twelve feet away from her, a thing she could have easily done
with the width of her forearm, she also made me block the
view of her body, a thing which could not possibly be done
with just the width of her forearm.
Once she had hidden her entire body, all I was able to make
out was a silhouette of a forearm suspended in midair, bounc-
ing from one side of the room to the other, and at one point
I could hardly see the arm itself.
I felt a revulsion, an unbearable nausea. The bouncing fore-
arm depleted me of energy. I slid down on my side, unable
to keep my balance. I saw the arm falling to the ground. Jose-
fina was lying on the floor covered with garments, as if her
puffed-up clothes had exploded. She lay on her back with her
arms spread out.
It took a long time to get back my physical balance. My
clothes were soaked in perspiration. I was not the only one
affected. All of them were exhausted and drenched in sweat.
La Gorda was the most poised, but her control seemed to be
on the verge of collapsing. I could hear all of them, including
la Gorda, breathing through their mouths.
When I was in full control again everybody sat on her spot.
The little sisters were looking at me fixedly. I saw out of the
corner of my eye that la Gorda’s eyes were half-closed. She
suddenly rolled noiselessly to my side and whispered in my
ear that I should begin to make my moth call, keeping it up
until the allies had rushed into the house and were about to
take us.
I had a moment of vacillation. She whispered that there was
no way to change directions, and that we had to finish what
we had started. After untying her shawl from my waist, she
rolled back to her spot and sat down.
I put my left hand to my lips and tried to produce the tap-
ping sound. I found it very difficult at first. My lips were dry
and my hands were sweaty, but after an initial clumsiness, a
feeling of vigor and well-being came over me. I produced the
most flawless tapping noise I had ever done. It reminded me
of the tapping noise I had been hearing all along as a response
to mine. As soon as I stopped to breathe, I could hear the
tapping sound being answered from all directions.
La Gorda signaled me to go on with it. I produced three
more series. The last one was utterly mesmeric. I did not need
to intake a gulp of air and let it out in small spurts, as I had
been doing all along. This time the tapping sound came out
of my mouth freely. I did not even have to use the edge of
my hand to produce it.
La Gorda suddenly rushed to me, lifted me up bodily by
my armpits and pushed me to the middle of the room. Her
action disrupted my absolute concentration. I noticed that
Lidia was holding onto my right arm, Josefina to my left, and
Rosa had backed up against the front of me and was holding
me by the waist with her arms extended backward. La Gorda
was in back of me. She ordered me to put my arms behind
and grab onto her shawl, which she had looped around her
neck and shoulders like a harness.
I noticed at that moment that something besides us was
there in the room, but I could not tell what it was. The little
sisters were shivering. I knew that they were aware of some-
thing which I was unable to distinguish. I also knew that
la Gorda was going to try to do what she had done in don
Genaro’s house. All of a sudden, I felt the wind of the eye –
door pulling us. I grabbed onto la Gorda’s shawl with all my
strength while the little sisters grabbed onto me. I felt that
we were spinning, tumbling and swaying from side to side
like a giant, weightless leaf.
I opened my eyes and saw that we were like a bundle. We
were either standing up or we were lying horizontally in the
air. I could not tell which because I had no sensorial point of
reference. Then, as suddenly as we had been lifted off, we
were dropped. I sensed our falling in my midsection. I yelled
with pain and my screams were united with those of the little
sisters. The insides of my knees hurt. I felt an unbearable jolt
on my legs; I thought I must have broken them.
My next impression was that something was getting inside
my nose. It was very dark and I was lying on my back. I sat
up. I realized then that la Gorda was tickling my nostrils with
a twig.
I did not feel exhausted or even mildly tired. I jumped to
my feet and only then was I stricken by the realization that
we were not in the house. We were on a hill, a rocky, barren
hill. I took a step and nearly fell down. I had stumbled over
a body. It was Josefina. She was extremely hot to the touch.
She seemed to be feverish. I tried to make her sit up, but she
was limp. Rosa was next to her. As a contrast, her body was
icy cold. I put one on top of the other and rocked them. That
motion brought them back to their senses.
La Gorda had found Lidia and was making her walk. After
a few minutes, all of us were standing. We were perhaps half
a mile east of the house.
Years before don Juan had produced in me a similar experi-
ence but with the aid of a psychotropic plant. He seemingly
made me fly and I landed a distance from his house. At the
time, I had tried to explain the event in rational terms, but
there was no ground for rational explanations and, short of
accepting that I had flown, I had to fall back onto the only
two avenues left open: I could explain it all by arguing that
don Juan had transported me to the distant field while I was
still unconscious under the effect of the psychotropic alka-
loids of that plant; or by arguing that under the influence of
the alkaloids I had believed what don Juan was ordering me
to believe, that I was flying.
This time I had no other recourse but to brace myself for
accepting, on its face value, that I had flown. I wanted to in-
dulge in doubts and began to wonder about the possibilities
of the four girls carrying me to that hill. I laughed loudly,
incapable of containing an obscure delight. I was having a re-
lapse of my old malady. My reason, which had been blocked
off temporarily, was beginning to take hold of me again. I
wanted to defend it. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate
to say, in light of the outlandish acts I had witnessed and per-
formed since my arrival, that my reason was defending itself,
independently of the more complex whole that seemed to be
the me I did not know. I was witnessing, almost in the
fashion of an interested observer, how my reason struggled
to find suitable rationales, while another, much larger portion
of me could not have cared less about explaining anything.
La Gorda made the three girls line up. She then pulled me
to her side. All of them folded their arms behind their backs.
La Gorda made me do the same. She stretched my arms as
far back as they would go and then made me bend them and
grab each forearm as tightly as possible as close to the elbows
as I could. That created a great muscular pressure at the artic-
ulations of my shoulders. She pushed my trunk forward until
I was almost stooping. Then she made a peculiar birdcall.
That was a signal. Lidia started walking. In the darkness her
movements reminded me of an ice skater. She walked swiftly
and silently and in a few minutes she disappeared from my
view.
La Gorda made two more birdcalls, one after the other,
and Rosa and Josefina took off in the same manner Lidia had.
La Gorda told me to follow close to her. She made one more
birdcall and we both started walking.
I was surprised at the ease with which I walked. My entire
balance was centered in my legs. The fact that I had my arms
behind my back, instead of hindering my movements, aided
me in maintaining a strange equilibrium. But above all what
surprised me the most was the quietness of my steps.
When we reached the road we began to walk normally. We
passed two men going in the opposite direction. La Gorda