Page 33 of Casualties of War
Captain Rey crossed the hallway, too.
He almost didn’t recognize Calli when she appearedat the top of the steps and beckoned to him. With a start, Adán got to his feet and moved over to the steps, letting his gaze move over her. The last time he had seen her, Calli had been a glowing bride, her love for Nick easier to read than newsprint.
The woman standing and waiting for him now looked at least ten years older. Wisdom and patience colored her features. Long-term exhaustion draggedat her eyes.
Her straw blonde hair was pulled back behind her head, although wisps of it feathered her face. She wore jeans and a simple tee shirt that looked too big for her. Adán suspected it was one of Nick’s.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting, Adán,” she told him, when he put his foot on the bottom step. “Come back to my office. Let’s talk.” She turned without waiting for his response and moveddown the back corridor that burrowed beneath the stairs.
There were many more people in the corridor, moving in and out of the rooms there. The rooms were no longer private lounge rooms. There had been a small library in one of them, once, the shelves stacked with first editions, most of them signed by the authors. At the far end, the rooms became more utilitarian—a laundry, the kitchen and thebig butler’s pantry off the kitchen. Those rooms were likely still used as they once had been.
Calli turned into the room that had been the library and Adán followed. The shelves were still there, although they no longer held books. There were stacks of paper, instead. Files and notebooks.
The middle of the room held a big desk also covered in stacks of paper, and a sleek computer monitor andkeyboard.
A woman with short, dark hair and large brown eyes sat in one of the six chairs sitting in an uneven arc in front of the desk. She was nibbling a cracker. Two more were in her other hand.
Calli rested her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “Better?”
“Sorry, yes,” the woman said, after swallowing.
Adán reached for the woman’s name. “Minnie, isn’t it?” he asked her.
Minnie nodded and liftedher empty hand up toward him. “We weren’t introduced at Calli’s wedding. Besides, things have changed since then. I’m Señora Minerva Peña, now.”
“I heard about Duardo,” Adán told her, shaking her hand. “My congratulations.”
Minnie’s smile was small but warm. “Thanks.” She gripped both arms of her chair. “Well, I should get out of here…”
“There’s no rush,” Calli told her, settling behind herdesk. “We’re all family. Adán, would you mind shutting the door?”
He turned and closed it. “What happened to all the books?”
“I sold them,” Minnie said, settling back in the chair.
Adán winced.
“I know,” Minnie said, her tone one of agreement. “Only, just one of those signed hard covers raised five hundred American dollars on E-Bay.”
“Five hundred US dollars buys enough groceries for us tolast more than a week, even with everyone we must feed, here,” Calli finished. She waved toward the chairs.
Adán picked the one in the middle and sat. “I didn’t realize how tight it had become for you.”
“Not since your money arrived,” Calli said. Her smile was just as warm as Minnie’s. “It was a most welcome relief,” she admitted.
“Good,” Adán said. “I’m glad it will be useful.”
Calli spreadher hands on the desktop, studying him. “Why are you here, Adán?”
The hair on the back of his neck tried to stand up. The authority in her voice! She was a commander, assessing and making decisions that could change people’s lives. Only the most experienced and long-term successful producers in Hollywood carried that degree of gravitas.
Adán realized he had given a Vistarian shrug, his shouldersrising and falling without thinking about it. Since tying up at the jetty outside, he had been falling back into old habits. Childhood habits. Captain Rey’s accent had brought with it a sense of home.
This old house had prodded even more of his older memories.
“Why else would I be here?” he asked, keeping his tone reasonable. “To help.”
“You want to join the fighting?” Minnie asked, her tonelifting in astonishment. “Put on a uniform and pick up a rifle? Go pick off Insurrectos from across the strait?”
