The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 6turned to look back over his shoulder. They had walked far enough that he could not really see themachine guns. The covered objects, of which Jose could now see there were several, were little morethan light-colored humps. He then noticed that the lieutenant's mustache was really rather thin andsparse, not at all like the captain's, and then noticed the butt of the lieutenant's pistol arcing down tomeet his skull.Some time later, Jose slowly opened his eyes. He was on his back in a very slight depression inthe ground, where he had fallen at the hand of the lieutenant. His head throbbed fiercely. The colors ofthe sky and the earth did not seem right to him. He found that he could not move any part of his bodyother than his eyes, which he tick-tocked back and forth like the pendulum of a clock.It was at this moment that artillery began to fire on the defensive position around Agua Prieta.It took Jose a few moments to figure out that, as whispered, Villa had come. He could hear the thumpsas the guns fired, and feel the ground tremor slightly under him. The shells arced over his head, andthen from his other side he could hear and feel the explosions as they landed among the trenches. Hehad never heard artillery before. He had never considered that it would move the earth itself. Heswung his eyes back and forth.The shells continued to fly over his head, one after another, in their relentless search formeaning. Although the explosions themselves weren't drawing any closer, it seemed to Jose that eachone was shaking the ground a little more violently than the last. He wasn't panicked. He was only alittle afraid. But with every violent shake he felt the connection to his own body grow a little moretenuous, until at last he felt as if his body were nothing more than so much meat in the butcher's shop,with his mind draped over the top like one of the canvas shrouds he had seen earlier.At last, one final violent upheaval of the earth lifted him up and propelled him several feetthrough the air. He dropped back to the ground, but didn't feel the impact. The first thing he noticed