I find I am always justified in not fussing beforehand as to the
ultimate unravelling of details. In Russia, wherever I needed help, the
necessity of the occasion created a friend, and so it is this time: The
reliable American, friend of a few days only, could not have done more
for me if I had been his sister. He helped me through the customs with
my baggage, was joined by his partner, another reliable American who,
having known me not more than twenty minutes, gave up his room at the
hotel to me, because there was not another to be had. If ever a poet
were required to sing praises the American man deserves his poet.
The hotel bedroom was high, floor tiled and almost empty of furniture
except for two double beds. Long windows opened on to a balcony
overlooking the square, full of green tropical trees and flowering
shrubs. A great gnarled fire-tree, with its scarlet blossom dominated
all other trees, and in the background was the old Spanish Cathedral,
its dome covered with buzzard birds, and its tower full of bells. I
could have spent hours at my window, feasting my eyes on this scene. I
had to share this one and only precious room with Louise and Dick. We
had planned to stay for two nights. I have come to Mexico in the same
frame of mind with which I went to Russia, prepared for every adventure
and discomfort. At bedtime I said to Louise: “I suppose we ought to
draw lots as to which sleeps with Dick, but I don’t mind telling you
that you can have him!” (I have vivid recollections of the terrible
kicks administered by Dick all through the only night I ever spent
with him!) Louise replied that she would bear it and we went to bed
congratulating ourselves that we had coincided with a storm at Vera
Cruz, which was less unpleasant than being baked alive. I had not been
long asleep, however, when the rain leaking through the roof over my
bed waked me, I pushed my bed into another part of the room. No escape,
however, before long the entire ceiling was dripping, and there was
only one small dry corner of the room. Into this corner I pushed Dick
and Louise. Then, barefooted, I paddled about on the streaming floor,
rescuing luggage and clothes. Finally I retired to my damp bed, wrapped
in my rug, and with an umbrella open over my head. It seemed but a few
minutes before the dawn broke and with it, awakened all the buzzards
and all the blackbirds in the square. They shrieked, they whistled,
they sang shrill tunes like noisy canaries. It was as if one had one’s
bed in the parrot house at the Zoo, and the parrot house leaked. Dick
thoroughly awakened, got the giggles and my irritation accentuated the
absurdity. What a night! No further sleep being possible, we dressed
and went down to breakfast on the sidewalk under the arcade. Here
native boys came hovering round with their shoe-shining paraphernalia,
which is quite a flourishing trade. Vendors with baskets full of
native wares, postcard sellers and newspaper boys; blind beggars and
deformities, all were part of our kaleidescopic “entourage,” besides
the sombrero’d Mexicans of every type, who walked by us in the street,
as spectacular as any passing show.
At the neighboring and opposite tables, men stared glad-eyed and even
signaled: one hardly dared to let one’s eyes rest anywhere except on
the birds in the trees!
When the rain cleared we engaged a Ford car and told the driver we
would start in a quarter of an hour; but when we were ready to start
our car was surrounded by a crowd and a policeman arrested the driver
and led him away. Another was substituted. My Spanish being nil, I
was unable to ascertain what had happened. Our drive was rather like
going across country, and for the first time in my life I realized the
value of a Ford car. No other car could or would have driven through
the ponds and streams, over the boulders and rocks and negotiated the
bumps and ruts that we did! This native drove his car as though it
were accustomed to go anywhere; in fact, there was no direction that
one pointed to, that he was not prepared to go to, road or no road!
No wonder we finally punctured a tire, but happily we were near home
and so walked. At tea time the two reliable Americans fetched us and
we went by tramway to the bathing beach. The waves were high and the
sea was warm and only the Americans knew how to swim. Dick got wildly
excited and almost panic-stricken as each big wave rose up and came
towards him. That night, my bed being soaking wet from the drips that
had fallen all day, I threw off the mattress and slept soundly wrapped
in my rug on the bare wire springs; also it was cooler.