“Ah, yes, forgive me,” he said, smiling and sipping Sofi’s café. “Many people died then, también, as I was saying. I was the only doctor around at the time and I couldn’t keep up with los enfermos. Then, of course, I also didn’t have enough vaccines to go around for everybody.”

Sofi came out to the patio and sat to listen.

“What people came up with then was the ‘cania de perro’ cure,” he continued.

“I know that one!” doña Felicia interrupted, “You mix a little water and peloncillo with the cania de perro …”

“Right!” he said with a smile, as if he had just given an exam to an intern.

Sofi stood up to go back into the house. “Well, we are not giving my ‘jita spoonfuls of dog droppings! Kerosene is one thing … but caca de perro, never!”

She let the screen door slam and Doctor Tolentino, who shrugged his shoulders only, said to doña Felicia quietly, “Well, it saved a lot of people who would have died otherwise back then,” and despite his cough, lit up his cigar. “And then we used barro with water for tuberculosis with good results, too …”

“Yes, I know,” doña Felicia said. “And by the way, doctor, have you tried inhaling cachanilla fumes for that cough?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have,” Doctor Tolentino admitted. “Doña Jovita insisted on it when I went there to cure her little grandson of a chronic ear infection.”

Doña Felicia made a face that went unnoticed, feeling slighted for some reason that she had not been able to recommend the remedio to Doctor Tolentino first. She studied him for a moment and then said, “You know, doctor, there’s a way you could cure your baldness, I mean if you wanted to. Maybe you’ve gotten used to the draft on your head, but asufre would bring your hair back. And from what I remember, you had quite a nice mata once …”

“¿Asufre?” Dr. Tolentino asked.

“Yes, everybody knows asufre will prevent baldness and will bring back your hair if it has already fallen out!” Doña Felicia got a little animated by el Tolentino’s attention. “You mix it with ‘Aceite Mejicano’ and you leave it on for a week …” Noticing the doctor’s skeptical look, she added, “Well, you probably will have to live in the woods until your hair grows because I’m sure not even la buena Mrs. Doctor would put up with the smell!”

They both laughed at the thought of Doctor Tolentino with a head full of sulfur spending his nights and days in the woods like a lone coyote for the sake of hair growth.