The City of Palaces: A Novel

Chapter 13

206 o 13 The Mex­ i­ cans ­ killed my ­ mother.” Plink, plink, plink. “I ­ wanted to­ avenge her.” Plink. To­ masa ­ lifted her fin­ gers from the piano keys and­ glanced at Ali­ cia. “I know now that not all Mex­ i­ cans are bad. Maybe they sent all the bad ones to So­ nora to make war on my peo­ ple.” Plink. “That is why I left my ­ brother in Ar­ i­ zona and fol­ lowed the war­ ri­ ors home, so I could fight with them.” “You fol­ lowed the war­ ri­ ors into the ­ desert? Why ­ didn’t you go with them?” Ali­ cia asked. She was teach­ ing To­ masa to play by ear the Cho­ pin pre­ lude that had at­ tracted the girl. She made it clear she did not wish to learn any­ thing other than that piece and she re­ fused to learn to read music. Ali­ cia would play a few notes while To­ masa stud­ ied the place­ ment of her fin­ gers and then she would im­ i­ tate her. The girl had in­ tense con­ cen­ tra­ tion and ­ fierce per­ sis­ tence, and she was well on her way to mas­ ter­ ing the piece. As they ­ worked to­ gether, she had begun to speak about her­ self in short ­ bursts. She told Ali­ cia her ­ father was a war­ rior­ killed in bat­ tle ­ against the Mex­ i­ can army and that she had a ­ younger­ half-brother. Her ­ mother was ­ hanged in a ­ roundup of the ­ Yaquis. She and her ­ brother es­ caped with a band of ref­ u­ gees to an ­ American bor­ der town in Ar­ i­ zona. Today, for the first time, she spoke of how she had come to the or­ phan­ age. “The men would not take me,” she said. “They said I was a child and a girl ­ besides, but I am the daugh­ ter of a war­ rior.” She ­ pressed a­ half-dozen keys as if for em­ pha­ sis. “They left at night. I ­ waited and then­ tracked them. I ­ planned to come into their camp the next day when we had gone too far for them to take me back.” “Weren’t you ­ afraid of be­ com­ ing lost?” 1909–1911 207 She ­ seemed sur­ prised by the ques­ tion. “I fol­ lowed the road of the an­ ces­ tors,” she said. “Their souls ­ burned in the night sky and lit the path to the home­ land.” “The stars,” Ali­ cia said, grasp­ ing her mean­ ing. “You were ­ guided by the stars.” She nod­ ded. “The men moved ­ faster than I could fol­ low and I lost them,” she said. “After three ­ nights I ­ reached the home­ land. I had­ brought no food or water, only the ­ clothes on my back. When the Mex­ i­ can sol­ diers found me, I was too weak to fight.” Ali­ cia ­ glanced at the girl. There was noth­ ing spe­ cial to dis­ tin­ guish her from all the other In­ dian girls Ali­ cia en­ coun­ tered in the ­ course of a day in the city, draw­ ing water from com­ mu­ nal foun­ tains, sell­ ing lot­ tery tick­ ets, mind­ ing fruit and veg­ e­ ta­ ble ­ stalls in the mar­ kets, car­ ry­ ing tiny­ black-eyed ba­ bies in ­ slings ­ across their backs. But this girl had ­ walked­ across the ­ desert with­ out food or water to be­ come a sol­ dier. She began to under­ stand why, after ­ thirty years of war­ fare, the Mex­ i­ can army had been un­ able to de­ feat the ­ Yaquis. “The sol­ diers took me in ­ chains to their fort at Potam. I was happy to ­ breathe the air of the home­ land again, even with an iron col­ lar ­ around my neck, but then they tried to . . .” She ­ slammed her hand on the key­ board. “I ­ fought them off but there were too many. Six of them held me while an­ other put his thing in my mouth. I bit down so hard I could taste his blood. They beat me and threw me into a room with other­ Yaquis. They ­ chained us to­ gether and ­ marched us to a ­ freight car and­ nailed it shut. We ­ waited there for two ­ nights be­ fore it began to move.” “With­ out food or water?” Ali­ cia asked. To­ masa nod­ ded. “We drank our piss...