huevos!” Narciso shouted back. “You are only good for raising putas—”
“¡Ay maldecido!” Tenorio grunted and hurled himself at Narciso. The two came together again, like two rams locking horns, and the bartender and the other two men had to pull with all their strength to pry them loose.
“¡Cabrón! Cuckold of the devil himself, who slept in your bed and left your wife fat with brujas for daughters!” Narciso taunted, and even as the men struggled to separate them his huge arms flew out and landed with dull, sick thuds on Tenorio’s face and body.
“No more! No more!” the bartender cried as the three men struggled and grunted to hold the two apart. Finally Tenorio pulled away. His face was dripping with sweat and blood. He had had enough. I thought I would vomit and I wanted to run away, but the frightful scene held me spellbound.
“¡Borracho! ¡Puto!” Tenorio called from his safer distance. When he backed away I thought he would see me leaning against the wall, but the snow was thick and his attention was focused on Narciso.
“Old woman with a hot tail for gossip!” Narciso retorted. Both men stood trembling with rage, but they would not clash again. I think they both realized that a second encounter would mean death to one of them. The three men did not have to hold them anymore.
“It is not gossip that another of my daughters is sick!” Tenorio shouted, “and she too will die, like the first one! And it is because of the old witch Ultima from Las Pasturas—”
It isn’t true I wanted to shout, but my voice stifled in my throat. The wind snapped around us and flung our words away.
“It was your daughters who started the evil!” Narciso retorted, “and if you seek to do evil to la Grande I will cut your heart out!”
“We shall see!” Tenorio sneered and backed away with a parting threatening gesture. “I shall find a way to get to the bruja, and if you get in my way I will kill you!” He stumbled across the wind-swept street to his truck.
“¡Ay que diablo!” Narciso cursed, “he is up to no good!” The other men shrugged and shivered in the cold.
“Ah! Only words. Forget this bad thing before it gets you in trouble with the sheriff. Come and have a drink—” They were relieved the fight was over, and wet and shivering they moved back into the bar.
“That devil is up to evil, I must warn la Grande!” Narciso muttered.
“It is nothing!” the bartender called from the door. “Come in before you freeze out there! I’ll buy you a drink!”
Narciso waved them off and the door closed. He stood and watched Tenorio’s truck pull away and disappear in the blinding snow. “I must warn la Grande,” Narciso repeated, “but in this storm I cannot go to Márez!”
I was trembling from fright, but now the nausea left me. I was covered with snow and wet, but my face and forehead felt hot. Like Narciso, I was now concerned with Ultima’s safety. I thought that no man in his right mind would take on Narciso’s brute strength, but Tenorio had and so he must be desperate because of what was happening to his daughter. I was about to approach Narciso to tell him I was going home and would warn Ultima, but he stumbled off into the snow and I heard him mumble, “I will go to Andrew!”
I thought Andrew was at home but Narciso set off down the street, in the direction of the river. If Andrew was in town, he would be at Allen’s store or at the Eight Ball shooting pool. Concerned for Ultima’s safety and feverish with the cold, I struggled to keep up with him because in the thick snow a person quickly disappeared from sight. I followed the stumbling figure ahead of me, and between the blasts of wind I could hear him talk to himself about Tenorio’s threat and how he would warn Andrew.
He turned on the church road and went towards the bridge, and I believed that his intentions were to go to my father’s house anyway, but when he came to Rosie’s house he paused at the snow-laden gate of the picket fence.
A single red light bulb shone at the porch door. It seemed like a beacon of warmth inviting weary travelers in from the storm. The shades of the windows were drawn but light shone through them, and from somewhere in the house a faint