A couple evenings later. when Diamond had well rested, she was working with Gustavo by the crackling fire and said, “Of all thoings in your home, I like watching the way the fire shapes metal, the most. It’s brought some life back. You know, I don’t thoink I ever felt powerless in my whole life? Never ever until the witch took Dylan. I won’t be that way again.”

  Two shadows stood in the doorway and watched Diamond in new clothes, striking metal with an anvil. Gustavo had gifted her a flower-patterned shawl that reached down to her fitted bodice.

  Chip and Dunbar fully entered, with Dunbar hanging his mouth open and Chip raising his thick eyebrows at her heavy blows. When she caught their stares, she halted in mid swing. Unaware of her violent demeanor, she switched to a most welcoming and excited one, rushing to the kitchen to get them whisky. They sat down, and she poured both men a glass.

  She leaned in. “What have you discovered?”

  “Well,” Chip said, his face scruffy. “The priest, who Gustavo sent us to, gave us leads to abandoned nearby churches. Did you know there’s three hundred in the area? What was noteworthy is they have sculptures of dark entities where crosses would hang. But there was…nothing or nobody in any of these churches. Church after church we found abandoned; only empty red carpets and statues to mock us. We’re getting nowhere.”

  “Chip, you aint gone show them what we did obtain?”

  “Just this.” Chip reached into his pinstriped shirt pocket and retrieved a scroll with the laws of entities. Glasses put on; he began reading.

  “Light entities shall be humans reborn by their acts of bravery and selflessness.

  Dark entities were never human but born from sins that caused tragedy and dismay.

  Dark and light entities shall neither kill nor be killed by mortals.

  When empowered by blood, all entities shall be permitted to show themselves more plainly in the realms of mortals for exactly three months a year, beginning in autumn.

  All entities shall gain honor and riches based on their influence on the mortal world.”

  Gustavo took the scroll and looked it over. “Sheriff, why don’t you take this back to the priest. Maybe, he can expound on it.”

  ***

  After everyone had gone to bed, Diamond peeked downstairs at Chip, pacing and reading his scroll as if anything new would be discovered. She frowned, watching him massage his forehead in stress.

  The next morning when she awoke, Chip and Dunbar had departed. Their work made them absent for another week.

  When they returned after dusk on Christmas day, she brought them coffee, flipped tortillas over the pit, then joined them at the table. Chip only stared at his food, not speaking or eating.

  All three of them stayed silent, senses picking up on the smoky smells from the pit and farm ones from a couple roosters pecking about the house. Gustavo winked at the birds which he’d soon turn into the holiday dinner. But before the slaughter, he took a few minutes to join the group, appearing curious if any progress had been made.

  Chip broke the quietness. “I’m losing patience, Gustavo. Feels like answers are in front of my face, but you’re hiding them in plain sight. There’s nobody in any of the churches to get information from, except that one priest you keep sending us to, and he is no use. It’s as if he enjoys watching us wander about aimlessly.” Chip lurched to his feet causing the roosters to flap their feathers and sprint away. He slapped a bug that had crawled onto the bright yellow table. “Look, I’m losing patience.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Senor Comandante.” Gustavo leaped up. “Control your temper. I don’t go in your home and behave erratically. If there’s more that I can assist with, speak up.”

  Chip slid the map over to him. “What are you holding back? There’s something here, changing your world, it’s the force that withheld your wife from getting the aid she needed during the pandemic, and you need us to stop it.”

  Gustavo dropped his face into the palm of his hand and began to weep. In the midst of the commotion, his spider monkey had come downstairs and was now a-hugging his waste. “We cannot stop them, senior ape. His gut is correct. That witch he seeks may indeed be in front of his eyes. After all, he’s looking in the direction of the southwest jungle of this peninsula.”

  “Blarney!” Dunbar yelled. “If it’s that close by, why’d you send us everywhere else?”

  “Because I’d hope you find the answers you seek anywhere but here. I shifted my responsibility to that priest by praying that if you could survive the jungle that he would be the one to send you. What’s changed is I fear he has been compromised. He’s only sending you to empty churches.”

  Chip nodded with compassion. “He’s a suspicious cat. Reminds me of that evangelist, who Dunbar over here worships. More than anything else, he spends his time bragging on his jewelry, his fine linen robes, and the blaming silver all over his castle-church and fountains. If I go there one more time, I think I’m going to throw him off the steeple.”

  “Si, and it’s funny that he’s not sent you to this Mayan Ruin in the jungle. I withheld this one place from you only, because I know when you solve your mystery by going inside, you will not make it out.” He seized a rooster by the neck, to much a-crowing. “Shall we partake in Christmas Dinner, and then you depart from Mexico? Leave us alone, because you will surely die, amigo.”

  Chip pointed down at him. “Fuck Christmas Dinner. Our fate is not for you to decide.”

  “You call me an arbiter of fate, because I warn you of that which is obvious? I was by that temple, recently, mi compadres, looking down from the wooded hills. I had followed men and women in black robes, but after what I saw, I wouldn’t dare go in those ruins, not with any weapon my hands can make. And by the way, you’re so gracious a guest to say, ‘Fuck Christmas Dinner.’ That’s what you said. Si?”

  “Hey, don’t take that out of context, alright?”

  “No, fuck it. I have sorrow, too, knowing where you will go.” Gustavo retrieved his pocket watch from his tunic and lay it on the table. Then, he peered down to Diamond who was seated. “I don’t mean to embarrass you, mujer, but I see how you admire him for whatever reason other than his noticeable charm. You better cherish the time you have.”

  To the ticking clock left behind, Chip’s movements made shuffling sounds as he would presumably get up. Long faced like a scolded baboon and halfway to his feet, he felt another’s hand sliding across his own. Diamond’s roughened but skilled touch slowed him down, bore a smidgen of holiday magic that fluttered in his chest.

  He sat, gave her a curious glance, left his hand under hers, and adjusted his attention back to his map.

  After Dunbar mysteriously took off to a slamming door, Diamond turned the sheriff’s chin to her direction. “Chip?” She stared deep into his eyes.

  Some hand a-locking turned to a-kissing. They gripped one another as Diamond had never done with anyone before, and as they may never with one another again. The table moved; they went down to the floor. Her first time, and Chip’s first with a woman he loved, and it was as somber as if it would be their last.

  I will now take from a diary found many years later in Gustavo’s own sala de estar to corroborate this account. Peering through the wooden rails of his stairs, the old man got a glimpse of her thick thigh kicked in the air. He jolted back with snot running down his white mustache, and whispered to himself, “Mujer, why’d you choose a man in such danger? Better to have chosen a bullfighter.” So muted from worry was he, Chip and Diamond didn’t catch him continuing his voyeurism. He wiped a tear away then lowered his hand.

  She smiled underneath Chip, her blue eyes as penetrating as—well—I guess we have to keep this account on point. If you want more details on that ol’ thigh, and Gustavo’s diary survives, you’ll have a source where you can read up all day on it.