Copyright 1992(c)
                           THE SENORA
                        By Franchot Lewis
     Hector works late every night in a restaurant. He gets home
at three in the morning, weekdays, and after four on weekends.
Often, he does double shifts to earn money to support himself,
his wife and their three small children, and to send money back
to El Salvador to his relatives. He regrets having to leave his
wife alone a lot, but he has to work. 
     He works seven days. He comes home tired and sometimes with 
just enough strength to pull off his clothes and to fall into
bed. Some nights all he feels other than tired is his want to
sleep, but he knows that he's a man and his wife's a young woman
and he has to do what a husband must. 
     A few weeks ago, after brooding for days, and emptying 
bottles of American wine, beer, ale and malt liquor, he suspected
his wife was cheating on him, and he was broken-hearted. His wife
had grown cool and cranky. In bed she would move away from him,
and complain about his weight and sweat, and say, she wanted only
to sleep. This made him almost cry out in frustration and anger,
but he was mild tempered, and kept his pain within. His wife had
been a passionate young woman. Always willing and open to him,
needing and loving his physical presence. Getting into her bed
had been good, now it was like sleeping with a log. Hector could
not believe that a woman who had loved sex as much as his wife
would just stop wanting to have it. He thought she had to be
doing something with somebody else. This thought almost made him
crazy. 
     Hector went to the Senora for help. Begged her to use her
powers to let him know if his wife remained true. 
     The Senora told Hector," A wife's love is like an evergreen,
ever fresh and beautiful if cared for, loved, given nourishment.
But, if neglected, the love withers; the leaves fall away." 
     Hector eyes went hard like two little black rocks set out in
two large bulging masses of whiteness rung with red. His face was
strained and tired, as if the whole world was bearing down on
him. He scratched his head, stuttered and asked, "You mean she's
cheating on me?" He slumped back in the chair; his head down,
nearly touching his elbows. 
     The Senora said quietly, "You must act now before the 
temptation comes." 
     Hector shouted, "Why should she cheat on me?" His heart 
seemed ripped from his soul, and his face was about to break 
loose and drift over the breach. 
     The Senora reached across the small table, took Hector's
right hand, and closely examined his left palm. Using one finger
she made a small tight circle, and said she was stripping away a
wall to look forward and back, and further, to expose his life
and his wife's to the clear light of the seeing eye. Then, she
said happily: "Your wife is faithful, she's not cheating on you."
     Much relief broke onto Hector's face. His free hand went to
his eyes to rub back a tear. Embarrassed, he began to rub his
cheeks as if he was smoothing out his face. He said sheepishly,
"I had a hunch only ..." He laughed, and words began to bubble
out of his mouth, "... a stupid hunch, she wasn't faithful." 
     The Senora said, "Your hunch is natural. You work hard,    
long hours." She moved her fingers down his palm to his wrist,
turned his hand over and stared at the veins. 
     Hector continued to babble, "My wife is a good woman. She
always has been good. I must be loco for thinking--" 
     The Senora said, "Hector ..." She gently stopped his 
babbling with a smile. "Trusting is good when all we have is
trust," she said. "But, when we can be sure there is nothing
better than knowing things for sure, don't you agree?" 
     She slowly withdrew her hand from Hector's, leaned back in
the chair, closed her eyes and began a low chant that Hector
could not understand. He leaned forward in his chair, strained
his wits over the mumbled words he heard coming from her lips,
muddled with the noise coming in the room from the street traffic
outside. After a long pause, she spoke welcome words that worked
like facial oil to restore the color to his cheeks. "There is a
potion," she said. He leaned closer, as far as he could and
remain seated. He wished to savor the hopeful words that he knew
would follow. 
     "There are magical formulas and spells, physical and spoken,
which guarantee marital bliss," the Senora told him. 
     Hector told the Senora he would be tied and blinded and set
down in hell if he could not have that potion. There was no
stopping his need. Whatever he was, he was in love with his wife.
"I've got to have it now!" he shouted. 
     The Senora took his palm again, touched his forehead with
her other hand, whispered her most powerful love chant, the spell
that would make any woman his. Hector felt the magic's charge. "I
must have that potion," he said. 
     The Senora smiled. "Yes, for a small fee." 
     "Oh?" said Hector. "I don't have much money." 
     "You may pay in installments. How much do you have on you?" 
     "Twenty," he said. "Brought only that." 
     The Senora smiled. "Twenty now, the rest when you get
results." 
     Hector was so happy that he burst out laughing, clapped his
hands and grinned. 
     "But, listen," the Senora said. "You must follow my 
instructions, exactly, or the magic will not work." 
     Hector promised, "I shall do it as you say." 
     The Senora gave him a small pouch full of tiny, ground-up
leaves, herbs, skins, hairs and magic. "Keep it tied the way I
have tied it," she instructed. "Remember, this is part of an
ancient Aztec ritual that must not be broken." 
     "I shall, I shall," Hector bobbed up and down in his seat.
He could not sit still. 
     The Senora said, "Young man, every night when you get home,
before going to bed you must bathe yourself using this oil, a
drop, only a drop in your bath." The Senora gave Hector a small,
green, unlabeled bottle of liquid. 
     "Remember, only a drop. A drop every night and no more than
a drop." 
     "Just that? No soap?" he asked. "Is this special soap?" 
     "It is magic," said the Senora. "Go to the store and buy 
soap, bathe with bubble bath if you wish--". 
     "Bubble bath helps the magic?" Hector asked. 
     "Remember the magic water, only a drop." 
     "I shall," promised Hector. 
     The Senora said, "Every night fresh underwear, jockey
shorts, what ever suits you ..." 
     Hector listened, intently, nodding. 
     "...a drop of this magical water from this blue bottle 
sprinkled on your underwear every night." She gave Hector a 
small blue bottle of water. She continued with the instructions,
"You must do the ritual dance before getting into bed. It is the
dance for young men, champions of love, strong, devoted, loving
men." 
     "How do you do the dance?" he asked. 
     The Senora answered, "The magic shall show you. Just dance
and think of your loving wife and dance." 
     "For how long?" 
     "One minute, one minute, not a minute more." 
     "Good, I've got it," he said. 
     The Senora nodded patiently, and told him, "When dancing 
say to yourself in thought: I love my wife. I love my wife." 
     Hector hung on the Senora's every word, his eyes as big as a
child listening to something wonderful. 
     "Place the pouch under the mattress on the side of the 
bed where your wife sleeps," the Senora instructed. "The most 
important thing before you get into bed is to say to your wife 
out loud: I love you." 
     Hector thought for a while, then, he asked, "Is that it?" 
     The Senora replied, "What do you expect for a couple hundred
dollars?" 
     Hector asked, "Don't I get no magic words to say?" 
     The Senora said, "Oh, magic words ... Well, for twenty-five
dollars more I shall give you magic so powerful it will seal your
Love to you forever." 
     "Good!" exclaimed Hector. "That's what I want." 
     The Senora said, "You'll owe me twenty-five dollars more." 
     "Sure," Hector nodded. 
     The Senora's voice dropped into a whisper. "Let me write 
these words down, " she said. "They are too powerful to be spoken
unless spoken at the proper time during the ritual of the dance
and they should not be spoken aloud, only in thought." She
scribbled on a torn piece of brown paper, writing in red ink. The
note would be hard to read. She folded the paper and gave it to
Hector. "Remember, this is very powerful magic. Show this to no
one, and speak these words only in thought, and only at the
proper time." 
     Hector reverently took the note, and placed it in his shirt
pocket. 
                               II.
     Hector's entrance into the Senora's parlor spoke volumes to
the success of his adventure into magic. He sat at the table,
showed his grinning teeth. His grin got wider and wider. He
opened his mouth to speak praises of the Senora, and he was so
excited that his breath came out in gasps. 
     "Relax, young man, you're hyperventilating," The Senora 
spoke sweetly to him. 
     He took several minutes before he could speak of his joy. 
When he spoke his praises were boundless. 
     "My wife is the most beautiful, the most wonderful woman 
in the world, and you're the wisest, the greatest lady in the 
world." He sucked in his breath. His hand slapped his own 
belly hard. 
     The Senora spoke softly. "Tell me, what happened, please." 
     Hector laughed. "What happened? Magic happened, just like
you said, just the way you say, you, wonderful lady." 
     "Yes, but aren't you going to tell me the details?" The 
Senora asked. 
     "Donkey me, yes," answered Hector. "Yes, Yes ..." 
     The Senora listened patiently, to his expressions of 
delight, and waited for him to settle down and give the details.
Several minutes passed before Hector began. 
     "At first my wife said she thought I was nuts, taking 
baths at night and dancing around our bedroom in my underwear--"
Hector began. "She later told me she was about to come see you,
to see if I was possessed." He laughed. "That's funny, right?" 
     The Senora smiled. 
     Hector continued, "Well, she thought I was crazy, maybe,
trying to scare her away. She got scared at first. She told me
later. When she was cleaning the room, making the bed, she turned
the mattress over on the box spring, the way you are supposed to
do, so that the mattress won't wear out on one side. She turns
the mattress over every couple of months so we can sleep on both
sides and the mattress lasts longer. Well, she found the pouch
and she got scared. She was going to take the children and leave.
She thought it was a black magic pouch to kill her, curse her or
something. She went to the priest and told him about it. She was
so scared. Father Reyes told her to talk to me about it. She
didn't for two days, she was so scared, then, last night she got
up out of bed, jumped on me when I was dancing in my underwear.
Sweat was dripping down her face and tears from her eyes. She was
banging against my chest with her fists, calling herself fighting
me, and her throat was hoarse, she was so angry. She scared me. I
couldn't understand it. I thought she was going crazy. She was 
tearing herself inside out. She didn't hurt me. I am strong, my
chest as hard as a rock. It was easy physically for me to push
her off, but not emotionally. I was feeling bad and scared,
afraid the magic might have gone wrong. I stopped her from
hitting me. I held her and shook her until she stopped. I told
her to stop crying. I hoped to get some sense in her ..." 
     The Senora's head lay back on the head rest of her seat 
as she listened. 
     Hector continued, "My wife's eyes were were running tears,
and her sweat was dripping on me, and her words were choking
back. After what must have been an hour, she told me. And do you
know what I did? I laughed. Man, was I relieved. I had her just
where I wanted her: in love with me. I told her about me coming
here, about the magic you gave me and she said if I went through
all that trouble I must love her very much. And I told her that
was what I had been telling her all these years." 
     The Senora smiled, "Hector, now happiness reigns in your 
home?" 
     "Yes," Hector exclaimed and he let out a shout of joy. He 
looked at the Senora through shining eyes. Straight above her 
head, he would swear he saw a halo. 
                               END