Castaneda, Carlos – The Second Ring of Power

dona Soledad. I began to look for clues. I thought that if I

watched carefully, their voices or the expression on their faces

would betray how much they knew. But they remained silent

and let me do all the talking. I began to doubt that I should

volunteer any information at all. In my effort to figure out

what to do and not blunder, I ended up talking nonsense.

Lidia cut me off. In a dry tone she said that I should not con-

cern myself with dona Soledad’s health because they had al-

ready taken steps to help her. That statement forced me to

ask her if she knew what dona Soledad’s trouble was.

You’ve taken her soul, she said accusingly.

My first reaction was to defend myself. I began to talk

vehemently but ended up contradicting myself. They stared

at me. I was making no sense at all. I tried again to say the

same thing in a different way. My fatigue was so intense that

I could hardly organize my thoughts. Finally I gave up.

Where are Pablito and Nestor? I asked after a long pause.

They’ll be here shortly, Lidia said briskly.

Were you with them? I asked.

No! she exclaimed, and stared at me.

We never go together, Rosa explained. Those bums are

different from us.

Lidia made an imperative gesture with her foot to shut her

up. She seemed to be the one who gave the orders. Catching

the movement of her feet brought to my awareness a most

peculiar facet of my relationship with don Juan. In the count-

less times that we had roamed together, he had succeeded in

teaching me, without really trying, a system of covert com-

munication through some coded movements of the feet. I

watched Lidia give Rosa the sign for horrible, a sign given

when anything that happens to be in sight of the signers is

unpleasant or dangerous. In this case me. I laughed. I remem-

bered that don Juan had given me that sign when I first met

don Genaro.

I pretended not to be aware of what was going on in order

to find out if I could decode all their signs.

Rosa made the sign that she wanted to step on me. Lidia

answered with an imperative sign for no.

According to don Juan, Lidia was very talented. As far as

he was concerned she was more sensitive and alert than Pab-

lito and Nestor and myself. I had always been incapable of

making friends with her. She was aloof, and very cutting.

She had enormous, black, shifty eyes that never looked straight

at anyone, high cheekbones and a chiseled nose, which was a

bit flat and broad at the bridge. I remembered her having red,

sore eyelids and everyone taunting her on account of that.

The redness of her eyelids had disappeared but she continued

to rub her eyes and blink a great deal. During my years of

association with don Juan and don Genaro I had seen Lidia

the most, and yet we had probably never exchanged more

than a dozen words with each other. Pablito regarded her as

a most dangerous being. I always thought she was just ex-

tremely shy.

Rosa, on the other hand, was very boisterous. I thought she

was the youngest. Her eyes were very frank and shiny. She

was never shifty, but very bad-tempered. I had talked with

Rosa more than anyone else. She was friendly, very bold and

very funny.

Where are the others? I asked Rosa. Aren’t they going

to come out?

They will be out shortly, Lidia answered.

I could tell from their expressions that friendliness was not

what they had in mind. Judging from their foot messages they

were as dangerous as dona Soledad, and yet as I sat there look-

ing at them it occurred to me that they were gorgeously beau-

tiful. I had the warmest feelings for them. In fact, the more

they stared into my eyes the more intense that feeling became.

At one moment it was sheer passion that I felt for them. They

were so alluring that I could have sat there for hours just look-

ing at them, but a sobering thought made me stand up. I was

not going to repeat my bungling of the night before. I decided

that the best defense was to put my cards on the table. In a

firm tone I told them that don Juan had set up some sort of

trial for me using dona Soledad, or vice versa. Chances were

that he had also set them up in the same fashion, and we were

going to be pitted against one another in some sort of battle

that could result in injury to some of us. I appealed to their

sense of warriorship. If they were the truthful heirs of don

Juan, they had to be impeccable with me, reveal their designs

and not behave like ordinary, greedy human beings.

I turned to Rosa and asked her the reason for wishing to

step on me. She was taken aback for an instant and then she

became angry. Her eyes flared with rage; her small mouth

contracted.

Lidia, in a very coherent manner, said that I had nothing to

fear from them, and that Rosa was angry with me because I

had hurt dona Soledad. Her feelings were purely a personal

reaction.

I said then that it was time I left. I stood up. Lidia made a

gesture to stop me. She seemed scared or deeply concerned.

She began to protest, when a noise coming from outside the

door distracted me. The two girls jumped to my side. Some-

thing heavy was leaning or pushing against the door. I noticed

then that the girls had secured it with the heavy iron bar. I

had a feeling of disgust. The whole affair was going to be re-

peated again and I was sick and tired of it all.

The girls glanced at each other, then looked at me and then

looked at each other again.

I heard the whining and heavy breathing of a large animal

outside the house. It might have been the dog. Exhaustion

blinded me at that point. I rushed to the door, removed the

heavy iron bar and started to open it. Lidia threw herself

against the door and shut it again.

The Nagual was right, she said, out of breath. You think

and think. You’re dumber than I thought.

She pulled me back to the table. I rehearsed, in my mind,

the best way to tell them, once and for all, that I had had

enough. Rosa sat next to me, touching me; I could feel her leg

nervously rubbing against mine. Lidia was standing facing me,

looking at me fixedly. Her burning black eyes seemed to be

saying something I could not understand.

I began to speak but I did not finish. I had a sudden and

most profound awareness. My body was aware of a greenish

light, a fluorescence outside the house. I did not see or hear

anything. I was simply aware of the light as if I were suddenly

falling asleep and my thoughts were turning into images that

were superimposed on the world of everyday life. The light

was moving at a great speed. I could sense it with my stomach.

I followed it, or rather I focused my attention on it for an

instant as it moved around. A great clarity of mind ensued

from focusing my attention on the light. I knew then that in

that house, in the presence of those people, it was wrong and

dangerous to behave as an innocent bystander.

Aren’t you afraid? Rosa asked, pointing to the door.

Her voice disrupted my concentration.

I admitted that whatever was there was scaring me at a

very deep level, enough to make me die of fright. I wanted

to say more, but right then I had a surge of wrath and I

wanted to see and talk with dona Soledad. I did not trust her.

I went directly to her room. She was not there. I began to

call her, bellowing her name. The house had one more room.

I pushed the door open and rushed inside. There was no one

in there. My anger increased in the same proportion as my

fear.

I went out the back door and walked around to the front.

Not even the dog was in sight. I banged on the front door

furiously. Lidia opened it. I entered. I yelled at her to tell me

where everybody was. She lowered her eyes and did not

answer. She wanted to close the door but I would not let her.

She quickly walked away and went into the other room.

I sat down again at the table. Rosa had not moved. She

seemed to be frozen on the spot.

We are the same, she said suddenly. The Nagual told us

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