“I may not have enough chain,” said Raul Gadin.n”This is a stone that wasn’t here before,” Ernesto said. “Ifnwe loosen it a little, we can dig it out.”nErnesto set about fixing the chain around the stone, whilenRaul steered the tractor into the position he decided wasnbest. Ernesto looped the chain twice around the girth of thenstone and attached the remainder double so the tractorncould pull on two lengths of chain instead of one. Raul gotndown on his hands and knees and secured the chain to thenball hitch on the back of the tractor. Then he climbed upninto the seat. He revved the engine and shifted into first.nThe chain creaked and tightened around the stone, bentnover the lip of the trench. Nothing happened. The tautnchain dug into the earth. Raul Gadin backed up, put thentractor into gear again, and tried to jerk the stone loose. Thentractor surged in the air; the stone didn’t move.nRaul turned off the engine and the motor wound down.n”Block and tackle,” he said, squinting at Aleja Ruiz. “That’snwhat we’ll need for this job.”nAleja Ruiz didn’t know what this was.n”I have it in my truck,” Raul Gadin said, turning tonErnesto. “You’ll have to drive me over.”nErnesto looked at his watch. “I got a chain saw tondeliver,” he said. “I thought you could do this in half annhour.”nRaul Gadin shrugged. “We’ll deliver the chain saw on thenway.”n”All right,” Ernesto said. “Alejandra Ruiz, you stay herenand make certain the stone doesn’t go anywhere.”nThe two men climbed the hill on foot, leaving AlejandranRuiz and the tractor and the stone in the garden. It seemednto Aleja the stone had grown larger since the morning, butnshe knew this was her imagination. The stone wasn’t highernthan the hills of gravel and topsoil around the trench, but itnalmost looked as if it were higher than the surroundingngarden. It was an optical illusion, she knew, or the way thensun slanted in on the stone through the late afternoonnclouds that were gathering over the plains.nShe waited an hour, watching the snow figures in thenmountains running and running and the sun begin to pinknon the high peaks.nThe men came back in two trucks. Raul Gadin hadnbrought his own truck with all kinds of contraptions in thenback of it Aleja Ruiz had never seen before. El Pavo, whonalways said he couldn’t do a job, guaranteed the block andntackle would work, and he and Ernesto spent another longninterval arranging the cables and the odd wooden apparatus.nThey hooked cables onto chains, wound the chains aroundnthe stone, fixed the chains to the tractor. When the timencame to test what they’d done, Raul Gadin made the sign ofnthe cross over himself He started the engine of the tractornand let out the clutch slowly. The apparatus groaned andnstretched and the engine of the tractor roared. Raul Gadinnsquinted back at the stone which stayed in the ground.nDuring the night it rained. Alejandra Ruiz was joltednfrom her bed by lightning and thunder and the ratatat of rainnon the tin roof of her house. Drips of water came throughnthe seams of the tin sheets and splashed on the floor, butnAleja was too weary to get up. She sat in her bed andnlistened to the storm move across. Every so often lightningnilluminated the grayish hills, the pifions and junipers, then18/CHRONICLESnnnrain itself which fell hard across the dry earth. Then anninstant later the land disappeared again and the nightnresumed as before.nThe following morning, after the storm had passed andnshe had spent a fitful night’s sleep without dreams,nAlejandra Ruiz woke to the shouts of people and the noisenof cars. Usually she woke at first light, but that morning thensun was already over the mountains and was shining stronglyninto her doorway. Cars and trucks were parked up at ErnestonSaenz’s shed and more were coming around the barren hill,nsliding and splashing on the muddy road. Voices lifted fromnthe shed and from the other side of Aleja’s house where thenpath led down to the garden.nAleja put on boots and a housecoat and went outside.nThe air was crisp and washed clean as it always was after anstorm. Rain had fallen in the yard and over the river, but innthe mountains it had snowed. The hawk and the runningncoyotes and the antelope were covered over.nAleja joined the others on the path. Men had broughtnshovels and women had come with their children to worknthemselves and to watch the men. They all greetednAlejandra Ruiz cheerfully. “It’s a fine morning,” they said.n”Hello, Alejandra Ruiz. We are glad to help you.”nFifteen or twenty people were already in the gardenngathered around the stone. Some of them Aleja recognizednand some she didn’t — Ernesto was there and MarianYglesias’s three children, and Raul Gadin, and a man callednVago, a strong man who wandered around the streets ofnChimayo. Ernesto’s brother was there, and Pedro Maestas,nthe butcher, and a man with a big mustache whom Alejanhad seen before somewhere. Five or six of the men were innthe trench digging. Raul Gadin, in an orange highwayndepartment vest, squinted from the seat of his tractor as hentalked to Vago. Ernesto stood off to one side consulting withna thin man in white slacks and a yellow straw hat.nWhen Ernesto saw Aleja, he waved her over. “It’s anbeautiful morning after the storm, Alejandra Ruiz,” he said.n”My roof leaked,” Aleja said, “and now it’s noisy.”n”This is Senor Montoya, an engineer from Los Alamos,”nErnesto said, holding the thin man’s arm as though the mannmight escape. “He has owed me a favor since two summersnago when I fixed his outboard motor out on the reservoir atnAbiquiu.” “Many people owe you favors, Ernesto Saenz,”nAleja said. “You will have none left for yourself”nThe man took off his yellow hat and bowed to her. “Indrove from Los Alamos this morning to be of service,” hensaid.nAleja avoided his glance and looked past him at the stone.nThe men had already uncovered more of it, three times asnmuch as had been visible the evening before when RaulnGadin had tried to pull it loose with his tractor and the blocknand tackle. It was immense now. The stone was at least sixnfeet across (the trench must have been ten) and five feetndeep. Twenty men or fifty could never move such a stone.nTen tractors could not move it. And it had grown taller. Shenwas sure of it. Maybe only an inch or two, but it was highernrelative to the level of the garden than it had been thenafternoon before. It was a stone getting bigger, she thought.nMaybe only a corner of it was visible, a tiny part. Maybe itnwas big as a mountain, and if the stone were taken from hern