a five-gallon jug. I was on the brake before it hit the ground, and after a long time I heard her breathe. The engine was still running and I went on. It must have been a minute before I figured out what that was. The rain had loosened a rock above us, and it came down. But instead of coming through and killing us, it had hit the end of the mat roll and glanced off.

It cut the fabric, though, and as soon as, we rounded the k.n.o.b that was the end of the top. The wind got under it, and it ripped and the rain poured down on me. It was coming from my side now. Then the mats began to roll, and there came another rip, and it poured down on her.

"Very bad."

"Not so good."

We pa.s.sed the church, and started down the hill. I had to use brake and and motor to hold her, but down at the bottom it looked a little better ahead, so I lifted my foot to give her the gun. Then I stamped on the brake so hard we stalled cold. What lay ahead, in the rain, looked like a wet sand flat where I could make pretty good time. What it was was yellow water, boiling down the arroyo so fast that it hardly made a ripple. Two more feet and we would have been in, up to the radiator. I got out, went around the car and found I had a few feet clear behind. I got in, started, and backed. When I could turn around I did, and went sliding up the hill again, the way we had come. Where we were going I didn"t know. We couldn"t get to Tierra Colorado, or Acapulco, or any place we wanted to go, that was a cinch. We were cut off. And whether we could make Mamma"s hut, or any hut, was plenty doubtful. With the top flapping in ribbons, and all that water beating in, that motor was due to short any minute, and where that would leave us I hated to think. motor to hold her, but down at the bottom it looked a little better ahead, so I lifted my foot to give her the gun. Then I stamped on the brake so hard we stalled cold. What lay ahead, in the rain, looked like a wet sand flat where I could make pretty good time. What it was was yellow water, boiling down the arroyo so fast that it hardly made a ripple. Two more feet and we would have been in, up to the radiator. I got out, went around the car and found I had a few feet clear behind. I got in, started, and backed. When I could turn around I did, and went sliding up the hill again, the way we had come. Where we were going I didn"t know. We couldn"t get to Tierra Colorado, or Acapulco, or any place we wanted to go, that was a cinch. We were cut off. And whether we could make Mamma"s hut, or any hut, was plenty doubtful. With the top flapping in ribbons, and all that water beating in, that motor was due to short any minute, and where that would leave us I hated to think.

We got to the top of the hill and started down the other side, past the church. Then I woke up. "All right, get in the church there, out of the wet. I"ll be right after you."

"Yes, yes."

She jumped out and ran down there. I pulled off to one side, set the brake, and fished out my knife. I was going to cut those mats loose and use some of them to blanket the motor, and some of them to protect the seat and stuff in back until I could carry it in there. But the main thing I thought about was the car. If that didn"t go, we were sunk. While I was still trying to get the knife open with my wet fingernail she was back. "Is close."

"What was that?"

"The church, is close. Is lock. Now we go on, yes. We go back to Mamma."

"We will like h.e.l.l."

I ran over to the doors, shook them and kicked them. They were big double doors and they were locked all right. I tried to think of some way I could get them open. If I had a jack handle I could have shoved it in the crack and pried, but there wasn"t any jack handle. I beat on the doors and cursed them, and then I went back to the car. The engine was still running and she was sitting in it. I jumped in, turned, and pointed it straight at the church. The steps didn"t bother me. The church was below the road and they went down, instead of up, and anyway they were just low tile risers, about three inches high, and pretty wide. When she saw what I was going to do, she began to whimper, and beg me not to, and grabbed the wheel to make me stop. "No, no! Not the Casa de Dios, Casa de Dios, please, no! We go back! We go back to Mamma." please, no! We go back! We go back to Mamma."

I pushed her away and eased the front wheels down the first step. I b.u.mped them down the next two steps, and then the back wheels came down with a slam. But I was still rolling. I kept on until the front b.u.mper was against the doors. I stayed in first, spun the motor, and little by little let in the clutch. For three or four seconds nothing happened, but I knew something had to crack. It did. There came a snap, snap, and I was on the brake. If those doors opened outward I didn"t want to tear out their hinges. and I was on the brake. If those doors opened outward I didn"t want to tear out their hinges.

I backed up the width of the last step, pegged her there with the brake and got out. The bolt socket had torn out. I pulled the doors open, shoved Juana in, went back and started to work on the mats again. Then I thought, what"s the matter with you? Don"t be a fool. I ran back and pulled the doors as wide open as they would go. Then I ran in and began to drag pews around, working by the car lights, until there was an open s.p.a.ce right up the center aisle. Then I went back and drove the car right in there. I went back and pulled the doors shut. The headlights were blazing right at the Blessed Sacrament, and she was on her knees at the altar rail, begging forgiveness for the sacrilegio. sacrilegio.

I sat down in one of the pews where it was turned sidewise, just to sit. I began to worry about the car lights. At the time it seemed I was thinking about the battery, but it may have been the Blessed Sacrament, boring into the side of my head, I don"t know. I got up and cut them. Right away the roar of the rain was five times as loud. In with it you could hear the rumble of thunder, but you couldn"t see any lightning. It was pitch dark in there, except for one red spot. The sacristy light was burning. From up near it came a moan. I had to have light. I cut the switch on again.

Off to one side of the altar was what looked like a vestry room. I went back there. The water squirted out of my shoes when I walked. I took them off. Then I took off my pants. I looked around. There was a ca.s.sock hanging there, and some surplices. I took off everything, wet undershirt, wet drawers, wet socks, and put on the ca.s.sock. Then I took a lighter that was standing in a corner and started out to the sacristy lamp. I knew my matches wouldn"t work. Walking on a tile floor barefoot you don"t make much noise, and when she saw me with the lighter, in the ca.s.sock, I don"t know what she thought, or if she thought. She fell on her face in front of me and began to gibber, calling me padre padre and begging for and begging for absolucion. absolucion. "I"m not the "I"m not the padre, padre, Juana. Look at me. It"s me." Juana. Look at me. It"s me."

"Ah, Dios!" Dios!"

"I"m lighting the candles so we can see."

But I mumbled it low. I pulled down the lamp, lit the lighter and slipped it up again. Then I went around through the vestry room and up on the altar and lit three candles on one side, crossed over and lit three on the other. I cut the lighter, went back to the vestry room, put it in its place again. Then I went back and cut the car lights.

One funny thing about that that I didn"t realize until I snapped that switch. Each time I crossed that altar I went down on one knee. I stood there, looking at the six candles I had lit, and thought that over. It had been twenty years, ever since I had been a boy soprano around Chicago, since I had thought of myself as a Catholic. But they knock it into you. Some of it"s there to stay.

I lifted eggs and about fifteen other things from the rumble, until I could get out her hatbox. It was pretty wet but not as wet as the rest of the stuff. I took it back to the vestry room, set it down, then went out and touched her on the shoulder. "Your things are back there. You better get out of that wet dress."

She didn"t move.

By that time it must have been about half past eight, and it dawned on me that why I felt so lousy was that I was hungry. I got a candle off the altar, lit it, went back and stuck it to the rear fender of the car, and took stock. I lifted out most of that stuff from the rumble seat, and unlashed what was riding the running board, and all I could see that was doing us any good was the eggs. I unwrapped one and took out my knife to puncture the end so I could suck it, and then I noticed the charcoal. That gave me an idea. There were some loose tiles in the floor and I clawed up a couple of them and carried them to the vestry room and stood them on their sides. Then I got one of the iron plates for cooking tortillas, and laid it across them and carried in the charcoal.

Next thing was how I was going to cook the eggs. There were no skillets or anything like that. And I went through every basket there was and there wasn"t any b.u.t.ter, grease, or anything you could use for grease. But there was a copper pot, bigger than I wanted but anyway a pot, so that meant that anyway I could boil the eggs. While I was rooting through those beans and rice and stuff that would take all night to cook, I smelled coffee and started looking for it. Finally I hit it, buried in with the rice in a paper bag, and then I found a little coffee pot. The coffee wasn"t ground, but there was a metate there for grinding corn, and I mashed up a couple of handfuls with that, and put it in a bowl.

I went in the vestry room with what I had and the next thing was what I was going to use for water. It was dripping through every seam in the room and running down the windows in streams, but it looked kind of tough to get enough of it to cook. Still, I had to get some. Out back I could hear a stream pouring off the roof, so I took the biggest of the bowls and pulled the bolt on the rear door, right back of the altar. But when I opened it I could see a well, just a few steps down the hill. I took off the ca.s.sock. It was the only dry thing there was, and I wasn"t letting it get wet. I went down to the well stark naked. The rain came down on me like a needle shower and at first it was terrible, but then it felt good. I threw out my chest against it and let it beat me. Then I pulled up the bucket and poured the water in the bowl. When I got back in the church with it I was running water even from my eyeb.a.l.l.s. I felt around back of the altar for a closet. Oh, it was coming back to me, fast. I knew where they kept everything. Sure enough, I found a door and opened it, and there they were, the altar cloths, all in a neat pile. I took one, rubbed myself dry with it and put on the ca.s.sock. It was warm. I began to feel better.

The choir loft was off to one side and I started there to get a hymn book, so I could tear it up to start the fire. Then I changed my mind. Except for the window, there was no vent in the vestry room, and I didn"t want to be smoked out, right at the start. I took four or five pieces of charcoal, laid them in a little pile between my tiles, went back to the altar and got another candle. I held the flame under the charcoal, turning all the time to keep the melting even, and pretty soon I got a little glow. I fed a couple more pieces on, and it glowed still redder. In a minute it was off, and I blew out the candle. There was hardly any smoke. Charcoal doesn"t make much.

I laid the plate over the tiles, put the pot on it, and dipped some water in the pot. Then I dropped in some eggs. I started with six, but then I kept thinking how hungry I was, and I wound up with a dozen. I filled the coffee pot, scooped in some coffee, and put that on. Then I sat there, feeding the fire and waiting for the eggs to boil. They never did. The pot was too big or the fire too small, or something. The most I got was smoke coming off the top, but they were cooking all the time, so I didn"t worry much. Anyway, they"d be hot. But the coffee boiled. The old smell hit me in the nose, and when I lifted the lid the grounds were simmering around. I took an egg, went to the back door, broke it, and let the egg spill out on the ground. The sh.e.l.l I took back and dropped in the coffee. That was what it needed. It began to clear.

I watched the eggs some more, and then I thought about my cigarettes and matches. They were in my coat, and I went to the car to get it. Then I thought about her things. I put the cigarettes and matches on the end of the tortilla plate to dry. Her stuff I took out of the hatbox and draped them near the fire on a bench that was back there. What she had I could only half see. It was all damp, but it smelled like her. One dress was wool, and I put that nearest the heat, and a pair of shoes, on the floor near it. Then I got to wondering how we were going to eat the eggs, even if they ever got cooked. There were no spoons or anything like that, and I always hated eggs out of the sh.e.l.l. I went out to the car again and half filled a little bowl with corn meal. I came back, dipped a little water into it. I worked it with my fingers, and when it got pasty I patted some of it into a tortilla, or anyway into some kind of a flapjack that was big enough to hold an egg. I put it on the plate to cook, and when it began to turn color I turned it over. When it was done on both sides I tasted it. It didn"t taste right. I went out and got some salt I had found and forgotten to take. I mixed a little salt in, tried another one, and anyway you could eat it. Pretty soon I had twelve. That was one for each egg, and I thought that was enough.

All that took a long time, and there wasn"t one peep out of her the whole time I was at work. She had moved from the altar rail to a pew, but she was still out there, a rebozo rebozo over her head and her bare feet sticking out behind, where she was kneeling with her face in her hands. I slid in the pew, took her by the arm and led her into the vestry room. "I told you once to take off that wet dress. Here"s one that"s fairly dry, and you go back there and change it. If your underwear"s wet, you better take it off." over her head and her bare feet sticking out behind, where she was kneeling with her face in her hands. I slid in the pew, took her by the arm and led her into the vestry room. "I told you once to take off that wet dress. Here"s one that"s fairly dry, and you go back there and change it. If your underwear"s wet, you better take it off."

I picked up the woolen dress and shoved her behind the altar with it. When she came back she had it on. "Sit on the bench so your feet will be on the warm tiles near the fire. When those shoes are dry you can put them on."

She didn"t. She sat on the bench, but with her back to the fire, so her feet were on cold tiles. That was so she could face the altar. She dropped her head in her hands and began to mutter. I got out my knife, broke an egg tortilla, and shoved it at her. The egg was half hard and half soft, but it rode the tortilla all right.

She shook her head. I put the tortilla down, went to the altar, got three or four candles, lit them, came back and stuck them around. Then I closed the door, the one that led to the altar and that I had kept open, to have more light. That kind of blocked her off on the muttering and she half turned around. When she saw the tortillas she laughed. That seemed to help. "Look very fonny."

"Well, maybe they look fonny but I didn"t notice you doing much about them. Anyway, you can eat them."

She picked up the tortilla, half wrapped it around the egg and bit into it. "Taste very fonny."

"The h.e.l.l it does."

I had bit into my first one by then, and it hit the spot. We wolfed them down. She ate five and I ate seven. We were talking in a natural tone of voice for the first time since we got in out of the storm, and it came to me it was because that door that led to the altar was shut. I got up and closed the other door, the one leading into the church, and that made it still better. We got to the coffee and there was nothing we could drink it out of but one little bowl, so we took turns. She would take a guzzle and then I would. In a minute I reached for the cigarettes. They were dry, and so were the matches. We lit up and inhaled. They tasted, good.

"You feel better now?"

"Yes, gracias. gracias. Was very cold, very hongry." Was very cold, very hongry."

"You still worried about the sacrilegio?" sacrilegio?"

"No, not now."

"There wasn"t any sacrilegio, sacrilegio, you know." you know."

"Yes, very bad."

"No, not a bit. It"s the Casa de Dios, Casa de Dios, you know. Everybody"s welcome in here. You"ve seen the burros in here, haven"t you? And the goats? On the way to market? The car is just the same. If we had to break the door in, that was only because we didn"t have any key. I showed plenty of respect, didn"t I? You saw me genuflect every time I crossed, didn"t you?" you know. Everybody"s welcome in here. You"ve seen the burros in here, haven"t you? And the goats? On the way to market? The car is just the same. If we had to break the door in, that was only because we didn"t have any key. I showed plenty of respect, didn"t I? You saw me genuflect every time I crossed, didn"t you?"

"Genu--"

"Bow--in front of the Host?"

"Yes, of course."

"No sacrilegio sacrilegio there, was there? You"re all upset about nothing. Don"t worry, I know. I know as much about it as you do. More probably." there, was there? You"re all upset about nothing. Don"t worry, I know. I know as much about it as you do. More probably."

"Very bad sacrilegio. sacrilegio. But I pray. Soon, I confess. I confess to the But I pray. Soon, I confess. I confess to the padre. padre. Then, Then, absolucion. absolucion. No bad any more." No bad any more."

By that time it must have been somewhere around eleven o"clock at night. The rain hadn"t let up, but sometimes it would be heavy, sometimes not so bad. The thunder and lightning would come up and go. There must have been three or four storms rolling up those canyons from the sea, and we"d get it, and it would die away and then we"d get it again. One was coming up now. She began to do what I"d noticed her doing once in the car, hold her breath and then speak, after a second or two when you could almost hear her heart beat. I tumbled that the sacrilegio sacrilegio was only part of what was eating on her. Most of it was the storm. "The lightning bother you?" was only part of what was eating on her. Most of it was the storm. "The lightning bother you?"

"No. The trueno, trueno, very bad." very bad."

It didn"t look like it would pay to try to explain to her that the lightning was the works, the thunder nothing but noise, so I didn"t try. "Try to sing a little. That generally helps. You know La Sandunga?" La Sandunga?"

"Yes, very pretty."

"You sing and I"ll be mariachi." mariachi."

I began to drum on the bench and do a double shuffle with my feet. She opened her mouth to sing, but there came a big clap of thunder just then, and she didn"t quite make it. "Outside, I no feel afraid. I like. Is very pretty."

"A lot of people are like that."

"Home, with Mamma, I no feel afraid."

"Well--that"s practically outside, at that."

"Here, afraid, very much. I think about the sacrilegio, sacrilegio, think about many things. I feel very bad." think about many things. I feel very bad."

You couldn"t blame her much because it wasn"t exactly what you"d call a gay place. I understood how she felt. I felt a little that way myself.

"Anyhow, it"s dry. In spots."

The lightning came and I put my arm around her. The thunder broke and the candles guttered. She put her head on my shoulder and hid her face in my neck.

It died off after a while and she sat up. I opened the window a crack to get a little oxygen in the air, and put a couple more sticks of charcoal on the fire. "You had a good dinner?"

"Yes, gracias." gracias."

"You feel like a little work?"