Abismo de pasión #80 7/3/12 : On the road to the Yúcatan

By Jack Kerouac as told to NovelaMaven in the vision hut behind EJ’s cement cenote.
I drove 25 hours without stopping and now I boomed noisily into the sleepy heat of La Ermita; even though I was all sweaty and raggedy and still a little drunk from that last bottle of tequila and the intoxicating heat of the wild Mexican night itself, I went directly to look for Rosendo and the old Pro Ce gang -- old don Lucio and his lovely, sweet wife Blanca, big handsome Braulio and his girl Lola, and kind old Maru, Rosie’s faithful secretary. I was also hoping to see Estefanía, and I do mean see, as in catch a glimpse of, espy, not do anything else because I knew she was married to some old guy and she loved that lucky bastard with all the shining, luminous, starry intensity of her beautiful heart and soul entire.
Rosie was an oldtime hipster with a weakness for the worst women – and I do sincerely mean the absolute, bottomofthebarrel worst, soul-dead and heartless. I knew he was secretly and from afar, mad, crazy in love with Estefanía and had ended up married to a shrew named Alfonsina and he used to try to soothe his sorrowful lot by tomcatting around some. But Braulio said Rosie was dead, had been for many years, and so was Blanca, the sweetest woman I had ever known; and the saddest news of all -- the morning star over the Yúcatan was also extinguished, that is, dear, darling, beautiful Estefanía was also dead. She and Rosie had died in a car crash and the wicked tongues said they had been lovers and were running away together.
Two days later, the old guy had married Steffie’s sister though by the time I got there, their marriage was bitter ashes.
The last time I saw them they were just kids but now Rosie’s boy Damián and Steffie’s girl Elisa were all grown-up and breaking hearts and having their hearts broken in a reciprocal fashion and not; and Gael and Paloma, were still running and dancing and nipping at their heels, their grand hearts bursting with desire and friendship and love and jealousy.


The Rectory
Damián repeated the Big Lie to Lupe, that he and Elisa couldn’t marry because they were children of the same father. Damn! No one had ever seen Lupe this angry before. His face darkened like a stormy September sky and he roared and he got right up in Damián’s face: “It’s a lie! Estefanía and Rosendo were never lovers!” Dam was doubting and was looking for Padre’s proof because Augusto, he had proof, an actual, scientifically valid test that showed unequivocally – that is to say it could not be wrong, it admitted of no doubt – that Elisa was not the old guy’s daughter. Well no, he did not produce the actual results, the words on the page, the certified copy; in fact it was Carmina who forced him to tell us ...
Cielo Abierto
Gabino was there waiting for Augusto and the whole time they talked, he never stopped cutting and chewing his habaneros; and through a mouthful of orange spittle and spite, really and truly disgusting, as he leaned way too close into the old guy’s face, he offered to buy Augusto’s lands . He had saved up a little money working in the Pro Ce all these years ... Too bad for Gabino because that mean blue-eyed bastard was going to have to shuffle back to his hidey-hold empty-handed -- there wasn’t enough desperate in the world for Augusto to sell to this scheming con man, Alfonsina’s personal pitbull.
[I noticed a few nods of satisfaction at the not quite deserted Augusto table on the Patio and I thought I saw Carlos raise a glass.]
Hacienda Harango
Damián’s mother sat on an elaborately carved chair that screamed money, entitlement, power. Her disconcertingly large eyes were locked in a wide-open stare no matter what the rest of her face was doing and the over-all effect was terrible and frightening. Flor, a beautiful little girl, sweet but spoiled, who had come to La Ermita expecting to seal the deal with Damián, was groveling in a most pathetic fashion, begging Alfonsina to withdraw the charges against her daddy, Guido, who now languished, lonely and penniless in the jail in Mérida. Alfie’s response: “Give me a grandchild and your daddy goes free”.
Alfonsina then dismissed the drooping, wilted Flor and immediately thereafter picked up the phone to set up a meeting with someone ...
Who’s the AlfaBitch now?
Alfonsina sat back, and wow, yes, she had to admire the black heart and perversity and that’s right, let’s recognize it, utter mad genius of her opposite number, Carmina Castañon – for now we knew it was she, Elisa’s aunt, that Alfie summoned on the phone. Whooee! Carmina convinced Augusto that his daughter wasn’t his daughter! Damn! But Carmina wasn’t going to get any money out of this, if that’s what she was planning.
La Cantina
Don Lucio headed straight as an arrow to his friend Augusto’s table in the cantina where Augie was trying to quiet his conscience with a bottle of tequila, which in my experience is an effective but temporary solution; the men didn’t seem to hear the whacked-out woo woo sopranos in the background and good thing too because they were sad and scary. Augie was sorry and all – and the guy looked sorry, I will say – he didn’t want to hurt Elisa but he couldn’t let her leave with Dam, he couldn’t keep silent.
“Just do me one favor”, began Lucio ...
Outside Casa Castigo
There was Flor dogging Elisa’s steps, blaming her for every single Dam thing that had gone wrong in her life. And Elisa told her bitterly that she could have Damián [although it was strange how her little girl short pants were warring with her new world-weary attitude.] “There’s nothing between us anymore.”
But Flor went too far and she showed her thorns and said Elisa was just like her mother (de tal palo, tal astilla) and she called Elisa a cualquiera . For this nasty slander of my old friend, the princess of the Yúcatan, Estefanía, whap, Elisa slammed Flor in the chops and told her to rinse her mouth out before talking about her ma. [And while I’m not a violent person, I have to say Flor had it coming.]
[I glanced over at the Patio where a few folks were distancing themselves from the Italian table.]
Inside Casa Castigo
The aunt was pretending to be human and she was saying she was sorry Elisa was hurt but it would have been monstrous if she had married her own brother, but Elisa knew that the aunt was satisfied with herself and not a bit sorry. And if she had spoken up with the intention of holding on to her husband, well ha, Miss Orange Slush, you lost him long ago.
In el centro of La Ermita
Gael and the curandera’s pretty granddaughter, Paloma, were trying to find a comfortable position in the weird bolted-down outdoor chairs when that truly awful peyos-wearing sharp-chinned harpy by the name of Ingrid came bopping down the street and splashed a little venom their way: “I thought you were in love with Elisa” she said nastily and with the clear intention of stirring up trouble between Gael and Paloma.
Meanwhile Florencia had lost her bravado and was back at Hacienda Harango, crying all alone and sad and small and she heard in her head the doctor telling her she probably couldn’t have children and Alfonsina telling her that having a child was her ticket out of hell. Man.
Inside Casa Castigo, Dolores handed Carmina a white envelope with a note inside. A boy had brought it to the door ...
In the church, Lupe was on his knees praying for forgiveness for something he was about to do ...
I had fond memories of The Blue House from when Rosie let me crash there years ago and the old gang came down from Frisco and we were crazy and young and hopeful and hungry. But monsters lived in the house now. Sharp-chinned Ingrid swooped in and that pitiless gangster Gabino jumped on her: What did she think she was doing, going to see the aunt? Didn’t she realize how dangerous Carmina was? Even more dangerous than Alfonsina? Ingrid narrowed her eyes and jutted her witchy chin out a little further: “What did you do that gives her power over you? You might as well tell me because you know I’ll find out sooner or later.”
Don Lucio’s house
When a knock sounded at the door, Lucio reminded Augusto that he was a guest and he needed to behave himself. Then Lucio let in Doc Tovar, Edmundo to his pals and a waving red flag before that old bull, Augusto, ever since he found out the doc had done Carmina though the sad truth was more like Carmina had done the doc and done him dirty. But Edmundo had something to say and Lucio was making sure Augie listened, like it or not.
Back at the church ...
... Now, when I saw the aunt arrive, I understood what padre Lupe was steeling himself for. He was the one who sent her the note asking her to see him and now he was ready to confront her lies; she was a monster and he wasn’t going to be her accomplice anymore. “You’re a priest. You can’t break the silence of the confessional” gloated the Demoniacal Rotten Orange and she moved in close and toyed with his rosary. “I’m also a man”, I heard Lupe tell her. He was prepared to break his vows, and even if it cost him the priesthood, he was going to speak the truth about her and Rosendo. Unless -- and here he grabbed her by the back of her neck and I could see she finally got it, Lupe was serious – unless she spoke up and made it clear that Augusto was the one and true father of Elisa. “Now get out!”
[I could hear chairs scraping and voices murmuring approvingly and in the distance I saw a small crowd surreptitiously carrying CarayCaray banners and pitchers of sangría over to the Lupe table on the Patio. Others, though, were edgily clearing out of the Lupe area, fearing a great rain of anvils.]
At Lucio’s, Edmundo spilled all the funny stuff about the DNA test, how the aunt asked him to fake the results – he refused – and how she hijacked the results of the second test before anyone could see them. And Lucio reasoned and wheedled and pleaded and even invoked the memory of our beloved Estefanía, and at last he got Augusto to sign a paper authorizing the lab in Mérida to release the results of both tests to Edmundo.
[The crowd was far away but the murmur had become a roar and some were standing on the Lucio table and calling for the wave.]
In a mute, sad, private ceremony in the stables of the Hacienda, Dam Stoopid removed his amulet from around his neck. And in her room at Casa Castigo, Stoopid Elisa was tucking her amulet in a drawer.
Casa Tovar
Quique was lounging despondently in his bed and not a bit receptive to his ma’s advice to forget Flor and find a nice girl who would appreciate him – not such bad advice really but pretty much a waste of spit. Anyway, Quique explained Flor’s hour of need with her dad in jail and all and the Bumble jumped all over that -- another proof that the Eye-talians were trash and another reason to forget Flor. And by the way, where’s your sister? “Um. At a girlfriend’s house.”
Tawdry hotel scene
Quique may have meant to do a favor for his sister but that was a big fat ugly lie because Sabrina was with the opposite of a friend since Paolo lookatmeImsopretty Landucci was definitely no one’s friend. Even as the near-naked narcissist was telling Sabrina he was falling in love with her, he was checking himself out in the mirror; and it made me want to weep thinking of all the sad little girls in all the hotel rooms with all the Paolo’s in the world.
Lucio’s house
After Augusto signed the release form, Edmundo and Lucio made their arrangements to go to Mérida the next day to pick up the real, true, untampered with lab results, and furthermore they agreed that no one would talk to Elisa or Dam until they had said results in hand. Then Lucio and Augie started walking back to Casa Castañon because Lucio wanted to see Elisa.
Rectory
Dam Stoopid brushed right past Lupe because he wasn’t in the mood to talk although Lupe was and urgently and importantly so.
On the way back to Casa Castigo ...
Augie told Lucio how he turned down slimy snake Gabino’s offer to buy his lands but he was still intending to sell to pay off his debt to the AlfaBitch.
Once at the house, Lucio went off looking for Elisa and Augusto found himself alone with the aunt who had used the last few hours to come up with a way to dodge Padre Lupe’s bullets: “We have to consider the possibility of a lab error, that is to say, maybe Elisa is not Rosendo’s daughter after all.” And Augusto looked right back and couldn’t believe he heard right: “All these years you’ve been telling me Elisa wasn’t my daughter – and now you’re not sure?”
Rectory
Lupe greeted Gael with the news that he was going to take the bus to Mérida the next day -- there was someone he had to see -- and reassured Gael that yes, he was fine but the person with the problem – and maybe he could help him – was Damián. Then he sat Gael down for a serious talk.
At Casa Castigo
Elisa shot out of her room in a cloud of little girl fury and she absolutely with all her soul refused to hear any talk of possible errors in the who’s your daddy contest: “You’ve sown a seed of doubt – now that you’re not my pa, I don’t want to live here anymore.”
[And as I told my good and faithful friend Braulio later, while it’s a dam shame it had to happen just precisely like this and we all would have been better off without the SCREAMING, it was about time for her to get out of that house and away from the aunt; and away from that pasty-faced sad old shambling pile of dun-colored rags who squinted at the world through shattered lenses, this wreck of a man who used to be Augusto Castañon.]
Take a deep breath, lie back and relax in the cooling waters of the cenote.
Avances: Elisa moves out and leaves the field wide open for Flor. Dam tells his mother that if Elisa is his sister, she should give her half of what he is entitled to of the family fortune.