Doña Teresa was in despair, but she held on to the turkey. “That rooster is bewitched,” she said.
Just then the turkey stopped gobbling long enough to peck vigorously at Tonio, who came to help his mother, and Doña Teresa said, “Well, then, we’ll eat the turkey, anyway, though I had hoped to wait until your father gets home. But we must have something for our Christmas dinner, and there’s no telling when we shall see the red rooster again.”
“I shouldn’t want to eat the red rooster, anyway,” said Tita. “He seems just like a member of the family.”
And so the Christmas dinner was settled that way.
The turkey wasn’t the only thing they had. There was rice soup first, then turkey, and they had frijoles, and tortillas, of course, and bananas beside, and all the sweet [p 167] potatoes cooked in syrup that they could possibly hold. It took Doña Teresa so long to cook it all on her little brasero that she didn’t go back to bed at all, though the Twins had another nap before morning.
They had their dinner early, and when they had finished eating, Tita said, “We must give a Christmas dinner to the animals too.”
So Tonio brought alfalfa in from the field on purpose for Tonto, and the red rooster appeared in time to share with the hens twice as much corn as was usually given them. The cat had a saucer of goat’s milk, and Tonio even found some bones for Jasmin, so every single one of them had a happy Christmas Day.
At dusk when candles began to glimmer about the village and all the people were getting ready for the Christmas Pasada, Doña Teresa said to the Twins, “You take your candles and run along with Pablo. I am going to the chapel.” And while all the other people marched round among the cabins, singing, she stayed on her knees before [p 168] the image of the Virgin, praying once more for Pancho’s safe return.
When they reached the priest’s house, the priest himself joined the procession and marched at the head of it, bearing in his hands large wax images of the Holy Family. Behind him came Lupito, the young vaquero who had taken Pancho’s place on the hacienda, with his new wife, and following them, if you had been there, you might have seen Pedro’s wife and baby, and Rafael and José and Doña Josefa, and Pablo and the Twins with Juan and Ignacio and a crowd of other children and grown people whose names I cannot tell you because I do not know them all.
As they passed the chapel, Doña Teresa came out and slipped into line behind the Twins. If she had been looking in the right direction just at that minute she might have seen two dark figures come out from behind some bushes near the priest’s house, and though they had no candles, fall in at the end of the procession and march with them [p 169] to the entrance of the Big House. But she kept her eyes on her candle, which she was afraid might be blown out by the wind.