Delena mentioned Big Candy had invited her and the dog circus to camp there next to the tents, then made them laugh as she repeated her reply: “Thanks but no thanks!” Her dogs would bark all night at the drunks stumbling around. She made it clear she wasn’t going after Big Candy even though he was interested in her — they all could see that. Sister had almost given up on Candy; still, she felt relieved Delena wasn’t after him; she and the twins liked her even more now. They told Delena she was right — the place was getting noisier at night now that the soldiers were camped nearby. That’s why Maytha and Vedna were leaving, and Sister might go too.
They all walked her and the dogs back downriver to her camp hidden in the tamarisk and willows. The dogs fanned out ahead of them, bounding along then stopping to sniff a rock or to urinate on a dry log. They hadn’t gone far when Delena stopped because there were only six dogs; the crippled dog was missing. They were about to go back to look for the dog when she limped out of a tamarisk thicket, her tail wagging.
“Ooh look! What’s that in her mouth?” Maytha exclaimed. The others bent down for a closer look; they were amazed to see a $1 bill in her mouth.
“Some drunk dropped his money!” Sister Salt laughed, and the baby let go of her nipple with a soft pop to stare at her merriment.
“We need that kind of dog!” Vedna remarked.
Delena smiled but said nothing as she folded the banknote into a tiny square and reached under the satin cape to tuck it down her blouse between her breasts. The seven black dogs were her army.
In her shady camp, they shared two bottles of beer the twins swiped from the brewery tent while the Mojave ladies were gone. No more green beer by the pail like the other night, they laughed; the hangovers were too brutal. The beer got Maytha and Vedna excited again about how amazing and funny the dogs’ performance had been. Just wait, Delena told them; that was just a little rehearsal. Wait until they saw the big show!
They sat awhile without talking, and the sudden quiet woke the little grandfather, who peered sternly at the young women until Sister offered him a breast. After he was nursing contentedly, Sister asked Delena to bring out the Mexican cards to see what they knew about Mama and Indigo.
OK, but first she had to understand the cards might bring bad news, Delena explained. The Gypsy woman — she called her Auntie — who took her in and began to teach her about the cards was strong, never sick. That winter in Chihuahua she came down with a cold; she wasn’t very sick — she still was up around the camp. Delena was still learning the cards then, and just for practice she asked the cards when her auntie would get over her cold. She shuffled the deck four times as she had been taught, then took the first card off the top for the answer. It was La Campana, the Bell, upside down. She had not seen that card reversed before, and was not sure of its meaning after she recited the card’s dicho: “The bell and you beneath it.”
As she was talking, Delena took the Mexican cards out of their woven bag and unwrapped them. She paused to look up at them before she continued.
“I took the card to Auntie to ask her how the reversed Bell should be read.” Here Delena paused and swallowed.
“Auntie said, ‘That’s my card, isn’t it?’ ” Now tears streamed down Delena’s cheeks, and the twins looked at each other and Sister.
“The Bell means good fortune when it is upright — the church bell rings and everyone dances under the bell at weddings and baptisms and other happy occasions. But reversed, the Bell lies upside down on the fallen beam that supported it; to be under the Bell, then, can only mean disaster.”
Sister glanced down uneasily at the baby in her arms, and Maytha and Vedna shifted their legs under them to restore circulation. Delena smoothed out the patchwork cloth of colored satin and shuffled the Mexican cards over it. Vedna tipped the empty beer bottles to her mouth one after the other for any remaining drops.
“She died?” Maytha asked in a soft voice. Delena nodded as Vedna elbowed her and whispered loudly, “What do you think, stupid!”
Sister shook her head at them both. Delena was laying out the cards, and Sister didn’t want the message of the cards affected by the twins’ quarrel. Now as Delena began to lay down the cards they didn’t take their eyes off them. All three inhaled sharply at the first card, La Muerte, the skeleton with the big scythe. Delena frowned and shook her head at them; their reactions might influence the cards.
“Yeah, be quiet!” Sister Salt warned them. “Don’t spoil the cards for me!”
So in silence they leaned close to watch Delena lay down the cards; each time the Bell upside down did not appear, Sister whispered thanks to the old ancestor spirits. When the last card went down and no overturned Bell appeared, she exhaled deeply, her heart pounding.
Delena studied the ten cards for a long time before she began to read them. The skeleton, Death, the first card, was gracefully covered by the Flowerpot of red blossoms, and both were crossed by the Sun. This looked very promising, indeed, she said, and both twins patted Sister on the back enthusiastically. La Muerte has a good dicho, she told them: “ ‘Death’s here, death’s there’—that’s nothing unusual. That’s the way life is; it means some sort of change.”
The dicho of the Flowerpot said, “One born in a flowerpot does not leave the room”; this was a reminder each being had its limits. “Cover for the poor” was the dicho of El Sol, the Sun card; all the poor have over their heads is the Sun, but that is enough because the Sun is a mighty presence. The Sun card might also be read as the Son of the God who shelters the poor in the world. This was among the best cards in the deck.
Sister was so happy to hear this, she leaned down to kiss the little sleeping grandfather on both cheeks.
Following those three cards was the Spider’s Web, which indicated a struggle but also one who refused to give up. The Web might look delicate but it wasn’t weak and didn’t give back anything entangled in it. The Cooking Pot card overturned meant some upset or trouble, but the dicho said it was “little”—the Spider’s Web more than balanced the Pot upside down. Sister wondered if this Cooking Pot card had anything to do with the big dinner Candy was preparing for the boss and his friends.
Above all these cards was the lovely card La Estrella, the Star. “The shining guide of the sailors” was its dicho, and it was the most important — it meant Sister would find her way back to her sister.
The Watermelon card — a fat slice cut from the ripe red fruit — came up again for Sister, with its tidings of abundance and success. Sister recalled the delicious melons they shared from the old gardens, and the wild melons she ate the day the little grandfather was born.
The Apache card above the Flag card and the overturned Rooster card meant the people hiding in the mountains from the soldiers would escape destruction. This was the only time Delena looked up from the cards to smile and nod at them. Sister knew she was thinking of the people in the south where she had come from, as well as the Messiah and the dancers here.
“The last card is the most important of all,” Delena said, tracing her finger over the ocean blue of La Sirena, the Mermaid. As Delena recited the dicho—“Don’t get shipwrecked by siren songs”—Sister realized it was some kind of warning; but when she asked her, Delena only shrugged. Maybe the card wasn’t hers; maybe it was Big Candy’s.
Edward was shocked, but he did not protest after she booked separate cabins and shared hers with Indigo. He wanted to explain, but each time he started, Hattie shook her head and turned away from him. There was nothing to explain. It did not seem to occur to him she wanted apologies, not explanations.