cuentos Dolores

And there, finally, was Dolores in the distance. She sang that song she always sang,

I'm a-gonna wash Dolores huh-uh
She's a-gonna look golorious huh-uh-huh


It was from a Disney cartoon she had seen as a child, Goofy washing a circus elephant, and every time she thought about the town, or Toni mentioned it, this little melody went through her head. It always made her laugh and when Toni asked her to explain she couldn't. He just thought it was her Goofy voice that was funny, rather than the daft half-rhyme of Dolores and glorious.

Toni was so excited about finally taking her to his home. The summer season was long over on the coast and they'd been together for months. Four months, seven days if you were counting: which she was.
Toni could make her laugh uncontrollably, and he loved to ham it up. The first time she told him to stop because she was going to pee herself was the biggest mistake she ever made. He then took it as a personal mission to keep going until she did, indeed, pee herself.

On the way to Dolores she was riding just such a wave. With great sweeps of his arms he doodled his childhood to her at each place they passed. She was crossing her legs and laughing, feeling herself lifting to that friction free place. The car had rocked and swerved as his brushstrokes became wilder. She tried to come down, to focus him out the front window to the here and now, but it was all giddily impossible. He slowed as they entered Dolores and with the turn of a corner there was the church dome twinkling away perfect blue in the Town Square. She reached for her bottle of water and gulped it down and let it spill and cool her face and neck. She passed it to Toni who took it from her with a smile that unveiled his perfect back teeth.



When they finally arrived at the house it was cracked, paint peeling from the plaster. A cockerel crowed from out back. His mother was all in black, the lines in her face were as furrowed as the fields around the town. She threw her hands up when she saw Toni and pinched and kissed him dramatically, then kissed and pinched him again, then again and again. Toni made eye contact with her and winked. The mother let him go and looked at her. She tried an “Hola”, which seemed to delight Inmaculada. She then asked to go to the toilet, where she changed her pee-stained knickers. 
When she came back Toni gave a her a knowing smile and said “Come we catch crazy turkey. Just for you my mother cook a special dinner.  My brothers and the sister they come later.”
 She followed him through a cool dark corridor to the kitchen where Inmaculada was stripping some herbs. Peeled potatoes were heaped in a bowl. A door led out to a fenced garden and she heard the slack-wattled sound of the turkey. There were two of them and about a dozen chickens in various sizes and colours and some ducks.
“This one, this one”, he said pointing, “You go this side.”
Suddenly he ran at it and it flapped and burbled scandalously away from him. It headed for her and she shied away then made a half-hearted grab for it, but it was strong and knocked her over. Toni dived for it but it slipped under his body. The other birds were scandalised and flapped and cried out. Feathers floated around the yard.
He got up and managed chased it into a corner and closed in on it. She came beside him, still breathing deeply from the contact. It tried to escape and ran towards them but Toni grabbed it. It flapped and pecked out and dragged him around until he managed to get his bulk on top of it just at the entrance to the kitchen.
 “Mama! La cuchilla! La cuchilla!”
 Inmaculada appeared with a horror-film blade and quickly gave it to him then held the head covering the bird's eyes. He hacked and hacked at the neck of the panicky bird as blood hosed from its artery. It went limp. He took deep breaths and lay on it for a couple of minutes. He got up and looked at himself.

 “Look! None of the blood on me.”

He was about to say something else when the turkey got to its feet and ran, its head flapping doubled-over at the base of its neck. It ran through the door into the kitchen and thumped against the wall. It got up again, this time the blood was hissing all over the place. It ran towards her and she screamed as it banged into her, spraying blood up the inside of her leg. Toni cursed and tried to catch it as it pin-balled down the corridor, jetting blood into the open doorways. Its legs started to slow and falter and he dived on it and making a clean decapitation. He lay on it and plugged the artery with his pinkie. She came through and looked at him there, the blood running down his face in bright rivulets like an Easter Christ. He was smiling up at her, his tongue flicking at the blood and saying something to her.
 “Yes”, she said, “you're my Hero!”
 “No,no pajarita: hierro, a lot of the iron.”
She felt the tickle of the blood on the inside of her leg and headed for the toilet again. She always carried more than one fresh pair of knickers when she was with Toni.
When she came back through Inmaculada was cleaning up the house muttering away, stopping now and again to cross herself. Toni came through from the kitchen.
“Don't worry. Mother think this turkey thing with the blood no good. She just a crazy old lady. Come we help her clean up."

 When they went into the kitchen Inmaculada looked up from the where she was cleaning the floor and she was crying. She gave her such a look of fear and deep sadness that she felt her mouth dry up. She looked over at Toni who was smiling away making turkey noises.