Page 53 of Vistaria Has Fallen
Chapter Ten
They traveled by train, a slow, picturesque journey through the mountains. The train stopped at every station along the way. At every stop dozens of people got off and three dozen more squeezed on.
The windows remained wide open throughout the trip. Fresh air bathed their faces as they sat on the wooden seats facing each other, their luggage piled up on the seat next to Calli.Duardo, she noticed, did not give Minnie any of the overt signs of affection she had seen in the city. As he approached home base and his family, did he grow more wary of his reputation? She didn’t speak of it, yet worried that while he had been in the city Minnie had provided a nice distraction. Now he was forced to bring her back home, he was putting distance between them.
Minnie did not seemto notice the difference in his behavior. She had accepted with serene calm everything that had happened since Calli had shinnied back down the bricks of the Presidential residence last evening.
Calli had found them sitting on the lawn at the base of the flowerbed, Duardo’s arm around her and their heads close together. When her vision adjusted to the dark of the night, she saw that only a fewdozen paces away, a soldier stood with his rifle resting across his hips. He did not overtly watch them yet he hovered, just the same.
Calli dropped to the grass in front of them and told Duardo what Nicolás had said. Duardo listened with his head cocked. It seemed he read more into Nick’s instructions than she did for he accepted the news with a sober expression, the twinkle of merriment inhis eyes fading.
“I’d like to see Pascuallita,” Minnie said.
They traveled back to the apartment, catching the last streetcar of the night. There, they packed hurriedly. Calli finished before Minnie because she had less to pack. Minnie and Calli discussed the pros and cons of telling Joshua what they planned, then decided a note would delay the delivery of the news until they had left the city.They’d written a jointly authored letter, assuring him they were snatching a last-minute chance to tour the north of the island. They promised to phone him from Pascuallita.
Then on to the house where Duardo had been staying while he was in the city, this time by taxi, which they hailed from the main street that ran below the apartment. Duardo quartered in a small, older house with a distinctlean, tucked away off the main square. Four or five army people shared the house. Duardo packed while Minnie and Calli sat on the front stoop to wait for him. He had explained it would not be appropriate for women to go inside a male-only household. He slipped out through the door barely fifteen minutes later, an army issue suit bag over his shoulder and a Nike sports bag in his other hand.
They walked to the train station, at the bottom ofel colinas, passing through silent streets where it seemed everyone slumbered. At the train station they curled up on benches and dozed with their heads on their luggage until the ticket office opened an hour before the train departed.
After the tickets were bought, Duardo disappeared into the men’s room with his luggage and returned, shaved andclean. He also wore a light windbreaker, protection against the pre-dawn chill.
Now they were on the train. Despite the heat of the day and the collective humidity of a dozen bodies squashed in around them, Duardo had not removed his jacket, although he had pushed up the sleeves. He left it zipped a third of the way up, too, which prevented the jacket from falling open.
Calli waited until theyapproached the next station, then sat on the edge of her seat and twisted around, as if she inspected the view out of the window beyond their luggage. When the train came to halt with the shudder and jerk she had been anticipating, she let herself fall sideways, her shoulder landing against Duardo’s chest.
She apologized, pushed herself back upright and ignored Duardo’s thoughtful expression.
Minnie already showed signs that the restless night was catching up with her, so Calli waited. Soon, Minnie’s eyes slid closed and her head bumped against Duardo’s shoulder. He lifted his arm and settled her head on his legs and she curled up like a kitten and slept.
Duardo looked at Calli expectantly.
“How many people around us understand English, do you think?”
He didn’t look around, whichtold her he had already assessed everyone near them. “None. They have not reacted to comments we have made.”
“You have a pistol under your jacket.”
“Yes.”
“Why? Are we in that much danger?”
“Pascuallita is only five miles from the area of a known rebel camp. I must act as if I am in enemy territory.”
“It is your home town, isn’t it?”
He grimaced. “Many call Tel-Aviv their home town. Belfast,too.”
“There has been trouble in Pascuallita?”
“Once.” Unconsciously, he rubbed his thigh.
“You were part of that trouble, weren’t you? You were caught in it.”
“Yes.”
“That is what you did that earned you honor, that got you invited to General Blanco’s birthday. You said you protected your country.”
“I did,” he agreed.
