Bless Me, Ultima(16)

The bell of the church began to ring, una mujer con un diente, que llama a toda la gente. The bell called the people to six o’clock mass.

But no. Today it was not just telling us that in five minutes mass would begin, today it was crying the knell of Lupito.

“¡Ay!” I heard my mother cry and saw her cross her forehead.


La campana de la iglesia está doblando…



The church bell tolled and drew to it the widows in black, the lonely, faithful women who came to pray for their men.


Arrímense vivos y difuntos

Aquí estamos todos juntos…



The church rose up from the dust of the road, huge brown granite blocks rose skyward to hold the bell tower and the cross of Christ. It was the biggest building I had ever seen in all my life. Now the people gathered at its doors like ants, asking questions and passing on rumors about what happened last night. My father went to talk to the men, but my mother and Ultima stood apart with the women with whom they exchanged formal greetings. I went around the side of the church where I knew the boys from town hung around until mass began.

Most of the kids were older than I. They were in the second or third grade at school. I knew most of them by name, not because I talked with them, but because after many Sundays of observing them I had learned who they were and a little bit about their characteristics. I knew that when I went to school in the fall I would get to know them well. I was only sad because they would be a year ahead of me and I already felt close to them.

“My ole man saw Lupito do it!” Ernie pointed his thumb in Able’s face. I knew Ernie liked to brag.

“Bullshit!” Horse cried out. They called him Horse because his face looked like the face of a horse, and he was always stomping at the ground.

“¡Chingada! Dah bastard neber have a chance! Pugggggh!” Bones exploded like a pistol. He grabbed the top of his head and toppled on the dust of the street. His eyes rolled wildly. Bones was even crazier than Horse.

“I went to the river this morning,” Samuel said softly. “There was blood on the sand—” No one heard him. I knew he lived across the river like I did, but he lived upriver where there were a few houses just past the railroad bridge.

“I’ll race you! I’ll race you!” The Vitamin Kid pawed nervously at the ground. I never knew his real name, everyone just called him the Vitamin Kid, even the teachers at school. He could run, oh how he could run! Not even Bones in high gear or Horse at full gallop could outrun the Vitamin Kid. He was like the wind.

“Bullshit!” Horse cleared his throat and let fly a frog. Then Florence cleared his throat and spit a nice wad that beat Horse’s by five feet at least.

“Heh. He beat you, damn he beat you,” Abel laughed. Abel was very small, even smaller than I, and he should never have teased Horse. If there was one thing Horse loved to do, that was to wrestle. His long arms reached out, caught Abel before he could move away, and flipped him easily into the air. Abel landed hard on the ground.

“Cabrón,” he whimpered.

“Did he beat me?” Horse asked as he stood over Abel.

“No,” Abel cried. He got up slowly, faking a broken leg, then when he was out of Horse’s reach he called, “He beat you, fucker, he beat you! Yah-yah-ya-yah!”

“My ole man was right in the cafe when it happened,” Ernie continued. Ernie always wanted to be the center of interest. “He said Lupito just walked in real slow, walked up right behind the sheriff who was biting into a piece of cherry pie, put the pistol to the back of the sheriff’s head—”

“Bullshit!” Horse neighed loudly. “Hey, Florence, top this one!” Again he cleared his throat and spit.

“Nah,” Florence grinned. He was tall and thin, with curly blonde hair that fell to his shoulders. I had never seen anyone like him, so white and speaking Spanish. He reminded me of one of the golden angel heads with wings that hovered at the feet of the Virgin in her pictures.

“Cherry pie? Aghhhhhh!”

“—And there were brains and blood all over the damned place. On the table, on the floor, even on the ceiling, and his eyes were open as he fell, and before he hit the floor Lupito was out the door—”

“Bullshit.” “Damn.” “¡Chingada!”

“He’ll go to hell,” Lloyd said in his girl’s voice. “It’s the law that he go to hell for what he did.”

“Everybody from Los Jaros goes to hell,” Florence laughed. Los Jaros was what they called the neighborhood across the tracks, and Horse and Bones and Abel and Florence were from there.