“You don’t think I’m like overdressed or anything, do you?” asked Els.
“Are you kidding?” said Neesha, “You look stunning. I’m stunned right now. You’ve stunned me. I mean, oh my God, you’re wearing heels. I’ve never seen you wear anything but flip flops and tennis shoes. I didn’t think you even owned any. I just heard myself say that and it sounded mean, but fuck it, you look great, hon. Really.”
“Thank you,” said Els. “You look great, too. But you always look like that.”
Seve clapped his hands together, “So it’s decided then: we all look amazing, I’m including myself as well because, even though no one has said anything I feel like I’ve put myself together rather well. Not that you all would notice, and not that I need to hear it anyway.” He looked at his watch. “Let’s get this very well-dressed show on the road, what do you say? Don’t want to be late.”
“I’m ready,” said Neesha. “And my friend here looks more than ready. Any hint of where you’re taking us?”
“No hints. It will spoil the surprise.”
“He’s so serious about surprising us,” said Neesha. “You do realize we’re two jaded American girls who have seen it all, right? I mean like we have cable, you know.”
“We’ll see,” said Seve. “But this aint TV.”
“It’s not TV, it’s HBO,” said Neesha.
“It’s not that either.”
They left the house and got in the Lexus. Neesha sat in the back and complained about the dog hair, but she was in a good mood. She was happy for Els, who seemed to have broken through some invisible barrier of self-confidence. She hoped it was permanent. No turning back now, she thought as the car rolled along the dusty road. Whatever’s ahead, we’re coming at it hard.
What was ahead was the city, uneven skyline as they approached turning into individual massive buildings rising to disappear in the black sky above them. And then they were gone. There was no city, they were through it and out of it and the roads turned to dust once again.
Seve seemed tense behind the wheel and he took the turns too sharp as if he were seeing them an instant later than he should have. From the back seat Neesha noticed Els sublimely calm amid the erratic driving. If Neesha had been driving like that Els would be clutching her shoulder strap like a string of rosary beads and muttering under her breath. She supposed she had Seve to thank for Els’ placidity. She put a lot of trust in the man.
After some time and a lot of nothing scenery-wise, they could see a barn in the distance. It was big, and old, the weathered planks which composed its exterior had gone hard and almost gray in color, taking on the appearance of stone.
The place was packed and cars where parked haphazardly outside of it at all angles. Seve slowed down and turned into the bare patch of field and parked his car among the faded pickups and jarringly new cars scattered around the lot, including a blue Volvo station wagon.
“This is where you wanted to take us?” said Neesha when they were all out of the car. “This is your big surprise? This is. . . this is. . . Help me out here, Els. What is this?”
“It’s an old barn,” Els offered.
“Exactly. That’s what I was looking for. It’s an old fucking barn. Seve, dear, why have you taken us to an old fucking barn? Perhaps you have an old fucking tractor you’d like to show us?”
“Just shut up. Watch. Enjoy yourself.” Seve said, walking away, toward the barn, not looking back to see if they were following him.
Els went to catch up but Neesha took her arm and held her back.
“What?” said Els
“Just talk to me a minute, okay? Seve seems kind of out of it, don’t you think? Like he’s acting sort of nervous about something.”
It was difficult to imagine Seve being nervous, but Els had to agree, something was strange about him. “Yeah. He’s wound up about something. Whatever’s going on in that barn is making him tense. It’s definitely weird.”
“What do you think’s going on in there?”
“I wouldn’t even want to guess,” said Els. She looked at the field, the cars and the men standing around outside the open barn door. “Whatever it is, it’s certainly popular.”
“Yeah, so is Hepatitis, but you wouldn’t see me in line to get a ticket.”
“So what, then? Do you want to wait by the car? Whatever has a guy like Seve so rattled can’t be good, right? He’s like an actor on opening night, or someone that has to give a public speech. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to go. I’d stay with you.”
“Fuck that. I’m going, which means you’re going too. I just want to get on the same page about whatever’s going on in there. I’m definitely curious. More curious than cautious, anyway. So let’s go, I guess.”
They navigated the labyrinth of cars. Els noted the crowd. It was mostly men. Precious few females seemed to have an interest in what was taking place, and the ones that did obviously didn’t see it as an opportunity to dress up. They wore mostly jeans and sweatshirts and seemed to be of the same variety as the men: tough-looking with sun-hardened skin, smoking cigarettes and holding themselves with the effortless confidence that came with being among your own.
It was bright in the barn and the light from the open door cut an uneven yellow rectangle through the shadows on the ground outside. The girls stepped in through the light unfurled before them like a welcoming carpet, their shadows stretching out enormous beside them.
The floor of the barn was hard-packed dirt and the place was mobbed, hundreds of voices formed one reverberating roar. There was a loft high above the back wall and a line of men sat on its edge with their legs dangling over the side. The focus was on the center of the barn where four long sheets of plywood, maybe three or three-and-a-half feet high, had been set on their sides to form a square.
“Do you see Seve anywhere?” asked Els.
“No.” Neesha was looking for men in suits. There were a few, a big bald guy in a black suit with a matching skinny tie and sunglasses stood next to a smaller man with a rat face and a ponytail. But she didn’t see Seve. Neesha scanned the crowd again more deliberately. She came back to the big guy in the suit and his ugly friend. They were talking to each other now, but their attention was focused squarely on the girls. She could see their gazes clearing a path through the room. “Oh, shit,” she said, “It looks like we’ve attracted some admirers.”
“Who?” Els asked.
“Over there,” she motioned subtly with her head. “No, don’t look. Do you see them. They’re staring right at us.”
“I don’t see anyone.”
“Hmmmm. . .” Neesha chanced another look in their direction and when she did, the men were gone. “Oh well, good. I don’t feel like dealing with any creeps at the moment.” She turned around to look for Seve again, scanning the room and moving around a full 360 degrees. When she came back around, her vision was filled with the black-white-black, pattern of the big guy’s suit, dress shirt and tie. The two men were standing in front of them.
Shit! she thought.
The bald one in the suit rattled off something in Spanish, smiled at them with all the inelegant charm he could muster.
Neesha stared into his sunglasses, looking at her own warped reflection. “I don’t know what the fuck you just said, but if you’re looking for the bathroom or something, I think it’s that way,” she said, pointing through the door.
“Oh, you don’t speak the language, huh?” said the smaller, rat-faced one. “Call me Gusano. My friend here’s Primo, he don’t speak English. He don’t speak Spanish that well either, to be honest. Are you two all alone here?”
Neesha sneered at him, trying to make it obvious that they wanted to be left alone. “There’s like four-hundred people in here. We’re about as alone as you are.”
Gusano looked around as if noticing all the people for the first time. “Yeah, you’re right. This place is packed. So you came here alone, though? Where are you from?”
These guys were
making Neesha supremely uncomfortable. The little one was asking questions at her more like he was completing some kind of inventory rather than hitting on her.
“I’m from Greenland. My friend Ursula here is from Norway. We came down to see the donkey shows, we hear your mother really wears em out. Would you kindly fuck off now, please?”
Gusano laughed and said something to his friend in Spanish. The big guy, Primo, looked suddenly very pissed until Gusano said something else to him and put a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re really funny, saying my mother fucks donkeys. That’s pretty good. Really fucking clever. Who brought you to this place? I know you didn’t find it on your own.”
“It’s actually in a brochure on how to find oblivious assholes who don’t realize when women don’t want to talk to them. I hate to repeat myself, but I’d really like the two of you to fuck off now.”
Gusano eyed the girls silently. They could see something boiling just beneath the surface of the man.
“Our friend Seve brought us here,” said Els.
At the name Seve, Gusano looked like he had been slapped. He turned to his huge friend and said something to him. A moment later he had a similar look on his face.
“You know Seve?” he said to Els.
“Yeah, do you?” She tried to keep the desperation out of her voice. Maybe they knew Seve and where to find him.
Gusano shrugged, “Maybe. I know a lot of people.”
Neesha gave him an annoyed look. “Well anyway, he’s trying to find us right now, so you probably don’t want to be here when he does. Off you go then. Shoo!”
The men didn’t budge. The big one said something to Gusano, and they both turned their attention to Els.
“You’re really special, you know that? There’s something about you. My friend thinks so too.”
“Yeah? What’s so special about me?” asked Els.
“Maybe I shouldn’t say it. It’ll make your rude friend jealous, but you’re really beautiful.”
“I am?”
“Yeah. You really fill out that dress. What the fuck are you doing hanging around an asshole like Seve? Money I guess, huh? You girls like money. Me and my friend got a little money ourselves, don’t we, Primo?” Primo nodded.
“Yeah, we got a little bit. Why don’t you girls come outside with us? We’ll have some thrills, what do you say?”
“I know I’ve been telling you guys to fuck off for the past few minutes,” said Neesha, “but you just found the right combination of words to entice us. Congratulations. Why don’t you guys go wait for us outside or somewhere else really far away, and we’ll catch up with you. It might be a long wait, but I promise you, we’ll be there.”
Gusano opened his mouth to respond and Primo nudged him and said something in Spanish, gesturing off into the room behind the girls.
The short man craned his neck to look up over the crowd to see what his friend had pointed out ”Ladies.” He made a slight bow. “We’ll have to continue this later. Sooner than you might like.”
“Any time would be sooner than I’d like,” Neesha said, determined to have the last word.
The two men disappeared into the crowd.
“What was that all about?” Els wondered aloud.
“Who cares, as long as they’re gone.”
“Yeah, they were really starting to creep me out,” said Els.
“At least they told you you were beautiful.”
“Too bad they’re only interested in my boobs,” Els laughed.
“Who’s interested in your boobs?” Seve had shown up behind them and caught the end of their conversation.
“Ninety percent of the room?” said Neesha.
“These two sketchy creep-o’s hitting on us after you left us alone,” said Els.
“I left you alone? I’ve been looking everywhere for you two. I thought you were behind me and when I turn around, you’re gone. You really shouldn’t wander off like that. Not in here.”
“Why not in here?” Neesha asked. “Are we in danger? Is this place dangerous?”
“Of course not, no more dangerous than anywhere else, it’s just that what goes on here isn’t exactly legal.”
“Not legal?” Els asked
“Yeah, what’s not legal? What goes on here?” asked Neesha.
“Come on,” said Seve, “you’re about to find out.” He started to push through the crowd, clearing a path. He turned around once to make sure the girls were following him. Seve led the girls right up to the side of the plywood square in the middle of the floor.
Els reached out and put her hand on the rough edge and peered inside the empty section of dirt floor.
“There’s nothing there.”
“Just wait a moment. We’re about to start,” said Seve.
And then a man in a black shirt with an extravagant sequin pattern stepped into the center of the marked-off area. He held up a single hand and all the chatter and noise in the barn ceased instantly. He spoke in machine-gun-Spanish and Neesha didn’t catch a single word. Both girls were aware of an anticipation throughout the crowd, as if there were suddenly less oxygen in the room. As the man spoke, the entire room had a feeling of a sprinter taking position and waiting with his feet in the starting blocks.
As soon as the man in the center of the barn finished talking the place erupted, and the sounds of four-hundred different conversations about the same thing rattled the walls enough to stir the dust.
“What’s going on? What did he just say?” asked Neesha.”
The man in the sequin shirt said a few more words and then a name, maybe, that sounded a lot like Hercules.
“Seriously,” said Neesha, “I have no idea what the fuck is going on.”
The man gestured to the corner of the makeshift square and just beyond they could see the crowd parting as someone approached. Those gathered where the plywood sheets came together to form a right angle pulled it apart and held it open just wide enough for a body to squeeze through. A man wearing jeans and an old cowboy hat walked through. His skin was deeply tanned and it had the appearance of old leather. Beneath his cowboy hat, his hair hung down in sweaty clumps. He didn’t look around or acknowledge the crowd, he was intently focused on the pit bull at the end of a homemade rope leash. The black and white dog had his feet dug into the dirt, obdurately, refusing to move forward as the man in the cowboy hat pulled on the leash. He dragged the dog unmercifully across the ring and into the opposite corner he had entered. They waited there and the man kneeled down to hold the dog by his collar.
And from the crowd, both Neesha and Els’ eyes widened in horror at the same time as realization dawned on them.
Neesha turned to Seve, “Not exactly legal? Did you mean not legal in any way at all? You brought us to a fucking dog fight.”
Seve showed her that cocky smile again. “That’s right. I though you might enjoy this little unexplored aspect of Mexican culture. The bloodsport. Watching these dogs tear into each other, it’s like they were designed specifically for it. It’s actually quiet elegant. Like ballet.”
“There’s nothing elegant about it, it’s just cruel. It’s also illegal, so I don’t really think it’s part of your culture if the majority of people are offended by it.”
“Is it cruel? Your country kills ten-thousand healthy dogs every day for no good reason and you don’t even blink. So death cannot be an issue for you. It’s in these dogs’ nature to fight, to kill each other. It’s not hatred that makes them do it, there is no contempt. There is only something hard-wired in their brains that tells them that as long as the other dog is alive their existence is threatened. This isn’t about death or killing, this is about survival, winning and continuing to exist at any cost. The dogs fight to survive, here or anywhere else. We only have the means to arrange the time and place, but not the reason, so we use it to satisfy our own curiosities about survival.”
Neesha shook her head. “It’s wrong. People shouldn’t be fostering cruelty. They sho
uld find ways to avoid it, not ways they can use it to entertain themselves. This whole thing is disgusting to me.”
Els felt something cold and jagged bloom inside of her as a question formed in her mind. “Seve, where is Karlstad? Did you bring him home? Neesha, did you see him bring Karlstad home with him? Where is he, Seve?”
Els’ question was answered for her as the corner of the ring was separated once more and the fat man who had lent them the tow truck entered following a pure white pit bull.
Els cried his name from the crowd, but it was just another couple of syllables lost among the restless uproar. “Karlstad!”
TWENTY SEVEN
Unlike his predecessor, Karlstad did not have to be dragged into the ring. He came through the partition with his head low and his body close to the ground, pulling hard against the leash, and the fat man had to hold onto it with both hands and use his weight to get the dog to still.
The fat man got to his knees, removed the leash and held Karlstad around his collar.
Both dogs were incensed now in their corners, their lips curled, muzzles furrowed, revealing teeth, sharp, white, and deadly, ready to taste blood. The crowd mimicked their fury, waving fists clenched around stacks of bills, their voices all raised to mad screams.
Seve had said there was no contempt or hatred involved, but Neesha could see nothing else in the black eyes of the dogs. There was fury and wrath in those eyes, and little else beyond senseless animal instinct.
“I can’t watch this,” said Neesha. “It’s wrong. It’s so wrong. How can you make your own dog do this? I thought you loved him.”
“I do,” said Seve. “I do love him. But he’s a warrior, a gladiator. He’s a killer, and to deny him that integral part of what he is would be far crueler. He doesn’t want to lie around under my feet and get fat on my table scraps. He wants to kill.”
“Fuck you,” said Neesha. “I never thought I could despise someone as much as I do you right now. You’re a fucking monster. It should be you in there. It should be you! I’m not going to let this happen.”
Neesha came to the plywood barrier and put her hands on the edge and tried to swing her leg around, ready to jump into the ring and rescue Karlstad. Seve jerked her back down harshly.
Mules:: A Novel Page 15