The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind (14 page)

“I
T WAS AN
awful scandal,” Eva said, savoring the memory like a chocolate morsel. She was quartering onions for the soup, which was to be served with braised beef, white rice, and roasted fowl. Casa Masón had a full calendar of social events and, unfortunately, Umberto — who never liked to miss a day of fun — had decided to stay for a long visit.

Sonia listened intently as she washed rice for the afternoon meal. The kitchen was an oasis from the rest of the house, where she had to work by herself in silence — and now had to be constantly on the lookout for Umberto, who was becoming impossible. Only yesterday he had appeared in the library where she was dusting and encircled her waist, skulking off only when he heard Ramona coming down the hall. She’d made a mental note to check each room carefully before stepping inside.

Eva’s eyes had the same dreamy look she wore every evening when she read her torrid love scenes aloud in their bedroom.
No one can make the tantalizing details of someone else’s disasters more interesting than Eva,
Sonia thought. It was a true gift. Back home, Eva told stories with such passion that even the victims of her gossip ended up happy with the telling. Today the subject was Teresa, who had once become the unfortunate victim of her employer’s attentions. Sonia could hardly believe her ears.

“
Claro,
no one let his wife find out,” Eva said. “Or maybe she turned a blind eye. You know how those old-time women were. They expected their men to run loose, so long as they were discreet about it. But everyone knew, just the same.”

Sonia bit her lip, listening to the facts: the rumor among the servants of all the estates of Punta Gorda was that Teresa had in fact been young and beautiful once. She had come to replace Katarina Masón’s nanny. She’d fallen in love with Oscar, the gardener, but in no time Don Manuel was inviting her into his bed.

Eva sighed and shook her head in dismay. “It must run in their veins,” she said. “These pig men want to find pleasure with a country girl and forget her name when things get inconvenient.”

“You’d think she’d have some sympathy, then,” Sonia complained. “It’s not my fault that Umberto’s after me, any more than it was her fault that Señora Masón’s father came knocking on her door.” She drained the rice through her fingers. “It’s not fair.”

Eva glanced at Dalia and arched her brow knowingly. Instantly, Sonia felt like a silly child. Dalia slammed her cleaver through a chicken leg, fat splattering from the cutting board. “Not fair? Are there little birds swirling around up there in your head, Sonia? Boys like Umberto aren’t punished. You may as well face the ugly facts. If you’re stupid enough to think things are fair, then you deserve whatever kind of attention Umberto gives you. Maybe that will teach you to stop being an imbecile.”

Sonia stopped what she was doing. “I wouldn’t let him touch me that way,” she said firmly.

Dalia rolled her eyes. Eva put her hand to her heart. “
¡Mi madre!
Don’t even think of something like that happening to us. What would happen if
la señora
decides we’re too much trouble? They’ll call us harlots and send us home. Our families will starve or die of shame — or both! We have to be all eyes around that octopus Umberto!”

Sonia knew they were right. She had a growing stack of money in her drawer that she had promised to wire home for Rafael’s truck — and it was very easy to make Teresa cross.

She put the rice on the flame, thinking suddenly of Pancho, whom she’d dreamed of the night before, lying side by side in a field, their arms and legs touching. The memory of it still thrilled her. She liked to imagine his lips pressed warmly against hers and the words he might whisper in her ear as he held her. Pancho was nothing at all like Umberto Masón. She never felt cornered or leered at by him. Still, she wondered how one knew when it was true love and when, as Rafael often said, it was “something else.”

“Look what I have here!” The back door opened, and Ramona stepped inside. She was back from market and carried a basket of fresh bread and white cheese. In her hand was a stack of letters.

“The mail!” Eva squealed. “I thought you’d never get back.”

She snatched the letters from Ramona and fanned through them. When she handed out the envelopes at last, Sonia felt her heart leap when she saw Pancho’s perfect penmanship. What would he say about the note she had left him?

Sonia lifted the seal and started reading. Soon she had to reach for the counter to steady herself.

“
Mi vida,
what is it?” Eva asked, looking up from her mother’s letter.

A buzzing noise rose in Sonia’s ears as if she were at the ruins once again. She reread the note until the lines grew blurry. Her throat began to close.

“
Niña,
what is it? Is there bad news?” Ramona rushed to take the letter and ease her into a chair.

But Sonia’s head was already clouded with a vision.

Rafael’s lifeless arms were laid across his chest, mint leaves pressed inside his pallid cheeks. Inside the growing rumble in her ears, Sonia heard neighbors whispering gossip about her parents. “The Ocampos are paying for a sin with their son’s flesh.”

Eva’s voice pierced her stupor as she sat down. “Give me that.” She took the letter and read aloud.

“As dictated to Francisco Muñoz by Felix Ocampo.

“Hija,

“Since you left, Rafael has disappeared, and Tía Neli has learned he may have tried to cross to find work. Surely he is in danger, or we would have heard from him by now. Use your prayers to save your brother, Sonia. You are the only hope we have. We depend on you completely.”

Ramona sucked in her breath and ran to the pantry. “Dalia, boil water!” She rummaged furiously in a canister for the tea. “A shock like this is serious. My cousin lost six teeth on account of a fright once.”

But Dalia did not budge from her spot at the cutting table. Her face was blank; her lips a white line. She pulled another chicken from the pile and took aim.

“Did you hear me?” Ramona said sharply. “Boil the water!”

The cleaver slammed down.

“Damn it!”

Dalia’s fingertip was quickly covered in blood. She wrapped it in her apron and cursed, her eyes flashing with angry tears.

“For God’s sake, Ramona, how’s tea going to help anyone? Least of all Rafael!” she snarled.

With a sharp bang, the door that led to the dining room swung open. Teresa stepped inside. Her opaque eyes were wide and curious. Like a vulture to a carcass, she had followed the scent of discord from the parlor.

“What is this unseemly yelling all about, Ramona?” She looked from one stunned face to the other. “Can’t you keep your girls in order?”

Ramona stepped forward. “Forgive us. It’s nothing at all, Teresa. Dalia has only nicked herself with the blade. You know young girls. Chatterboxes while they work. All this talk makes them careless.” She turned to Dalia. “Go on to the house. Get a bandage. You can see that this accident has made Sonia feel faint.”

Teresa clicked her tongue, regarding the vacant expression on Sonia’s face, the pale blue of her lips.

“Well, you should all know there’s no time for distractions in this house today,” Teresa said, sidestepping the spots of Dalia’s blood to find the good silver. “There are important things to think about today.
La señora
’s guests arrive in two hours.”

Dalia paused near Sonia on her way out. “There was no stopping him; I can promise you that,” Dalia whispered in her ear. “Believe me, I tried.”

A
LL THE REST
of the day things were out of sorts. The clocks that Eva had been ordered to wind stopped working without explanation. The gates in the paddock were mysteriously opened, and the frightened horses trampled the vegetable patch.

Even dinner was spoiled. When Ramona brought the cod from the ice chest, she turned away in disgust.

“
¡Ave Maria!
What’s this?” she cried. The fish bought fresh that morning was pungent and crawling with maggots.

By night, an awful quiet blanketed La Casita. Dalia stitched the skin on her own finger with a boiled sewing needle and whiskey, seemingly impervious to the pain. Ramona wrote a long letter to her mother and Manuel to remind them of her love. Eva, who could not even calm herself with a book, tossed caution to the wind and lit candles in their room for Rafael. She fastened her hair into pin curls as she watched Sonia for signs of hysterical blindness through the reflection in the mirror.

“You’ve been counting the spiderwebs for hours,
mi vida.
I can’t watch you suffer like this. I think your father is right. Your magic is very strong; everyone knows that. You
can
keep Rafael safe with your prayers. We’ll help.”

Sonia turned over without a reply.

The night sounds were magnified, and sleep would not come to Sonia’s rescue. She listened to the scratching of mice inside the walls, to faint snores, to the moan of the wind, like an old man dying. It rattled the balcony windows, as if a storm were brewing, though all day the sky had been cloudless. Sonia threw her legs over the side of the bed and peered out at the tree branches, silver against the dark purple sky. Then something caught her eye through the glass.

Abuela was standing on the balcony. The old woman’s ghost stood with her hands outstretched. Sonia’s hair and nightgown whipped behind her as she stepped out on the balcony. The night air felt charged, and it made her shiver, but as she watched Abuela, she caught the comforting scent of Tres Montes after a rain.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Sonia told her. “Rafael needs your help.”

But her grandmother only shook her head. “You are the only way forward, Sonia,” she replied.

Sonia began to cry in shame. “I don’t know where my brother is! I can’t save him the way people think. You know it’s all been a lie.”

Abuela took Sonia’s hand and pressed something into her palm. It was a small silver key.

“Find the letter,” Abuela said. “Then find the Iguana.”

“I don’t understand. What letter?”

Abuela did not reply. Instead, she began to fade into the darkness.

“Wait!” Sonia cried. “What am I supposed to do?”

But it was no use. Abuela had vanished.

Sonia stepped back inside her room. What could Abuela possibly mean about finding a letter, much less an iguana? She checked quickly. Her father’s note was still sitting on her bureau. She sat on the edge of her bed, thinking as she studied the key in the moonlight. It was almost an exact replica of the one she used for her own bedroom door. It had to open something in La Casita, but what door did it fit?

The wind gusted until the curtains billowed like sails. Her bedroom door opened just a crack as if inviting her to the hallway.

Creeping like a cat, she made her way along the dark hallway to Ramona’s door. She slid the key in slowly, but the lock did not budge.

That left only one possibility.

Sonia tiptoed along the creaky floor and put her ear to Dalia’s door to listen. Nothing. She put the key in and turned until the bolt made a small
pop
!

“What are you doing?”

Eva was standing behind her, rubbing her eyes.

“Nothing,” Sonia whispered.

“It’s not
nothing.
” Eva stepped closer to get a better look at the key in the lock. “What are you doing with Dalia’s key?”

“Looking for something. Go to bed.”

“Now I know positively that you’re sick with an
espanto,
” Eva whispered, trying to pull her back. “If Dalia finds you going through her things like a common thief, she’ll kill you.”

But Sonia only shot her a warning look and put a finger to her lips as she stepped inside the room. Dalia lay on her stomach, her injured hand hanging over the side of her bed.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eva urged.

“Shhh!”

The nightstand drawer was empty. Sonia went to the wardrobe. Outside, tree branches clattered against the roof. Sonia could feel Abuela hiding somewhere in the trees, watching.

“Where is it?” Sonia muttered.

“Where is
what
?” Eva whispered. “Who are you talking to?”

Sonia opened the squeaky wardrobe and felt inside the clothes pockets. They were empty.

“Abuela. She came to the balcony. She told me to find a letter, and I know it’s in here.”

Eva clapped her hands to her mouth. Her frightened eyes scanned the sky outside the window, as if at any moment something might crush her. Sonia knew she hated ghosts almost as much as she loved romance.

Dalia’s suitcase was stored on the wardrobe floor. Sonia ran her fingers blindly through the compartments until at last her fingers found something. She held up the envelope triumphantly to the moonlight. Rafael’s handwriting was clear.

In a flash, they were across the hall and huddled in Sonia’s bed. Eva lit a candle, and Sonia read the letter as quickly as she could in the dim light.