“I’ll take that chicken from here.”

“Go to your ball, pretty one.”

“I won the bet. You said if I ran for queen and won, I could have my chickens back.”

Lorenzo holds the white chicken away from Teresita’s reaching arms. “Get away, little girl.”

The mayor emerges from the crowd. He likes a good cockfight as much as any of the other men. “Is this true, Lorenzo?” he asks.

“She’s a silly girl, Mayor. Who are you going to believe?”

It’s the wrong question to ask the mayor. Everyone knows Lorenzo would pinch a chicken’s behind during a fight, causing it to become more feisty and win. And before the mayor was mayor, he lost a few games because of Lorenzo’s dirty tricks.

Many people had. Some are here today. So now the crowd begins to shout, “Give the queen her chicken! Give the queen her chicken!”

Even though we stand under an open-sided tent, the crowd steps forward, creating a wall. Finally Lorenzo hands over the chicken to Teresita. “Who wants her lazy chicken anyway?” Leaving the pit, he breaks through the crowd.

Teresita calls after him, “I want all my chickens back, Lorenzo. Remember you promised.” Now she isn’t worried. She has a hundred witnesses.

Teresita hikes up her blue dress and puts the chicken between her legs. Her tiara falls off. She picks up the rhinestone crown and tosses it to me. “Give it to Olivia.”

The referee steps forward and checks the four-inch knife attached to one of the chicken’s legs. No one usually cheats at a fiesta fight, but occasionally at the dome there’s poison on the knife or sometimes someone will replace the knife with a rubber one.

Teresita ruffles the feathers of her chicken and lets the chicken of the man waiting for the next round peck at her chicken’s head and body. This gets the chickens worked up.

“Ready?” the referee asks.

Teresita shakes her opponent’s hand.

“Go ahead,” the referee yells. A few seconds later the chickens meet in midair and slash at each other.

They hit the dirt floor. Teresita’s white chicken flies up, lands on the red chicken, and stabs it with his knife.

The referee jumps in and picks up the birds by their tail feathers.

The red chicken tries to peck Teresita’s bird, but the white chicken slashes him again. The red one flops to the ground. Blood spatters.

The referee lifts the chickens. Teresita’s bird pecks, pecks, pecks at the red one until it flops in the puddle of blood. The crowd yells. Some cheer. Some groan.

Wallets open and money goes up the crowd and down, like a wave. High over her head, Teresita holds up her chicken, paying no mind to the blood trickling down her arm and onto her blue dress. A two-victory day!

A loud groan escapes the crowd. Auntie Bernadette has made her way to the front. Olivia is right behind her.

Beads of sweat prickle Auntie’s forehead and she’s breathing heavily. “The blue dress!”