Chapter one : Mendoza's plan
In a few hours would begin the Twelfth Night of Christmas, and almost nothing was ready. Diego cursed himself inwardly. Of course Felipe was not exactly a child anymore now, so he didn't believe that gifts were brought by the three Reyes Magos, but still. Diego expected the first Epiphany he would spend at home and with his loved ones in five years to be perfect. But in the excitement of coming back from Spain, creating a masked outlaw and making him take shape and live a life of adventures, of danger and of secrecy, he hadn't seen the past months fly by. Advent had arrived and culminated with Christmas without him understanding how these four weeks could have felt like hardly more than four days, then came and went the feast of the Sagrada Familia, and tomorrow would already be the day of the Kings.
And the present he had ordered for Felipe – a bit too late, he admitted – hadn't arrived on time. Damn. Good thing the boy was fourteen now, because Diego would have had a hard time explaining to the child Felipe still was before he left for Spain why the Magi had forgotten him or why they were late while gifts were delivered on time to other children in the pueblo.
And not only that, but Diego was also late in making the few toys he was supposed to give to the padre for the orphans of the mission. Each rich family had been asked to provide presents for a couple of children each, but the carpenter had been ill lately and couldn't make the toys Diego intended to order from him. As a result, on top of keeping alive the brand new myth he had recently created – in addition to keeping himself alive, literally – Diego decided to make these presents with his own hands.
But the miniature cart he had been working on lately still didn't have wheels, the wooden jumping-jack he had painted in the morning still needed assembling, and the hobby-horse needed a coat of paint as well as another of varnish, and time enough to dry...
Thank God Felipe had been a great help with sawing and sanding the pieces of wood following Diego's patterns and instructions, and even Don Alejandro had helped and didn't even lamented that his son spent far too much time on tinkering with all these knick-knacks: but indeed his father understood how important these presents would be for the children, so for once he approved of his son's trivial new kind of pastimes and occupation.
Now the three of them were in the courtyard putting siesta time to good use by trying to finish all this on time instead of taking a nap.
The sound of hooves interrupted his thoughts and he raised his head to look at the newcomers. His father did the same while Felipe, well-trained not to show any sign that he could hear these kind of things, apparently kept his whole focus on the string he was trying to tie to the inner part of the wooden puppet's shoulder.
Sergeant Mendoza entered the courtyard, followed by Victoria Escalante, and they both looked in a hurry. Diego frowned: did alcalde Ramone devise a new scheme to extort some more money from either the poor farmers or the shopkeepers, just on time to ruin the joy of Epiphany day for them – and incidentally for Zorro too?
"Don Alejandro, I'm so glad to find you home," Victoria said, confirming Diego's worries. "Sergeant Mendoza has something to ask you."
Mendoza?
Diego looked at the soldier: he looked rather uneasy and hesitant. Victoria, on the other hand, now looked more excited than incensed, and more expectant than worried. An encouraging smile even grazed her lips when she elbowed the sergeant:
"Come on Sergeant, tell Don Alejandro of your idea, it's such a nice one!"
Mendoza still looked a bit awkward but also pleased at Victoria's praise, so he straightened himself and looked at Don Alejandro in his eyes.
"Don Alejandro, I thought... er... Well, I remembered..."
He paused, and Victoria elbowed him again.
"Don Alejandro, I don't know if you are aware of this, but I grew up in an orphanage..."
Diego saw his father nod slowly and he kept this piece of information in mind: he was beginning to like this sergeant who obviously didn't really approve of all of his alcalde's doings and schemes, and Diego was sometimes feeling sorry for the tricks Zorro was playing on him and on his soldiers. Although he was serving under Luis Ramone, Sergeant Mendoza wasn't that bad and Diego regretted he had to physically fight this man and to make him look bad and be punished by his boss.
"Yes, Sergeant...?" Don Alejandro gently encouraged the soldier who was probably impressed that he had a request to present to a man who was probably the most prominent figure in Los Angeles after alcalde Luis Ramone.
"Well... I remember how I was feeling at this time of the year, when I was a child... at first I expected the Reyes Magos to bring me a family with parents and siblings, but then... since I didn't get this, year after year, Epiphany after Epiphany, I started doubting their existence, even though we were getting presents at the orphanage... Presents just like the ones you are making for the mission," he added, pointing at the toys they had been working on when he arrived.
Diego gently smiled at him.
"This is a very nice and kind thing you are doing for the orphans Don Diego, Don Alejandro..." Mendoza went on. "But as I said, I started to doubt the Kings' existence when I was five or six, and yet more than any other child the orphans need to dream and to believe that there is someone else than the padre or the nuns who care about them. Personally, I mean, even if it is only once a year. So I thought..."
He paused again.
"Come on Sergeant," Victoria said, "I told you Don Alejandro would approve of your idea so don't be shy! I even came with you, but it is your idea so it is better that you submit it to him..."
"Alright," Mendoza said. "I thought that perhaps if the orphans in the mission could spot the Three Wise Men from a distance tonight at dusk before going to bed, before they find these toys near their shoes tomorrow morning, it would help them keep hope and faith that they too are loved and cared for..."
Diego was moved by the man's words and couldn't help a gentle smile.
"Oh Sergeant, this is such a lovely idea!"
"Isn't it?" Victoria rhetorically asked.
"Indeed," Don Alejandro echoed while Felipe nodded approvingly. "But how do you suggest you can manage that, and where do I fit in this?"
"Well, at first I simply thought I would find a large coat, a cloak and a roll a long scarf or shawl around my head, and I went to the tavern to ask Señorita Escalante to lend me a pair of bedsheets and a shawl. But it would have still been only one king, and on a horse instead of a camel. That's when Señorita Escalante had an idea..."
He turned to her.
"Yes, I offered to play the second king, and to find a mean to transform a horse into a camel. But now we still lack the third Wise Man, you see..." Victoria said, gazing meaningfully at Don Alejandro.
"And a third camel..." Mendoza added. "So the señorita suggested that I ask you to please accept to be this third man tonight, Don Alejandro..." he expectantly explained.
"That will be an honour, Sergeant," Diego heard his father tell them. "And you know what? For once we can even put to use some of the futile things my son became fascinated with during the four years he spent in Spain."
Diego swallowed the disparaging comment or backhanded compliment without blinking an eye and turned to his father.
"What do you have in mind, Father?"
Don Alejandro smiled.
"Remember this theatre play on the Passion you told me about? Well, with a few of our curtains, some safety pins, long horsehair, glue and make-up I trust you can transform me, Mendoza and even our lovely Victoria here into Reyes Magos with long patriarch's beards..."
Felipe clapped his hands to get attention and enthusiastically added that he would take care of the horses.
"And you will need an accomplice inside the mission to get the children's attention," Diego stated, "and to point it at the three of you in the distance... I will play this part."
Felipe pointed at himself, meaning that he too would take care of the children.
"Wonderful," Victoria said. "You see Sergeant, I told you the de la Vega's heart is even bigger than their land is vast... Muchas gracias Don Alejandro, and gracias to you too Don Diego. I am sorry I have to leave now, but I still have to finish the candied fruits I'll bring tomorrow morning to the mission for the children, and I still have to prepare the Rosca de Reyes for them tonight. You can drop by at the tavern after dinner to magically turn me into one of the Three Wise Men, Don Diego. Thanks again and see you tonight, Señores."
z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z ~ z
"Your son is a true magician, Don Alejandro," said the long bearded man who came down the stairs of the tavern after closing time in a voice which disturbingly sounded like Victoria Escalante's.
Alejandro had to blink twice to be sure of what he was seeing. A real magician indeed, because except the very short height of this third wise man, nothing betrayed the fact that somewhere under this guise was a twenty-something young girl. As long as she kept silent of course. The same kind of long tousled beard as the one Diego had glued on his cheeks and chin was hiding Victoria's lovely lower face and cascading down her chest, over an artistically draped velvet double curtain which Alejandro recognised as his library's one. Victoria's beard was black, though, matching the natural colour of her hair while Diego had used for his father grey horsehair cut from one of the mares in his stables. Poor beast! But it would grow long again, and that was for a good cause after all.
Around her head Diego had improvised a turban by rolling her flowered shawl and her lace mantilla together. It went low down her forehead to her eyebrows. Her eyes, just like Alejandro's and Mendoza's, were heavily underlined and even upperlined with black kohl, while her eyelids were covered with dark eyeshadow. Diego had even managed to draw wrinkles and crow's feet to make her look older.
Alejandro recognised his son's silk sash tied around her waist which, for the occasion, had doubled its circumference probably thanks to one small cushion on the front side and one at the back, just like Diego did on him. Alejandro was impressed by his son's inventiveness as far as disguise and dressing-up were concerned. Too bad this boy didn't put so much effort in more useful and less futile areas!
Around Victoria's neck Diego had loosely hung his late mother's very long pearl necklace to add a touch of richness and orientalism to the costume, and Alejandro liked it. He fondly looked down at his own left hand, where he could see an emerald golden ring which formerly belonged to his dear wife. He had to put it around his pinkie, because all his other fingers were too thick for it, and he remembered the feeling of her soft small hand in his large and rough one. He sighed.
"Is something wrong, Don Alejandro?" the bearded king in front of him asked with Victoria's voice.
"Nothing, my dear, nothing. I am glad to see this necklace again, pearls need to be worn to keep their beauty. They have been lying in a box for far too long since my wife died."
"I told Don Diego it is too beautiful for just a disguise, but he insisted. I thought it was too valuable for me to wear it, I supposed the necklace was your wife's, but he didn't tell me so. He simply said it was the perfect final touch and he put it around my neck."
"And he did right. I told you, it needs to be worn by a lovely lady rather than remain in a drawer in Diego's bedroom."
"Not your bedroom?" Victoria asked, surprised.
Alejandro shook his head.
"No. She died without leaving any daughter, so all her jewellery logically went to her only son... waiting to be worn by a daughter-in-law, and then a granddaughter. And what would I do with it, after all? It is better that way. Now Diego is back home and of marriageable age... we'll find the lady worthy of giving a new life to this jewellery. In the meantime it looks truly wonderful on you my dear, even in this guise!"
Diego appeared at the top of the stairs just when his father ended his sentence, and his face showed no sign that he heard the former paternal comment about trying to marry him off now that he was back.
"Congratulations Diego, you worked wonders! You made our lovely Victoria into a convincing Wise Man... But even your talent didn't manage to make her look remotely ugly, even with this beard!"
"Our Victoria, ugly? Ah, Father, nobody is expected to do the impossible..."
The very small part of Victoria's face that was still visible between the fake beard and the turban blushed.
"Oh, Don Diego, this is so sweet... You are such a gentleman!"
Felipe then entered from the kitchen and signed that the horses were ready. They all followed him through the back door and joined Mendoza in the backstreet.
"Victoria, Diego," Alejandro asked with a frown when he saw the sergeant, "wasn't Mendoza with you upstairs?"
"Uh... no, Father. I was already done with him earlier."
Alejandro looked sternly at his son, clearly discontent.
"This is not very proper, Diego. You and Victoria alone upstairs in her bedroom..."
"What!?" Diego said, shocked at his father's insinuation.
"What?!" Victoria echoed. "Don Alejandro, I swear that nothing improper–"
"Of course nothing improper occurred!" Diego almost shouted. "I was just helping her get dressed!"
"You realise how this last sentence could sound like, Diego... A good thing we all know what you truly meant here."
Diego looked at his feet, awkward. He cleared his throat.
"I am sorry, Father, I should have thought... I forgot. I apologise."
"I swear we didn't mean any harm Don Alejandro," Victoria added, "we went upstairs without thinking..."
"Of course the thought never crossed our minds..." Diego echoed.
And suddenly Alejandro inwardly wondered whether he should feel relieved or perhaps worried that this particular thought didn't even cross his son's far too proper mind... Of course Alejandro didn't want his son to act like a cad, but... even if you don't eat at the tavern it is a sign of good health to think about the menu and have your mouth water at the idea of the meal, right? After all, Diego now was a fully grown man, it would be only logical that he'd think what most men think when alone with a young woman in her bedroom...
So in other words, Alejandro didn't want his own flesh and blood to act like a cad, but he'd be a bit relieved to be sure that his son thought like one. In other words, that he thought like just any man!
Except that ever since he came back from Spain several months earlier, never once did he show a particular interest for any of the marriageable young ladies his age of the vicinity. Strange. Did Diego leave part of his heart behind him in Madrid when he was summoned back home? He'd have to question his son about any love interest he could have had during his time there. If it was as Alejandro suspected, he'd leave Diego a whole year for the passing of time to heal his broken young heart before he tries to find the ideal daughter-in-law.
In the mean time, it was a good thing that none but the three of them knew that Diego and Victoria spent a whole quarter of an hour alone in her bedroom after the tavern closed. Alejandro shrugged and crossed the backstreet to join the good-hearted sergeant and Felipe. 'King Mendoza' looked just like Victoria and himself, Alejandro noted. He recognised some of his hacienda's curtains and embroidered bedsheets on him, as well as a few of his wife's jewellery.
"Look, Don Alejandro!" the sergeant enthusiastically said, pointing at their mounts. "Of course they still look like horses, but seen from afar, through the dimness of twilight and by children who never saw a real camel in their life, it can maintain the illusion!"
Alejandro took a closer look at his mare: Felipe had filled bags with either wool or cotton and had tied these to the front and back of the saddle to imitate the camels' humps. Then he had thrown a blanket over it all to cover the horse from ears to hindquarter and he even roughly sewed a yellow braid on the blanket to make it look better.
Mendoza's horse looked more or less the same, as well as Victoria's.
"Very good, Felipe!" Alejandro said, patting the boy's back because it was perhaps a bit too dark now for him to clearly see what anyone's lips were saying.
"Come with me, Felipe," Diego said as he put his hand on his young friend's shoulder, "let's now go to the mission and prepare the children for the Three Wise Men's brief appearance..."
"Have you told the padre about the Sergeant's plan, Son?"
"I did, Father. He approved. And the toys are in the carriage, ready to be unloaded as soon as the kids go to bed. Everything is finally ready."