Treasure of the World by Tara Sullivan (free ebook reader txt) 📕

I tell them about the explosion and wandering lost for two days. I tell them about Santiago and Yenni and my time in the posada. I tell them I went into the city instead of coming straight home because I thought Daniel was there. I tell them I found Victor instead, though I don’t tell them what he is doing.

César goes back to quietly packing in the background, as if he can’t stand for his hands to be idle.

“How could you?” Mami demands, her hands cupping my face gently, the opposite of the hard words. “To go down there all alone, without telling anyone . . . It’s a wonder you made it out alive!”

“I know,” I say. “I thought I was going to die. But I made it out. I’m sorry, Mami.”

She shakes her head.

“No more apologies,” she says firmly.

“You are both given back to us from the dead,” Abuelita agrees, pulling me into a bony hug. “This is a time for gratitude. A time of celebration.”

I sag into their embrace, glad they’ve forgiven me. After a few minutes, Mami gets to her feet. “Now, let’s finish packing so we can get home before full dark.”

And I want to say that we are home, but I realize this isn’t true anymore, so I get up from where I’ve been sitting and help Mami, César, and Abuelita pack.

For a little while, I feel uncomfortable, trying to process everything they’ve told me. But eventually their happiness at having me back and my happiness at finally being home safe and knowing that Daniel is alive covers over the awkwardness like clouds covering the moon. We all know it’s still there, but, for the moment at least, none of us can see it.

With four of us working, we manage to empty our old house in under an hour. Then, Abuelita and I carrying packs balanced on our shoulders and César and Mami maneuvering the heavy pushcart, we walk together through the deepening dusk across the mountain to César’s house and our new home.

When I see it in the distance, one lighted window in a row of mining houses, not off by itself like our old house, I get a strange feeling inside. The lights are welcome, and the fact that it has a good tile roof instead of just a flimsy sheet of tin leaning into an overhang of the mountain makes me happy. But knowing that from now on I will have to call this unfamiliar house my home leaves me feeling strange.

You’ll get used to it, I tell myself.

But I know it’s not only the house I’m going to have to get used to.

It’s a nice house, I think as we walk in the door. With two rooms, it’s bigger than ours, and better made too. I get the feeling that this is the kind of house that the wind will go around when it howls across the mountain at night, instead of whistling through it by a hundred tiny holes. César looks a little sheepish as he moves Mami’s things into the one bedroom. I try not to notice. Then he points to the far corner of the main room. There’s a cot along one wall that I assume is for Abuelita and a pile of blankets in an alcove. I move to put my stuff there, figuring it’s where I’m going to sleep. But when I get there, I see that the alcove already has someone in it. When I see the little figure sleeping there, rolled up in the alpaca wool blankets, I drop my things on the floor and have to walk outside.

Standing in the freezing night air, I take gulping breaths to calm myself.

Somehow, I’ve been able to manage the thought of César being my new father: my father is dead, after all. But I had forgotten, on the walk across the mountain, and in hearing all about Mami’s marriage, that César has a daughter too. Daniel is alive. The thought of suddenly having Belén as a younger sister is, for some reason, too much for me to bear.

I stand out there in the dark, clutching my stomach. After a few minutes, César comes out of the house and stands beside me.

“Ana,” he says softly, “I know this must be hard for you.”

I stare down at my hands. I refuse to cry in front of my former boss.

“This all happened very quickly,” he goes on in his low, gravelly voice. “When we brought your brother to the hospital, at first they wouldn’t admit him because your mami was already in debt and they didn’t think she could pay. I tried to vouch for her, but they would only let me be a guarantor for the payment if I was legally connected to Daniel.” César puffs out his cheeks. “Moving him down the mountain jostled his wounds. He was bleeding, turning blue. We thought he was going to die. Your mami and I found the hospital chaplain and had him marry us on the spot.”

I stare at César.

“I felt responsible for not finding Daniel in time,” César goes on. “I needed to make it right. I know the proper way to do these things is to take them slowly. For there to be a plan and a party. To involve family and friends. But there just wasn’t time for any of that.”

He reaches out a hand. Instinctively, I flinch away.

César lowers his hand without touching me.

I feel terrible. César has never been anything but kind. It’s not his fault men’s hands scare me. I want to apologize, but the words can’t make it out around the lump in my throat.

“You were only gone for a few days,” César finishes gently, “and you came home to find your whole life changed. I know it’s a lot to get used to. But it’s going to be okay now, Ana. Your family is safe with me, and so are you. I promise.”

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