A Thorn in the Bush (2 page)
Read A Thorn in the Bush Online
Authors: Frank Herbert
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers & Suspense, #Suspense, #Two Hours or More (65-100 Pages), #Thrillers
“The water reservoir is very low today,” said Serena. She began stirring something in a bowl. “There was another failure of the generation during the night.” (By generation she meant
electrical
generation, a chancy service in San Juan.) “Without the generation the pump of the water could not serve.”
Familiar aromas and the glaring, chalky feeling of the kitchen combined with Serena’s chatter to lull Mrs. Ross into a semi-trance. She rocked back and forth on her feet as she listened.
“This Señor Hoblitt,” said Serena, “María Carlotta says that sometimes he tears up a painting before it is finished.” She introduced chopped onion into a reddish-brown sauce simmering on the front of the stove, returned to the
metate
where she began reducing two tomatoes to pulp.
Mrs. Ross murmured automatically: “How brutal.” She stirred herself to wakefulness, wondered what would be the fate of Paulita’s portrait.
“Yes!” said Serena. “And, you know, María Carlotta saw him rip pages from a perfectly good magazine once … and burn them! And he cursed the pages while they burned!” She cast a baleful glance at Mrs. Ross. “It makes great danger to curse in front of an open fire.”
“Truly, a man of no sensitivity,” said Mrs. Ross.
“Yes! And when the flowers in his vases wilt, he rages. Such language, God preserve us.” Serena crossed herself with a hand dripping redly of tomato. “And then he must have fresh flowers in his room or the walls tremble from his roaring.” She shook her head, braids swinging. “A real artist, that one.”
Mrs. Ross nodded. Her mind had veered off to the other artist, the one who had killed Gertie. A fearful association began to form in her mind:
This Hoblitt is probably just as empty-headed crazy as the other one. What happens when he discovers that Paulita is … deformed … that her beauty doesn’t extend beneath the windowsill?
She shook her head to clear it. These were insane thoughts. But she wondered then if it might not be best to visit Don Jaime, have the source of the irritation removed—perhaps deported.
Serena began loading a tray with food, said: “Someone should warn that man: it makes the most terrible danger to remove dead flowers from a house except after dark.” She lifted the tray.
“Comida!”
Mrs. Ross stepped aside for Serena to pass.
I’ll visit Paulita this afternoon
, she thought.
Perhaps she could complain to Don Jaime.
***
Chapter 3
In the courtyard of Paulita Romera’s home a somnolent humming of insects arose from potted flowers around the arcade edge. It was an old house (more than two hundred years) built of adobe and hand-carved beams. A curious interlacing of odors filled the place: mouldy earth, a sharp touch of charcoal smoke, faint acridity from the pigsty and chicken pens out back behind an organ cactus fence—all dominated by the hothouse aromas of flowers.
The old aunt who cared for Paulita, a bent and withered creature in a brown dress of the same cut as Serena’s, admitted Mrs. Ross with a murmured,
“Buenas tardes.”
Mrs. Ross could hear the
pat-pat-pat
of someone making tortillas. There was the dry whisking of a broom coming from one of the rooms opening onto the arcade. The aunt clanged the
caonzel
gate behind them, motioned to where Paulita, wearing a red blouse and with a faded green robe over her legs, sat sewing in the shaded area outside the
sala
.
An arch of Moorish fretwork framed the girl’s position. The
punto de cruz
was a red and yellow splash on her lap. Her crutches leaned against a nearby column from which paint was peeling in scabrous patches.
“Good afternoon,” called Paulita. She spoke English because she felt it gratified Mrs. Ross to see how her only student had retained the lessons.
“Good afternoon, Paulita.” Mrs. Ross acquiesced to the choice of tongues, but secretly bridled at the constrictions in English. The thoughts she wanted to convey could be said with more delicate fulsomeness in Spanish.
“It is such a hot day,” said Paulita. “Come into the shade.”
Mrs. Ross crossed the courtyard, thought about the insight to Paulita’s character revealed by the portrait: the cruelty, the iron pride, the malice. A sense of outrage at the artist came over her, as though she had caught a peeping Tom at the window.
The aunt scurried up with a cane chair from the
sala,
effaced herself with a murmurous, “Dispense me.” She retired to the back of the house, long skirt swishing about her black-clad ankles.
“Do sit down,” said Paulita.
Mrs. Ross resigned herself to the creaking, angular chair, felt it bite into the backs of her legs.
Mexican furniture!
she thought, sighing.
“It has been hot,” she said. “I’ll be glad when the rains start.”
“The lake is very low this year,” said Paulita. She bit off a thread, glanced sidelong at Mrs. Ross. “You’ve come to talk about the artist. I saw you watching him this morning.”
The girl displayed a decidedly un-Spanish directness when she spoke English, Mrs. Ross thought. She wondered if there might not be an inherent straightness to the language, said: “He strikes me as a very boorish person.”
“I heard what he said to you,” said Paulita. “But I’m sure he means no harm. It is merely …” she shrugged. “… that he is so concerned about his work. Artists, you know.” She glanced down, plucked at a tuft in the robe over her legs.
“Perhaps he doesn’t mean any harm,” said Mrs. Ross. “But I still think he’s boorish. Did he ask you if he could paint your portrait?”
“No. We have not spoken.” Paulita looked up, bent towards Mrs. Ross, dark eyes glistening. “But you have seen the portrait! Is it a good likeness?”
How like a Latin woman!
thought Mrs. Ross. “Quite a passable likeness,” she admitted.
“I knew it!” Paulita sat back. “He takes so much time with everything—mixing the paints, testing. She giggled. “Did you see how he dripped paint all over his hands?”
“Don’t you think it’s rude to paint your picture without asking permission?” countered Mrs. Ross.
It was as though Paulita had not heard. “And is he not a handsome young man?” she asked. “So fierce in the eyes!”
“To be sure,” murmured Mrs. Ross. A mosquito whined above her left wrist. She slapped it, recoiled at the stinging in her sunburn.
That damnable young man!
It was obvious that Paulita would never complain. Mrs. Ross realized that she would have to take the matter up with Don Jaime herself.
But what can I tell him?
she wondered.
Paulita drew in a deep breath that filled her red blouse with nubile bust line. “I wish I could see the painting,” she sighed.
A pang touched Mrs. Ross. The girl had so few pleasures, and this painting obviously intrigued her. She still talked of the photographer who had taken her portrait in color for the magazine Revista Nacional.
But the photographer, being Mexican, had asked permission. Mrs. Ross hardened her heart.
There’s inherent tragedy in this situation
, she told herself.
This poor girl is being led to dream foolish things. And here she is … deformed, and without …
Abruptly, Mrs. Ross saw how to present the problem to Don Jaime.
I will see him tomorrow!
she thought.
***
Chapter 4
In his parlor, Don Jaime turned away from the copper puddle of sun reflection the lake, brushed the fly from his hair, cleared his throat.
Mrs. Ross stirred out of her reverie, glanced at her jeweled lapel watch. Less than a minute had passed.
“Emma, my dearest friend,” said Don Jaime in his lisping Spanish, “it is that you fear the young man will do harm to Paulita, no?”
“Precisely.”
“But you cannot be certain of this thing.”
“Who would take a chance in such a matter?” demanded Mrs. Ross.
Don Jaime pursed his lips, pinched in his cheeks. He looked more than ever like the figure of the crucifix. “But, of course. However, I would very much like to see this painting.”
Mrs. Ross stiffened. She had learned to be wary of Don Jaime’s digressions when coming to a point.
“A natural desire, no?” asked Don Jaime.
“What do you propose?” asked Mrs. Ross.
“I will use all of the tact of which I am capable,” said Don Jaime. “I will be the soul and heart of discretion. We will be together, the artist and I, with the painting before us. What could be more natural than to lead the conversation around to Paulita’s tragic condition?”
“God preserve us!” blurted Mrs. Ross. “That’s the very thing you mustn’t do!”
“But why not?”
“I told you what the other artist did when he learned of the girl’s deformity!” (Mrs. Ross had altered the story of Gertie slightly, then realized that possibly the girl
had
been deformed—although not in a physical sense.)
Don Jaime’s brows contracted in a puzzled frown. He thought:
It is possible that the young man does not know about Paulita’s legs. But could it make such a difference as that?
“It this a characteristic of all artists from América del Norte?” he asked.
“Only of a certain type,” said Mrs. Ross. “And this one shows all the symptoms of being that type.”
Don Jaime nodded. “To be sure.” And then so low that Mrs. Ross almost missed it:
“Gringos!”
“You have come to a decision?” ventured Mrs. Ross.
A sigh convulsed Don Jaime’s thin chest. “As God wills it.” He raised a finger. “But such things take time! It must be done with circumspection.” Then, to let Mrs. Ross know that he was not an utter fool: “… not like the one who had to go to the hospital.”
Mrs. Ross coughed, raised a hand to her mouth to hide a smile. She composed herself, lowered the hand. “I knew I could trust you, Jaime. You have so much experience in matters of the world, such a penetrating mind. You’re the only one who can handle this in a way that will avert tragedy.”
“You are too kind,” murmured Don Jaime. And he thought:
Could it be? Is this possible? The young man appears so talented—so simpático.
***
Chapter 5
The next morning, Friday, Mrs. Ross again found Hoblitt bent over his easel in the shade of the balcony when she emerged to water her plants. The brush moved at a furious rate: dip and stroke, dip and stroke. Little rivers of color blended into the portrait. Paulita’s figure appeared almost completed, but the background still showed raw patches of canvas.
Fortified by her angry reveries, Mrs. Ross thought:
Just say something to me today, Mr. Smart Alec! I’ll burn your ears off!
But Hoblitt ignored her presence.
Mrs. Ross sniffed.
Paint away, fool! You’ll be gone soon.
Paulita executed and advanced ploys in the eye-dodging game, looked up at the balcony. “Good morning, Mrs. Ross.”
“Buenos días
, Paulita.”
It stopped there, inhibited by the presence beneath the balcony.
Mrs. Ross smiled, though, paused to admire Paulita. The young woman still worked at the
punto de cruz
. A great red poinsettia was emerging beneath her needle. She wore green bows in her hair this morning, but Mrs. Ross noted that Hoblitt thus far had ignored the color change. The bows of the painting remained red.
The easel creaked as Hoblitt adjusted its position, studied the scene.
Paulita stopped to thread a needle, used the diversion for a series of new gambits in eye-dodging.
Mrs. Ross shook her head in admiration. She could not be certain because of the angle, but she thought she saw Hoblitt grin before he again bent to his work. For no reason she could explain, this sent Mrs. Ross’s thoughts into the penetrating character analysis emerging beneath the artist’s brush: passionate but cruel—that was the Paulita of the portrait.
Anger flared in Mrs. Ross.
A damnable young man! Coming in here without asking! Disrupting a nice, orderly life!
She slammed the French doors as she went inside.
***
Chapter 6
At noon, Serena bustled in, her shopping basket on one thick, brown arm. The basket bulged with tomatoes, bananas, a brown paper package of meat, a stack of tortillas wrapped in cloth, onions, oranges, a mound of green chili peppers. She began recounting her morning’s net of gossip as she unloaded the basket onto the grey boards of the kitchen table.
“In the evening of yesterday,” she said, “Don Jaime made for himself a visit to the Señor Hoblitt.”
Mrs. Ross experienced a cold sensation in her stomach. She stood in the doorway to the dining room, just out of the chalk glare that always filled the kitchen at mid-day.
“And María Carlotta, who delivered some fruit to the little house just then, saw them drinking together—gin and limes in the large glasses!”
Mrs. Ross’s lips formed the automatic reply: “How brutal.”
“And they looked at a painting which the Señor Hoblitt keeps in a locked box when he is not working on it. Don Jaime said he likes this painting very much.”
“You mean the portrait of Paulita,” sad Mrs. Ross.
“No, Señora.” Serena crossed to the sink, began rinsing tomatoes in a bowl of water. She spoke over her shoulder: “This is another one. This is probably the one Don Jaime is buying.”
“Buying?” Mrs. Ross stared at Serena’s brown-clad back, the two dark braids jerking like animated bell-pulls.
“Yes. María Carlotta says that Don Jaime buys one of the paintings, but she has not seen it. The S
eñor
Hoblitt keeps it in the locked box.”
The mystery of this caught Mrs. Ross’s interest. And, for some reason, it disquieted her. She thought:
What did that fool Jaime say to Hoblitt?
She said: “Did not María Carlotta overhear their conversation?”
“Not very much of it, Señora.” Serena crossed to the stove with an earthen bowl which she sat on a rear burner. “The Señor Hoblitt ordered María Carlotta from the house, although he had not completed sorting his fruit. She heard them laughing, however, as she left.” Serena lowered her voice, peered at Mrs. Ross from slitted eyes. “They were discussing espionage! María Carlotta heard the word, and that is all she cares to say about it.”
Espionage?
Mrs. Ross shook her head sharply. She felt that the sense of the conversation had veered off into a region where she could not follow.
“Espionage!” repeated Serena. She returned to the sink for another bowl.
Mrs. Ross felt an unexplainable tightness in her throat, wondered if she was coming down with one of the recurrent tropic maladies that she wrote off as the price of the sunshine.
Serena shuffled back to the stove, poured meat stock into the earthen pot, turned up the gas flame, faced Mrs. Ross. The Aztec features looked flat and avid. “The Señor Hoblitt has given to María Carlotta two positively new pairs of nylons,” she said. She looked accusingly at her employer, who only released nylons when they had runs and must be repaired by the girl in the Tienda Moderna at a cost of fifty centavos each.
Mrs. Ross pulled at her lower lip. She was thinking about Don Jaime’s visit to Hoblitt.
Two hours together! And not the first time, evidently.
Then:
Espionage?
Serena’s last announcement registered slowly, expanding like a balloon until it burst on Mrs. Ross’s consciousness: Two pairs of new nylons! A bribe!
Espionage!
It occurred to Mrs. Ross that the kitchen-maid grapevine in San Juan worked in two directions.
“Has the Señor Hoblitt been asking questions about me?” she demanded.
Serena’s expression drifted into bland vacuity. “I cannot say, Señora. Maybe yes, maybe no.”
Even if she did know she wouldn’t tell me!
thought Mrs. Ross. She realized that she had violated a basic rule of the grapevine: one did not suggest even remotely that one’s own servant revealed private confidences.
Serena turned away, fussed with the stove.
Mrs. Ross stared at the woman’s implacable back. At least once a day Serena extinguished the gas flame by trying to coax more heat out of it by fanning it like a charcoal fire.
The stupid!
“I’m not feeling well,” said Mrs. Ross. “I’ll just have some soup. You may serve me in the bedroom.”
She left before Serena could begin detailing all the deaths from various incurable blights that had stricken San Juan the previous month.
And it wouldn’t do a bit of good to question Don Jaime,
Mrs. Ross thought as she climbed the stairs to her bedroom.
He’s close up just like Serena. When you get right down to it, they’re all alike! Always gossiping! No one’s safe from it!
The bedroom looked shadowy and inviting with all the blinds pulled. Thin strips of slatted light wavered across the bedspread, climbed up the tall mahogany
ropero
where she kept her clothes on
gringo
hangers. The bedspread was one Paulita had made: blue herons cross-stitched on a white background.
Mrs. Ross sat on the edge of the bed, rubbed a hand across the rough surface beside her. The sore throat was growing more pronounced. She sensed the hush outside that came over San Juan at siesta time. A sigh lifted her shoulders.
Perhaps I’ve been pushing myself too hard lately, she thought. Maybe I should spend a few days in bed. It doesn’t pay to take chances with these Mexican germs.
She lay back on the bed, her thought growing to decision.
Just a day or two in bed.
She yawned, listening for Serena with the luncheon tray. And the thought occurred to her that she would be besieged by little cups and bowls of herbal remedies if she stayed in bed. Two tribulations of being ill in San Juan were the sudden martinet officiousness of Serena and the procession of native medicines delivered by narrow-faced girl children with dirty legs and wearing oversized hand-me-down head shawls.
And there was no stopping Serena’s outpouring of epidemic calamities, each closed by the ominous portents that had warned of disaster: “… if only they had known.”
***
