"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." "Toño." "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." "It's too hot to be standing out here and chatting all day." "She's a bruja!" "They sometimes become owls at night." "Mama says she's not a witch." "She's a curandera." "She won't hurt you." "Why does she have to live with us?" "Mama says she has no family." "Now, go to sleep." "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 pasó, 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, Dios, 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." "Could be on the other side." "Hey." "Yeah." "What about the tall brush over there?" "You gonna make up the clearance?" "Ssh!" "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!" "Marez is right." "Marez is right!" "Por Dios, 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." "That animal crawled behind my brother, and took his life." "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 Botas marked the aces with a little tobacco juice, and how you beat him?" "Those were good times, Lupito!" "Those were good times!" "That's your answer!" "Bless me." "I'm heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments." "Oh, my God, I'm heartily sorry for having offended Thee." "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, go." "We go." "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." "Gordolobo." "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?" "Yes, listen." "What's it saying?" "Ay, my child, you want to know so much." "Toño." "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?" "Um, Lucas, he's..." "He's very bad." "Even the great doctor in Santa Fe cannot help him." "A few of our cows wandered away, so..." "So Lucas crossed the river to look for them." "He walked toward a grove of cottonwood trees." "An evil place." "He'd been warned before not to go there, but, Lucas, he..." "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..." "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?" "Yes, I will go." "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 control." "Can you accept that responsibility?" "Sí." "On behalf of my brothers." "Good." "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 la Luna." "Because it is the door through which the moon passes on its journey from the east to the west." "Hola, Grandpa." "Médica, my son is dying." "Abuelo, 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 la muerte." "It's been many years since a curandera has come to cure." "There are women who are already mourning your son's death." "Ah, neighbors." "Get rid of them." "Is Tenorio in his dog hole that he calls a saloon?" "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, mijo." "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." "And you're a fool if you don't tell them to lift it." "Bruja!" "You shame my daughters and my good name in front of these men." "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!" "Is 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." "Oh, 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!" "Ah." "We will burn this by the tree where the witches dance." "Your son lives, old man." "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, vámonos." "We must burn this." "The doctors and their medicines had failed." "The priests had failed." "Take us to the river where Lucas saw the witches dance." "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..." "He worked the potato fields in Colorado." "Now, his other boy, he runs whiskey in Texas." "You know, to the cotton fields in the dry counties." "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." "I liked to watch my father reminisce about the old times, 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..." "There's lots of work out there, and now with the war and all." "As I said, there's work in Texas too!" "Oh!" "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." "Sí, Mama." "My scholar." "Ooh!" "A scholar already, and only on your first day of school, mijo?" "You know, in my day only the rich got to go to school." "My father, he gave me a saddle blanket and a wild pony, and he said, "There, the llano, there's your life."" "Ves, mijito?" "That's why we live here, on this dry piece of dirt where nothing grows, so your father can be close to his old Marez ways." "Mijo, 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, or its smell on my hands that made her fall so in love with me?" "Time to go, Mama." "Yes, it's time to go." "Yeah, so it is." "Theresa?" "Mis hijos!" "All right." "Remember, be respectful to your teachers." "And Antonio, suerte." "Go, go, go, go, go." "Give Miss Maestas my blessings, hmm?" "Vitamin Kid!" "Who?" "Your classroom's over there!" "Good morning!" "Como te llamas?" "Antonio Marez." "My mother said to send you her blessings." "Hmm." ""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 lechero, good for cleansing the liver." "We have some in the house." "Ah, mira, this..." "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, Dios mio." "It was so hard without you." "It'll be all right now, Mama." "Híjole!" "You know," "I would give anything to move to California right now!" "Gabriel..." "They've just returned." "Ay, mi amor, I don't mean tonight." "Mis hijos." "Do you get to punch the buttons on the, um..." "Cash register?" "Yeah." "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!" "Ah, who the heck was that?" "The Vitamin Kid." "Nobody could beat him." "Some day you'll beat him, Tony." "Some day." "See you after work." "What is sin, anyway?" "It's not doing the will of God." "Is it a sin to do this?" "Yes." "Why?" "It's a bad sign." "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?" "It was funny when Willie peed on Roque's shoes." "Oh, 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 drinks 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." "You think this kind of disrespect can be tolerated?" "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, where do you go?" "Hell!" "And is there any escape from Hell?" " No!" " No." "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." "And I understood why they called the raging sap 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?" "Now I'm trying to keep you guys in line." "I have work!" "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?" "Eh?" "You've been gone so long, and now that you've returned you want to leave again?" "What about California?" "We don't wanna go to California." "We wanna be on our own and make our own way." "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, Marez men." "The Marez blood draws them away from their home 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..." "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." "Y, suerte." "I'll see you next year, Miss Maestas!" "Yes, you will." "Hey, Tony!" "Pass?" "Yeah." "Come on, let's go!" "One of them has started melting." "The doll." "Don't touch it." "Tenorio." "Tenorio." "No, I'm not drunk!" "Grande, you must hide!" "Hombre!" "Hombre, make sense!" "Maria, put the children in the other room." "Why do I have to hide?" "Have you not heard?" "Heard what, hombre?" "Ay, Dios mio, living on this cursed hill away from town." "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." "Oh, 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!" "Our business here tonight is not with you, Marez." "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?" "I, Tenorio Trementina!" "And, you are 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 brujería, 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 are farmers out playing vigilantes when they should be home sitting by a warm fire, playing cards?" "I know you're not men who need the cover of darkness to hide behind." "You shame your good names by following este idiota de Tenorio!" "He has lost his daughter today, and for that El Puerto can sleep easier, now that her evil doing has gone to heck 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?" "Sí." "Blessed by the priest." "Take the holy needles and pin them to the door." "No, no, no, no, no." "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!" "I'll abide." "But if she crosses it, 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!" "Don't you see?" "She's a bruja!" "Narciso, I swear, you'll pay for this!" "I will see you dead!" "Híjole." "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 chills, corn and fruit that would carry us through the winter, they saw as sacred gifts from the ground beneath our feet." "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..." "That..." "That proves that she was a bruja!" "Because a bruja cannot be buried in a regular coffin." "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." "Tomorrow when they bring that bruja to the church, 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." "There are if you're a Catholic." "Bull!" "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 llano, 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 cold!" "Come on!" "I'll buy you a drink." "No." "Come on!" "No." "I have to go to warn La Grande." "Narciso!" "You can't go to Marez 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!" "Come where?" "You have to leave now." "You're making trouble!" "These girls have turned your mind!" "Just go!" "Ah!" "May your soul be damned and go to Hell!" "No!" "You child of that witch!" "I'll go get my father!" "No!" "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, no one remembered anything good about Narciso." "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 Marez blood in them would make them restless." "The same blood that set me wandering when I was young." "Papa!" "Oh!" "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," ""life everlasting..." "Amen."" "Mmm..." "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." "He asked me how many people is there in one God." "What'd you say?" "Three, four..." "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?" "No, no." "Tony's the priest." "Yeah." "Tony's the priest." "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..." "Uh..." "You have sinned." "Yeah." "What are your sins?" "Tell him your worst one." "I know!" "I know how to do it!" "Yeah!" "One day, when Miss Violet let me go to the bathroom," "I made a hole in the wall with a nail." "Oh!" "Then I could see into the girls' bathroom." "Oh-ho-ho!" "You're dirty!" "Give him a penance!" "Okay, for your penance, say a rosary to the Virgin." "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!" "Are you going to confession?" "Yeah." "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, hmm?" "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 who drags around the ground where he made his kill." "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." " Amen." "Corpus Christi." "Corpus Christi." "Amen." "Tony!" "Tony!" "Go on, you're holding up the line." "Dummy!" "You got us all mixed up!" "Darn!" "I almost choked." "Do you feel anything?" "I feel hungry." "Now that I was one with God," "I would ask him why Tenorio was alive instead of Narciso?" "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 her just the same." "What'll you do this summer?" "I don't know." "Play." "Fish." "Take care of my animals." "Go to El Puerto to learn about farming from my uncles." "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 burn forever in Hell?" "I wondered if God was angry with him for not believing." "But mostly I wondered, if he even cared at all." "Tony!" "Tony!" "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, mijo, you have so many questions." "Didn't the priest talk about it in church?" "But I'd like to know your answer." "Oh..." "Oh, okay, well..." "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." "It's just that we don't understand what they are, so we call 'em evil." "Like, when Lucas, he..." "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, mijo, in the end, understanding simply means to have sympathy, sympathy for people, yeah?" "And Ultima..." "Ultima has sympathy for people." "But with her, mijo, 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 Ultima showed such reverence for the land 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 a long time since there was an educated Luna." "I'm Marez." "That's right." "You're a Marez first, and then Luna." "But I just wanted to say that, ah, 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." "This earth that was your mother's will be yours." "Pedro, can I see you a minute?" "There's trouble in town." "Antonio!" "Something's come 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 such a good worker." "Okay, tío." "I hope you've broken your neck, you little jerk!" "Eso 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 that protected us from the evil that men brought to our hills." "That had been there when the heavens looked on in silence." "I ran from the river and took to the llano." "Antonio!" " Pedro?" "Qué?" "Qué pasa?" " Is Antonio here?" "Qué pasa?" "Aquí!" "Tenorio's here!" "Toño!" "Antonio!" "Antonio!" "Oh, 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..." "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." "Ultima taught us how to make strength from our experiences." "To hold wonder in our lives." "She taught us that the eternal soul expands by embracing life, and all that happens, both good and evil." "No, I did not cry." "Her voice is everywhere."