Meanwhile, Sergeant Garcia had left to escort the new comandante back to Los Angeles. Word had come about this new man, Capitan Ortega. After Monastario’s departure, and the next one being killed before he had even taken office, the sergeant hoped for some order. It wasn’t all that easy to be comandante. And the Magistrado, Senor Galindo, was a taskmaster. Sgt. Garcia was certain Senor Galindo did not like him. In fact, Galindo didn’t seem to like anyone, Garcia thought.
On the way to meet don Juan Ortega, Garcia thought about the quiet senorita and how the new comandante would choose to deal with her. Alejandro de la Vega had received a communication about the capitan and that he was a fair man, humble in his manner. The sergeant hoped that would make a difference in this matter. How could she claim to be from Los Angeles when Garcia himself knew nearly everyone in the area? Never had he met this young woman. She had fire, though, he thought.
Back in the pueblo, Diego and Bernardo had ridden in to meet Alejandro. Diego had no sooner dismounted than he chanced upon his childhood friend, Rosarita Cortez. Although she was only visiting Los Angeles, now living in Monterey, she was helping her uncle to arrange a small fiesta that evening. Diego and Rosarita exchanged a few words between themselves and to make open the invitation to the festivities before going their separate ways.
Unbeknownst to Diego, a pair of blue eyes had witnessed the encounter. Jenna couldn’t just go rushing up to Diego. Not out in public. She had to get him alone. But the girl she saw him talking to….Jenna shook her head. The girl was giving Diego the ‘come hither’ look and sounded like fingernails on the blackboard. Air headed, almost. Jenna didn’t appreciate the feeling that the green-eyed monster of jealousy could bother her so quickly but this chick clearly could see the possibility to renew something with Diego. It hurt that Diego appeared so happy and made Jenna feel he had forgotten her already. Had she wasted her time and emotions coming back to his time? No! Jenna thought. One way or another she’d needed to know for certain. But she needed further evidence that she no longer was a part of Diego’s life. It could be a very short stay here in this time.
Jenna kept her eyes glued to Diego, but kept to the shadows and corners of the pueblo. She watched as Diego bumped into an older yet handsome man and sat a few minutes in conversation, and then as there was commotion in the streets as the heavy sergeant and three other soldiers rode into the pueblo. The one, apparently the highest-ranking soldier, seemed to have a hissy fit with some peon in the street and began beating and cursing him.
“Nice,” she thought. A few minutes later, she saw Sgt. Garcia walk up to Diego and start talking to him. Nodding his head, Diego motioned in an invitational way towards the inn. “I’d love to be a fly on that wall,” Jenna whispered.
Inside the tavern, Diego and the Sergeant sat at one of the more secluded tables. Garcia obviously had something on his mind that required Diego’s wisdom and counsel. After pouring and sipping some of the wine, the Sergeant began his probe of Diego’s mind.
“Don Diego, could it be possible, do you think, to live all your life in one place and not know everyone?”
Diego looked at him curiously. “I suppose it could happen, Sergeant, although highly unlikely. Why do you ask?”
The Sergeant took another sip of his wine, his gaze straight ahead as if he were attempting to figure something out. “Don Diego, the other night, riding back into town, there was a senorita walking along the road. She could not speak, like the little one,” he explained and pointed to Bernardo. “But, Don Diego, she could hear. She claimed she was from Los Angeles, but I have never seen or met her before. And she had no papers.”
Diego smiled. “Could it be, Sergeant, that you have finally met the woman of your dreams?”
“Hooo no, Don Diego, this senorita was no dream. She was very real. And bold! Oh Don Diego you should have seen her! She managed to get Cpl. Reyes off my horse so quickly with just a little pebble!” He began to chuckle at the recollection, which carried over to Diego. But the humor subsided and the Sergeant became just as distant as before.
“You know the law, Don Diego. I should lock her up in my jail…or Capitan Ortega should, now that he is here. But I could not. I took her to the mission. But don Diego, how can it be that no one around here knows her? Such a beautiful senorita, hair of gold…Fire in her manner.”
Diego snapped to attention. Hair of gold? Had he heard correctly? In this land of morenos? The Sergeant had his undivided attention. “Sergeant! Can you tell me more about this…senorita? Is she still at the mission?”
Sergeant Garcia looked at his friend with surprise. “Si, Don Diego, I think she is still there. I ordered that she stay there. I allowed her to come in to the pueblo, but that she was to return there before nightfall. Do you know her, Don Diego?”
Diego swallowed a bit nervously. “I think so, si. Tell me, Sergeant, did the senorita have blue eyes by chance?”
“Si, Don Diego, I think she did. How can it be that you should know this senorita, yet I have never met her and have lived in Los Angeles all my life?” Garcia asked in confusion.
“Sergeant! Even San Fernando can be considered as part of Los Angeles, can it not?” Diego said lightly, just to break the tension and throw the confusion off balance. “Now, do you think we could perhaps meet this young, beautiful senorita? You managed to peak my curiosity!”
“Ah si, Don Diego. She would make a charming Senora de la Vega, perhaps, eh?” the Sergeant laughed heartily. The two got up and left the tavern.
Jenna watched as Diego and the fat Sergeant came out of the tavern. From what she could hear, they would get their horses and go somewhere together. Rats! Jenna thought. It would’ve been a perfect opportunity to get to Diego. He was walking in Jenna’s direction to the horse standing at the hitch nearby. Suddenly a fly started buzzing around her and in her attempts to swat it away, Jenna lost her footing. The impact of falling down caused her CD player, still carefully hidden in her clothes, to start playing. It was a song she knew Diego would remember.
Diego had just begun mounting when he thought he heard music in the air. Stopping, he stood still to listen. Sure enough it was music. Lively melody, he thought. Without realizing what he was doing, he was suddenly doing minor hand motions that went to the music and remembered the one chorus and mouthed it. “Ohhh Macarena!” That brought him to his senses! Looking around and following the music, he came to a secluded spot of the pueblo. There he found a senorita getting up from the ground, brushing the dirt from her clothes.
“Jenna!”
Chapter Six
Chapter Four
Table of Contents
