“This is what I mean!” she yelled, caressing her pubic area.
My mouth opened involuntarily. I became aware that I was staring at her like an idiot.
“You and I are one here!” she said.
I was dumbfounded. Dona Soledad, the old Indian woman, mother of my friend Pablito, was actually half-naked a few feet away from me, showing me her genitals. I stared at her, incapable of formulating any thoughts. The only thing I knew was that her body was not the body of an old woman. She had beautifully muscular thighs, dark and hairless. The bone structure of her hips was broad, but there was no fat on them.
She must have noticed my scrutiny and flung herself on the bed.
“You know what to do,” she said, pointing to her pubis. “We are one here.”
She uncovered her robust breasts.
“Dona Soledad, I implore you!” I exclaimed. “What’s come over you? You’re Pablito’s mother.”
“No, I’m not! ” she snapped. “I’m no one’s mother.”
She sat up and looked at me with fierce eyes.
“I am just like you, a piece of the Nagual,” she said. “We’re made to mix.”
She opened her legs and I jumped away.
“Wait a minute, dona Soledad,” I said. “Let’s talk for i while.”
I had a moment of wild fear, and a sudden crazy thought occurred to me. Would it be possible, I asked myself, that don Juan was hiding somewhere around there laughing his head off?
“Don Juan!” I bellowed.
My yell was so loud and profound that dona Soledad jumped off her bed and covered herself hurriedly with her skirt. I saw her putting it on as I bellowed again.
“Don Juan!”
I ran through the house bellowing don Juan’s name until my throat was sore. Dona Soledad, in the meantime, had run outside the house and was standing by my car, looking puzzled at me.
I walked over to her and asked her if don Juan had told her to do all that. She nodded affirmatively. I asked if he was around. She said no.
“Tell me everything,” I said.
She told me that she was merely following don Juan’s or-ders. He had commanded her to change her being into a warrior’s in order to help me. She declared that she had been waiting for years to fulfill that promise.
“I’m very strong now,” she said softly. “Just for you. But you disliked me in my room, didn’t you?”
I found myself explaining that I did not dislike her, that what counted were my feelings for Pablito; then I realized that I did not have the vaguest idea of what I was saying.
Dona Soledad seemed to understand my embarrassing position and said that our mishap had to be forgotten.
“You must be famished,” she said vivaciously. “I’ll make you some food.”
“There’s a lot that you haven’t explained to me,” I said. “I’ll be frank with you, I wouldn’t stay here for anything in the world. You frighten me.”
“You are obligated to accept my hospitality, if it is only for a cup of coffee,” she said unruffled. “Come, let’s forget what happened.”
She made a gesture of going into the house. At that moment I heard a deep growl. The dog was standing, looking at us, as if he understood what was being said.
Dona Soledad fixed a most frightening gaze on me. Then she softened it and smiled.
“Don’t let my eyes bother you,” she said. “The truth is that I am old. Lately I’ve been getting dizzy. I think I need glasses.”
She broke into a laugh and clowned, looking through cupped fingers as if they were glasses.
“An old Indian woman with glasses! That’ll be a laugh,” she said giggling.
I made up my mind then to be rude and get out of there, without any explanation. But before I drove away I wanted to leave some things for Pablito and his sisters. I opened the trunk of the car to get the gifts I had brought for them. I leaned way into it to reach first for the two packages that were lodged against the wall of the back seat, behind the spare tire. I got hold of one and was about to grab the other when I felt a soft, furry hand on the nape of my neck. I shrieked involuntarily and hit my head on the open lid. I turned to look. The pressure of the furry hand did not let me turn completely, but I was able to catch a fleeting glimpse of a silvery arm or paw hovering over my neck. I wriggled in panic and pushed myself away from the trunk and fell down on my seat with the package still in my hand. My whole body shook, the muscles of my legs contracted and I found myself leaping up and running away.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” dona Soledad said apolo-getically, as I watched her from ten feet away.
She showed me the palms of her hands in a gesture of sur-render, as if assuring me that what I had felt was not her hand.
“What did you do to me?” I asked, trying to sound calm and detached.
She seemed to be either thoroughly embarrassed or baffled. She muttered something and shook her head as though she could not say it, or did not know what I was talking about.
“Come on, dona Soledad,” I said, coming closer to her, “don’t play tricks on me.”
She seemed about to weep. I wanted to comfort her, but some part of me resisted. After a moment’s pause I told her what I had felt and seen.
“That’s just terrible!” She said in a shrieking voice.
In a very childlike gesture she covered her face with her right forearm. I thought she was crying. I came over to her and tried to put my arm around her shoulders. I could not bring myself to do it.
“Come now, dona Soledad,” I said, “let’s forget all this and let me give you these packages before I leave.”
I stepped in front of her to face her. I could see her black, shining eyes and part of her face behind her arm. She was not crying. She was smiling.
I jumped back. Her smile terrified me. Both of us stood motionless for a long time. She kept her face covered but I could see her eyes watching me.
As I stood there almost paralyzed with fear I felt utterly despondent. I had fallen into a bottomless pit. Dona Soledad was a witch. My body knew it, and yet I could not really believe it. What I wanted to believe was that dona Soledad had gone mad and was being kept in the house instead of an asylum.
I did not dare move or take my eyes away from her. We must have stayed in that position for five or six minutes. She had kept her arm raised and yet motionless. She was standing at the rear of the car, almost leaning against the left fender. The lid of the trunk was still open. I thought of making a dash for the right door. The keys were in the ignition.
I relaxed a bit in order to gain the momentum to run. She seemed to notice my change of position immediately. Her arm moved down, revealing her whole face. Her teeth were clenched. Her eyes were fixed on mine. They looked hard and mean. Suddenly she lurched toward me. She stomped with her right foot, like a fencer, and reached out with clawed hands to grab me by my waist as she let out the most chilling shriek.
My body jumped back out of her reach. I ran for the car, but with inconceivable agility she rolled to my feet and made me trip over her. I fell facedown and she grabbed me by the left foot. I contracted my right leg, and I would have kicked her in the face with the sole of my shoe had she not let go of me and rolled back. I jumped to my feet and tried to open the door of the car. It was locked. I threw myself over the hood to reach the other side but somehow dona Soledad got there be-fore I did. I tried to roll back over the hood, but midway I felt a sharp pain in my right calf. She had grabbed me by the leg. I could not kick her with my left foot; she had pinned down both of my legs against the hood. She pulled me toward her and I fell on top of her. We wrestled on the ground. Her strength was magnificent and her shrieks were terrifying. I could hardly move under the gigantic pressure of her body. It was not a matter of weight but rather tension, and she had it. Suddenly I heard a growl and the enormous dog jumped on her back and shoved her away from me. I stood up. I wanted to get into the car, but the woman and the dog were fighting by the door. The only retreat was to go inside the house. I made it in one or two seconds. I did not turn to look at them but rushed inside and closed the door behind me, securing it with the iron bar that was behind it. I ran to the back and did the same with the other door.