Bless Me, Ultima: Chapters 4-6

Of all the plants we gathered none was endowed with so much magic as the yerba del manso.

It cures coughs or colds, cuts and bruises, rheumatism and stomach troubles, and my father once said the old sheepherders used it to keep poisonous snakes away from their bedrolls by sprinkling them with osha powder.

her voice would trail off and my thoughts would be lost in the labyrinth of a time and history l did not know.

There was a nobility to her walk that lent a grace to the small figure.

I ran to the cactus and gathered a shovelful of the succulent, seedy pears.

The river was silent and brooding.

And I saw the Virgin draped in the gown of night standing on the bright, horned moon of autumn, and she was in
mourning for the fourth son.

I held my breath and looked at the giant, gnarled cotton­ wood trees that surrounded us.

The pres­ence was immense, lifeless, yet throbbing with its secret message.

Every autumn we made a pilgrimage to El Puerto where my grandfather and uncles lived.

The day was warm at noonday, not lazy and droning

Late in the afternoon my father came whistling up the goat path, striding home from the flaming-orange sun, and we ran
to meet him.

On one of the Virgin's feet there was a place where the plaster had chipped and exposed the pure-white plaster.

Her soul was without blemish.

It was sad to hear their plaintive voices in that candle-lit room.

I trudged up the steps to my room.

We passed Rosie's house and at the clothes­ line right at the edge of the cliff there was a young girl hang­ing out brightly colored garments.

Each house had a small flower garden in front and a corral for animals at the back.

Apples piled high, some lent their aroma to the air from where they dried in the sun on the lean-to roofs and others as they bubbled into jellies and jams.

Today I would take the goat path and trek into town for years and years of schooling.

"Any land will flow with milk and honey if it is worked with honest hands!" my mother retorted.

She scolded him and chased him out of the kitchen.

Huddled in the kitchen we bowed our heads.

But it is easy to ward off the dust devil, it is easy to make it change its path and skirt around you.

I had never felt such fear before, because as the whirlwind blew its debris around me the gushing wind seemed to call my name:

When I got to Main Street I was astounded.

For a long time I was held hypnotized by the thundering herd, then with a cry of resolu­tion exploding from my throat I rushed into the melee.

Its huge, yawning doors were menacing.

The building was cavernous and dark.

We struggled against the feeling of loneliness that gnawed at our souls and we overcame it; that feeling I never shared again with anyone, not even with Horse and Bones, or the Kid and Samuel