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 be-
lieve 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.
From inside I could hear the furious growling of the dog
and the woman’s inhuman shrieks. Then suddenly the dog’s
barking and growling turned into whining and howling as if
he were in pain, or as if something were frightening him. I felt
a jolt in the pit of my stomach. My ears began to buzz. I real-
ized that I was trapped inside the house. I had a fit of sheer
terror. I was revolted at my stupidity in running into the house.
The woman’s attack had confused me so intensely that I had
lost all sense of strategy and had behaved as if I were running
away from an ordinary opponent who could be shut out by
simply closing a door. I heard someone come to the door and
lean against it, trying to force it open. Then there were loud
knocks and banging on it.
Open the door, dona Soledad said in a hard voice. That
goddamned dog has mauled me.
I deliberated whether or not to let her in. What came to my
mind was the memory of a confrontation I had had years be-
fore with a sorceress, who had, according to don Juan, adopted
his shape in order to fool me and deliver a deadly blow. Ob-
viously dona Soledad was not as I had known her, but I had
reasons to doubt that she was a sorceress. The time element
played a decisive role in my conviction. Pablito, Nestor and
I had been involved with don Juan and don Genaro for years
and we were not sorcerers at all; how could dona Soledad be
one? No matter how much she had changed she could not
improvise something that would take a lifetime to accomplish.
Why did you attack me? I asked, speaking loudly so as
to be heard through the thick door.
She answered that the Nagual had told her not to let me go.
I asked her why.
She did not answer; instead she banged on the door furiously
and I banged back even harder. We went on hitting the door
for a few minutes. She stopped and started begging me to
open it. I had a surge of nervous energy. I knew that if I
opened the door I might have a chance to flee. I moved the
iron bar from the door. She staggered in. Her blouse was torn.
The band that held her hair had fallen off and her long hair
was all over her face.
Look what that son of a bitch dog did to me! she yelled.
Look! Look!
I took a deep breath. She seemed to be somewhat dazed. She
sat down on a bench and began to take off her tattered blouse.
I seized that moment to run out of the house and make a dash
for the car. With a speed that was born only out of fear, I got
inside, shut the door, automatically turned on the motor and
put the car in reverse. I stepped on the gas and turned my head
to look back through the rear window. As I turned I felt a hot
breath on my face; I heard a horrendous growl and saw in a
flash the demoniacal eyes of the dog. He was standing on the
back seat. I saw his horrible teeth almost in my eyes. I ducked
my head. His teeth grabbed my hair. I must have curled my
whole body on the seat, and in doing so I let my foot off the
clutch. The jerk of the car made the beast lose his balance. I
opened the door and scrambled out. The head of the dog
jutted out through the door. I heard his enormous teeth click
as his jaws closed tight, missing my heels by a few inches. The
car began to roll back and I made another dash for the house.
I stopped before I had reached the door.
Dona Soledad was standing there. She had tied her hair up
again. She had thrown a shawl over her shoulders. She stared
at me for a moment and then began to laugh, very softly at
first as if her wounds hurt her, and then loudly. She pointed a
finger at me and held her stomach as she convulsed with
laughter. She bent over and stretched, seemingly to catch her
breath. She was naked above the waist. I could see her breasts,
shaking with the convulsions of her laughter.
I felt that all was lost. I looked back toward the car. It had
come to a stop after rolling four or five feet; the door had
closed again, sealing the dog inside. I could see and hear the
enormous beast biting the back of the front seat and pawing
the windows.
A most peculiar decision faced me at that moment. I did not
know who scared me the most, dona Soledad or the dog. After
a moment’s thought I decided that the dog was just a stupid
beast.
I ran back to the car and climbed up on the roof. The noise
enraged the dog. I heard him ripping the upholstery. Lying on
the roof I managed to open the driver’s door. My idea was to