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And then both said nothing.
He heard the men moving up on the tenement roof. He moved to follow.
She said quickly, “I saw you tonight!”
He came back.
“The suit,” he said.
“The suit,” she said, and paused. “But not the suit.”
“Eh?” he said.
She lifted the book to show the glasses lying in her lap. She touched the glasses.
“I do not see well. You would think I would wear my glasses, but no. I walk around for years now, hiding them, seeing nothing. But tonight, even without the glasses, I see. A great whiteness passes below in the dark. So white! And I put on my glasses quickly!”
“The suit, as I said,” said Martínez.
“The suit for a little moment, yes, but there is another whiteness above the suit.”
“Another?”
“Your teeth! Oh, such white teeth, and so many!” Martínez put his hand over his mouth.
“So happy, Mr. Martínez,” she said. “I have not often seen such a happy face and such a smile.”
“Ah,” he said, not able to look at her, his face flushing now.
“So, you see,” she said quietly, “the suit caught my eye, yes, the whiteness filled the night below. But the teeth were much whiter. Now, I have forgotten the suit.”
Martínez flushed again. She, too, was overcome with what she had said. She put her glasses on her nose, and then took them off, nervously, and hid them again. She looked at her hands and at the door above his head.
“May I—” he said, at last.
“May you—”
“May I call for you,” he asked, “when next the suit is mine to wear?”
“Why must you wait for the suit?” she said.
“I thought—”
“You do not need the suit,” she said.
“But—”
“If it were just the suit,” she said, “anyone would be fine in it. But no, I watched. I saw many men in that suit, all different, this night. So again I say, you do not need to wait for the suit.”
“Madre mía, madre mía! he cried happily. And then, quieter, “I will need the suit for a little while. A month, six months, a year. I am uncertain. I am fearful of many things. I am young.”
“That is as it should be,” she said.
“Good night, Miss—”
“Celia Obregón.”
“Celia Obregón,” he said, and was gone from the door.
