Marriage in Mexico

by Flora Kidd

  The harsh, bold landscape fascinated Dawn, Nothing was blurred in this country. Everything was clear-cut, diamond-bright under a deep blue sky across which white cotton-wool clouds drifted lazily.

  Then the good road came to an end and they were jolting over a rough surface of a narrower road which twisted upwards through sage brush and cacti, past outcrops of rock, and took them into a wide canyon between bluffs of wind-eroded rock. And there ahead of them was a collection of streamlined trailers, their aluminium walls glinting in the sunlight, the temporary living quarters of the actors, actresses, directors and camera crews involved in making the film.

  Sebastian parked the car close to other vehicles which were parked there and together they began to walk over sparse tussocky grass, where some cattle were browsing, in the direction of some wooden buildings. The mountain air was clear and fresh, the temperature ideal for walking. Birds twittered among the few bushes and circling high above the battlemented bluffs of rock which soared against the blue sky Dawn noticed a huge bird. An eagle?

  As they drew nearer to the wooden buildings she could see that they formed a street such as she had seen in many Western movies. Verandahs, windows and doorways, representing the stores, saloons, and sheriff's office. There seemed to be some action taking place on the street which was being filmed by two camera crews.

  'There's Roberto,' said Sebastian, stopping and pointing to a short wide-shouldered man who was dressed in blue levis, a blue denim shirt and a grey wide-brimmed stetson hat. 'You see how he likes to look the part?' Sebastian added with a touch of affectionate mockery. 'We'll wait here until they've shot the scene, otherwise he'll be angry with us for interrupting them.'

  The short man was standing holding the bridle of a black and white pinto pony and was talking to its rider. Whether the rider was a man or woman was difficult to tell because the inevitable levis, checked shirt and stetson were disguising. When the conversation was over the rider wheeled the pony, trotted up to the other end of the street and drew rein to turn the horse round.

  Roberto shouted instructions to the camera crews. One crew was just in front of Dawn and Sebastian, slightly above the street so that the camera would have a view of the horse and rider as they approached this end of the street and left the town.

  More orders were shouted. The pony began to gallop down the street, urged on by its rider. Dawn saw an actor step from behind a post supporting a verandah, stetson pulled well down over his face. He raised a rifle to his shoulder and appeared to shoot at the rider. Then the thunder of the horse's hooves was drumming in her ears and she was staring in amazed excitement at the rider. For the stetson had slipped back to reveal long corn-coloured hair which glittered brassily under the sunlight as it flowed back from the classically-featured face of the actress who was leaning over the pony's neck.

  'It's Judy!' Dawn turned excitedly to Sebastian. 'I'm sure it's her!'

  'How can you be sure at this distance?' Sebastian challenged her.

  'The colour of her hair,' she said.

  'Could be a wig worn by a stunt rider,' he replied dryly. 'You're in the world of illusion now, where nothing is as it seems to be. The riding isn't always done by the actors and actresses who have the leading parts, but by stunt men. But since she's fallen off the horse and the scene seems to be over, we'll go and see her, hmm?'

  Dawn needed no second urging. Stumbling a little in the wedge-heeled sandals which weren't good for running, she ran downhill towards the rider who had got to her feet after her spectacular fall which had apparently been all part of the action.

  'Judy!' Dawn called, and the shapely woman in the levis and shirt, who was listening again to Roberto Suarez as he explained something, whirled round in surprise.

  'Good grief!' she exclaimed. 'Dawn! How did you get here?' Her blue eyes wide and incredulous in her made-up face, Judy Aylwin ran forward and within seconds the sisters were in each other's arms, hugging each other, crying a little.

  'But what are you doing here? Who brought you?' demanded Judy, and turned laughingly to Roberto. 'This is my sister Dawn, Roberto, and I can't think how she got here.'

  The short sturdy man with the thick grey hair took Dawn's offered hand in his, an expression of ironic amusement gleaming in his dark eyes. He raised her hand and kissed it.

  'I know how she got here,' he said. 'I'm pleased to meet you, little half-sister-in-law. Raquel has told me about you. I talked with her on the phone last night, and she told me about your marriage.'

  'You're married?' Judy squeaked. 'To whom?'

  'To me,' drawled Sebastian, and she turned to stare at him with round blue eyes. 'And I am pleased to meet you, sister-in-law, and glad also that finding you has been so easy.'

  6

  'And now we're on our own, tell me how come you're married to that gorgeous hunk of man who happens to be Roberto's half-brother,' exclaimed Judy, pulling the door of the comfortable living trailer closed behind her.

  'Is this your place?' Dawn asked, looking round with interest at the long settee berths covered in striped orange and brown moquette set on either side of a table on which a Mexican pottery jar was crammed full of tall grasses and wild flowers.

  'Yes, provided by the film producers Isn't it great? Sit down and I'll make you a nice long cool drink and you can answer that question I asked.'

  Judy busied herself at the small refrigerator in the kitchen end of the trailer and Dawn sank down on one of the settees. Orange curtains lifted lazily on the mountain breeze which wafted in through the open windows of the trailer, bringing with it the heady scent of sage.

  'First of all I have to tell you why I've been looking for you,' she answered with a sigh. There was no way that she could think of to soften the blow and so she had better come straight out with it. 'Judy, Dad died,' she said quietly.

  Judy set down the bottle of soft drink which she had taken from the fridge and turned to stare at Dawn. Slowly her cornflower-blue eyes filled with tears and her perfectly-shaped mouth quivered.

  'How?' she whispered. 'When?'

  'He died a month ago, but he'd been ill for a while before that. He was knocked down by a car when he was crossing Bloor Street and he didn't get better. I wrote to you to come and see him. He wanted to tell you how pleased he was about your success in landing a leading part in a film. But you didn't come and you didn't write back Why didn't you?'

  'I didn't receive your letter, I guess,' said Judy. 'It must have come after we'd come down here to shoot the film.' A frown creased her high white forehead and she turned back to the bottle of fruit juice and began to pour some into a tall glass. 'Before Roberto offered me this part life was a bit complicated for a while. I had to move out of that flat I was in.' She slanted a wary glance in Dawn's direction, then added, 'I was being harassed.'

  'What for? Who was harassing you?' Dawn gasped.

  'Oh, a guy I'd met at the film studio when I was working on that first film. Like me he was an extra and for a while we had a thing going between us. Then I found out he was no good, tended to have some parasitic tendencies, wanted to move in with me, shack up with me paying the rent, that sort of lark, so I tried to give him the push. But he wouldn't get off my back. He'd be there every day for some reason or other. So I moved and didn't tell anyone where I'd moved to except the film agency people.'

  'What was his name? What did he look like?' demanded Dawn.

  'Tail, fair, blue-eyed. Not unlike me. In fact we were often taken for brother and sister, and his name was Leonard Harris.' Judy dropped ice cubes into the pale orange mixture she had concocted, added straws to the two glasses, set one in front of Dawn and slid into the settee opposite. 'You've no idea what a relief it was when I got this part and we moved right down here. I wrote you straight away, but I guess the letter must have got to Toronto after you'd left.' Again her eyes filled with tears and her mouth trembled, 'Poor Daddy, oh, poor, poor Daddy! How I wish I'd known and could have seen him. Tell me all about it, Dawn. Was he in much pai
n?'

  At last Dawn was with someone in whom she could confide and it all came tumbling out—the agony of those few weeks when her father had lingered between life and death. And when she had finished they both cried a little.

  'I'm sorry you had to go through it all on your own,' Judy said at last, 'I wish I could have helped. I wish I could have been there. I hope he understood I'd have come if I'd known.'

  'Knowing Daddy I think he understood,' Dawn comforted her. 'He kept on saying you had the makings of a real professional entertainer, that you'd put the show before yourself, in the way he had always done. Remember his favourite saying was 'The show must go on', no matter what else was happening. He was saying it before he died, and he asked me to come and find you to tell you he was proud you're in show business too and that he'd left you some money.'

  'He left you some too, I hope,' said Judy. 'After all, you're the one who kept house and took all the responsibility.'

  'Yes, he left me some too, that was why I was able to fly out to Los Angeles to find you.' Dawn's mouth curved in a slightly ironical smile. 'You know, it would have been so much easier if you hadn't told your agents to keep your whereabouts a secret. I could have come straight here.'

  'Then how did you find out, and what are you doing married to Sebastian Suarez?' Across the table Judy's blue eyes flashed imperiously. 'Come on, little sister, just what mischief have you been getting up to?'

  The story was told slowly, often in answer to prompting questions from Judy—the meeting with Farley at the film studio, the car trip to Manzanillo, the drowning episode, the rescue and all that had happened since then.

  'I think Farley is the guy who harassed you, isn't he?' Dawn said eventually.

  'He certainly sounds like Leonard from your description, and I did give him a photo of me when we were going about together.' Judy shuddered suddenly and made a grimace of distaste. 'Looking back now I don't know why had anything to do with him. I was lonely, I guess, when I arrived in Hollywood, looking for friends, and I was easy meat for him.'

  'He was very plausible,' murmured Dawn, 'and he knew all about you, even the fact that you'd come to Mexico with Roberto Suarez. He suggested to me that you were Roberto's mistress and that was how you got the part in the film.' She gave Judy a level glance. 'Is it?'

  'Good grief, no!' Judy looked offended. 'I'll have you know I got the part on my acting ability, good looks and my ability to ride a horse and do my own stunts.' She laughed and added with that touch of self-mockery which had always saved her from appearing to be a show-off, 'Did you notice how naturally I fell off the horse when I was supposed to be shot in that scene?'

  'You do ride very well,' replied Dawn with a smile.

  'It's me Irish blood showing, as Dad would say,' retorted Judy, and in her turn gave Dawn a level glance. 'Did you really marry your rescuer because he said he would help you to find me and for protection from police questioning?'

  Dawn finished her drink before she replied. It gave her time to think up an answer to the question, but in the end all she could say rather weakly was:

  'I don't know.' She looked down into the tall glass and swirled the remains of the ice cubes around in it. Through the window came the sounds of men's voices shouting instructions followed by the noise of a heavy vehicle's engines starting up and the rumble of its wheels as it moved away. 'Judy, have you ever been in love?' she added diffidently.

  'Me?' Judy's eyes opened wide and she laughed again. 'Dozens of times, ever since I turned fourteen. Fallen out of it the same number of times, too. Why do you ask?' Her face sobered and her eyes darkened to a lovely shade of midnight blue as she considered Dawn's face anxiously. 'Oh, I see, you're not sure if you're in love with Sebastian or not, is that it?'

  'Yes,' Dawn whispered. 'The day we were married, yesterday, it all seemed to be so right. I felt very close to him and very happy. And then I found out he'd tricked me into marrying him and that he's going to use the marriage as a screen to cover up a love affair he's been having with a married woman.'

  'Wow!' Judy's eyes went round. 'This is heavy stuff! So the seemingly romantic hero who rescued you from a watery grave has feet of clay, does he?' she mocked. 'And you can't take it?'

  'No, I can't,' muttered Dawn.

  'Then what are you going to do?'

  'Now that I've found you I'm going to leave him,' said Dawn in a dull flat voice.

  'But you've been married only twenty-four hours,' exclaimed Judy.

  'I know, but I've worked it all out. Now that I've found you I don't need his help any more. I'm not under an obligation to him now. I can stay with you and come with you when you return to Hollywood. Once I'm back in the States I should be able to establish my Canadian identity pretty soon and then I'll go back to Toronto. If I stay away from him long enough he'll be able to divorce me for desertion… '

  'Aren't you going to give him a chance to explain?' cut in Judy sharply.

  'I have, and he didn't deny anything,' wailed Dawn miserably. 'He admitted it was true that he'd been thinking of getting married for some time as a political necessity.'

  Judy stared at her with puzzlement clouding her eyes and then she shook her head slowly from side to side so that her golden hair wafted out on either side of her head.

  'I don't get it,' she said. 'Do you really want to go back to Toronto?'

  'Where else can I go? I've a job there. I was given two months' compassionate leave to settle Dad's affairs and to find you, and I've about three weeks of the leave left. How much longer are you going to be at this location?'

  'We shot the last outdoor scene just now as you arrived and we'll be leaving any minute now to drive to Durango to do the interior shots in the studios there. That should take another three weeks to a month, depending on Roberto's temper. He's a perfectionist and will do a scene over and over again to get it right.'

  'Then could I stay with you, please, in Durango?' Dawn pleaded.

  'I suppose so.' Judy frowned, sighed and then said in a forthright sisterly fashion, 'Look, Dawn, I don't pretend to be competent at marriage guidance, but I do think you're being a fool. You've married a handsome and very wealthy man who happened to save your life. Surely you can turn a blind eye to any philandering he might have done, knowing that as a Mexican he'll always regard his wife and family as sacrosanct?'

  'His father was a Mexican and he didn't do that. His half-brother is a Mexican and he's had three wives,' retorted Dawn shakily. 'And the answer is no, I couldn't turn a blind eye, knowing that Micaela… '

  'Micaela? Who's she? The married woman you were talking about?'

  'Yes.'

  'How come you know about her? He wouldn't be fool enough to tell you himself.'

  'She told me. She and her husband came to visit Sebastian yesterday and she told me she and he had been in love for years and years and that their affair wasn't over and she thought I should know that.'

  'Mmm, sounds to me as if she was suffering from jealousy.'

  'Jealousy?' Dawn exclaimed. 'Of whom?'

  'Of you, of course, silly.' Judy raised exasperated eyes heavenwards. 'Honestly, Dawn, you're so naive I'm not surprised you were taken for a ride by Leonard-alias-Farley Harris.'

  'But why would Micaela be jealous of me?'

  'Because you're Seňora Sebastian Suarez and not her. Because he's bound himself legally to you and you're pretty and young and innocent. So she had to get at you somehow. She had to make you jealous. And she did, didn't she?' Judy's laughter was mocking. 'Oh, Dawn, you're really no better than the rest of us. You're finding out the hard way that you can be just as possessive and green-eyed about the man you've fallen in love with as anyone else would be. You know, I wouldn't be at all surprised that if you stick with Sebastian, be the wife he's asked you to be, you'll soon find this Micaela fading out of the picture, fast.'

  'Now you sound as if you're on his side,' complained Dawn.

  'Side? Whatever are you talking about? Is it a war you're waging with
him?' asked Judy, opening her eyes wide.

  'Sometimes it feels like it,' muttered Dawn. 'We're so different in every way. He's… he's so domineering.'

  'And you're so liberated,' jeered Judy, then the mockery faded from her face and her eyes grew dark with compassion again. 'You've got it badly, haven't you?'

  'Got what?'

  'The love bug. Poor little sister, I always thought when I used to hear you talk in that cool dismissing way about men that you'd fall hard when you fell in love. You're going to go through hell if you leave him now, regretting what might have been.'

  'The way I see it I'm going to go through hell if I stay with him,' retorted Dawn drearily, 'wondering every time he's away for a night if he's with her.' She took a deep sobbing breath and buried her face in her hands. 'I can't do it, Judy. I can't stay with him knowing about her. I'm just not made that way.'

  'If he'd denied your accusations instead of being honest with you would you have wanted to stay with him?'

  'Y… y… yes, I think so.'

  'So when are you going to tell him that you're going to stay with me now that you've found me?' asked Judy rising to her feet and picking up the empty glasses and taking them over to the sink.

  'Then I can stay with you?' said Dawn, looking up.

  'You can do what you like, I suppose,' said Judy with a sigh.

  'I'll tell him as soon as I can,' replied Dawn with a sniff.

  'Well, that might be sooner than you're thinking,' said Judy dryly as she looked out of the window above the sink, 'because he's coming this way right now with Roberto.' She slanted a critical glance at Dawn. 'Better go into the lavatory and do something about your face. It looks like a wet week.'