La Noche de la Chankla: Clarividencia
Chapter 19
Once Javi had taken the ice cream into the kitchen, Xochitl, ensuring that he was out of hearing, got up close to Luna and Luz.
“La iglesia!” she whispered.
“Mande?” Luz asked.
“The church. It’s … gone,” Xochitl said.
“The Silver Moon is gone?” Luna asked, disbelieving and not comprehending why they would have even driven past it.
“No … La Iglesia del Cordero … our church. We were driving one street down and when I looked for it through the houses … it was not there anymore! It’s gone!”
Luz looked at her with worry.“Estás inferma, Xochitl?”
“You must have been on the wrong street,” Luna added.
“No … and no,” Xochitl responded adamantly, without her usual dithering. “I am not sick, and I have lived here my whole life. I know the streets. La iglesia is gone.”
“Did … Javi see it, tambien?” Luna asked, the thought having just come to her.
“No. He was looking … "
“Abuela,” Javi said suddenly from the entrance to the kitchen, “Aren;t you going to have some ice cream? Vanilla? Where is Spider? We got Gooey Marshmallow Fudge too and that’s his favorite.” Hueso wagged his tail and barked for them to come, hoping for a scoop of vanilla.
In the fuss of Xochitl’s news, Luna had not had time to think of anything to tell her nieto about Spider. Her first instinct was to tell him that Spider had gone out, but her second instinct forbid her from inventing a story that would lead to lie upon compounded lie and, ultimately, break her grandson’s heart more deeply. She also had no idea what she was going to tell Luisa, who would be home in only a few hours. Luna had kept everything she could from her family, trying to spare them both the knowledge of the danger and, hopefully, any repercussions from it. But she had failed. Surtr had come for them anyway, and now she would be forced to reveal the full horror of their predicament on top of having to explain that Spider was gone forever.
With Luz and Xochitl standing by for support, Luna called her nieto to her. “Javier, I must tell you something. Yo necesito that you to be strong. Here, take the moonstone.”
Taking the stone apprehensively from his grandmother’s hand, Javi looked at it, admiring its opalescent sheen but already knowing that he was about to hear something that he would not like. But, before Luna was able to even begin her explanation, the unexpected, within a world now plagued with the unexpected, the stone started to glow.
Javier entered into what seemed to the brujas like a trance, and the stone grew luminous, as if it were harboring the light of the full moon itself. Hueso, watching and fearing for his boy, howled, as if he were a lone wolf upon a remote treeline. Javi’s body became rigid.
“Luna! Qué pasa? It’s hurting him!” Luz shouted, noticing that Luna was not reacting. Luz reached to snatch la piedra de luna from Javi’s hand, but Luna grabbed her wrist.
In a voice that was not her own, Luna looked at Luz and said, “No. He can see. He has the gift.”
Luz, having known Luna for most of her life, immediately recognized the voice as Luna’s mother’s, and she let her hand drop to her side, as if she were still eight years old and had been caught by Señora Velasquez in some mischief.
As the light from the stone grew brighter, Javier’s face contorted from confusion to fear … and then to knowing. Tears welled up in his eyes and rolled down his face. Then the light went out. Free from the seeming paralysis, he looked for his abuela, and fell abut her neck, gripping her tightly. He whispered in her ear, “Spider is dead, Abuela. The evil came and took him. I know now. I saw it … in the Silver Moon.”
Luna, now herself again, held her nieto as if letting him go meant losing him to the abyss. “Yes, mijo. What came to you is real. You have the power to see, mi sol. You must stay strong, fuerte!”
“Abuela,” he answered, pulling back and seeking out his grandmother’s eyes, his own eyes now sad and resolute, the tears having receded, “I can help you.” His tone was unlike him, full of confidence, but Luna did not want him involved.
“Ay, Javier, you can help me by staying out of danger,” Luna answered him.
“But, Abuela … !”
“No, Javier,” she said sternly, “You have the gift, but you are not old enough to help us and you don’t know how to use it. Now go eat some helado. Your tías and I have something to do.”
“But I don’t want any ice cream anym … !”
“Javier! I said go,” Luna commanded, but with an air of grandmotherly love.
Heaving a sigh, Javi went back into the kitchen, where he gave Hueso a small bowl of vanilla, knowing that chocolate was bad for dogs. He, however, did not have any. He sat at the table, alone, and brooded, but also reflected upon what he had learned. In a matter of only minutes, he had emotionally aged beyond his years. Staring at the marshmallow ice cream, which was beginning to melt, his former worries and obsessions were absent from his mind. He wanted to help his abuela and his tías.
“But he can see,” Xochitl reiterated, back in the living room. “We cannot do that, not without spells and circles and concentration. He can just do it. What if he is supposed to help?”
“No,” Luna said adamantly. “Spider was taken by the evil from under my roof. He was not mi familia … but he was. And it is too close to home. I will not give my nieto to the Silver Moon!”
“Then what do we do now … about Surtr and Garmr and the two legs?” Luz asked.
“Surtr?” Xochitl interrupted.
Luna brought the site back up with the information about the fire giant and let Xochitl have her chair.
After a few minutes, Xochitl turned and looked at them. “We’re supposed to fight that?” She asked it rhetorically, already knowing the answer.
“We need to go look at the church, our church, or where it was,” Luna responded.
Although she did not want to leave the relative safety of her home, if only in its familiarity, it was still light out, so she gathered Javier, not willing to leave him alone, and they all set out for the place where the church had been. It was not very far from their street, only a few blocks, small town blocks, not like those of a large city, and, in a few minutes they reached the site. A crowd had formed, which included Enrique. Once they passed through it, they saw that Xochitl had been right. It was gone. There was not a trace left of it, as if the earth itself had sucked it into the unknown beneath the desert. They crossed themselves. Father Ruiz had been inside.
“What could do that?” Enrique asked, coming up behind them.
“Only evil,” Xochitl said, almost to herself.
Looking at the vacant lot, a feeling rose within Javier, and he stepped onto the sand where the church had once stood.
“Javier!” Luna called to him, insecure with his action.
“Abuela. I can see something … near the middle. I have to get closer,” he responded in a way that somehow reassured her.
He made his way partly into the lot, and stared at the ground.
“What is it, Javi?” Luz asked.
“I can see a black pit underneath the ground … like a cave,” he responded.
Enrique looked puzzled. “What does he mean, Luna? There’s nothing there but dirt.”
Luna did not answer Enrique. She knew what Javier was seeing. She had been there already.
A dark SUV, drove up behind the crowd, and Robertson emerged from its black interior. Dressed in a suit and wearing the same insignia Luna had noticed around his neck at the school, he did not acknowledge anyone, but carried a sign into the lot, right next to Javi. Everyone watched, most ready to pounce upon him if he touched the boy. Robertson jammed the wire-framed sign into the ground and walked back to his vehicle, before driving away without a word.
Robertson Realty
There was a phone number under the name. The brujas knew that he hadn’t come at that exact time by chance. It was a message. If the Silver Moon could not remove the brujas, it would simply buy out the entire town, after erasing the buildings and the inhabitants. There was angry murmurs from the crowd. Robertson had gone too far.
“Let’s burn him out! Fuego!” said one voice.
Many seconded the idea.
Enrique looked at Luna.
“Mis amigos, no good will come from violence. There are things some of you know about that can’t be explained well. Señor Robertson is doing what he was ordered to do. Burning him out will not stop the land grabbing.”
“They took the whole church and Father Ruiz!” Another voice screamed.
“We can’t just do nothing!” The crowed growled.
“You will have to trust to us,” Luna answered the anger. “There is nothing you can do.”
“And what can you do?” a voice shouted, unacquainted with what had been happening. “This happening because of you brujas! This is your fault!”
“Cállate! ” Enrique barked. “The brujas are our friends! They didn’t make this happen. They are church goers just like you! How don’t you know what had been crawling here in la noche and the brujas chasing it away! Qué vergüenza! Shame!”
“It’s okay, Enrique,” Luna calmed him. “They are just scared. And they need to be.”
The crowd dispersed and the brujas and Javier went back to Luna’s to wait for Luisa to return. Luz and Xochitl wanted to be there to give everyone emotional support. Javi, all of a sudden, decided that he did want some ice cream. He wasn’t even sure why he did, but he went back to his seat in the kitchen while the brujas sat back down in the living room.
“What did he see, Luna?” Luz asked.
“I have an idea, but it won’t mean anything,” she answered.
“Oh just tell us,” Xochitl said, almost flippantly, the strain of the situation making her almost nihilistic and vanquishing her normal naiveté.
“Okay. I have thought about it, and I think that Surtr has taken over Niflheim and made Garmr his slave … and he’s sending Niflheim out under our world. Why? No sé.”
Luz snorted at the way Luna laid it out so objectively.
“I am very sorry that I asked,” Xochitl said, causing Luz to burst out in a full laugh, which she quickly stifled, given the gravity of the situation.
Understanding that Xochitl had little idea what she was saying, Luna searched online and, once again, gave Xochitl her chair. After a few more minutes, Xochitl just shook her head and sighed.
They sat together quietly, waiting for Luisa to get home. When she walked in, she saw them waiting for her, and she knew that something had happened to Spider before anyone uttered a word.
