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Hilario glanced scornfully at the money, and with all the contempt of a dueling master who has been challenged by an insolent cove. For a second, I thought he was going to ignore Tio’s challenge. That could have led to trouble, and so I took out my wallet and counted out a hundred pesos and slipped them under Tio’s wager.
“For a cushion,” I said. “The confidence of my friend is worthy of a cushion.”
The spectators, all Indians, looked from one to the other, and then hard at Hilario, and he turned his back to me and walked behind his counter and picked up a cigar box and counted the money that was in it. Apparently it wasn’t enough, because he left us and, without haste, crossed his patio to the family quarters. Soon he was back, and with Nena.
She never looked up lest she meet the gaze of Tio, but went behind the counter and waited. Hilario put a hundred and seventeen pesos on the table and said, “My daughter will serve us.”
I nodded and he sat down and Tio moved closer behind me. The Indians moved over behind Hilario. I pushed the tacos aside, but kept the tortillas in front of me.
“You must have bread with peppers?” Hilario asked.
“Never yet have I seen peppers so hot that I must reach for the bread.”
“You sweat?” Hilario was laying down the rules.
“In the sun, yes. But never from peppers. With me, the peppers warm my blood, not my skin.”
“You blow hard the breath?”
“No.”
“Then you sip?”
“No. I nibble.”
“I sip.”
“That is fair.”
I moved the tortillas closer to me, and Nena brought him a bottle of beer, and the rules were set. He could sip and I could nibble. But he must wait a full minute between pepper and beer, and I must wait a full minute between pepper and bread.
Nena brought out some spiced meat and two bowls of ground pepper. One of plain black pepper which is the dried fruit of Piper nigrum, picked green. This is the pepper of antiquity, of Malabar and Travancore. This is the pepper that sent men venturing in the days of Solomon and Sheba. Rome paid ransom to Alaric, in Piper nigrum. It is romantic, but tame. The other bowl contained white pepper, which is Piper nigrum prepared from the ripe fruits.
Hilario dipped a bit of meat into the black pepper and another into the white pepper and ate them. I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chairs as though I had been given offense.
“No?” Hilario was surprised, and tried not to show it.
“No. Does hospitality of Feliz offer pap to a stranger?” I took fifty more pesos out of my wallet. “This is for the white pepper and the black pepper. I will not tease my tongue.”
Hilario stared at me and some of the hauteur went out of him, and I felt a possibility of understanding between us, of friendship a far way off, but moving toward us. Slowly he reached into his pocket and took out more money and matched my ante.
Then he turned to Nena and said, “The cayennes. Only the cayennes. We have here a man of mettle.”
The girl ran across the patio and more Indians came into the place and ranged themselves alongside the counter and behind Hilario. Then Ladinos came in and stood by Tio and behind me. I don’t know how the word got around so fast, but there they were: the mustached Ladinos and the Indians, each backing his own kind, for I had become associated with the Ladinos. The hotel owner was there, and he whispered to Tio and stepped to the table and counted out a hundred pesos and put them in front of me, and stepped back.
Hilario reached into his pocket again, but one of the Indians touched his arm. Then all the Indians gave money to the one and he matched the hotel owner’s bet.
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