Night at the Fiestas

Frances is on a bus to Santa Fe. She tries to assume a glamorous air because she wants to project mystery and refinement to her fellow passengers and to pretend that her father is not actually the bus driver. Although her father is a gregarious man, Frances finds him embarrassing and looks down whenever he greets or helps a passenger. She has brought her copy of Tess of the D’Urbervilles with her, and she tries to keep her focus on her reading. She is 16 and hopes that her life will be as storied as those of the heroines in her favorite novels.

Frances is on her way from Raton to Santa Fe to attend the Fiestas, a yearly celebration of the Spanish conquest of the region. She is to stay with her aunt Lilian and cousin Nancy, and she is excited at the prospect of an all-night party. Her aunt Lilian is lax in her house rules, and Nancy has assured her that they will have a wild time. Frances sees her excursion to Santa Fe as a precursor to leaving for college. She plans to head to the University of New Mexico when she finishes high school, and she is looking forward to leaving her parents behind in their small town.

Three new passengers board the bus just as Frances is trying to give her father the silent treatment. One of them is a man in a checkered suit who begins talking to Frances. Although his attention is not entirely unwanted, Frances cannot help but judge his appearance and lack of manners; she immediately writes him off as an ignorant “ranch hand.” Still, Frances enjoys responding to him with what she characterizes as flirtatious pique, and she even toys with the idea of accepting his invitation to have a drink with him at the Fiestas. He claims to be a painter, but she doubts this based on the condition of his hands and fingernails. There is something sleazy about him that she cannot quite identify, but her suspicions are confirmed when he draws close to her and whispers “little whore” into her hear. After that she stiffens and refuses to talk to him. When he gets off the bus, she notices that he has left his sack lunch behind. With visions of stomping on it outside the bus, she grabs it on her way out the door, and she is stunned to find that it is full of money. She stuffs it into her purse and greets her cousin Nancy.

The plaza is filled with people. Some are dressed as cowboys, and others as conquistadores and bandits. She sees people in traditional Navajo dress and marvels at their velvet skirts. Her cousin Nancy looks beautiful, as always, and beside her, Frances feels frumpy and unattractive. She tells Nancy that a wealthy painter asked her on a date, but she declined. They run into some boys that Nancy knows, and although they are polite to Frances, their attention rests squarely on her cousin.

After dark, they attend the ritual burning of the effigy of Zozobra. The music is louder, the dancers surrounding them more energetic, and everyone except Frances is much more inebriated. Nancy’s dress falls off of her shoulder as she drunkenly sways to the music. Frances feels disconnected from the revelers and cannot match their spirit of reckless abandon. She tries to picture herself having more fun than she is, but she remains unhappy and aloof. Just then, the man from the bus approaches, clearly very drunk. He and Nancy begin talking, and Frances worries for her cousin. Just as the man makes a comment that causes Frances to wonder if he has guessed that she has his money, she is separated from him and Nancy. She wanders away through the raucous crowd, making her way to the bus station. Her father will not return until noon, and it is still early in the morning, but she suddenly wants to go home. As she waits, she sees the man walk haphazardly up the street toward her. She is scared, but he does not see her and continues walking in the opposite direction.