The Second Ring of Power (8 page)

"The Nagual came over then and told her that only when she let go
of her old self would the
chicken stop running. Lidia was crazy
for three days and three nights. The Nagual told me to tie
her
up. I fed her and cleaned her and gave her water. On the fourth day she became
very peaceful
and calm. I untied her and she put on her clothes and
when she was dressed again, as she had
been the day
she ran away, the little chicken came out. She took him in her hand and petted
and
thanked him and returned him to the place where she had
found him. I walked with her part of the
way.

"From that time on Lidia never bothered anyone. She accepted her
fate. The Nagual is her
fate; without him she would have been
dead. So what was the point of trying to refuse or mold
things
which can only be accepted?

"Josefina went off next. She was already afraid of what happened
to Lidia but she soon forgot
about it. One Sunday afternoon, when
she was coming back to the house, a dry leaf got stuck in the threads of her
shawl. Her shawl was loosely woven. She tried to pick out the small leaf, but
she
was afraid of ruining her shawl. So when she came into the house she
immediately tried to
loosen it, but there was no way, it
was stuck. Josefina, in a fit of anger, clutched the shawl and the
leaf
and crumbled it inside her hand. She figured that small pieces would be easier
to pick out. I
heard a maddening scream and Josefina fell to the
ground. I ran to her and found that she couldn't
open her hand.
The leaf had cut her hand to shreds as if it were pieces of a razor blade.
Lidia and I
helped her and nursed her for seven days. Josefina was
more stubborn than anyone else. She
nearly died. At the end she
managed to open her hand, but only after she had in her own mind
resolved
to drop her old ways. She still gets pains in her body from time to time,
especially in her hand, due to the ugly disposition that still returns to her.
The Nagual told both of them that they
shouldn't count
on their victory because it's a lifetime struggle that each of us wages against
our
old selves.

"Lidia and Josefina never fought again. I don't think they like
each other, but they certainly get
along. I love those two the
most. They have been with me all these years. I know that they love
me too."

"What about the other two girls? Where do they fit?"

"A year later Elena came; she is la Gorda. She was by far in the
worst condition you could
imagine. She weighed two hundred and
twenty pounds. She was a desperate woman. Pablito had
given her
shelter in his shop. She did laundry and ironing to support herself. The Nagual
came
one night to get Pablito and found the fat girl working
while a circle of moths flew over her head.
He said that
the moths had made a perfect circle for him to watch. He saw that the woman was
near the end of her life, yet the moths must have had all the confidence
in the world, in order for them to give him such an omen. The Nagual acted fast
and took her with him.

"She
did fine for a while, but the bad habits that she had learned were too deep and
she
couldn't give them up. So one day the
Nagual sent for the wind to help her. It was a matter of
helping her or finishing her off. The wind began
to blow on her until it drove her out of the house;
she was alone that day and no one saw what was
happening. The wind pushed her over hills and
into ravines until she fell into a ditch, a hole in the ground like a
grave. The wind kept her there
for
days. When the Nagual finally found her she had managed to stop the wind, but
she was too
weak to walk."

"How did the girls manage to stop whatever was acting upon
them?"

"Well, in the first place what was acting upon them was the
gourd
that the Nagual carried tied to his belt."

"And what is in the
gourd
?"

"The
allies
that the Nagual carries with him. He said that
the
ally
is funneled through his
gourd
.
Don't ask me any more because I know nothing more about the
ally
. All I
can tell you is
that the Nagual commands two
allies
and
makes them help him. In the case of my girls the
ally
backed down when
they were ready to change. For them, of course, it was a case of either change
or
death. But that's the case with all of us, one way or another. And la Gorda
changed more than
anyone else. She was empty, in fact more empty than I, but she worked
her spirit until she
became power itself. I
don't like her. I'm afraid of her. She knows me. She gets inside me and my
feelings and that bothers me. But no one can do
anything to her because she never lets her guard
down. She doesn't hate me, but she thinks I am an evil woman. She may be
right. I think that she
knows me too
well, and I'm not as impeccable as I want to be; but the Nagual told me not to
worry about my feelings toward her. She is like
Eligio; the world no longer touches her."

"What did the Nagual do to her that was so special?"

"He taught her things he never taught anyone else. He never
pampered her or anything like
that. He trusted her. She knows
everything about everybody. The Nagual also told me everything
except
things about her. Maybe that's why I don't like her. The Nagual told her to be
my jailer.
Wherever I go I find her. She knows whatever I do. Right
now, for instance, I wouldn't be
surprised if she shows up."

"Do you think she would?"

"I doubt it. Tonight, the wind is with me."

"What is she supposed to do? Does she have a special task?"

"I've told you enough about her. I'm afraid that if I keep on
talking about her she will notice
me from wherever she is, and I
don't want that to happen."

"Tell me, then, about the others."

"Some years after he found la Gorda, the Nagual found Eligio. He
told me that he had gone
with you to his homeland. Eligio came
to see you because he was curious about you. The Nagual
didn't
notice him. He had known him since he was a kid. But one morning, as the Nagual
walked
to the house where you were waiting for him, he bumped
into Eligio on the road. They walked
together for a short distance
and then a dried piece of cholla got stuck on the tip of Eligio's left
shoe.
He tried to kick it loose but its thorns were like nails; they had gone deep
into the sole of
the shoe. The Nagual said that Eligio pointed up to
the sky with his finger and shook his foot and the cholla came off like a
bullet and went up into the air. Eligio thought it was a big joke and laughed,
but the Nagual knew that he had
power
, although Eligio himself didn't
even suspect it. That is why, with no trouble at all, he became the perfect,
impeccable warrior.

"It was my good fortune that I got to know him. The Nagual thought
that both of us were alike
in one thing. Once we hook onto
something we don't let go of it. The good fortune of knowing
Eligio
was a fortune that I shared with no one else, not even with la Gorda. She met
Eligio but
didn't really get to know him, just like yourself. The
Nagual knew from the beginning that Eligio was exceptional and he isolated him.
He knew that you and the girls were on one side of the coin
and
Eligio was by himself on the other side. The Nagual and Genaro were indeed very
fortunate
to have found him.

"I first met him when the Nagual brought him over to my house. Eligio
didn't get along with
my girls. They hated him and feared
him too. But he was thoroughly indifferent. The world didn't touch him. The
Nagual didn't want you, in particular, to have much to do with Eligio. The
Nagual said that you are the kind of sorcerer one should stay away from. He
said that your touch doesn't
soothe, it spoils instead. He told me
that your spirit takes prisoners. He was somehow revolted by
you
and at the same time he liked you. He said that you were crazier than Josefina
when he found
you and that you still are."

It was an unsettling feeling to hear someone else telling me what don
Juan thought of me. At
first I tried to disregard what dona Soledad was saying, but then I felt utterly stupid and out of
place trying
to protect my ego.

"He bothered with you," she went on, "because he was
commanded by
power
to do so. And he, being the impeccable warrior he
was, yielded to his master and gladly did what
power
told
him
to do with you."

There was a pause. I was aching to ask her more about don Juan's
feelings about me. I asked
her to tell me about her other girl
instead.

"A month after he found Eligio, the Nagual found Rosa," she
said. "Rosa was the last one.
Once he found her he knew that
his number was complete."

"How did he find her?"

"He had gone to see Benigno in his homeland. He was approaching the
house when Rosa came out from the thick bushes on the side of the road, chasing
a pig that had gotten loose and
was running away. The pig ran too fast
for Rosa. She bumped into the Nagual and couldn't catch
up
with the pig. She then turned against the Nagual and began to yell at him. He
made a gesture
to grab her and she was ready to fight him. She
insulted him and dared him to lay a hand on her.
The Nagual
liked her spirit immediately but there was no omen. The Nagual said that he
waited a
moment before walking away, and then the pig came
running back and stood beside him. That
was the omen. Rosa put a rope around the pig. The Nagual asked her point-blank if she was
happy
in her job. She said no. She was a live-in servant. The Nagual asked her if she
would go
with him and she said that if it was what she thought it
was for, the answer was no. The Nagual said it was for work and she wanted to
know how much he would pay. He gave her a figure and
then she asked
what kind of work it was. The Nagual said that it was to work with him in the
tobacco
fields of Veracruz. She told him then that she had been testing him; if he
would have said
he wanted her to work as a maid, she would have
known that he was a liar, because he looked like
someone who
had never had a home in his life.

The Nagual was delighted with her and told her that if she wanted to
get out of the trap she
was in she should come to Benigno's
house before noon. He also told her that he would wait no longer than twelve;
if she came she had to be prepared for a difficult life and plenty of work. She
asked him how far was the place of the tobacco fields. The Nagual said
three days' ride in a bus. Rosa said that if it was that far she would certainly
be ready to go as soon as she got the pig back
in his pen. And
she did just that. She came here and everyone liked her. She was never mean or
bothersome;
the Nagual didn't have to force her or trick her into anything. She doesn't
like me at all, and yet she takes care of me better than anyone else. I trust
her, and yet I don't like her at all, and when I leave I will miss her the
most. Can you beat that?"

I saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes. I could not sustain my distrust.
She wiped her eyes with a casual movement of her hand.

There was a natural break in the conversation at that point. It was
getting dark by then and
writing was very difficult; besides I
had to go to the bathroom. She insisted that I use the outhouse before she did
as the Nagual himself would have done.

Afterward she brought two round tubs the size of a child's bathtub,
filled them half-full with
warm water and added some green leaves
after mashing them thoroughly with her hands. She told
me in an
authoritative tone to wash myself in one of the tubs while she did the same in
the other. The water had an almost perfumed smell. It caused a ticklish
sensation. It felt like a mild menthol on my face and arms.

We went back to her room. She put my writing gear, which I had left on
her bed, on top of one
of her chests of drawers. The windows
were open and there was still light. It must have been
close to seven.

Dona Soledad lay on her back. She was smiling at me. I thought that she
was the picture of
warmth. But at the same time and in spite of her
smile, her eyes gave out a feeling of ruthlessness
and unbending
force.

I asked her how long she had been with don Juan as his woman or
apprentice. She made fun of
my cautiousness in labeling her. Her
answer was seven years. She reminded me then that I had
not
seen her for five. I had been convinced up to that point that I had seen her
two years before. I tried to remember the last time, but I could not.