The Hummingbird's Daughter_ A Novel - Luis Alberto Urrea [185]
“Enríquez!” Tomás shouted.
Pepe smacked him in the back of the head.
Enríquez turned to a soldier and borrowed his rifle. He stepped up to the leering Pepe and struck him in the forehead with the rifle butt. Pepe let out a startled bark and fell on his back in the dirt.
“Like a sack of beans!” Tomás enthused.
Pepe gargled and writhed.
Tomás turned to Teresita and said, “By God, it’s Major Enríquez!”
“A major no longer,” said Enríquez.
“Captain Enríquez?”
“Not quite.”
“What, then?”
“After our little visit at Cabora,” Enríquez said, “I am now a lieutenant again.”
He snapped his fingers, pointed at the manacles. A private with a ring of keys stepped over Pepe and unlocked Tomás and Teresita.
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
“At your service.”
He clicked his heels and gave her a slight bow. He gave Pepe a brisk kick. Pepe grunted and opened his eyes. Enríquez glared down at the prostrate guard and scolded him: “You are a soldier of the Mexican army. You will hereafter comport yourself with honor. We will observe protocol here.”
Teresita bent to Pepe and laid her palm upon the black mark spreading across his forehead. He blinked up at her in terror and scrambled away on his back. He got to his knees and scuffled off, his ass churning back and forth in its dirty khaki pants.
“Pig!” noted Tomás.
Among the lieutenant’s retinue was a boy of about twelve. He was dressed in a small uniform, his hat cocked crookedly on his head.
“Private García!” the lieutenant said.
The boy stepped forward and saluted.
“Sí, mi teniente!” he shouted.
“Private, see if you can bring the prisoners some water.”
“Sir!”
The boy rushed away.
“Yes, yes,” Tomás said. “Quite right, Lieutenant. Allow us to die with some respect.”
Private García came up with the water in two tin cups. He was very careful not to spill the water.
“Give it to them,” said the lieutenant.
Teresita looked at Tomás. Neither of them knew what was happening, but Tomás pointed his chin at the boy and she reached out and the boy gave her the cup and she drank from it. It was warm and tasted like metal. Tomás held his own hands up and the boy handed him his cup.
Tomás smiled at Teresita. “It’s all right,” he said. “We are in the hands of gentlemen.”
Tomás put his hand on Teresita’s back and addressed the lieutenant.
“Where would you like us to stand?” he asked.
“Stand?”
“Yes,” she said. “I would like to know. Let us do it quickly. We are ready.”
“Ready?” Enríquez said. “Ready for what?”
“The firing squad.”
The lieutenant looked around at his men. They laughed.
“The firing squad!” he said.
“Sir,” said Teresita, “I don’t find it very amusing.”
“Oh,” said Lieutenant Enríquez, “but you will.”
He took a proffered document from the hand of a subordinate. He held it out before him and read:
“Miss Urrea has been recognized by presidential declaration to be the Most Dangerous Girl in Mexico.”
“Bravo!” said Tomás.
The lieutenant glanced at Teresita and raised his eyebrows.
“Are you?” he asked.
“They say that I am.”
“At the moment,” he noted, “you are perhaps the dirtiest girl in Mexico.”
She nodded slightly.
Enríquez resumed reading the declaration:
“And her father, Tomás Urrea, has been found to be an enemy of the state and a general danger to Mexican society. Political, fiscal, and moral supporter of the indigenous uprisings in the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Chihuahua.”
Tomás nodded and smiled. “That’s me,” he said.
“Señor, please.”
The lieutenant continued reading. He read of heresies and Yaqui raids, of abetting the enemies of the republic and defying the rule of both the military and the Church. He read to them of their grievous insults to the benevolent regime in Mexico City and to its noble head of state, the great president and general, Porfirio Díaz. He read that they had been found guilty of treason, of fomenting revolution, and that by abetting the recent armed assault on the cavalry by guerrillas