Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena María Viramontes

Author:Helena María Viramontes [Viramontes, Helena María]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary
ISBN: 9780452273870
Goodreads: 348273
Publisher: Plume
Published: 1995-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Estrella ran, feeling the breeze on her face. If Maxine were here, she would have run to her, but instead she ran as fast as her clumsy boots allowed to the barn. She gripped the door frame of the barn and entered. She breathed in the musk hot scent of manure. The lace of webs which hung on the rafters fluttered softly. Beams of sunlight stabbed through the high ceilings and slanting walls, like swords in a magician’s box crisscrossing each other. Estrella couldn’t resist. She cupped her hands on one of the sunbeams, the motes of dust swirling upward, while the beam shot downward. She caught the flow of sun, felt the laser heat slowly penetrate her palms he had kissed, saw the blood of her body, a brilliant reddish pink rose, and she laughed. The safety pins on the cuffs of her sleeves glimmered like diamonds. She heard the creak of old wood complaining, and she heard the owls, their nervous claws ticking against the slope of the gabled roof and it was then she realized she was not alone. She looked around for the harelip boy, but saw no one.

Now unafraid, she walked to the center of the barn where the chain suspended in an almost unnatural way. Everything else belonged: the stalls, the thick scent of damp hay, the straw spread on the flattened earth, the rusted pitchfork leaning against the deep grooves of weathered sheet wood, everything except the chain. She flipped her head back to stare at the ceiling and her hat tumbled to the floor, her hair tumbling to her shoulders. Why was the chain there? Was it part of a grain shaft of some kind? She noticed a trapdoor, squared by the sunlight near where the chain hooked the ceiling. She took hold of its end, yanked it like a bell ringer, lightly at first to test it, then jerked it with all her muscle, then jumped out of the way in case the chain was not hooked securely. She crunched her hat beneath her shoes. The chain barely resisted. It chinked in suspension as it did the first time she saw it. As she bent to pick up her hat, Estrella noticed her hands. Once filled with light, her palms were now tainted with brick red rust.

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