Page 14 of Girl in the Water
Daniela
Daniela stood at the edge of the square and swayed at the sight of the swirling crowd, more people than she’d ever seen in one place. A whirlpool of tourists and locals.
The Içana had whirlpools just above her village. Sometimes those swirling funnels of water swallowed even strong swimmers. Daniela shivered despite the heat.
She’d followed Senhor Finch this far, but now her feet wouldn’t move. She could go no farther.
And even if she could, where would she run?
Senhor Finch had given her food. He hadn’t beaten her. Yet.
She wrapped her arms tightly around herself and turned around. Breathed. She felt better with the crowd behind her.
She walked back toward the house on the river.
Senhor Finch kept his door open. If he turned out to be a bad man, she could always run away later. So Daniela went back into the house.
The man didn’t have much. A few cargo pants and shirts hung on pegs on the wall. The bamboo furniture was worn, had probably come with the house.
Why did he come here? How long would he stay? How long would he keep her? What would he want with her?
The house gave no answers.
Daniela aired out Senhor Finch’s pillow and sheets. Swept the floor and washed the boards. Scrubbed the kitchen until it sparkled.
The girls at Rosa’s house took turn with the chores, so Daniela knew how to do a good cleaning in a fancy house like this. They’d all learned, if only to avoid Rosa’s bony hands.
The sky had turned dark by the time Senhor Finch came back. He flipped on the lights. Looked around. “Very good,” he said, and smiled.
He definitely hadn’t seen her leave the house and come back. Daniela relaxed a little.
She didn’t even mind the sudden swarm of bugs the light drew in through the holes in the window screen.
He swatted madly at them while Daniela cooked again.
After dinner, Senhor Finch went for a swim in the river, and then he went to bed.
Daniela cleaned the dishes, and after that, she washed herself in the barrel of rainwater she’d seen out back. She didn’t like the night river since it had taken her mother.
Without bothering to put her clothes back on, she slipped into the bed next to Senhor Finch.
“Whoa,” he said.
She could see enough in the moonlight to tell that his eyes were wide open, watching her with surprise. But when she slipped her hands between his legs, he didn’t push her away.
“You don’t have to,” he told her.
And she said what Rosa had taught her to say to all the men, “I want to, senhor.”
Daniela wanted to make the foreigner happy. He gave her food, he didn’t lock the door, and he didn’t beat her. He was just one man. She didn’t want him to send her back to Rosa’s. So Daniela did with him what men liked her to do with them.
* * *
Ian
As the cops looked Ian over, his boss, Chandler, said, in a tone of restrained pissed, “We had a complaint.”
Ian had a fair idea what about. “Listen, two guys tried to take a young lady out against her will last night. I had to step in. It’ll all be on the security recording.”
