Page 60 of One Year Ago in Spain
Tears spilled over onto Claire’s cheeks, and she sagged against Soledad and Aracely. It wasn’t relief, because they did know something had happened to Matías’s heart. But at least it wasn’t the awful news that Matías was dead.
Yet.
A pair of cardiologists emerged from Matías’s room. The entire mass of the de León family surged toward them.
“¿Qué está pasando?” Armando asked.
The woman doctor spoke in rapid Spanish. Claire stood helpless, only able to scan the faces and body language of those around her to try to figure out what the doctor was saying. This was not the time to ask Aracely to explain.
Soledad crossed herself. Armando squeezed his eyes shut. Aracely held herself rigid, fighting to keep her composure. Luis walked away.
The rest of the de Leóns reflected the same range of reaction. But what was missing were relaxed sighs or people going to sit back down. Everyone remained on their feet as they began to ask the doctors questions.
Claire looked all around, hoping someone could explain what was going on.
But everybody around her was talking all at once in Spanish.
She turned and located Luis, who had separated himself from the crowd and was sitting with his head in his hands.
Claire sat down beside him.
“What’s happening?” she asked quietly.
Luis didn’t lift his head. But he let out a long exhale and said, “Matías might have had a heart attack.”
“What?” Claire’s own heart clutched.
He slowly looked up, as if it took great effort to peel his face from the hands. “They need to do more tests. I’m sorry, I don’t know what they’re called in English.”
Claire let out a sob. “Why didn’t I work harder at Spanish months ago, when I had the chance?”
Luis shrugged, just a sad, minute movement. “It probably would not make a difference. I started learning English when I was four years old, and I still don’t know how to translate these medical things for you.”
Claire gasped.Translate.She snatched her phone from her purse and began searching the app store for the translation program Vega had used this morning.
“Here,” she said, holding her phone toward Luis. “Tell me what the doctor said. Please?”
He squinted at her phone. “What is it?”
“An app that does immediate speech translation. Vega showed me this morning.”
“Huh. I didn’t know that existed. But I guess Vega would know, so she could sell her work internationally. Her English is shit.”
Claire sat back for a second. She knew Aracely detested Vega, but this was the first time Luis had spoken about her so strongly.
Luis pressed the record button and repeated what the doctor had reported. A moment later, the app said in English:
“Various measures of Matías’s heart appeared abnormal. It could have been a heart attack or it could be something else.They need to run more tests to figure out what happened. A nurse is going to do an EKG soon, and a lab tech will come to draw blood to check troponin levels. They are also going to send him in for an X-ray, and maybe a CT scan if the other tests don’t show anything definitive.”
“How long will all that take?” Claire asked.
“At least two hours, maybe more,” Luis said. He studied the translation on the phone and nodded, absorbing the new terminology. “The EKG will be the fastest, but everything else takes time. Even if they get the blood soon, the lab must run the test.”
Claire slumped in her seat.Shehad done this, by kissing Matías. Or kissing Matías’s soul.
What was she going to do? Professor Hong had said Claire had to get Matías’s soul to fall in love with her. Yet when they touched, it seemed to hurt the part of Matías she was trying to save.
But what if Professor Hong was wrong? After all, Claire’s body hadn’t gone straight through Matías’s, as the professor had said it would.
