A Wolf in the Desert (Chapter Four)

"Hop up! Come on!" A voice awakens me from somber sleep. When I open my eyes to look out there is a dog licking my face, a black wolf and then another walking about sniffing the dirt. I can feel the hard ground beneath and hear light footsteps nearby. I'm not frightened by them, but they aren't normal looking dogs. The other one looks like a Coyote or Dingo. Quick like the Coyote one nods his head up, as if to alert to something in the distance. I turn to look and I see a figure in the distance watching the current of the ocean. It turns and walks slowly over to me. The dogs run along after the moving figure and follow it back to me. It seems to be a woman, with purple and blue dress with an over coat. She calls for me to get up. When she is closer she says with a voice in monotone "It is time to take a walk.". This is the woman! It has to be... I slowly get up. I'm wearing some kind of white garb. She is 40-ish, with a beautifully, dark commanding presence. I shake off the sand as we take a walk along the beach. I look away to how I got here, where I started from. How it all happened and what happened to the old Curandera, because there is no temple nearby. Who are you? I turn back to her and ask. She smiles with hand to her chest she answers, I am La Malinché or rather was. You... You're La Malinche, Doña Marina? My mouth wide open just about to laugh, like all people of Mexico I know exactly who La Malinché is. Doña Marina smiles at me and begins to explain, "I know, you have been taught I was a traitor to my people. In my lifetime my name was Malena, and I would like it if you would do the same. Now come, walk with me. It is time for you to find out."

We walk some more and she touches me and as soon as I feel her touch I am shown a vision.

An Aztec temple in the year 1505. A young husband and wife of upper middle class nobility have a brand new baby girl. "Like you, I experienced a very different life than that which my birth promised."

"As a child everything was mine. I wore fine clothes. I attended fine schools, I tasted find foods. After my father died, when I was 9, my mother remarried. Nine months after that, she bore my Stepfather a son. My Stepfather had a cold and greedy heart, and wanted his son to be the family's only heir. He ordered my mother to kill me, but in the end, she did not have the heart. Instead, she sold me into slavery. Over the next years, I slaved for many tribes, and I learned many dialects. And then, when I was 14 years old, I was sold to the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez. Cortez was a difficult and often cruel man, but he was also very wise, and capable of great kindness. I became his personal translator as he marched across Mexico, and later... I became his mistress. I know people - Indians - believed that I was the traitor who told Cortez where to find the villages he conquered, but it is not true. I am the one who convinced Cortez to spare Indian lives. It was I who persuaded him to leave some villages standing, and translated agreements where I could. I saved Indian lives! I did not sacrifice them!"

"In 1505 I gave birth to Cortez's son, Don Marco, who was the first Mexican. The first to combine the fierce blood of the Aztecs with the passionate blood of the Spanish. He bore the first mark of the cactus people."

You are a direct descendant of Don Marco. I say. "and, in turn of mine. It is up to you to right the wrongs of the past and free me from this world between the worlds. I asks how I can be expected to do such a thing - These are ancient problems, and I live in a modern world now. "Now is not now, but they do. They exist in the hearts and minds of our people. This is your history, and it up to you to set it right. You have already been given gifts to help you. She points to the wolf and coyote walking with us. I do not understand, but listen some more. Then La Malinché says, "It is time to go."

but I do not know where to begin, which way? I say. Malena says, "Always follow the dogs." pointing to them up ahead in the distance. Feeling a little faint, I walk ahead and follow. I peak back and Malena is gone, my point of view returns to the dogs and suddenly they vanish, like ripped out from time, then I am time warped.

Awake to find myself back at the old Curandera temple. I am shivering, it is cold and damp. Old Curandera is hovering about and chanting in an Aztec dialect that I have only heard in the amazons of mexico. He is holding a bowl that looks to be steaming hot, raising it up and lowering it down to my mouth and says, "Please drink. This will make you feel better." I drink the serium and it warms me up instantly, a few seconds later my vision wavers and I blank out.




( Copyright  © 2013 April 'Espinola' Delgado. All rights reserved.)