A Valentine's Day Mess Pt. 04

"She helped her step into the basin and asked, 'Do you confess what you do with your husband?'

"'Brother Martin is my confessor,' Aldonza said. She laughed while Falcona washed her shoulders and her back. 'My confessions get him excited, so sometimes I make things up. Then the penance he gives me is nothing.'

Claudia slipped her hand around her brother's cock and fingered his balls. He was still soft at first.

"Aldonza was tense," Claudia said, "but she relaxed a little while Falcona washed her. Falcona slid her fingers down the deep crease between Aldonza's cheeks then she caught her breath while Falcona washed Sancho's cum at of her ass.

"Aldonza was getting turned on," Claudia said. She tightened her grip on Manny hardening cock. "Just like you're getting turned on. Falcona knew it. She wanted it."

Claudia stroked Manny's cock while she talked. "Falcona made Aldonza face her and leaned close to inhale the clean scent that rose from her neck. She talked with her lips nearly touching Aldonza's ear. 'You won't need to make anything up when you confess this to Brother Martin.'

"Aldonza tried to pull back when Falcona kissed her—you know, like eew, she'd never been kissed by a girl before—then she let Falcona's tongue into her mouth. Falcona could feel Aldonza get turned on. It was the way her muscles went all tight and her breath got hot.

"Falcona broke their kiss to finish bathing Aldonza. She stroked her breasts and Aldonza's nipples stood up. Falcona's played around in the hair between Aldonza's legs until she pushed Falcona's hand away and asked, 'What of my eternal soul if I'm taken by a bruja?'

"Falcona said, 'Your eternal soul is for Martin to worry about.' She helped Aldonza from the basin and wrapped her in a warm linen hanging beside the fireplace. 'Let him worry about it, and give me your mortal body.'

"Falcona took Aldonza to bed and let the linen fall. She dropped her golden girdle with the linen, and then Aldonza helped Falcona peel away her red tunic and then her linen chemise. They were naked like that for just a moment before Falcona pulled Aldonza's mouth to her nipple, and pressed her down on the bed.

Claudia put both hands around Manny's cock, and he moaned while she pumped him.

"Aldonza's body tightened from all the things Falcona did to her. You gotta know she'd never felt anything like that. Aldonza's excitement got Falcona so hot she could hardly breathe. Their bodies were all in a tangle, and they both panted for air. Falcona ground on Aldonza's thigh, and she flicked her finger around Aldonza's clit."

Manny couldn't take anymore. He groaned into Claudia's ear. "Oh fuck" he said, and his cum splattered onto his sister's hands and her belly.

Claudia laughed and kissed her brother's face. "You liked that, didn't you?" She didn't wait for an answer before she wiped her hands on the sheets and went on with the story.

"Aldonza gave in to Falcona," Claudia said. "She clenched her teeth and flopped on the bed while she came, and then she wilted in Falcona's arms. Falcona was still holding Aldonza when Sancho pounded at the door."

Manny drew a breath and exhaled against Claudia's neck. "Sancho was mad at first," he said. "He was angry and confused, but he had two willing women in his bed. He adapted, and why not? He had his wife, her lover, and nothing to lose.

11. Marigolds

Manny slouched in his chair at the kitchen table and stared at his half-empty coffee cup while Claudia stood with her back to him and fried bacon. She turned around and gestured with the fork in her hand. "You look like I feel," she said. "Did you dream all night? I did."

"All night," Manny said. He squinted a little against the morning light falling through the window. "I dreamed of children. Dead children. You too?"

Claudia nodded her answer and turned back to the stove. She was talking to the bacon when she said, "Some were my sons or daughters. Some were my brothers or sisters. I guess they really would have been our ancestors' kids, but they felt like mine."

Manny sat upright when Claudia put his plate in front of him. "What's our schedule this morning? I'm already exhausted."

"We need to finish pretty quick and get into makeup and costume. I need to load Concha so Tío Pedro can drive her to the staging area, then we do Mass at Saint Anne's. They're right by the parade route, so they're doing a big thing. Then the parade."

Manny's only answer was a quiet groan.

* * *

"Ah, come on, Claudia!" Maya said. "I didn't get any sleep last night. Can't I just go to the end and wait for you?"

A marching band started warming up behind them, so Claudia shouted her answer. "Mija, you have to stay with Manny," she said, "or at least close to him."

Manny's Mom squealed behind them, and Manny spun around. Dolly and Idalia were in the back of the customized convertible that Gil hired for the parade. Its gold plate gleamed in the sun, and Tío Tito's airbrushed images of cholos and cholas in flowing Mexican designs stared back from its paint job.

The women held onto their wide hats while the driver tested his hydraulics. First the chassis rose on one side then on the other. It dropped low to the ground then its front end bounced into the air. He was ready to go, but Dolly and Idalia were still trying to catch their breath when Gil signaled to Claudia.

Claudia tugged on Manny's arm with her white-gloved hand and pulled him down to hiss in his ear. "Angelito's here," she said. "I can smell him. Keep Maya close."

She mounted Concha while Tom climbed into the car and Gil checked the signs that hung on the doors. They each read, "Your neighbors at Valley Urgent Care urge YOU to Vote. Elect Gil Candelária for US House."

Manny turned around to look for Maya and found her standing next to him. "I heard that," she said. She cocked her head and looked up at him. "What are you going to do if he tries something? Cripple him with laughter? You both look kinda silly."

"What's silly?" Manny asked, and looked down at himself. Like Claudia, he wore a fitted black shirt and pants printed front and back with a white skeleton. Their faces were both painted to look like sculls—white, with large dark circles around their eyes and teeth penciled in around their mouths. That couldn't be it. Maybe it was the black-and-white high tops or the broad, flat-brimmed hat.

"Never mind," Maya said. "Don't you need to get your bucket of sugar skulls? I've got the extras in my bag."

They jogged to catch up and reached the car as it pulled onto the boulevard where people sat or stood in groups along the sidewalks, and small altars decorated with marigolds lined the way. Each altar carried votive candles and photos of relatives who'd passed away.

Gil worked both sides of the street, with his attention mostly on voters, and on Manny's side kids ran to him as he handed out sugar skulls. Maya trailed a little and tried to stay out of the way, but Manny never let her get far away.

They were nearing the crowds gathered at Saint Anne's, where the boulevard turned, when Manny caught a movement from the corner of his eye. He found a barefoot boy not more than eight years old running along the sidewalk. Then there was a girl just a little younger, and another boy.

Manny jerked around and found Claudia sitting bolt-upright on Concha, looking back. They saw what no-one else could see—the children who'd stepped from their dreams. They were the children who died young, and who now came back for Dias de Los Muertos.

Neither of them had time to think about it. Manny motioned to Maya, and she refilled his bucket of sugar skulls. Kids clamored for more, and the children that no-one else could see clung to his legs and called to him in languages he could barely remember. They called him father. They called him brother.

Claudia stopped Concha and waited in front of the show car for the Capoeira troupe in front of them to move ahead. Concha knew it was her time, and she waited with her head in the air, pretty and proud until Claudia gave the driver a signal, and the car's big speakers started playing a slow Mexican love song.

Manny knew what Concha and Claudia did was dressage, but to him it looked like a dance. People watching from the sidewalks had probably never seen a horse do anything like it. They were quiet at first, but then they started clapping their hands as Concha pirouetted in time to the music.

Through it all, Claudia kept her back straight and her eyes ahead while the children only they could see clamored around Concha. They called her mother. They called her sister.

"Pablito," Manny said to himself as their names flooded from his memory. "Juanita, Itzli, Xochitl—"

He wasn't quiet enough. "What are you muttering about?" Maya asked.

Manny shrugged and decided it would be easiest to tell the truth. "It's Dias de Los Muertos," he said. "I'm remembering the names of dead children."

"You and Claudia are just weird sometimes," Maya said. She watched Concha side-step back to the car where her dance started. Concha nodded to the crowd at both sides when the music stopped. People cheered and Dolly squealed again as the show car rocked and bounced into the air.

Maya tugged on Manny's arm to get him to bend down, and she talked into his ear. "The more tired I get, the more I hear Angelito. He wants me to follow him."

"You can't follow him," Manny said and clenched his jaws. "We'll get to the end of this, and we'll go home. You have to hold on."

The marching band behind them started up again, and Claudia hurried Concha around the curve. The dead children danced around Manny as he handed out candy, and around Concha as they passed Saint Anne's.

The crowd around the bend was thin and mostly gathered by the community center at the end of the parade. "You run, don't you?" Manny asked.

"Cross-country," Maya said, "but I don't want to run now. I'm tired."

"Come on, it'll take your mind off Angelito. I'll beat you there," Manny said. He tucked the bucket under his arm and started off at a jog. He'd just caught up with the car when Maya caught up with him.

"You call that running?" Maya asked. "You'll never beat anyone that way. I'll see you at the end." Maya lengthened her stride and ran ahead. She hadn't given Manny much reason to think she'd go along with it, so he was surprised.

The bucket under Manny's arm and the children around his legs slowed Manny down. It was only about a quarter of a mile, and Maya laughed at him when he caught up with her in the crowd by the community center. "You run like a dork," she said.

Manny shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not always." They passed out the last of the sugar skulls before Claudia led the car into the park around the community center where Tío Pedro waited by Concha's trailer.

Claudia dismounted and kissed Concha's neck then led her onto a patch of grass where she would be more comfortable, and she turned around to find her mom waiting for her. "We have a reception at Tom's new clinic," Idalia said. "Everybody will be there. Can you keep track of Maya and get her home? It's not really a good place for a bored teenager."

Claudia glanced to where Gil was shaking hands by the convertible then to Maya waiting by the trailer. "We'll get her home. I don't think she wants to do anything but sleep, anyway." She waved to Idalia and turned back to Manny with Concha's reins still in hand. "What are we going to do about all these kids?" she asked, and motioned to the dead children who called to them.

"I don't think anyone else can see them or hear them, but people can see and hear anything we do." Manny said. "We need to be somewhere out of sight."

Live kids were gathering around Concha, and Claudia called Maya. "Mija, come hold Concha. You and Tío Pedro can let the kids pet her." She handed Maya the reins. "Don't let them behind her. She might get nervous."

Claudia tucked her hand around Manny's arm and pulled him toward Concha's trailer. They threw there wide hats aside, fell to their knees inside the tailgate, and pulled children into their arms. Manny and Claudia called them each by name, kissed their cheeks and stroked their hair, and one-by-one the kids faded back into memory.

The sounds of a Mariachi band floated over the parking when they were alone in the trailer again, but the voices of the children who'd gathered around Concha were silent.

Tío Pedro leaned around the trailer to look inside. "Concha's ready to go," he said.

Claudia jumped from the back and looked around. "Where's Maya?"

Tío hardly looked up from his work. "She said she was tired. She went to find someplace to rest."

"Shit!" Manny said. He was still standing on the back of the trailer and looking over Claudia's head. "There's Angelito's truck."

Claudia used her hand to shield her eyes from the bright sun. She found the truck parked behind the community center in time to see Angelito shove Maya, with her hands tied behind her back, through the passenger door.

Manny jumped from the trailer and sprinted toward the truck while Angelito paused to bind Maya's legs. Manny, with Claudia close behind him, weren't even halfway across the park when Angelito pulled the truck onto the street in a cloud of dust.

They stopped where a yellow cottonwood tree spread over the lawn, and a motion overhead caught their attention. An eagle spread its wings and lifted into the air. "The Guardians!" Claudia said. "The Guardians are here."

The eagle stroked its wings and followed Angelito to the Boulevard. Claudia and Manny—both still in costume and makeup—ran to keep the bird in sight. They turned north and followed a curve in the street to where the eagle landed high in a dying elm tree. The tree grew from an auto impoundment lot that was surrounded by a high fence topped with concertina wire.

They were in time to see the gate rumble shut, and Angelito's truck disappear into the maze created by impounded cars and trucks. Manny was gulping for breath when he asked, "Now what?"

Claudia reached the gate first. "He had it jammed open," she said. She kicked Angelito's big wrench out of the way, and Manny pushed the gate open enough to let them both squeeze through. They jogged up the lane where they saw Angelito disappear, and then stopped without knowing where to go.

Manny heard a door slam and climbed onto the bumper of a dented sedan to look around. "Where did you go? Where did you go?" He asked, mostly to himself, until he caught sight of Angelito's truck over the top of a sunburned SUV.

"Found him!" Manny said. He jumped from the sedan and hurdled the bent hood of a car that blocked his path. He expected Claudia to follow, but she dodged it instead. Manny was nearly out of sight before she could follow him.

Claudia was picking her path when Angelito caught her arm from behind her and slammed her against a car. She choked on Angelito's stench and clawed at his face. He turned her over the car, and she kicked and threw her elbows back against him.

Angelito pressed Claudia down with his weight. He caught her arms, trapped them behind her back, and growled in her ear "You took my bait, bitch. The dogs will have your brother, and I'll have you."

Through her stunned haze, Claudia could hear the growl and barks of large dogs. She struggled to look back at Angelito. "Where's Maya. What are you doing to her?"

"What usually happens to bait?" Angelito asked. He jerked on the waist of Claudia's costume pants, but her belt held tight, so he turned her around with a grip on her hair. "I'm cursed by this charm you made. It let me into the shadows, but now I can't get your cunt off my mind. I'm going to fuck you and finally be done with you."

Claudia found her locket on a leather thong around Angelito's neck. "This is how you got into Maya's head, isn't it." She yanked at it, but Angelito slapped her hand away and bent her over the car again.

"You're over your head," Claudia said. She turned her head to look at him and her cheek left a trail of grease paint on the car.

Angelito shoved her pants down, and laugh in her ear. "What are you and your brother going to do about it?" He freed his cock while the sounds of a snarling fight and injured yelps carried over the lot.

"Hear that?" Claudia asked. "Those are wolves."

Angelito looked up with his cock in hand. "They won't reach me before I'm done with you." He bent over Claudia to force his cock into her, but a loud snort from behind him made him turn his head.

It was too late for Angelito. The bear rose on its hind legs and threw Angelito aside with one swing of its paw. Angelito rolled away with the bear on top of him. It closed its jaws on his shoulder then on his leg, but Angelito kicked free and rolled again. Angelito rolled under a car where the bear couldn't reach, and he left a trail of blood behind him.

The bear paced and sniffed around the car, then Claudia saw a coyote escape from the other side, limping on three legs. The bear gave one snort while it watched the coyote disappear into the maze or cars, and it faded into the light.

Claudia was still pulling her pants up when she saw Manny picking through the lot with Maya over his shoulder. Claudia waved to her brother and laughed when she heard Maya complain. "Let me down, Manny! Dammit. Let me down."

"You wouldn't even be able to stand up," Manny said. He stopped in front of Claudia while she buckled her belt. "Can you untie her legs? I didn't bother." He spotted Angelito's trail of blood and squinted at the tangle that he'd made of Claudia's hair. "What happened?"

"Maya was bait," Claudia said. "Angelito was after me. He got my pants down before the bear just about killed him." She dropped the cord that tied Maya's ankles, and Manny left a streak of makeup on her jeans when he lowered her to the ground. "I heard the wolves."

"Bear?" Maya asked. "How do we get bears and wolves in the middle of the valley?" She waited for Manny to untie her wrists. "There were, like four big dogs chasing Manny, and a whole pack of wolves waiting around the truck.

"The wolves pretty much tore the dogs apart. Manny smashed the truck window, and the wolves disappeared—I mean, just like that," She snapped her fingers, "and they were gone."

Maya rubbed her wrists and looked from Claudia to Manny. "Nobody is ever going to believe me."

"Maybe your Abuelita will," Manny said. "You can talk to us about it, but anyone else is going to know you're nuts."

* * *

"Will Maya be OK?" Manny asked. He stuffed the last bite of his hamburger into his mouth and started dredging through the fries left on his plate.

"She stuck to you all afternoon, didn't she?" Claudia asked, but she didn't wait for an answer. "You're her knight in shining armor." The last of Claudia's coke gurgled through her straw. "I think she's good. Maya's tougher than she acts sometimes. She didn't seem very tough when she needed to nap with us, but she is."

"I don't mind being her hero, but I'm glad Abuelita made her help with dinner and leave us alone." Manny loaded their tray with everything left and passed it to the bus boy clearing tables. "When are your classes tomorrow?"

Claudia pulled her sweater around her and watched through the window as people passed by under Pioneer Restaurant's neon sign. "Not going," she said. "I made arrangements before you woke up. How about you? When are you leaving?"

"I have two classes tomorrow and I'd have to leave now to make them. I left messages and I'll get notes from someone. What do you want to do now?"

"This place is practically empty. I'll buy you coffee, and we can stay here." She slid out of the booth, and Manny found himself staring at his sister's butt while she ordered coffee. She stopped on the way back to load up on sugar and creamer and then set Manny's coffee in front of him, scattered packets of sugar and little cups of creamer on the table, and sat down again.