Page 129 of The Moon Sister
‘Hola, Lucía,’ he said as he walked towards her. ‘What are you doing here?’
Lucía finished collecting the coins, then stood up and looked at him, her eyes defiant.
‘I was hungry, and I had no money for lunch. So I came here and got some. Now, shall we go to eat?’
*
Despite Lucía’s reluctance to have her father in Madrid, she was at least pleased to see the rest of thecuadro.
‘Chilly, have you brought my tonic?’ she asked him, ignoring Rosalba, who was standing next to him.
‘From the look of you, Lucía, I’d say that Madrid is suiting you well,’ Chilly replied with a sly smile. ‘You are happy?’
‘I am never happy, but yes, Madrid has its benefits,’ Lucía agreed.
Over the following few days, thecuadrofound an apartment in the city and José began to hold auditions to extend their troupe of guitarists, singers and dancers. After several long afternoons in the empty theatre, they had found their new members.
Sebastian was a guitar player who bought everyone drinks and cigarettes, although it soon emerged that his fingers were as smooth at pickingpayopockets as they were on his guitar. He had promised to keep his nose clean, but miraculously, he still had a steady flow of pesetas to share.
Sebastian’s brother Mario, known as ‘El Tigre’, the tiger, was a lithe and masculine individual, who attacked every dance as if it were a bull to be taken down. He had been the only dancer Lucía felt could match her ferocious energy. Two other young female dancers were also engaged, chosen by Lucía simply because they were the plainest.
‘So, daughter.’ José raised a glass to Lucía after their first run-through with the orchestra. ‘Tomorrow, the Albaycíncuadroopens at the Coliseum.’
‘And so do I,’ Lucía whispered as she toasted him.
*
During the next few months, Lucía’s fame spread. Queues formed at the Coliseum box office; everyone wanted to see the enchanting younggitanawho danced in men’s clothes.
Finally, Lucía Amaya Albaycín was becoming a star.
Although she missed the sea and the culture of Barcelona that so suited hergitanaspirit, Lucía loved Madrid, with its grand white buildings and wide avenues. There was a sense of urgency and passion in the air, what with the daily rallies of the variouspayopolitical parties, each attempting to drum up support, most of them disgruntled after the Republicans had won the elections that November. Even though Meñique often tried to explain to her what all these men were shouting about, she would laugh and kiss him on the lips to stop him talking.
‘I am bored ofpayosfighting each other,’ she would say, ‘let us watch apayosquare off against a bull!’
‘This place is a pigsty,’ Meñique had remarked the first time he’d visited her room in thecuadro’s apartment. Sardine bones and other food scraps festered on plates that were piled high in an overflowing sink, and dirty clothes lay where she had dropped them days ago.
‘Yes, but it is my pigsty, and it makes me happy,’ she’d said, as she kissed him.
At times, Meñique felt as if he was trying to tame a wild animal; at others, he wished to protect the vulnerable little girl Lucía could so easily become. Whichever she was, he was totally entranced by her.
The problem was, so was the whole of Madrid. Now, rather than Meñique, the famous guitarist, being the centre of attention when they were out in the city together, it was Lucía everyone wanted to meet.
‘How does it feel to be the most famousgitanadancer in the whole of Spain?’ he asked her one morning as they lay in bed at his apartment.
‘It is what I always expected.’ She shrugged nonchalantly, lighting a cigarette. ‘I have waited a long time for this.’
‘Some have to wait a lifetime and still it never comes, Lucía.’
‘I have earned it, every second of it,’ she replied fiercely.
‘So now you can be happy?’
‘Of course not!’ Her head lolled back against his shoulder and he smelt the scent of the oil she used to smooth down her hair. ‘La Argentinita has captured the world! Me, only Spain. There is much more to do yet.’
‘I’m sure there is,pequeña,’ he sighed.
‘Did I tell you that I have been asked to dance in a film? It is somepayofilmmaker – Luis Buñuel. I hear he is very good. Should I do it?’
