Read Online Thirteen Senses by Víctor Villaseñor - Free Book Online

marriage was created in the first place? It was created, mi hijito ,” she said, closing her eyes in concentration, “to give each man and woman the foundation for the understanding of the powers of God here on earth. A man alone can never realize the full power of the Almighty any more than a woman alone. You just watch, mi hijito, in the next three years you and Lupe are going to travel to places that you two never dreamed of before. I know, believe me, your father and his high-feeling, arrogant, European ways forced me into a world of forgiveness and compassion that I never dreamed of traveling.” She smiled, making the sign of the cross over herself. “You’re on your way now, mi hijito, this is the last miracle that God and I are doing for you. It’s all up to you and Lupe now, con el favor de Dios ,” she added.
    â€œOh, mama, ” said Salvador, starting to pace once again. “Oh, mama, mama! All of my life you’ve been our everything for us children. I don’t know anything about making my own miracles! That cop, I swear, I was so scared and confused that if you hadn’t been with me, I might have shot him.”
    â€œNo, you would not have shot him.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    â€œBecause,” she said, closing her eyes in concentration once more, “I raised you to have love, here in your center, and it takes the power of love to have the guts to not go around shooting people to settle matters.”
    â€œBut I thought of doing it, mama .”
    â€œOf course, you’re a man, mi hijito. But to think is not to do. To think is small potatoes compared to doing. And here inside of you, you are strong in knowing this difference. No, you would not have killed in cold blood,” she added.
    He nodded. “And you knew that a cop was going to pull me over, and that’s why you insisted to come with me?” asked Salvador.
    â€œOh, no, I’m not God,” she said, laughing. “I didn’t know what was going to happen to you in complete detail, but as a mother, as a woman of substance, I did have the feeling here in my heart,” she said, breathing deeply, “that you were going to need my help, and so that’s why I insisted on coming with you.”
    â€œOh, mama, you are such a mystery to me,” he said, pacing back and forth under the huge, old tree by the side of the road. “I’ll never forget as long as I live, we were crossing the desert on our way north to the Texas border, and it was getting dark when we finally got to the water hole. But the hole was completely dry, and we were all dying of thirst. And yet you and all these old women didn’t panic. No, you all just got together and had us children kneel down and begin to pray as the last sunlight disappeared. And miracle of miracles, fresh water began seeping out of the ground that night, filling the hole with water by daybreak. How do you do it, eh? I was so scared when the cop came up and yet you were so calm and my God, he really didn’t see those barrels!”
    â€œEasy,” said Doña Margarita, “when I pray, I just give myself over to God, completely, and He then gives of Himself to me. And God can do anything, so then can I.”
    Standing under the great old tree, Salvador nodded. “I see, simple as that, eh?”
    â€œYes, simple as that,” she said, nodding to the tree. “Once we give up the ghost.”
    â€œGhost?”
    â€œYes, la ilusión that we really have any separation whatsoever between us and Holy Creation,” she said, kissing the crucifix of her rosary.
    â€œ Mama ,” he said, “my God, who are you to know so much?”
    â€œWho am I? Well, mi hijito, since you always seem to keep forgetting, then I’ll tell you again,” she said. “I am your mother. I am the woman who brought you forth with life from here between my legs, and so you will never get rid of me when