La Noche de la Chankla: Oaxaca Witch
Chapter 23
“I am Maria Teresa Rosalina Itzel Marisol Jimena de la Mora, but you may call me Mary. I am a bruja y curandera of the Cofradía de Guadalupe de Oaxaca, and I have come to help you.” The woman said this while looking directly at Luna, who was standing behind Luz and Xochitl, seeking Luna’s eyes.
“You came all the way from Oaxaca?” Xochitl blurted out, excitedly.
“Yes … but not exactly. I was on a retreat in Monterey when my sobrina contacted me and told me of your plight … You are not the only ones,” Mary answered.
“Pero … your English … You sound … pocho,” Luz commented in her usual manner, lacking any tact.
Luna was embarrassed. “Ay, Luz! Don’t say such things!”
“It’s okay,” Mary said smiling, “I went to school at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, and did an internship at Yale. I have traveled all over the world in my 80 years, so it’s little wonder that my accent has … suffered. I don’t take any offense … Luna?”
Although Mary was diminutive in stature, like most notions of an abuelita, none of the brjuas could belief that she was 80 years old. They would have hardly believed it if she had told them that she was 60. She, like Luna, had been blessed with eternal youthfulness.
As there had been no other introductions given and Luz’s online entreaties had not contained Luna’s name nor address, Luna was slightly taken aback, “Sí, soy Luna. Pero how … ? "
“Let’s sit, and I will tell you everything I know,” Mary suggested.
Luna’s little kitchen table with the tile inlay was happy to have received so many admirers of late, as the women took up the three chairs surrounding it, while Luna immediately began making cocoa and providing an assortment of galletas.
“You don’t need to fuss over me, Luna,” Mary insisted.
“Pero, it is unnaturally cold outside. You must have some chocolate caliente to get warm and you must be hungry from traveling. But I didn’t know you were coming and only have the cookies ready …” Luna answered, feeling that her offerings were inadequate and continuing to make the thick, hot drinks. “Por favor … mi casa es su casa.”
“Gracias,” Mary said with a strong Oaxacan accent, meant to quell Luz’s disbelief. “So how did I know your name? All of your names? Well, they came to me in a dream. After my sobrina informed me about your problem, I was visited by someone I met long ago … a close friend for a time … Astrid Velasquez,” she paused, letting the name penetrate the brujas’ minds, “and that is why I felt it necessary to come right away.”
At the stove, Luna froze. She had not heard her mother’s full name spoken aloud in decades. She turned, slowly, toward her guest, “You knew my mother … and she came to you?” Luna did not know why the news affected her so, but she felt the need to choke back tears.
“Yes, Luna. We met when we were young … at a ‘camp’ specifically for girls with … gifts. I was traveling with my parents at the time, and they thought it would be useful to make connections with others when the opportunity arose. Astrid and I paired off and, when the ‘camp’ ended, we wrote to each other for a few years … before getting lost in our own affairs. Your mother sought me out through the veil, knowing the power of the Oaxaca coven.”
Luna returned to the chocolate and began to divide it into mugs, suddenly filled with more hope than she had had up until that day.
“You said we’re not the only ones,” Luz interjected, feeling more comfortable with the stranger.
“I did,” Mary responded, somberly. “The evil you are facing has spread out to wherever there are the means it seeks. And wherever there are those with magic … any who can oppose it … it has begun to attack them, seeking to wipe them out. But, for some reason, the source, the power behind it, has focused on this area. The immediate fight is here.”
“But we are just brujas humildes, no one special. We are not meant to fight fire giants.” Xochitl said.
“You have more power than you realize, Xochitl,” Mary replied with a wink. “Fire giants?”
Serving the warm cocoa to the others, Luna took up the fourth seat around the table. “How much do you know about el malvado?”
Mary looked at her thoughtfully. “Not much … no specifics … only that it is not from here and must be stopped. I know, however, of the men who are wolves and las piedras de luna.”
“The two legs? Are they nahuals?” Xochitl asked.
“They are not typical Mexican nahuals … but they are the same … in a sense,” Mary said. “They possess magic and can shapeshift. So, by all practical definitions, they are nahuals … not lobisóns. But the evil that controls them has mixed the magic of its origins with the magic of brujería. It learns. So, again, yes, we might as well say that they are. Tell me what you know.”
Taking a deep breath, Luna related everything that she had discovered about Surtr, Garmr and the collision of worlds, as Luz and Xochitl nodded in agreement. As Luna spoke, Mary’s eyes grew wider.
After a pause to reflect upon everything she had just heard, Mary said, “I am not the only one who is coming. Your calls have been heard by others, powerful people of magic. They are on their way. Though they are not great in number, they are great in spirit. We will wait for them and then plot our course … Luna, your mother told me that there is one here who can see. Your nieto?”
Luna suddenly became worried with the thought that, if Mary knew about Javier, then Surtr must as well. “I have tried to keep him away from el peligro.”
“But he sees nonetheless, yes?” Mary pushed.
“Sí, pero I do not believe that he was meant to develop the gift. I think he is too near the danger and that made it appear. He is only 10.”
“I can fight, Abuela!” Javier said from the kitchen doorway, where he was suddenly standing.
“Javier!” Luna chastised, “You know you should not be listening like that! You are too young. I have told you! You are only to watch.”
Mary beckoned Javier to her. “Hola, niño,” she said, as she put her hands on his shoulders and looked him up and down, then into his face, assaying his power with her feelings. “You are strong, Javier. I am Mary. I am a bruja like your abuela and tías.” She continued to speak, but, while continuing to focus on Javier, was addressing Luna and the others. “Sometimes choices are made for us. There are things that are meant to happen, and they come about in ways we could not have predicted. Each of us has gifts, and nature takes advantage of opportunities to keep balance by bestowing others at different times. This boy sees because he is supposed to see, and I can tell that someone has started training him.” Mary looked to Luna. “There is a brujo coming … a powerful nahual from Puebla … He is called El Gato … and he comes to train Javier.”
Javi looked at his grandmother with silent acceptance of the idea, as if he had already seen it. But fear subsumed Luna. She did not want her nieto put into jeopardy. “He is only 10,” she repeated.
“Luna, el malvado knows no age. It will come for him no matter where he is. It already knows him. It has seen him, and it sent one of its slaves to take him. You know this already. Your sisters ended the threat,” Mary said, gesturing to Luz and Xochitl. “You stopped the evil from taking this house just before I arrived. It was trying to take Javier.”
“But why?” Luz interrupted. “He is just a boy.”
Mary scrutinized Javier’s face once more. “He can see. The being under the church, with all its power, cannot, and it cannot bestow that power upon its followers. It wants to use the boy … but Javier is more powerful than it realizes. Luna … he must be trained by someone with similar gifts. It’s the only way, and it’s far better than leaving him without it. You have done what you can.”
Looking at the remains of the cocoa in her mug, at the chocolate that had not completely mixed with the milk and was congealing at the bottom, Luna steeled her heart. “Entiendo,” she said quietly, resolved.
Patting the boy on the shoulder and bidding him to return to his show, Mary placed her hands, with their ring-covered fingers, on the table and folded them together, knowing that her news was not what Luna had expected. But she could tell that Luna was resilient and would come to understand that Javier needed to be prepared by the brujo.
Unable to bear the awkward silence, Xochitl endeavored to break it. “When is El Gato going to get here?”
“Today. Tomorrow. I don’t know for sure. But soon,” Mary told her.
“Who else is coming?” Luz asked.
“The only other I am sure of is Séraphine. She is traveling here from Little Haiti.”
“Little Haiti?” Luz repeated. “Is she a bruja?”
Mary paused and considered her words before answering, and hedged. “Séraphine is a descendant of powerful Haitian spell casters.”
“So like she does the Obeah?” Luz pressed.
“Voodoo,” Mary finally admitted, knowing that both Voodoo and Obeah held negative connotations, even for many brujas.
Silence fell once more, as Luz repressed the urge to resort to profanity with Mary present.
“My brujas, there is little difference between Brujería and Voodoo. Regardless of what you may have heard or seen in silly movies. As with even Brujería, there can be a darker side to it, but Séraphine is a healer … and my friend. I asked her to come.”
The confidence Mary showed in the Voodoo priestess set the minds of the brujas at ease. They each knew in their hearts that every soul who came to their aid was needed … and welcome.
“Now, friends, as for tonight, we should cast a protection spell at midnight together. You know where the optimum place would be better than I. The Oaxaca Coven will be ready to join us … spiritually … when we’re prepared. And we should be able to make sure that no more buildings are swallowed. But, for now, if you can direct me to a hotel, I need to rest. My old bones aren’t as resistant to fatigue as they once were.”
“There’s a little motel only a few blocks from … " Xochitl began.
“Xochitl!” Luna interrupted. “Mary is not staying in a hotel … or a motel … She has come to help us, and she will stay here … if she wants.”
“Thank you, Luna,” Mary said, “I would much rather stay closer to you and Javier. You are Astrid’s daughter … and… so … like my family.”
Luz looked at Luna cockeyed.
“Mande, Luz?” Luna asked.
“Luna … you only have three bedrooms.” Luz waited for Luna to remember, but it was clear to her that what had happened had slipped Luna’s mind with the worry about Javier. “La recámara … Luna! … Araña!” she said in Spanish, forgetting that it was Mary’s native language.
“Spider?” Mary asked, looking perplexed.
Luna gasped, closed her eyes, and crossed herself, inwardly chastising herself for having forgotten in the moment.
“Mary can sleep in my bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa,” Javier said, having crept back into the kitchen, being fascinated with Mary’s presence.
“Javier, I told you … " Luna began, but could not bring herself to rebuke her nieto again for eavesdropping, especially since his suggestion was so selfless. “Mijo, take Hueso outside in the backyard for a little. He’s been in all day and probably needs to go.”
Once Javi was outside, Luna explained to Mary what had happened in Lila’s room. While Mary had no fear of becoming a victim of the jötunn, she did not particularly fancy the idea of sleeping in the bed where something so horrible had occurred, and she and Luna decided that Javier’s solution was the best idea. Luna knew that her grandson might be tempted to stay up late watching TV, but, if he did, it did not matter now. He would likely be unable to sleep anyway, knowing that El Gato was coming to train him.
