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“Que susto,” she whispered, then straightened herself and cleared her throat. I squeezed one of her biceps like I’d done many times before, and her eyes snapped to my hand. We both swallowed audibly. “Take your shoes off,” she said finally after a few moments of silence. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried up the stairs, and I took the time to listen in on her movements upstairs. Her even steps, a door opening, some rummaging inside what sounded like a closet. I took my shoes and socks off and left them to the side, making sure to stick to the tile of the entryway and not the hardwood floor of the family room right on the other side of the doorway. I took my soaking wet shirt off and held it in my hand, making sure the sleeves were tucked in a tight ball to avoid any more dripping. “Which way to the laundryroom?” I yelled over the sound of the storm and the movement upstairs.
She didn’t reply back, but at least I heard a door closing and her steps coming back down the stairs, a soft mumbling coming from her lips. Then she stopped dead.
Midway down the stairs, she stood frozen, looking at me waiting for her in the entry to her parents’ home. And she was striking. She looked so much like those many moons ago. Just standing there, with a soft smile on her face and eyes taking me in.
She shook her head, then moved quickly, shoving the towel at me and turning in the direction of the kitchen. The power was still out, but Lucía had candles all over the coffee table in the family room and a few on the kitchen island.
“Shit,” I mumbled, the pain from my toe radiating all the way up to my hip. I lifted my foot and held it in my hand, doubled over it, not being able to take a step further. The freaking darkness and the unfamiliar setting was making me clumsy. Or maybe it was her. So clumsy and awkward around her.
“What?” she replied, moving her eyes all around me to try to figure out what was wrong with me.
“Stubbed my toe,” I answered through gritted teeth. “I don’t know this house like you do.”
She cackled with laughter, bending over and wheezing a little.
“It’s not funny,” I said, smiling back at her.
“It’s a little funny,” she finished, turning herback and walking in the direction of the refrigerator. And this was the Lucía I remembered. We had never been sodomesticwhen we’d known each other then. But she looked carefree, happy even. The woman I’d seen in the previous days was a different woman. It seemed like she was a problem-solver, bubbly and excessively upbeat to the benefit of no one but her family. She reminded me a little of how I’d been raised, taught to turn it on and off depending on where we were. Except it looked like she was doing it out of habit, like she was expected to be that way.
We ate leftovers at the kitchen table, talking about the Monopoly game we’d played on New Year’s Eve in that same house, the weather, and some of her brother Jacinto’s pranks throughout the years. Like the time he booby-trapped the whole upstairs of their house when he was a tween and Charlie rolled down the stairs. Apparently, that earned her youngest brother a whole year of silent treatment from the oldest Williams sibling.
She told me she had returned to Tres Fuegos after her residency, settling down in the town practice and finally taking over for the town doctor that had been overdue for retirement.
“We are still going through all of the patient files to put them into the system,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I’ve found folders with the medical history of people I went to elementary school with.” She laughed at that comment, maybe thinking something she wasn’t saying out loud, maybe too early to share with me.
She told me how she and Valentina had painted mediocre animals on the walls at her clinic, and although they were a little cringey, her little patients seemed to love it.
And then, like nothing had happened, the lights came back on. Marking our return back to normalcy. To a moment in time when we coexisted in the same space for a limited period, just because.
15
LUCÍA
Despite the massivestorm of the previous night and the long, lingering blackout, the next morning, the sun was shining, and it was promising to be a hot day. Valentina had left after the wedding to visit her sister in the city, and I was going to use a few of my days the first two weeks to clean up our files.
Dr. Martín,bless his heart, had kept meticulous records of all his patients, including copious notes in his terrible handwriting. It was my job to try to decipher what they said and then figure out whether to hold on to them or get rid of them. Some of those records went back decades to patients that were now bringing their own children to our practice. It was antiquated, for sure, and nothing like we’d done during my training, but it was still entertaining to try to figure it out. Peek at what the pasthad been like.
The sidewalks were still wet from the rain, a few puddles gathered where the pavers met each other. I passed my brother’s house, taking a quick peek inside through the living room window to see if I could covertly watch Francisco moving around, but it all seemed quiet inside.
I was due for a visit anyway, so I could maybe ring the doorbell later andpretendthat I needed to water the plants. It was not at all to find an excuse to maybe talk to him.
The moment I crossed the street to get away from the image of him standing practically naked in my foyer, a woman stopped me.
“Oh, hey,” she said, a big smile on her face. “How are you doing? I haven’t seen you inages.How’s your family?” she continued, smiling at me with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Maybe she was just being polite. “I heard Santiago got married.Finally, you know? How are your parents? Your brothers? How was the wedding? What are you up to this summer?”
She spoke slowly, like she was trying to get something through me. Like maybe I was too dumb to understand what she was saying. I blinked a few times, trying to place her. She clearly knew my family and our comings and goings in this town. Everyone knew my family, but I could quickly place the majority of those who interacted with us beyond justknowing of us. Maybe she had gone to school with one of my siblings?
She pulled out her phone. “I’msoglad I ran into you.”She chuckled, like it was the funniest thought. “What a coincidence. Anyway, can you look at this rash? I think it might be viral but just wanted to check, you know, in case I have to drive all the way to the hospital. You can never be too safe when it comes to little ones, right?”
She flashed her phone screen to me. There was a photo of a young toddler covered in red hives, her cheeks red like someone had slapped her, and her arms displaying the same rash but more spread out on the surface. “Is there a fever?” I asked, and she shook her head in response.
“Any allergies that you know of?”
“No, none of that.”
“I would like to see her,” I said, reaching into my tote bag and rummaging for one of my business cards. She wasn’t a patient, that was clear, because I would have recognized her. Maybe she took her child to the nearest hospital, where they had a few pediatricians on staff that would see children for their well visits. “The office is closed, but I’ll be there all day, so if you want to come over at around three, I can do that.”
