The Temptation Of Demetrio Vigil Part 18

"What?" I asked, aghast. "How do you know that word? That's the plumber's word."

"Don't look it in the eyes."

"The bird?"

Yazzie ignored me and, muttering, burrowed through her large hobo handbag, retrieving from it a wooden slingshot and a rock the size of a large marble. With amazing dexterity and speed, she loaded the rock into the device, and shot it at the crow, narrowly missing the bird yet managing to relieve it of a few tail feathers.

"Be gone, ant'hnii!" she screamed, loading another rock and launching it toward the creature as it winging away in a panic, and then another, until is was gone.

"What are you doing?" I cried.

"Protecting you." She grabbed me by the arm. "Let's go inside."

"You look insane," I told her, as I followed her into her office.

"Ask me if I care."

"I'm guessing not."

"Correct."

Yazzie sat down at her desk, and waited for me to sit in a nearby chair.

"Do you have the story I gave you?" she asked.

I had worn a different jacket, and besides which had left it in the library in my haste to save Buddy from traffic. Yazzie produced another copy of it, yellowed and torn as the first, and instructed me to read it aloud, for her.

"Do I have to?"

She put her hand on mine. "I know you think I'm nuts, okay? I know that's what you all think of me. But I see a lot of Changing Woman in you. Okay?"

"Who?"

"The great G.o.ddess. I see her in you. This is a changing season for you. Do not be afraid of the Blessing Way, when it comes."

"The what?"

"The ceremony."

"That's what he just told me. He wants me to go to a ceremony later today."

"Good! The sooner the better. You should go. You have the feel of Kindreds. I picked up on it right away."

"What is a Kindred?"

"He'll tell you. Read me the story."

I did as she told me. It was a fable from the local Cochiti Indian pueblo, about a boy made fun of by all the other boys in his village. He ends up leading a successful hunt through his smarts, and the boys who mocked him become the outcasts. The boy becomes the leader after the grandfather dies. Etc.

"And?" I asked, when I was through.

"There is meaning in this, for you."

"I don't understand it."

"Be strong, Maria. It will make sense. Take the right path now, and you will triumph in the end."

"And what if I don't take the right path, by mistake?"

"The morboso knows who you are, and where you are, and who your friend is. Taking the wrong path is a bad idea."

"Kelsey?"

"The one who thinks I never remember her," said Yazzie. "She is marked. I've sensed this. That is why I try not to draw undue attention to her."

"What does that mean, that she's marked?"

"Perilous. Very dangerous for her."

"Are you sure?"

"The morboso watches her. If you take the wrong path, she will be the one to pay."

"I don't understand."

"That's how this morboso do things. Go to your ceremony. Do as the revenant boy instructs you. Listen, here," she touched her solar plexus. "The heart knows. This is a wonderful journey you've set out upon. If you do it right."

"And if I don't?"

"If you don't, I am sorry to say someone probably will die."

"Kelsey?"

"I cannot say."

I sat in shock, not knowing whether or not to believe her.

"Now," she said. "Let's both pretend we never had this talk. You will go back to cla.s.s, tell everyone it was all cleared up and you will never take your dog to school again, even though we know you didn't bring him here. The revenant did."

She ran her hand over Buddy, with half-closed eyes.

"He has been there," she said, looking mournfully at my dog. "You poor, dear creature."

"Where?"

"To the Very Bad Place," she said with a horrible shudder. "He dragged him there."

"Demetrio?"

"Is this your ghost's name? Demetrio?"

"Yes."

She shook her head vehemently. "No, not him. Demetrio would never do that. I painted all of this last night, it came to me. This is my medicine, painting. This is my way of knowing things. The one who took your dog to the other side, he is the enemy of your ghost. He is a chindi."

"My ghost has an enemy?"

"A chindi enemy. Yes. Very much so, yes. But he thinks this is a friend."

"Who is he, this enemy?"

"I do not know his name, only that it is - let's see. I think they behave as very close friends, as brothers. Demetrio is unaware of the true nature of this chindi. Blind to it. Be very careful of the morboso, the chindi. Now, let's go from here and not speak of this again today."

Hours later, after miraculously getting through my finals in spite of my racing mind, I parked the Land Rover in the otherwise empty lot at the church on the hill in Golden. I was astonished upon opening my car door to find Nutmeg, the revived Tramway Boulevard Chow, waiting for me there, smiling with her wet black eyes, wagging her tail. I set Buddy on the ground next to her. The animals sniffed each other's rear-ends in greeting, making me grateful - and not for the first time - that I wasn't born a dog.

I looked around, and didn't see anyone else around. I did notice, however, that the door to the church was open a crack, as was the usually padlocked gate leading to the graveyard.

Finished "greeting" Buddy's nether regions, Nutmeg pawed the frozen pebbles on the ground as she tended to do when she wanted me to follow her, and with a quick glance at me over her shoulder, set off at a trot toward the gate. Buddy gamely followed her, his tail held high with confidence that he'd just conned a new female into joining his expansive harem. I brought up the back of this odd parade of creatures, curiosity and dread battling for dominion of my emotions with each footfall. My cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I a.s.sumed it was my mother, who'd been calling me frantically almost since I'd left school. I hated that she was worried, but right now I could not concern myself with her. I had bigger issues at hand. I reached into my pocket, and turned the phone off.

I entered the darkness of the sacristy, and was. .h.i.t with a thick, musty, papery smell, an earthy smell. The air was as cold inside the building as it was outside. My eyes quickly adjusted to the change in light, and I was soon able to make out the small room. It was much changed from the last time I was here, in that it was occupied.

At the other end of the room from me, at the altar stood a very tall, very thin man, with a plump, pleasant-faced woman. I instantly recognized the man as the same one who had told me and Kelsey to get off of his land down the road from here. He and the woman looked up at me from their work arranging candles, containers, and what appeared to be surgical instruments, upon the large wooden table. I smiled meekly at them. They did not smile or return my wave of greeting. Rather, they watched me warily, flinchingly in the woman's case. They were, I realized, afraid of me for some reason. This was not comforting in the least.

I walked toward them, marveling as I did at he sheer quant.i.ty of animals here - dogs and cats, but also deer, bears, and the baby bobcat Demetrio had held in his arms. Buddy was beside himself with fear, facing so many other animals that were bigger than he was. He was boastful under most circ.u.mstances, but did have it in him to recognize the truth of his size when push came to shove.

He cowered behind me now, trying to dart between my legs with every step I took. Curiously, none of the other dogs attempted to greet him, or me. Like the cats, who displayed a profound courage considering their mixed company, they sat perfectly still, and watched us move with patient, knowing eyes. It was uncanny, and more than a little creepy. All of the animals stayed still, and payed attention as though they understood what was happening here. I, for one, did not. At all.

"Well, h.e.l.lo," I said sarcastically to the cranky, horrible man, when I got within earshot of the couple.

"Sit down, there," said the man, pointing to the front pew without looking up from his task. He was just as unhappy to see me now as he had been before.

"So, what's happening here?" I asked, jovially. "Ritual sacrifice? Neighborhood potluck?"

"Be quiet, please," said the man, pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "You give me a headache."

"Sorry. I have some Tylenol in the car, if you want it..."

"Silence!" he roared.

"Alrighty then."

I sat quietly and observed them. There were boxes of powders and vials of liquid upon the table, and greenery that seemed to have been take from trees outside. Candles of different sizes, all of them white, burned. I noticed now that the man and woman both wore brown robes, the same kind Demetrio had worn in the dream I'd had about him, but with colorful woven Pueblo-style serapes draped over them. The man had what appeared to be a fox skin hanging from his roped belt. The woman wore a pendant around her neck that appeared to be in the shape of a very fat, or very pregnant, woman. They both had moccasins on their feet, and small, colorful feathers woven though their hair.

The whole scene was reminiscent of the dream, actually. Gooseb.u.mps scattered across my arms and legs, and I shivered to face the unknown. At worst, they might have been planning to sacrifice me, I thought. Or Buddy. At best, well, I had no idea. The only thing I could come up with at that moment, given the chilly reception of the man and woman, and the odd staring stillness of the animals, were worst-case scenarios. I played a few of them out in my mind, each time growing more and more anxious. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked, point blank. "And if you do, will it hurt? What if I call 911 first?"

The man ignored me with a tightening around his mouth, but the woman looked at me with sympathy.

"We're probably not going to kill you," she said, jokingly. She had a very nice energy to her, and seemed quietly peaceful and loving.

"Oh," I replied, sarcastically. "That's comforting."

"He shouldn't be doing this to her," griped the man to the woman. "Or himself, or any of us. It's ridiculous. And you seem to condone it. I'm surprised."

"It is his choice." She looked steadily at him.

"It's a foolish choice," he said.

"Perhaps, nonetheless, it is his foolish choice to make and your duty as a mayordomo is to accept and respect it. The truth is, we don't know what sort of outcome there will be."

"What is a mayordomo?" I asked.

"Silence!" cried the man, stabbing a small golden knife with a turquoise handle and black scrolling script across the blade, through the air in my direction, though several feet away. I cringed with a yelp, and recoiled.

"Easy there," the woman soothed him. "It's not her fault."

The man lowered the knife.

"Thank you," said the woman. "If you continue to overreact, I will have to ask you to leave. I don't want to do that."

I held a trembling Buddy on my lap, and tried to sooth him with slow strokes along his back. He was beyond hope, however. Once the trembling began, it would be hours before it stopped again, especially in a room as cold as this.

I was about to inquire about Demetrio, when he strolled into the church from a back door, swaggering as though he were heading to the basketball court for a pickup game. He wore the same outfit he'd worn earlier in the day, at my school, and a grin.

"Hey, mamita," he said casually as he came to sit next to me on the pew. He c.o.c.ked his head to one side and smiled at me as though we had just happened across each other at a movie theater or something. "Wa.s.sup, shorty? You look good. And scared."

"Where did you come from?" I asked, startled. He laughed.

"You should know by now that you ask a question with a pretty complicated answer." He grinned at me, that crooked, glorious grin, and I went weak-kneed. I felt soothed, though, by his comfort level. He was happier here than I'd ever seen him before, other than in the dream. He was bubbling over with happiness, in his own laid-back way.

"Honor's student, huh?" I asked him now. "I saw some articles about you. About who you used to be, I guess."

He blinked slowly, with a small smile. "I did okay in school, sure."

"You're hardly an ignorant country boy," I said. "Full ride to St. John's College. But you played it off like you were some ignoramus."

His brows shot up in alarm. "I did? Nah, mami, I didn't. That was your interpretation of me. Just like your mom and Logan, and everyone else."

I thought about this. He was right.

"People see tattoos, hear me use a double-negative now and then, see you wear a certain style of clothes, they make a.s.sumptions," he said. "It's one of the uglier sides of human nature. I like to let them people a.s.sume, because you can learn a lot about people by the a.s.sumptions they make."

"You said you were homeschooled," I said. "I'll a.s.sume from that that you're a liar, then?"

He laughed at me, drawing a scornful look from the man. "It wasn't a lie. It's actually very hard for me to lie anymore. I told you the truth. I've always told you the truth. I've learned a lot these past two years, from them. Homeschool." He jutted his chin toward the man and woman now. "There's been a lot of schooling."