Mexico -- History -- Revolution, 1910-1920 -- Fiction
"... two hundred, three hundred, four-eighty, six
hundred, seven hundred ... seven hundred and twelve pesos." He
stopped counting, hurriedly stuffed the money inside his
hat, and strapped the cord under his chin. His face was red.
His jaw sagged. Guns ... guns. They'll be afraid of me at
Mountain Rancheria. His tongue skated round his teeth. In
the gloom of the stall, he smoked a cigarette and thought of
his Yaqui home, the Sonora country, how far away it was.
Of a sudden, it seemed close. With hundreds of pesos he
could take the train.... Nobody would know him.
Again he counted the money, got up to fifteen hundred
and fifteen pesos and stuffed the bills inside his hat, fingering
his chin strap. Rising, with a great sigh, he got his horse and
threw on his saddle.
As he rode uphill, he watched volcano smoke elbow across
the lagoon, a calm gray surface. Petaca lay below. Oxcarts
crowded the courtyard as men returned from an irrigation
job along the lagoon. Sitting his gray, a spirited stallion, he
knew the renegade's fear: the Clarín had planned to pay
him off, could trap him if he wanted to. Well, Don Fernando
might never recover. To hell with Petaca and the old man!
He had money enough to make out. Roweling his horse,
Pedro climbed the slope toward Mountain Rancheria. He
would buy and sell guns there ... somebody would want
his services.
10
Alberto Saenz, the Christ-faced musician, balanced empty birdcages on
top of his head, as he trudged along the shore of the lagoon. Soon he
would reach Petaca and could rest. A string of smoke hung out of the
volcano, but the air was clear. No doubt the worst was over. Scooping
water from the lagoon, he drank from his palms, and the sedgy flavor
pleased him. Rising, he stroked his beard and resumed his walk, along
the pebbly shore. Herons let him come close, wading no deeper, beaking
their feed calmly: what harm could a fellow do with cages on his head?
At Petaca, he sat for a while on the veranda, watching, drowsing.
Workers were busy at the far end, where the quake had demolished roof
and arches. Stonecutters pecked with hammers and chisels, fast, light
strokes; a mason sloshed mortar in a box, adding sand to his mixture.
All were bare-headed, barefooted and all wore white. Alberto wore
white--his trousers slashed on the outside, above the ankles, his
buttonless shirt open on his white-haired chest. Head against a
veranda arch, he dreamed of other visits, Raul's kindly mother, the
runaway carriage from La Calera, the fiesta of the Virgin of Petaca
when they had burned four _castillos_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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