Chapter Five
Neetz hummed quietly to herself as she cleaned and returned the dishes to the hutch. As the men spoke, she set a pot near at the fire's edge and began mixing her "medicine", her eyes as accurate as any measuring cup. Occasionally she would look up at the two men, hoping that they were finding a common ground. Cimmaron had a reason for bringing the Mexican to the cave, she knew. The sanctity and security of their home was his singular mandate. Everything else paled in comparison.
"When...when were you in Casa Montoya?" Mano asked. "How, ... how is it you say you know my family?"
Cimmaron sat back in his chair, continuing to look into Mano's eyes.
"At first, once I found the Casa, I understood what the Old Apache meant. There was much there if one could get past the guards Your sentries looked for other men, for horses. They didn't watch for small shadows in the night. I remember the first time I entered the Casa. I just wanted to take some eggs, but I found myself wandering through the house. It was a magical place. I almost got caught by the one they call "Pepe". He has the ears of a rabbit, that one. I didn't go into the house much after that.
I would sometimes watch through the windows as the family ate. Your mother, your beautiful sister, your father and you. I would see him yell at you and it would remind me of Pop. Me father had a temper as bright as his hair, And a hand just as hot!"
Mano laughed with the Kiliwa , but felt a twinge of sadness, with the idea of a ten or twelve year old orphan hiding in the cactus above his home, watching his family dine together. There wasn't an ounce of self pity in Cimmaron, however.
" I would go there every Christmas, when your family had the big party with all the other young people. Once the lookouts got drunk, I could go down to the house and watch through the windows. All those girls in their beautiful dresses waiting their turn to dance. There was always a line of boys by your sister but there was one lass, a rather hefty one..."
" Isabella!" Mano gushed, with a loud laugh. "Isabella Hernandez. Aye yi yi . Nina grande, si!"
" Had a face like a blind cobbler's thumb, poor lass. No one would ask her for a dance except... Manolo Montoya. You made her feel like a princess. I was watching you trying to keep from getting stepped on when I felt a strong pair of hands on me shoulders."
'Who?!" Mano asked, as he sat upright. "Who caught you?!"
"The one who talks to the horses. Ruiz."
"Ruiz? No!" responded the astonished Mexican. " He has never spoken of this! What happened? What did he do once he caught you?"
"Nary a thing. He just held me tight and we watched the party. Ruiz had very strong hands, I couldn't move. He whispered to me to remain calm. After a while, he took me to the barn and talked to me. He said people were aware that things had started to come up missing, and that Rabbit Ears wanted to set a bear trap in the pantry. He threatened to turn me over to the Patron, to have me sent to the orphanage. But...he...he couldn't ."
"Why not?" wondered Mano aloud. "This makes no sense. He is Papa's most trusted confidante."
"What do you know of Ruiz, Manolo Montoya?"
"Everything!" thought Mano. He had known Ruiz his entire life. Ruiz had always been there. But where he came from...? Mano was drawing a blank, he had no answer. Cimmaron could tell.
"He was an orphan. Both his parents had been murdered by Indians, just like me Pop. Yaqui. He was sent to an orphanage until he ran away. It was your grandfather, Montoya, who gave him a place to grow up."
" I...I never knew of this...any of this."
"It was many years ago, Montoya. He would have no reason to mention it. When I told him that I lived to one day kill the animals who butchered me father, he said he understood, and would let me go. Ruiz ordered me to stop stealing from the Rancho. He told me if I ever got caught again, he would not be able to help .
Ruiz told me to remain there in the barn, and he left. When he returned, he had a plate of ham, with yams and cake. I had never eaten ham before. It was the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. He had a bag of cookies and candies for me to take. After that, I would sometimes find boxes of treats, or a small ham under a large saguaro near the edge of the big rocks. I knew it was Ruiz. I would leave him birds in return, birds that I carved from the alders and the junipers."
"I have seen them," Mano smiled." Ruiz kept them on a shelf above his bench in the barn. I always thought he carved them...I guess there are many things about Ruiz I don't know."
There was a respectful pause.
" To hear your words, Cimmaron, is to hear Ruiz's voice. I do not doubt you."
The two men sat in silence until Cimmaron rose and went to see how Neetz was doing with her potion. Cimmaron took a sniff and made a foul face toward Mano.
" Almost done." Cimmaron smiled as he turned and looked out to the night. " The rain has stopped Montoya. Would you like to get some fresh air?"
Mano welcomed the thought. With Cimmaron's assistance, he hiked up his skirt and hobbled out into the cool darkness, careful to avoid placing any pressure on his broken leg.. He hadn't realized how warm the cave had been until the bracing coolness of the night air covered him. It would be a comfortable place to be during the colder winter nights, he thought. The two men stared out to the night, occassionally catching glimpses of stars through the thinning clouds.
" I must ask you a question, Cimmaron. With all due respect, you told Ruiz that you wouldn't take from the Rancho Montoya, but the reason I was in the rocks that day was to help catch you. Papa knew you were stealing some of his cattle."
Mano could see Cimmaron stiffen up. To be standing on the precipice of a fifty foot drop, while balancing on one leg, was probably not the best place to accuse a man of rustling, Mano realized. Rather foolish, actually.
Cimmaron's reply was curt and clear. " I never stole a single vaca from your father. How much meat do you think a fourteen year old eats, Montoya? There were rabbits, there were deer, there were turkeys and quail. Your ponds were full of big, fat catfish and bass. I did not want for meat."
" Then why did you torture those men, hombre?. If you didn't steal the cattle, por que?"
Cimmaron spit on the ground and shook his head. "Let me ask you something. The day your father decided to send men after me, did these men volunteer? Did they offer to go, or were they ordered to go?"
"They volunteered, of course. They were some of his best vaqueros."
"They were some of his best thieves. They didn't ride into those rocks to catch me. They came to kill me. For four years I watched them push small numbers of cattle into a little hidden canyon in the rocks. Every few months that mutt they call El Lobo would come and buy the vacas, always at night. It was a good thing for them. They were the ones who counted the cattle for Don Sebastian. They knew how many they could steal and not be caught. But someone noticed, eh, Montoya? Someone saw the numbers were wrong, so they blamed me. That is why your brave vaqueros volunteered. They had all seen me before. They knew I knew what they were doing. They knew they needed to kill me. That is why they tricked you into getting lost, so you wouldn't witness a murder."
Cimmaron walked to Mano and put his face inches away from the Mexican's ear. Speaking in a whisper that Neetz wouldn't hear, Cimmaron hissed, "That is why I tortured them, Montoya. I wanted them to know they should never, ever, come after me again. I told them that if they did, their Padron would awaken one night and find me in his room. He would hear every word of me story before I left. They knew he would hang them."
The Indian walked stiffly back into the cave, leaving Mano to hobble in by himself. Neetz watched them, sensing a certain tension betwen the two men. She poured some freshly brewed tea in the empty cups on the table before seating herself.
"Gracis, Senora."
"Di nada."
The three people sipped their tea silently .
Cimmaron was the first to speak.
"After I ...spoke... to your five friends, I found you in the pond. I saw that magnificent horse and I thought of what the Old Apache had told me; that I would know when I was ready to find Mum. The time had come. The horse told me so, he was the sign I had waited for. I took him because he was now needed. I did not want you to die, Montoya, I remembered your kindness with the big lass at the dance. You were not like the others. That is why you were shown the way back to the Casa.
That horse, aye, I can tell you now, was the smartest, fastest, most able animal I will ever know. I could not have done without him. He could move in the night like a whisper. That's what I named him, Susurro. With him I was able to crawl up on Apache camps without anyone knowing. Apache are easy to find when they don't know they're being followed. Still, it is big country. It took many weeks to find the ones who had me Mum.
For a month I watched them, their routines, their habits, their weaknesses. After a while, I began to visit Mum at night. Those animals kept her in a cage, but she had Lark and she had more courage than any person in that camp. She had her faith, they could not take that from her."
"Ah, Senora. It must have been like a dream, no?, when your son appeared ?"
' I could feel his spirit for days before he came to see me. I knew he was near. It mattered more to me that he could see Lark than to see me.." She smiled. "Lark was so excited to see Joachim that I was afraid he would tell someone at the camp. I had to pinch him hard at times to keep his happiness down, before someone noticed."
Both Cimmaron and Neetz laughed at the memory of the little boy's ways.
" I rode to Tucson and took six bottles of whiskey from the back of the saloon. The day before I freed me Mum and me brother, I set the bottles where I knew they would be found. I had seen the comancheros do that when they wanted to move cattle across Apache ground. The Indians knew to stay at camp that night and to let the vacas pass . The two sides were not friends, but they shared the same enemies. It was an arrangement. Nobody gets hurt.
I sat in the chaparral above their camp and watched them get drunk. Three bottles would have been enough, but I wanted them to drink their fill. It would be their last. Even the squaws got drunk, squaws with infants.. Very few made it back to their beds. I thought of the words of the Old Apache and I understood his wisdom.
Once the fires began to die down and the last of them had passed out, I simply walked into the camp and cut the throats of every male. I thought of me father each time. It was easy. I had never killed a man before, but to me, these were not men. They were animals. I had more respect for the turkey than I had for those Apaches. '
Neetz placed her hand over the top of Cimmaron's and gave a gentle squeeze. Cimmaron continued to tell his story.
"When I had finished, I noticed one small hut with a light inside. When I pulled back the cover, I saw a man seated in front of a candle. It was the sage, the see'er, the ...the medicine man, of the camp. He put his knife on the ground and asked me to sit. I knew him. I had observed him while I watched the camp. He was the only one who ever treated Mum with respect. He said he had been expecting me, knowing one day I would arrive. When he saw the men bring six bottles into camp, he knew it was me. The comancheros never leave more than two. He said he needed to see me before I killed him, to ask forgiveness for the actions of his people. He leaned forward and presented his neck to me. I didn't want to kill him, and me thinks he sensed that. He grabbed his own knife and plunged it into his heart. Before he died, I told him he was forgiven and...he smiled, and then stopped being. His knife is the only thing I took from that place except for Lark and Mum. I used the man's knife to free them."
Mano was about to speak when he bumped his ankle against a table leg. He winced as a short, pain- filled groan escaped his lips.
"It is time to set the leg.' Neetz spoke as she rose from the table. "The medicine should be cool enough to drink now. Cimmaron, take two large glasses from the hutch."
As soon as the glasses were set on the table, Neetz filled them with the black liquid she had been preparing. Mano could smell the distasteful aroma and made a face, the face a boy makes when told to eat something he doesn't want to eat. It made Neetz smile.
" What is in this most delightful drink, Senora Fitzgerald?" Mano asked, deadpan.
'Oh, mescal, cactus and aloe juice, herbs, peyote."
"Ay... well that explains a few things." Mano grimaced.
Taking a deep breath, the Mexican drained the first glass. Before drinking the second, he raised it up and looked to the heavens .
"Well, Mama, here's hoping you still have your beautiful elephant."