“Buenas noches, Señor Hernandez,” I said.
He looked up at me as if he just realized I was there, his eyes dull and quiet and then brightening with his smile.
“Ah, Delia, sí. You remind me of a young actress I knew. We were working in a small theater just outside of Mexico City, and…”
“She has no time for your silly stories,” Margarita snapped. “Don’t you know she just lost her grandmother?”
“Ah,” he said. “Yes, I heard. I am sorry.” He smiled at me. “Nevertheless, you remind me of her.”
“Old fool,” Señora Paz said, turning away.
“He means no harm,” I said, following them.
I looked back at him and remembered how much Abuela Anabela enjoyed talking with him. He was staring ahead again, surely seeing the wonderful people he had known and worked with for so many years, reliving his memories. Soon, I thought, he would step off the stage and be a young man again.
“How that man manages is truly a mystery,” Margarita said.
How any of us manages is a mystery, I thought. I knew it was far too bitter and cynical a thought for someone as young as I was, but I had seen too many terrible things.
The sisters made a very good dinner for me, although not as good as Abuela Anabela’s dinners. I ate everything they put on my plate. I could see they were surprised at the size of my appetite, but it had been so long since I had eaten a real meal sitting at a dinner table. Their house was much smaller than ours. It had only one bedroom, but it was clean and nicely furnished.
After dinner, I let them prepare a place for me to sleep in the living room. I was very tired, and once they had blown out the candles and I closed my eyes, I drifted off quickly and slept right through the night. Without waking me up, they worked around me in the morning, preparing breakfast.
As soon as I did wake up, I rose, washed, and joined them at the table, anticipating their questions. That was the payment they expected, I thought, and I was ready to give it to them, but they surprised me by talking about my future instead.
“While you were at the cemetery, we met Señora Rubio. You know she runs her menudo shop wit
h her son. It makes them a small living, but they have a nice little casa. You know her son, Pascual?”
“I know him only to say hello,” I said. “We have never had much to say to each other. He is at least ten years older than I am.”
“Sí, but he doesn’t look it,” Margarita said.
“His mother would like him to settle with a wife, and we thought maybe with the money you will get for the casa, you will have a nice dowry.”
“You mean to marry Pascual Rubio?”
“It would be an easier life than a life with a farmer,” Señora Paz said.
Pascual Rubio was already balding in his midtwenties. He was short and heavy and shy to the point of being nearly mute. I was not the only one who rarely had any sort of conversation with him. The very idea of marrying him was shocking. I started to shake my head vigorously.
“You’re not going back to your rich aunt, Delia. You’ve told us so yourself. We don’t know why, but our not knowing why is not important right now. What will you do here? Go work in the soybean fields?” Magarita asked. “Or do you want to end up like me, a spinster living with her widowed sister?”
“There has to be another choice,” I said. “But thank you for thinking of me.”
They both looked very disapproving of how quickly I had rejected what they obviously thought was a wonderful, quick solution to my situation.
“You should go see Señor Diaz this morning. We sent word to him and to Señor Avalos to tell them you were back,” Señora Paz said.
“Gracias,” I said.
“Please, Delia, think of what we suggested,” Margarita said. “Pascual thinks very highly of you. You should think yourself lucky. A girl your age with no family to help her has little future.”
I didn’t disagree about that. Perhaps I had been too bold to chase a bigger dream. Perhaps my destiny was set, and I did belong here married to someone like Pascual.
“It will be a wonderful wedding,” Señora Paz said. “And you will have a home and a business.”
“I don’t know…to be married so soon after my grandmother’s passing seems very wrong,” I said, shaking my head.