Things had gotten quieter and noisier both, Longarm thought when he entered the plaza. The two bands had reached some kind of truce, and were both playing in the plaza's center, taking turns instead of competing. The sun was low, and the uneven edges of the big open area were already deeply shadowed. Flickering hachones, bottles or funnel-capped cans filled with kerosene into which rag wicks had been inserted, were mounted on poles here and there, turning the plaza into a patchwork of bright spots and shadows.
Longarm started for the stall where he'd had breakfast, thinking he'd probably find Lita somewhere close to it, but before he could push very far through the crowd he was hailed by Lefty, the sheriff's deputy.
"Hey, Custis! I got a bottle in my pocket, come have a drink with me!"
Longarm didn't especially want a drink after the heavy slug he'd downed while talking with Tucker, but he didn't want to do anything that would stretch the taut truce that had been patched up among himself, Lefty, and Ralston. He said, "Don't mind if I do."
Lefty hauled a flask out of his pocket, and Longarm managed to swallow a light swig while appearing to take a heavy one. He gave the bottle back to Lefty, who lilted it and smacked his lips.
"Ah! That's prime stuff!" Lefty pocketed the bottle. "Listen, you don't need to be all by yourself, Custis. Want a partner to dance with? Hell, just ask any of these little greaser gals, they don't care who swings 'em around, long as he's got pants on."
"I'm just walking, Lefty, trying to stay out of trouble. Looks to me like the easiest way to do that is not to horn in on somebody else's girl."
"They ain't goin' to be no trouble," Lefty assured him. "Ed's put the fear o' God in this Los Perros bunch."
"Just the same, I'll walk easy and keep quiet."
"Ah, what's a fiesta, if you don't have a dance or two?" Lefty scanned the crowd, saw a young girl and her escort a few feet away, and waved to them.
"Hey, Luis! You and Tina come here a minute!" As they started to obey, he said to Longarm, "I'll tell the gal to dance with you. Luis won't mind."
"Now, wait a minute~" Longarm began, but before he could go any further the couple had joined them and Lefty was making the arrangements he'd insisted on.
"Luis, this is a friend of mine, Senor Custis. He's a stranger here, wants to dance a round or two. You don't mind if Tina obliges him, do you?"
"If it is her wish," Luis replied. "I do not own her, Senor Lefty."
Lefty turned back to Longarm. "See? It's all fixed. Tina, this senor wants to dance with you a little while."
"Porque no? " the girl shrugged. "A baile is for dancing, no? Come, senor. If you do not know the steps, I show you them."
"Now, hold on," Longarm protested. "When it comes to dancing, I got two left feet. I'm afraid I'd step all over you. But I thank you kindly for offering to show me, Senorita Tina."
"Que pasa? " Tina asked Lefty. "Dice el hombre quiere bailor, ahora el dice no. Que chiste es?"
This time it was the deputy who shrugged. "Por supuesto, es un engano. El me diga quiere bailor."
"Que cosa!" Luis exclaimed. "Bastamente esta tonteria! El gringo insulta mi Tina!"
Longarm caught the gist of this exchange, and said to Luis, "No, amigo. La senorita es~" he sought the word he couldn't remember and finally found it — "es muy linda."
"Cagado!" Luis exclaimed.
Lefty intervened. "Callate, Luis! Hablamos mas tarde. Vete, tu y Tina!"
Muttering, Luis took Tina's arm and led her away. Lefty said to Longarm, "Damn it, Custis, you like to've fixed yourself with that greaser. He was real put out, claimed you insulted his girl-friend. "
"I got the general idea," Longarm said. "Don't blame it all on me, Lefty. I told you, I ain't interested in dancing. Thanks for your trouble, anyhow. Sorry I rubbed your friend the wrong way."
"Ah, he's just a spic I know," Lefty replied. "I guess I was a little too previous. Here, have another swig, and we'll forget it."
To placate him, Longarm took a token swallow, thanked Lefty, and walked on as soon as he could without offending the man further. He was still looking for Lita; the girl Lefty'd tried to get him to dance with couldn't hold a candle to her, he thought as he pushed toward the food stalls. He wondered why the deputy had suddenly become so friendly; the day before, he'd been standoffish, not as hostile as Spud, but a lot less amiable than Ralston. Maybe he'd been told by Tucker to be cooperative, maybe Ralston had talked him around, or maybe he'd just changed his mind by himself, Longarm thought. Whatever the reason, Lefty's solicitude had come as a real surprise.
As he'd half expected her to be, Lita was near the spot where her family's food stall had been earlier in the day. The stall was dismantled now, with trestles, planks, stove, and pots piled up ready to be carried home. A short distance away, Mamacita was gossiping with a group of women who, like her, were draped in black rebozos; two of the younger children had curled up at her feet and were sleeping. Lita stood off to one side, laughing and chattering with a few girls of her own age. She saw Longarm and tripped, light-footed, to greet him.
"Coos-tees! I think maybe you forget we going to dance."
"Don't count on me doing much dancing, Lita. Stomping around to music ain't right in my line."
"Is nothing, to dance. Come on, I show you. You learn real fast." She tucked her arm in Longarm's and led him to a space where there was room to maneuver. "Now. You listen to la musica and look how my feet they go. Then you see is easy."
Lita began to dance, facing Longarm and holding his hands, arms stretched out. To humor her, Longarm began moving his feet, but they kept getting tangled up. It wasn't as much his clumsiness that was to blame as it was the sight of Lita's firm young breasts bouncing unconfined under her thin, scoop-necked blouse. She stopped and stamped a foot in mock anger.
"Coos-tees! You don' look at my feet, you watching my tetas!" she exclaimed. "Is not good you look so here! Mamacita might see."
"I told you I wasn't no dancer," he said. "Why don't we forget about dancing, and find some place where your mama can't watch you?"
"No!" Lita's eyes flashed and her smooth round chin set stubbornly, though she was still smiling at him. "We don' go nowhere till you dance with me! You look, now, I show you mas despacio, slow."
Longarm hadn't lied to either Lita or Tina. Though he'd done a little square dancing as a boy in West Virginia, he'd decided early that dancing was a time-wasting substitute for the real activity it imitated, and a lot less enjoyable. After making up his mind on that point, he'd lost interest in becoming skilled on the dance floor.
He said, "All right, if that's what you want. But you're just wasting your time, trying to turn me into a dancer."
Just as Lita began her second effort to teach him, Longarm saw Tina and Luis dancing their way toward them. Luis was trying to look unconcerned, but Tina's face was cast in a glowering frown. Longarm smelled trouble, and he wasn't disappointed. As soon as the other couple had gotten within a yard or so of him and Lita, Tina broke away from Luis and ran up to Longarm. Without any preliminary scolding, she brought up her hand and slapped his face.