The thunder-stricken oak foretold, oft too
From hollow trunk the raven's ominous cry.
What could I do? how else from bonds be freed,
Or otherwhere find gods to aid so nigh?
Eclogues
By Virgil
. . . .
True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.
Sadhu Vaswani
. . . .
Josephina had been watching the hacienda and its surroundings most of the night, taking note of what the outbuildings were used for, how many men guarded the perimeters, when shifts changed, what weapons were on hand, if there were dogs. There were.
The damnable dogs were her largest problem. She had isolated the building where she believed any prisoners would be held. It was guarded by men, but men roved. Dogs, not so much, and they came running, barking at the slightest strange noise or smell. Men, not so much.
Dogs were the challenge here.
Jo had had her hands full just keeping Tlaloc out of sight, quiet, and safe...she couldn't risk anything happening to Emmelina's horse. Tethering him out of harm's way, she had to content herself for the time being with just taking the lay of the land and staying out of sight. Watching.
Meanwhile, dawn was starting to break. Josephina poured water from her canteen and washed her face to wake herself.
Then she took a pencil and, upon a paper scrap in the dawn's early light, began to write:
Dear Diego:
I received your letter.
Do not despair! You will not be prisoner long.
I am working on securing your freedom. I watch from afar, and when the time is right, you will be freed.
I want very much to see you, and for us to speak together of what we know and can recall...
Have hope!
Yours, Josephina
It was enough for now. Jo was certain that they had not seen the last of one another.
She was just folding this in her pocket and wondering how to get such a missive to Diego, when suddenly --
-- at her elbow was a man. With a rifle. Looking hard at her.
'What are you doing here?!' he asked her roughly, taking her arm.
Jo shook herself free, 'Do not touch me! Who are you?!' She whispered harshly.
The man's eyes widened at her, 'I am Celestino! We have been watching the hacienda! There are men held prisoner here from the camp.' He frowned at her, 'What are YOU doing here?' He asked again, suspicious.
'I have come for Diego.' Josephina did not see that it was any of his business.
The man frowned deeper. 'How? How will you find him?'
Jo simply pointed to a heavily guarded building in a corner near the adobe wall surrounding the compound.
'Come,' the man took her arm again, and stood to a half-crouch. 'Come on! We cannot talk here...'
Jo decided there was strength in numbers.
. . . .
'Tonight then,' the men were saying. 'After the guards have had dinner, then they play cards and drink. Supplant one bottle with another of ours. We can get the dreaming herbs to the dogs in the meat. Once the dogs are asleep, half the battle is won. The men will be heavy with dreams by midnight.'
Josephina had spoken with the men from Rafe's camp and they decided to allow her to remain with them as leaving could draw attention now. But, she should stay here, and stay quiet, allowing them to do what they must.
'But we will return with your Diego, do not fear.'
And so Jo had taken a rough meal of venison jerky with them, and after a while, she felt tired enough, and safe enough around Diego's tribe, to allow herself a few hours of sleep.
She awoke just as it was becoming dark.
'The wind blows against us here...' One man was drawing a diagram in the dirt. 'Be certain to approach
against the wind...' As he detailed who was involved and how the operation would be carried out, his voice became lower and softer, Jo barely heard any more, but she understood the basics and it seemed a sound plan.
She decided to take up her watch, which afforded a good view, whilst she remained concealed by boulders on the surrounding hillside.
Settling in for the night, Josephina listened and waited.
. . . .
Antonio Peron was becoming bored. These gypsies were hardly worth bothering about...he did not understand why his good left hand, Ignacio Valesquez, who was known far and wide as 'The Little Vulture', was so intent upon such useless dregs of humanity.
The Buzzard was heating a brand in the fireplace whilst he hummed a tuneless ditty, swaying slightly.
Elsewhere, the room was a simple affair which boasted no barred cells within; nothing here but blooded iron manacles and chains upon the walls, now holding five men who had seen better days; beaten obviously, their heads hung low, and they seemed dead on their feet -- occasionally knees would give way until they'd hang once more by their bleeding wrists and bodies jerked against shoulder sockets until pain again gave them a jolt of unwelcome consciousness.
And so it went...
Peron thwacked a quirt against his boot, standing. 'I leave them to you, then. Have your fun, then get rid of them! I wish only to give warning that this sort of trespassing and poaching will not be tolerated by the hacienda! I am going back to the house. It stinks in here.'
The front door slammed as he took his exit.
'Don't let it hit your big backside on the way out...' growled the Buzzard, as he lifted the burning brand, inspecting the white-hot tip.
'So, muchachos!' His voice crunched around the words like a heavy hearse rolling over gravel, 'Who wants to go first?!'
Rafel was only half as down as he looked. He had been saving his fight for the right time. Now the odds were better with just this one little troll...
'First, last and always! Or so your momi tells me...'
Rafe sang out, in answer to the Buzzard's query.
Diego couldn't believe his ears! What was Rafe doing?
You don't want to goad the toad...
'Oh, so, little thief! You are anxious for the Rod of Dicipline!' The Buzzard smiled a noxious smear of a grin, displaying greenish slimy teeth in Rafe's face.
'Where is it, eh?' He breathed greenish slimy breath
much too near, 'Where is the gold? I know you gypsies have a secret cache. A cave in the hills, perhaps?'
He waved the hot brand near Rafe's eyeballs.
'You will tell me, oh si...before long, you will tell everything...'
'You want GOLD?!' Diego yelled, 'Is that all?'
Distracted, the Buzzard turned slowly toward him. 'Hm.
The little fox cub has a loud bark, heh...' He bent his brand Diego's way.
The lad felt hope rise momentarily, then the troll quickly began winding rope about his torso binding his hands to his side.
'A little trip we will take together, I think...'
Rafe managed to move a foot an inch, far enough to trip up the troll, who staggered against the wall, catching Rafel's ankle with his brand.
Rafe hissed as he tried to kick away the hot iron.
'It burns! Si, it burns still...!' The Buzzard waved the brand about, chuckling. 'Now, Zorrito, I think you might know something, si?' He advanced upon Diego, licking his wet meaty mouth.
Suddenly the front door flew open and in a trice, the room was full of angry gypsies with rifles.
Alas, they had not been the only ones to act quickly...
Although the brand had been dropped, the Buzzard had not been idle; a wicked sharp silver blade was now poking into Diego's neck, whilst he was held from behind.
'The little cub I will slit from ear to ear! This is fine Spanish steel and sharp as my madre's tongue, heh!' Grated the Buzzard. 'No one moves!'
No one did.
The troll had a grip like iron, and blood already ran from the knife at the boy's neck.
Slowly, beady red eyes focused upon them all, as the Buzzard backed out of the door, holding Diego.
Celestino raised a hand for silence, as all heard the hoofbeats of a fleeing horse.
'Let them go. We will go after later. Free these men now and get them out!'
The gypsies bent to their work, hurrying to pry the manacles from the walls and free their brethern before the guards and dogs awoke or the house was alerted to their presence.
In good time, the men were freed from the jail at least, and back over the adobe wall, heading for the encampment.
'You, you, and I, will follow Diego,' Celestino told the men. 'Two against one, this will not take long.'
Before the night was over, it would not be such a small matter.
. . . .
Josephina had watched from her vantage point, too far to make out exactly what had transpired; but, it seemed that all had gone as planned -- gypsies came in, came back out with men, and were up and over the wall within minutes.
Two men had left on one horse, but that was surely part of the plan...so it seemed.
She was therefore taken far aback when the men showed up at camp with freed prisoners and began working on breaking the irons in which they were still fettered.
'Diego? Where is Diego?!' Josephina strode through the men, catching at sleeves.
'Eh? Ah, Rafel! She is asking after the boy!' One called.
Jo found the man she recognised as Diego's gypsy brother. 'Where is he? I thought Diego was with you?!'
Rafe had finally been freed of his chains and was oiling and wrapping his bloody wrists and ankles with makeshift bandages.
'Sim. He was with us.' He glanced at Josephina. 'He will be again. There are men who followed him...'
'Followed? Where did he go?' Jo could not understand why Diego had left.
Rafe sighed, and put his boots back on. 'I wish I knew! The guard asked crazy questions about gold...'
He shook his head, 'Diego...madonna, his mouth! Sorry, but, he talks too much for his own good. He was trying to distract the man, but the Buzzard took him seriously. He took Diego, off to find this so-called 'gold' that the fool was yammering about!'
That must have been the men on the horse Jo saw leaving then. Jo turned then and was stopped by Rafe, holding her arm.
'I am going after him! You must stay here! There are three men on their tail now, and I will join them. We don't need to be worrying about you, nina. Please.' He let go of her arm. 'We will bring him back, do not fear.'
'They headed west, and south,' Josephina told him.
'Obrigato. Do not worry, we all track well. We will return soon,' Rafe nodded to her, then headed to his horse.
Josephina soon followed...
. . . .
Rafe caught up to Celestino and the others.
Night was getting on now, and it wasn't easy to follow Rafel in the pitch darkness, trying as Josephina might to remain behind far enough to stay silent.
But at last she pulled up on a rise above where the four men were hiding, peering over boulders at a small shack nearly hidden by a stand of trees. It was only visible in the darkness by the dim candlelight shining through the one and only grimy window.
Had Diego been taken here? And why?
She had to know what was happening...
Slowly, Jo crept down the hill and off to the side of the men, as quiet as a cat. When she was within hearing distance, she froze, and held her breath, listening:
'We cannot go to Mexico City!' One of the men was shaking his head
'They are not going to the City!' Rafe growled at them, 'those pyramids are north of town, by miles, but...it cannot be them. Too far.'
'Exactly. It is too far...'
'Go, then!' Rafel told them. 'I can do this myself alone! With less trouble!'
Much indistinct grumbling went round amongst the men.
At last, Celestino spoke: 'I will go with Rafel. The two of you, can return to camp. If you do not hear from us in two days...well, tell my wife to mourn the horses, for she will be happy to know I will trouble her no more!'
Rafe snorted at this poor joke, but the other two men grudgingly conceded that they did not wish to carry on all the way to the pyramids, wherever they were.
'We will take the news back to camp. Vaya con dios, mi hermanos.' And off the two sped.
'Just us now. Obrigato, Celestino.' Rafe told him.
Celestino sighed. 'I am in no hurry to return to my wife...'
Rafe smiled grimly, slapping his back; and then signaling him, they took their horses, Jo following; she watched as they headed into the arroyo nearby. Hobbling the horses, they spread saddles and blankets on the ground and prepared for sleep.
'Manana, at dawn, will be our best chance,' Rafe told the other man, whose only answer was a soft snore.
Jo decided she should try to sleep as well...
. . . .
The sound of hoofbeats woke her.
Dark still, and just before dawn, the occupants of the shack had sped away. Jo lept up and saddled Tlaloc quickly, then went after.
She could hear Rafe and Celestino following.
She managed to lose them, and to remain ahead, thanks to Tlaloc. The horse was well-trained and quiet, doing just what she needed done.
Everyone followed everyone else...
In the growing light, Josephina could make out just three men and Diego. Not bad odds. She hadn't a rifle however. She would need help from the others at some point.
The terrain became steeper, hilly, boulder-strewn, into the mountains. Up and up they went, and then suddenly down into a deep canyon.
To Jo's amazement, she was seeing what appeared to be a large pyramid carved from the side of the rock canyon, flanked by two smaller ones.
Into the big pyramid filed Diego and his captors.
'Interesting dilemma, no?' Rafe asked behind her shoulder.
Jo sighed and spared him a glance. 'Yes. And I am not going back,' she whispered harshly.
Rafel touched her arm and then led the way back to where Celestino was keeping their horses.
'You will, however, stay here, while I go, alone, to see if there is a way inside that thing. No arguments!'
Jo was tired, and tired of arguing. She let him go, with her blessing. 'Good luck.'
She and Celestino crept back to the lookout, watching as Rafe silently dove into the brush.
Eventually, they could make out a figure which crept across the flat top of the pyramid and crawled about the various small mesas and stoneworks upon it.
It disappeared down one of the stonework...chimneys?
Whatever it was, it appeared to be an entrance.
The figure came back up in short order, running, and hid in the rocks surrounding the hillside from which the pyramid was carved.
Two men appeared out of the chimney or tunnel entrance atop the pyramid, and, armed with hammers, began pounding something into the ground.
As they did so, the figure Jo assumed was Rafel, approached one of the men, apparently with a rope or wire, and tried to garrote him from behind.
They struggled, and the man yelled, alerting the other, who had Rafe's arms behind him in short order.
Soon, Rafe would be joining Diego in bondage.
'He didn't plan that, did he?' Jo asked Celestino, who sadly shook his head.
'Now what?'
Celestino sighed. 'We wait until dark.'
. . . .
The Buzzard and the Brujo were at odds.
'What has any of this has to do with gold?' asked the Buzzard, looking, if possible, even meaner and more disgusting than usual, tightening the wrist ropes around the prisoners. 'How does this place bring us any closer to a treasure?'
'It depends upon the treasure being sought,' a dark voice sounding as if it issued from a deep cave rang hollowly in the bare, echoing chamber.
From the back of the dark came a glow, as the Brujo lighted a torch and emerged into the room. Tall, thin, and covered in a black hooded robe, one couldn't tell much about him, except that empty voice like the last echo of a discordant hell's bell.
'It is time. Take them up.'
. . . .
From their new, closer vantage point, Josephina and Celestino watched, puzzled, as they saw two men lighting torches atop of the pyramid. An eerie glow arose as firelight lept and trembled about the shadows.
'I don't like the look of this...' Celestino whispered.
Back down the tunnel went the men, and soon a tall dark figure bearing a torch emerged, followed by Diego and Rafe, each held by one of the men, the Buzzard following, rifle at the ready.
The men shoved the prisoners to their knees, and then, grasping their struggling forms, tied their wrists and ankles to stakes in the ground. These were what they had been pounding earlier.
'I don't like this at all!' Celestino frowned at Jo.
He sighed, then. 'Come on...' Reluctantly, he cocked his rifle and led them closer...
The tall hooded figure held the torch against a pile of wood which blazed up quickly into a sortof blue-green fire.
Holding his arms aloft, he stared heavenward as the hood fell from his head revealing long strands of white hair which stood out from his head like matted bits of moss...
'Welcome O Evening Star! Welcome in, Kukulkan!' The Brujo lifted his voice to the stars, as he turned slowly in a circle, lighting torches to the four directions:
'In the West: Kukulkan! God of light, wind and justice! In the South presides the Blue Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli, the god of war. Over the East presides the Red Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, the god of gold. And over the North presides the Black Tezcatlipoca, known by no other name than Tezcatlipoca, the god of night,
judgment, deceit, sorcery and the Earth...'
'This looks very bad, indeed!' Celestino gulped.
'Shhh! This makes no sense!' Jo listened carefully, trying to figure out what could possibly be happening here at this strange place.
Just as it seemed things couldn't get any worse, it did; Diego opened his mouth:
'Quetzalcoatl, lord of the star of the dawn! Hear me!' Diego yelled, '...Known as the inventor of books and the calendar, the giver of life and of maize to mankind...the Morning Star is my brother! He will not allow his name defiled in a ceremony of death!'
The Buzzard began to laugh mightily.
'Silence, fool!' The tall be-robed figure pointed the torch his way. He then strode to Diego and stood over his head.
'Kukulkan is your brother is he? And, he, over here? Is he your brother, as well?'
Diego shut up then. Too late.
'Not one, but two great gods have we here!' The Brujo announced as he strode slowly between Diego and Rafel.
Josephina had seen enough. Diego's big boca would ensure his death if she did not act quickly...
'We can wait no longer!' She told Celestino, and he groaned softly as they turned, heading into the brush behind them.
Soon they had come up behind the others, staring from the boulders just over the pyramid's mesa.
Here, closer to the firelight, they could perceive the situation as it stood: Rafel and Diego both spread-eagled, tethered hand and foot to spikes in the ground while two men stood guard with rifles. The Buzzard and the Brujo stood over them bearing torches and ugly smiles. No, it did not look good.
'And this on the eve of the feast of the Magdalena...' groused Celestino softly. 'Blasphemers!' He spat.
What could the two of them possibly do? Jo wondered.
Oh, Emmelina! What would her gypsy sister do, if outnumbered and out-gunned so?
Josephina felt her pockets desperately...her letter to Diego, a vial of oil from Emmelina...well, desperate times call for desperate acts.
Jo turned around and uncorked the oil. Pouring a drop into her hands, she rubbed them together, heating it.
'Lady with the Alabaster Jar, Magdalena, hear me, please...' Josephina entreated, '...let this oil be your oil; may it annoint my beloved, as it did yours. Thee in me, and I in Thee, so mote it be...Magdalena hear my plea.'
Josephina turned back around.
'What is that smell?' whispered Celestino.
A distant rumble shook the air.
'What is that sound?!' he looked around.
Clouds were amassing suddenly, all bout them.
'Thunder!' Josephina's eyes lit up. Perhaps the gods would lend a hand, or a bolt...
Meanwhile, the principal players were becoming restless. The Buzzard looked skyward. 'Now we have a storm brewing! Enough talk! We must hurry!'
The Brujo looked down at Diego. 'Perhaps you are right! Perhaps Tlaloc, the god of thunder, lightning and the rains is here now with us in ceremony!'
He held his head back, relishing the raindrops beginning to fall from the roiling black masses of thunderheads gathering just over this canyon, just for this night...
'Come spirits of the Ancients! Come, Kukulkan, come Tlaloc! Give unto us your power, fire and might! Hear me and speak to me now!' Bellowed the Brujo, arms open wide to receive the blessings of the gods.
Also there and then gone were the two guards; after seeing the burnt and sizzling wretched forms where their masters had been, the two fled their posts like the very wind...
The rain began in earnest then.
Josephina hesitated but a second, and then, finding what she had sought in her other pocket, lept out onto the mesa, unsheathing her knife.
She bent over Diego, who lay unconscious, and began sawing at the ropes which bound him.
Celestino followed, glancing uneasily over his shoulder at the sky which still swirled about them like the smoky arms of a galaxy, lightning flashes erupting.
He also carried a knife, as all good gypsies did, and went to work on Rafe's bonds.
'Help me get him up! He is out cold...' Josephina yelled over the increasing wind, thunder and downpour.
Celestino saw that Rafe was sitting up by himself, and so helped Jo get Diego to his feet. 'Get him out of this cursed place, then go get the horses. We cannot leave here soon enough!' Celestino told her.
Jo complied, racing down the hill and back across the arroyo where the ponies had been hidden, bringing them back to the men.
'We'll have to ride Templar style...Diego is with me,' Jo mounted Tlaloc, and leaned over, 'See if you can boost him up before me, I'll hold onto him.'
Diego was groaning softly, so he was not quite the dead weight that he had been, soon he would be fully conscious. As Rafe and Celestino mounted, Jo turned Tlaloc around and headed northeast, back to camp and whence they'd came. Back home.
'I'm taking you home, Diego,' she told him, 'you are with me now.'
'Josephina? Josephina...' Diego put his hand over hers holding the reins. 'Don't leave me!'
'I will never leave you...' she assured him.
. . . .
Romance In Durango
(dedicated to DH Lawrence, if he's out there...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fmjX91QZBU
Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun
Dust on my face and my cape
Me and Magdalena on the run
I think this time we shall escape
Sold my guitar to the baker’s son
For a few crumbs and a place to hide
But I can get another one
And I’ll play for Magdalena as we ride
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people
Hoofbeats like castanets on stone
At night I dream of bells in the village steeple
Then I see the bloody face of Ramon
Was it me that shot him down in the cantina
Was it my hand that held the gun?
Come, let us fly, my Magdalena
The dogs are barking and what’s done is done
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
At the corrida we’ll sit in the shade
And watch the young torero stand alone
We’ll drink tequila where our grandfathers stayed
When they rode with Villa into Torreon
Then the padre will recite the prayers of old
In the little church this side of town
I will wear new boots and an earring of gold
You’ll shine with diamonds in your wedding gown
The way is long but the end is near
Already the fiesta has begun
The face of God will appear
With His serpent eyes of obsidian
No Ilores, mi querida
Dio nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Was that the thunder that I heard?
My head is vibrating, I feel a sharp pain
Come sit by me, don’t say a word
Oh, can it be that I am slain?
Quick, Magdalena, take my gun
Look up in the hills, that flash of light
Aim well my little one
We may not make it through the night
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Copyright © 1975 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2003 by Ram’s Horn Music
LISTEN BOB DYLAN ROMANCE IN DURANGOhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtptM75SFZU
No comments:
Post a Comment