"Why is there evil in the world?" "Let me start from the beginning, when I was innocent of the ways of God, and men." "It was the summer when I was seven." "The summer Ultima came to us." "Papa!" "Mama!" "Mama!" "Mama, they're coming!" "Deborah!" "Theresa!" "They're here." "Is Ultima really a witch?" "No." "And you will call her La Grande." " I'm afraid." "Mind your manners!" "We are honored that she comes to live with us." "Come, come." "What beautiful daughters you have raised." "Tofio." "Antonio." "Antonio?" " Antonio, Grande." " Let it be." "This was the last child I pulled from your womb." "I knew there would be something between us." "I've come to spend the last days of my life here, Antonio." "You will never die." "I'll take care of you." "El @[m~-i El a" "She's a bruja!" "They sometimes become owls at night." "G S" "She won't hurt you." "Why does she have to live with us?" "WE w" "Marez!" "Mi hermano!" "He killed my brother!" "Lupito!" "Lupito shot him!" "Lupito?" "No, no." "No, I don't believe it!" "Go get your rifle." "The other ones are at the bridge." " The bridge?" "He took to the river." "Qué pasé, Antonio'?" "My brother was just at that bus depot having coffee, when that guy went up to where he was and shot him in the back of the head." "Oh, Dias, be careful, Gabriel." "I'm sorry." "Maria, lock the door." "Ese Lupito, the war's made him crazy." "Antonio, what are you doing?" "I'm gonna tell." "EYE" "What about the tall brush over there?" "You gonna make up the clearance?" "Did you hear that?" "He's there!" "There!" "There!" "Run!" "Japanese soldiers!" "Japanese soldiers!" "Put those rifles away!" "No!" "He's down there!" "He's an animal." "He's gotta be shot!" "No!" "We need to talk to him!" "Mare: is right." "Mare: is right!" "For Dias, hombres!" "Let us act like men!" "That's Lupito out there!" "You all know Lupito." "You know the war made him sick!" "Go back to your drinking, Narciso." "Leave this job to men." "Emmy [mm." " He's gotta be destroyed!" "Wait!" "I will talk to him!" "Lupito!" "It's me, Narciso!" "Listen, my friend." "A very bad business has happened tonight." "Let me come down and talk to you." "Let me help you." "Remember before you went to the war, when you first came into the Eight Ball to gamble a little?" "Remember how I taught you how Juan Betas marked the aces with a little tobacco juice, and how you beat him?" "Those were good times, Lupito!" "Those were good times!" "There's your answer!" "Bless me." "I'm heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thyjust punishments." "My EFm Egy" "You knew." "Yes." "They killed Lupito." "Will he go to Hell?" "That's not for us to say." "And the men on the bridge?" "Papa?" "Men will do as they must." "Gabriel, get up!" "Go, 90" " We 9°" "La bruja." "Hey." "Hombre!" "I don't believe you." "Hey, there's that kid again." "Hey, kid, come here." "What, you scared or something?" "Come on!" "Darn, did you see that?" " Whoa!" " The kid threw me!" "They call me Horse." "Shake hands." " No, thanks." " Smart kid." "Shut up!" "Listen, kid, don't think you could do it again, understand?" "Mass is starting!" "We are very lucky today." "Mira." "Cordorobo." "Good for throat and lung, fever, infections." "No, no, no!" "Speak to it." "It is alive, like all things, like the trees, the rocks, the river..." "You must speak to it before you take it from its home." "Mira." "To all you who dwell here by the river." "You that dwell here by the river." "We lift you to make good medicine." "We lift you to make good medicine." "There is a beauty in the time of day, and the time of night, and there is peace in the river and in the hills." "Ultima taught me to listen to the mystery of the living earth, and to feel complete in the fulfillment of its time." "What's that?" "It's the spirit of the river." "Can it speak?" "Y?" "mg." "What's it saying?" "Ay, my child, you want to know so much." "Tofio." "Pedro!" "And La Grande, you know, has come to live with us." "Papa sends his blessings to you." "How is Papa?" "He's well." "He sends his love." "And our brothers?" "Lucas, he's very bad." "In [mum" "A few of our cows wandered away, so..." "So Lucas crossed the river to look for them." "Mm?" "An evil place." "He'd been warned before not to go there, but Lucas, he doesn't listen." "He came up on the three daughters of Tenorio Trementina." "He saw them pour the blood of a beheaded rooster into a pot." "Within the week, he got sick." "And now, so many weeks later, he lies in bed wasting away." "He's dying." "Did you go to the priest?" "The priest came and blessed the house." "You know, the priest in El Puerto, he washes his hands of the whole matter." "Ay, Pedro Luna, you're like an old lady who sits and talks, and wastes valuable time!" "You will go?" "Y?" "Mm" "But you must understand, that when one tampers with the fate of a man, a chain of events is set in motion that no one can oontrol." "Can you accept that responsibility?" "Dhmﬂfi my g" "Antonio will have to go with me." "What?" "What for?" "Why?" "It must be so, if you want your brother cured." "It will be good for Antonio to see his uncle." "He's not going to visit." "Antonio?" "Antonio, you wanna help your uncle?" "And if someone says that you walk with a curandera, will you be ashamed?" "No, Ultima." "I will be proud." "Good!" "Let's go." "We waste precious time." "It's a good sign." "They call this valley El Puerto de Ia Luna." "Because it is the door through which the moon passes on its journey from the east to the west." "Hofa, G rand pa." "Médica, my son is dying." "Abuefo, I have the cure for your son." "Like old times." "I will pay you in silver if you save my son's life." "$40 to cheat Ia muerte." "It's been many years since a curandera has come to cure." "Mm w (gait-h" "Neighbors." "Get rid of them." "T Hm IEO" "Wait!" "I'll have Pedro and Juan go with you." "I don't need them to deal with Tenorio." "My grandson!" "Antonio goes with me." "Venga, mafia." "Are you afraid, Antonio?" "No." "Show me what you have." "Tenorio Trementina!" "Are you afraid to face an old woman?" "What do you want, bruja?" "Ay, Tenorio." "You're as ugly as the devil will allow." "I am a curandera." "It's your daughters who are witches." "You lie, vieja!" "Tenorio, I know about the curse." "And I know when and where it was laid." "MUM jail Y?" "my w my Eng" "I will see you dead." "Don't threaten me, Tenorio." "You well know the power of my medicine." "I tried to reason with you." "Do not harm my daughters, bruja!" "They chose to tamper with fate." "Pity the consequences." "I grew worried." "La curandera!" "ls everything ready?" "Lucas." "He has been like that for the last two weeks." "Beyond hope." "Life is never beyond hope." "Go." "Go now." "Antonio, make the fire." "It'll be difficult." "They made him wait too long." "Why did they wait?" "The priest would not allow your grandfather to send for me." "He's afraid of Tenorio." "Drink, Lucas." "Drink." "Un poquito." "Un poquito, Lucas." "Drink." "Lucas." "Lucas, drink this." "Un poquito." "I believe they had his fresh cut hair to work with." "The curse is very strong, and his strength is gone." "Will he die?" "They stole his soul." "We must get it back." "At the cantina, you weren't afraid of Tenorio." "No, mijito." "Good is always stronger than evil." "Always remember that, Antonio." "The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world." "Those Trementina girls will be all cut and bruised in the morning." "Ultima." "Ultima." "Ultima." "Ultima." "There is no fever." "The blood of the Lunas is strong in you." "We have beaten the death spirit." "Now, all that remains is for him to vomit the curse." "You have done evil." "But good is stronger than evil, and the evil you did" "will fly in your faces." "Lucas." "Lucas." "Drink this." "There we go, just a little, just a little." "Let it out." "Let it out." "Let it out!" "Let it out!" "We will burn this by the tree where the witches dance." "Yr U g" "Papa." "Lucas!" "Do not tire him too much at first." "Médica, I can never repay you for saving my son's life." "Perhaps someday the men of El Puerto will save my life." "Antonio, vémonos." "We must burn this." "The doctors and their medicines had failed." "The priests had failed." "TILES" "Was Ultima's magic stronger than the saints?" "And the Holy Mother Church?" "It was Mauricio's oldest boy." "He was crushed beneath a tractor." "That's right." "He worked the potato fields in Colorado." "Now, his other boy, he runs whiskey in Texas." "Y?" "m iFﬂ@H§ Em my;" "Mauricio?" "Does he run whiskey, too?" "Mauricio?" "He just runs from his wife." "When my father's friends, the vaqueros, came to town, they always found their way to our table." "Bkhfifi mfiaémfiedéma because for a while, he was happy." "Other times, he'd curse the war that had taken my brothers so far away from home, and from his dream of moving us all to California." "When do you plan to go?" "When my boys come back from the war." "Then we'll all go together." "You know, there's lots of work out there, and now with the war and all." "As I said, there's work in Texas, too!" "My man of learning." "The last one to leave me." "Tony's going to school!" "Theresa, stop!" "He should be a scholar." "Perhaps a priest, a man of the people." " Remember you are a Luna." " And a Marez." "Deborah, take him to Miss Maestas." " She knows my family." "Si, Mama." "My scholar." "A scholar already, and only on your first day of school, mafia?" "You know, in my day, only the rioh got to go to sohool." "[Wm WE w" "IFUE" "Ves, mijito?" "That's why we live here, on this dry piece of dirt where nothing grows, w his" "Mafia, why don't you ask your mom, what was it that made her fall in love with me, huh?" "Was the sweat of the horse in my clothes," "Emmy mm" "Time to go, Mama." " Yes, it's time to go." "Yeah, so it is." "Theresa?" "[Mill m m w U w" "And Antonio, suerte." "Go, go, go, go, go." "Give Miss Maestas my blessings." " Vitamin Kid!" "Who?" "Your classroom's over there!" "Good morning!" "Como te llamas?" "Antonio Marez." "My mother said to send you her blessings." ""Antonio Marez."" "You wanna learn to write?" "Good, come in." "Let's put you next to Melissa." "Melissa, this is Antonio." "Up!" "Attention, class, it's lunchtime." "You'll obey Marisol until I return." "This is cardo Iechero, good for cleansing the liver." "We have some in the house." "Mira, this is marrubio, for when you have a cold." "You can make candy with that." "Antonio!" "Antonio!" "Andrew!" "Leon!" "Eugene!" "Mama!" "Hola!" "Hola, Papa!" "So, tell me all about California." "Well, we were only there a few months, Papa." "Tell us about the war!" "It was all right." "Like heck, it was!" "Eugene, shame!" "In front of La Grande!" "Did you see all the vineyards, huh?" "Ay, Dias mio." "It was so hard without you." "It'll be all right now, Mama." "Hijole!" "You know," "UH PM" "Gabriel..." "They've just returned." "Ay, mi amor, I don't mean tonight." "Mis hijos." "Do you get to punch the buttons on the..." "EYE" "That'll come later." "For now, I work mostly in the back." "Gotten any faster?" "Think you could beat me?" "Race you across!" "It's him, the Vitamin Kid!" "Let's go!" "Who the heck was that?" "The Vitamin Kid." "Nobody could beat him." "Someday you'll beat him, Tony." "Someday." "See you after work." "What is sin, anyway?" "It's not doing the will of God." "If Iﬂmififin QY?" "Ewing?" "@ mg" "But nothing happens when I do it." "You will be punished." " When?" " When you die." "What if I go to confession?" "Then your sins are forgiven, your soul is clean and you're saved." "You mean I can go out and sin, throw the finger, say bad words, steal, do a million bad things, and when I'm about to die, just go to confession and I go to Heaven?" "Yes, if you're sorry you sinned." "Hey, Tony, you missed a fight." "That was a real good tackle, Horse." "Now let me up." "Did you see the fight?" "Yeah." "Hey, how come Willie and those farmer kids don't have to go to catechism?" "'Cause they'd miss the bus, stupid!" "Protestants don't have to go either." "They go to Hell!" "No, they don't!" "You're going to Hell, too, Florence." "You don't believe in God." "If you don't believe in God, there's no Hell to go to." "Hey, let's go tease the girls." "Why don't you believe in God?" "I don't know." "My mother died when I was three." "My father drank himself to death, and my sisters are floozies working at Rosie's." "The old man hasn't been very good to me." "You mean God?" "So why do you go to catechism then?" "I wanna be with you guys." "You know, I don't want to be left out." "We're gonna be late." "I would not have expected you to be late." "I'll excuse you this time, but take care of your company." "The devil has many ways to mislead you." "Yfii fifi%?" "You think this is play time?" "Let us pray." "Who made you?" "God made me." "And where is God?" "God is everywhere." "At Rosie's." "How many persons are there in God?" "Three!" "The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." "They have to squeeze in tight." "If you die with a mortal sin on your head, 't?" "M" "And is there any escape from Hell? You burn in Hell forever." "For eternity." " How long is eternity?" "Without end." "Twenty years." "That is enough." "The dark buds of spring were on the branches." "Ll my that brought forth life, the bad blood." "Now it ran through my brothers." "There were whispers in town that they were wasting their service money at the bars, pool halls, and even at Rosie's." "When are we supposed to come to you?" "When are we supposed to come to you?" "That's not what I'm talking about!" "I said, I'm working days and nights." " And we're not working?" " No, you're not!" "We're not working, huh?" "What's this about?" "Fmwsfimmfi U" "What kind of work can you have for us here?" "I have jobs lined up!" "You are going to work with me on the highway!" "We don't wanna work with you on the darn highway!" "Eugenio!" "Watch your language!" "Do not defy your father." " I'm not defying my father, Mama." "That's enough!" " Perdoname, Mama." "Perdoname, Mama." "What is it you want?" "You've been gone so long, and now that you've returned, you want to leave again?" " What about California?" " What about California?" "We don't wanna go to California." "W am mam W E" "Go to Santa Fe and work." "You are forsaking me." "We're not forsaking you, Mama." "Mama!" "We're men." "We have seen the world." "Ay, Mare: men." "H w and their parents, Gabriel." "You still have Tony." "Thanks be to God." "You're not going with them?" "I got a job here." "Figure I could do as well here as they do in Santa Fe or Albuquerque." "Will you miss them?" "Sure." "Me, too." "Will you become a farmer like Mama wants?" "No." "Will you become a priest?" "Thank you." "Okay, everyone, class is dismissed." "Have a great summer." "Hold on, Antonio, hold on." " Bye, Miss Maestas." "Bye-bye." "Thank you so much." "Goodbye, boys." "Thank you." "Antonio, you're a little older than most of the other kids." "And your progress has been very good." "So, instead of passing you to the second grade, we're passing you to the third." "Gracias." "I mean, thank you, Miss Maestas." "Have a good summer, Antonio." "Ysuerte." "I'll see you next year, Miss Maestas!" "Yes, you will." "Hey, Tony!" "EYE" "Come on, let's go!" "One of them has started melting." "The doll." "Don't touch it." "Tenorio." "Tenorio." " He's drunk!" "No, I'm not drunk!" "Grande, you must hide!" "Hombre!" "Hombre, make sensei!" "Maria, put the children in the other room." "Why do I have to hide?" "Have you not heard?" "Heard what, hombre?" "Mfiimfiks m [WEE" "Today, Tenorio's daughter, his witch, died." "He blames La Grande for it." "Who told you this story?" "Jesus Silva came from El Puerto." "He said that Tenorio filled some men with whiskey and had them spread his vengeance." "0h. my God!" "Wait here." " Papa!" " Antonio!" "Antonio!" "Antonio, you stay there!" "Stay!" "Gabriel Marez!" "We don't wanna quarrel with you, Marez!" "We only want the witch." "Who speaks?" "Come, come." "You call me by my name!" "You walk on my land!" "I wanna know who speaks!" "Mm its" "You walk upon my land!" "That is my business!" "We do not want to quarrel with you." "We only want the witch!" "Just give her to us." "We'll take her away and there'll be no trouble." "Who accuses her?" "L, Tenorio Trementina!" "And you are an idiota with nothing but..." "Wait!" "Wait, Marez!" "We're not here to fight you." "There's not a man here, not one, that doesn't hold you in respect." "You know that." "Pero, esta brujeria, this witchcraft, it's serious business, hombre, and the charges must be answered!" " Give us the witch!" "There's no witch here." "Give us the witch!" "Give us the witch!" "Get away!" "Why WE sitting by a warm fire, playing cards?" "I know you're not men who need the cover of darkness to hide behind." "Y?" "w 517% T" "He has lost his daughter today, and for that El Puerto can sleep easier, now that her evil doing has gone to Hell with her!" "I may be a beast, but I am not a fool." "He calls you fools." "Enough of this talking!" "We came here for the witch!" "Give us the witch!" "Give us the bruja!" "Wait!" "You know the simple test for a witch." "Are these needles holy?" "Si." "Blessed by the priest." "T mg." "No,no,no,no,nq_" "Just give us the witch!" "Put them in so they are crossed." "In the name of God, you'll know that a witch cannot walk through a door so marked by the sign of the Christ!" "It's true!" "It's legal in our customs!" "But we all must abide by the trial!" "I'll abide by that test!" "EEFM Hffi then she can never again be accused for witchcraft!" "We call God as our witness!" "Who is it accuses me?" "I accuse you of being a witch!" "It's proven!" "It's proven." "Her evil bird has blinded me!" "I curse you, bruja!" "E S" "Narciso, I swear, you'll pay for this!" "I will see you dead!" "Hijole." "What a night, huh?" "Come on, my old friend." "I could use a drink." "Bye." "Send my love to Grandpa, and tell Mateo he's still a lousy pitcher." "Do you believe that God will burn all the sinners forever and ever when they die?" "Do you think if God was a woman, she would forgive them?" "Like the Virgin Mary, she forgave the people who killed her son." "I don't know, Antonio." "Why didn't you come to warn us last night?" "Well, your grandfather wouldn't let us mix in what took place yesterday." "But Ultima cured Uncle Lucas." "Isn't he grateful for that?" "Of course he is." "You just don't understand." "What?" "El Puerto, it's a small village." "We've lived there for a long time." "We've never passed judgment on anyone." "But you let Tenorio pass judgment on Ultima." "The end of summer was the time of the harvest." "My mother's family had always been farmers who took their only truth from the earth." "The shifts, corn and fruit that would carry us through the winter," "11% mm" "The harvest of my grandfather's was my favorite time of year." "Okay, papa" "Good night, Papa." "So, Porfirio Baca told me about Tenorio." "He came back from the hospital today." "He said he lost an eye." "He told me that the two remaining sisters spent their day making a coffin." "No, no, no, porque they were gathering cottonwood branches and weaving them into a coffin." "God, that proves that she was a bruja!" "In u mg" "And they will burn sulfur instead of holy incense." "And they will slay a rooster and sprinkle its blood on the body, so the devil himself can come at night..." "I love you." "I'm sorry." "Okay." "Sorry." "It is true, man." "Mark my words." "Tm mu it will be in a coffin made of cottonwood branches." "Hey, Tony!" "Tony!" "Tony!" "Tony!" "Tony!" "Tony!" "Tony!" "Who's your teacher, Tony?" "Miss Harris or Miss Violet?" "We all got Miss Violet." "All the dumb kids got Miss Violet." "Is it true your brother's been spending time with the girls at Rosie's?" "Knock it off." "Everyone in town goes to Rosie's!" "Including Ernie's old man!" "Very funny!" "But at least I don't have a witch around the house!" "There ain't no such thing as witches." "Ilfieaafifiiaa EX" "Red don't know nothin'." "He's going to Hell 'cause he ain't Catholic!" "It's true." "Protestants can't go to Heaven, only Catholics!" "Come on, Tony, she's a witch, ain't she?" "I heard they were gonna burn her." "She's not a witch." "You callin' me a liar?" " Yeah!" " Fight!" "Get off of him!" "Get off!" "Come here." "Come." "Come." "Winds swept across the "ans, and locked the earth in an icy grip." "Our river no longer sang the songs of summer." "Spring storms freed the land, but still, there was evil in the air." "Let me go!" "I'm gonna kill that guy!" "You don't have the agallas!" "I'll show you agallas!" "That means you seek to do harm to La Grande!" "I will cut your heart out!" "I'll find a way to get to that witch!" "You get in the way, I'll kill you!" "Déjalo!" "Déjalo, vamos!" "Nothing!" "It's only words!" "It's only words!" "Come in before you catch your death in this oold!" "Come on!" "I'll buy you a drink." "E!" "No." "I have to go to warn La Grande." "Narciso!" "You can't go to Mare: in the storm!" "Let me in!" "Let me in!" "Narciso!" "What's happened?" " Let me in!" "You're too drunk!" "And I only allow gentlemen to visit my girls." "I didn't come for pleasure, Rosie!" "I came to see Marez!" " Which Marez?" "Don't play games with me." "Call Marez!" "Quién?" "Who'?" "Oh, Narciso, come in." "Come in." "No!" "No!" "There's trouble." "You have to go to your home and warn your parents!" " What?" "Tenorio!" "He's making threats against La Grande." " Is that all?" " Come on!" "Is that all?" "He's made threats!" "Where's Tenorio?" "He drove off in his truck!" "Just now we fought in the saloon!" "In the saloon, right!" "You've been drinking and quarreling, and now you're gonna make a big story out of it!" "For the sake of your mother, please come!" "EYE" "You're making trouble!" "These girls have turned your mind!" "Just go!" "May your soul be damned and go to Hell!" "No!" "You child of that witch!" "Emmy" "I'm dying." "I need confession." " I'm not a priest." "But you're pure of heart." "Confess me." "Come." "Come." "My father went to the sheriff, but he only had the word of a small boy as a witness against a man of means and family name." "I wondered how God could take such a man, how he could let him sink so quietly into the ground, like the rain." "I wondered." "And in time, whim." "Not long after, Andrew quit his job at the grocery store." "And he dropped his plans to finish high school, to join Leon and Eugene in Albuquerque." "Thanks, Mom." "No one knew that he had forsaken Narciso." "No one knew that he couldn't face his shame." "They've forsaken their father." "My boys have left me." "It's my fault..." "My fault." "I should have known that the Mare: blood in them would make them restless." "H mg" "Papa!" "It's time for supper, eh?" "You know, we're all just Wanderers, adrift at sea." "It's in the name, Marez." "Perhaps the Luna blood should win in the end." "It's more quiet, like the moon." "Go inside." ""I believe in the Holy Ghost," ""the communion of saints," ""the forgiveness of sins," ""the resurrection of the body," ""m P" "I'm so proud of you, Antonio." "Just think, when you take your First Communion, all your sins will be forgiven," "and you will be at one with God." "Really?" "I'll be one with God?" "Yes." "Naﬂnsfiksfimg" "What'd you say?" "Th mm" "I don't know!" "What about you, Tony?" "I had to recite the Apostles' Creed and tell what each part meant." "Bull!" "Tony could do it if he wanted to." "Tony's gonna be a priest!" "I have an idea." "Why don't we all practice going to confession and make Tony the priest?" "QT wfi@§fig" "YE T" "Tony's the priest!" "Tony's the priest!" "Tony's the priest!" "Tony's the priest!" "Okay!" "Okay." "I'm the priest." " Do it right." "Yeah, do it for reals!" "Me first." "Me first." "Bless me, Father..." "Bless me, Father..." "EXY?" "sfimg EYE" " What are your sins?" "Tell him your worst one." "Emm EYE m WM" "I made a hole in the wall with a nail." "Then I could see into the girls' bathroom." "You're dirty!" "Give him a penance!" "Mm Wing" "Florence next!" "Nah, that's enough practice." "Florence needs the practice." "Yes." "Why doesn't he believe?" "Stop it!" " Confess him!" " Confess him!" "What are your sins?" "I don't have any." "Yes, you do, you jerk!" "Everybody has sins!" "Just tell me one." "I don't have any!" " Confess your sins or you'll go to Hell!" "Yeah!" "Confess!" "I haven't sinned!" "God sinned against me." "Florence, don't say that." "Why?" "It's the truth." "Why did he take my parents from me?" "Why did he take Narciso?" "What harm did Narciso ever do?" "We shouldn't even listen to him." "He shouldn't even be here." "Give him a penance." "Make his penance hard!" "No!" "There'll be no punishment!" " His sins are forgiven!" "What?" "Punish him, you have to!" "I'm the priest." "I've absolved him of his sins." "You're a bad priest, Tony!" "We don't want you for our priest!" "Punish the priest." "Punish the priest!" "Punish the priest!" "Come inside." "Everyone!" "EYE" "You?" "No." "I can't." "I can't." "I have to." "Dear God..." "I'm trying to remember all the sins" "I've ever committed." "Please forgive me for them." "Please forgive me." "Please forgive me." "Did he harm you in any way?" "No." "Did he leave anything by the tree?" "Anything you might have touched, or picked up?" "No,but"" "The day he killed Narciso, he swore he would kill you." "Don't worry about Tenorio." "He's just an old wolf his [m" "His conscience will not let him sleep." "But where there is no penance, there can be no forgiveness." "The door's opening!" "It's a big day, Antonito." "Florence said the blood is wine because the priest is a wino." "Oh, my God," "I'm sorry for all my sins..." "All good and deserving..." " Corpus Christi." "Amen." "Corpus Christi." "Corpus Christi." "Corpus Christi." "Amen." "T T E u ME" "Dummy!" "You got us all mixed up!" "Darn!" "I almost choked." "E Em [mum" "Now that I was one with God," "Li my?" "Why he had allowed evil to happen?" "Why it went unpunished?" "I called out to him that now was a part of me." "Go in peace with Christ." "Thanks be to God." "But there was no answer." "In time, everyone got up to leave." "It was over." "After Communion, I spent more and more time with Ultima whose wisdom gave me comfort." "I learned that the ways of healing attended more than just the body." "And no road was too long for her to travel' to ease someone's pain, or to lift a curse, or cool a fever." "But often when their miseries passed, they shunned herjust the same." "What'll you do this summer?" "I don't know." "Pmy" "Fish." "Take care of my animals." "Emu" "Do you wanna be a farmer?" "I don't know." "Ultima says a man's destiny must unfold itself like a flower." "With only the sun, earth, and water making it blossom, and no one else meddling in it." "She sounds like a very wise woman." "Yes." "Goodbye, Miss Violet." "I'll come by to see you next year." "Goodbye, Antonio." "Race!" "You know that there are hidden lakes in those hills?" "You know, with mermaids in them, right?" "And they call you, and you go to them, but no one ever sees you again." "I can't see him!" "He's been down there way too long!" " They're not supposed to be there!" "Something is wrong." " Hurry!" "Where is he?" "He's under!" "Hurry UP!" " What happened?" "it's Florence, he's down there!" "Bones dared him to go in!" "He didn't come up." "Look!" "I told you kids not to swim here." "Florence died without confession, without the grace of God." "Alone in death as he had been in life." "Was he wandering in purgatory?" "Would he bum forever in Hell?" "I wondered if God was angry with him for not believing." "But mostly I wondered if he even cared at all." "ET ET" "Tony!" "Tony!" "Antonio." "It's all right." "It's all right." "He feels everything too much." "Maybe he's seen too much." "He needs to rest." "A visit to El Puerto will do him good." "Women will take an hour saying goodbye if you let 'em." "Papa?" "Why is there evil in the world?" "Ay, mafia, you have so many questions." "Didn't the priest talk about it in church?" "But I'd like to know your answer." "M mama" "In that case, I'll tell you how I see it." "I think most of the things we call evil, aren't evil at all." "Jam mnamam so we call 'em evil." "Like, when Lucas, he got sick, and we were all afraid." "But Ultima, she wasn't afraid, she understood what was wrong." "But I took the Holy Communion because I wanted to understand." "Understanding doesn't come that easy, Tony." "Doesn't God give understanding?" "Understanding comes with life." "As a man grows, he sees life and death." "He's happy, he's sad, he works, he plays, he meets people." "Sometimes it takes a whole lifetime to acquire understanding." "But, mafia, in the end, understanding simply means to have sympathy, sympathy for people, yeah?" "And Ultima..." "Ultima has sympathy for people." "But with her, mafia, with her, it's so complete that she can touch their souls and cure them." "That's her magic?" "And in all this world, no greater magic can exist." "All summer I worked alongside my uncles." "I watched the care and the respect they showed the earth and the plants." "Only Uftima showed such reverence for the {and and its offerings." "I learned that the phases of the moon not only ruled the planting, but almost every part of their lives." "That's why they were Lunas." "They would not gather plants or save next year's seeds until the moon said so." "I thought of my father, too." "His wild and restless spirit, that forever reached out somewhere." "I didn't know if his or my mother's blood would claim me in the end." "But the bad dreams that had plagued me did not come." "Antonio!" "A letter from your mother!" "They'll come for you in a few days." "School starts early this year." "It comes early every year." "Your mother says you do well in school." " You like school?" "Yes, I like it." "Well, that's good." "A man of learning can go far in this world, Antonio." "It makes us all very proud." "It's been along time since there was an educated Luna." "I'm Marez." "That's right." "You're a Mare: first, and then Luna." "But I just wanted to say that we're very pleased with your work." "We know that you must choose what you'll do as a man, but if you ever decide to become a farmer, you'll be welcome here." "Thfiks wwﬂmmm" "Pedro, can I see you a minute?" "There's trouble in town." "Antonio!" "Something's oome up, so we'll drive you home today after supper!" "There's only a few hours of work left to do, so, go to your grandfather's house and pack your clothes." "Hey, if anyone asks why you're back early, tell 'em you got time off for being suoh a good worker." "Okay, tio." "U rm" "Esa vieja bruja has killed another of my daughters!" "I'll avenge her death tonight!" "Do you hear me?" "Don't you crawl about!" "The coyotes will have sport when they devour you tonight!" "You hijo de la bruja!" "My uncles had betrayed Ultima before, so I ran to save her myself." "I ran to save the spirit ii TheTheTheTheTheTheThe." "That had been there when the heavens looked on in silence." "Iran from the river and took to the llano." "Antonio!" " Pedro?" "Qué?" "Qué pasa?" "ls Antonio here?" "Qllé pasa?" "Aqui!" "Tenorio's here!" " Tofio!" " Antonio!" "Antonio!" "0h. my God!" "Ultima?" "Where's Ultima?" "Antonio!" "Antonio!" "May God help me." "The owl!" "It's dead." "Not dead." "Winging its way to a new place, a new time." "When I was a child, a wise old man gave me the owl as a bond to the time" "and harmony of the universe." "Evil men create disharmony that reaches out and destroys life." "But it passes away, it passes away." "Gather my medicines," "and burn them somewhere on the river." "Everything." "But take the owl now into the hills, and bury it at a..." "At a forked juniper tree." "Go" "Go quickly." "Bless me, Ultima." "In the name of all that's good and strong and beautiful," "I bless you." "Go." "Go, quickly." "Grande..." "My father built a fine pine coffin, and people came from miles around to mourn La Grande, her cures and her magic." "But I knew to look beyond their sadness." "mum" "To hold wonder in our lives." "She taught us that the eternal' soul' expands b y embracing fife, and all that happens, both good and evil." "Wm;" "Her voice is everywhere."