Page 17 of Girl in the Water
Nobody really paid them any attention.
So when a man showed up one afternoon across the road and stared at their house, Daniela, home alone, wasn’t sure what he wanted.
He looked Brazilian—dark hair, dark eyes, but definitely not from the Amazon tribes, bigger, part Portuguese, part something else. He had a little beard on the top of his chin. He wore a white linen suit with a white hat, a city man, maybe even a government man.
Senhor Finch never asked her to lie down for any others. If this one came in and asked, she wasn’t sure if she should or she shouldn’t. She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to so bad, she held her breath until her lungs ached.
Then the man left. When Senhor Finch came home, Daniela didn’t tell him about the strange visitor. She was afraid that Senhor Finch might say that next time, she had to invite the man in.
The stranger returned the following day. This time, he came to the door, knocked.
When Daniela opened up, he looked her up and down. From this close, she could see the scar on his nose. He tossed her a coin. “Tell me who lives here.”
Her heart raced. “Senhor Finch.”
She held her breath again. But he didn’t ask to come in. He went away.
That night, Senhor Finch came home late. Daniela told him everything.
He had no smiles then, nothing but grim determination on his face. He slammed his fist into the table.
She ducked her head, but he said, “I’m not angry at you, Daniela. Listen…” He rubbed his stubble-covered chin. “Maybe it’d be best if you went back to that old woman for a couple of days. Take your clothes, whatever you need.”
He reached into his pocket and gave her a handful of money, more than she’d ever seen. More than he’d given to Rosa when Rosa had brought her.
Her stomach clenched. She felt tossed around, as if a whirlpool on the river had caught her. She felt as if the dark waters were trying to pull her under. She wished Senhor Finch would take the money back. Just take it back and keep her instead.
“Have you eaten?” he asked, walking to the window, looking out at the street.
“Sim, senhor.” She hadn’t, but for once, she didn’t feel like eating.
“I don’t want anything.” Exhaustion weighed down his voice. He turned from the window. “Let’s just go to bed.”
For the first time, he locked the door. And, for the first time, he brought his gun into the bedroom from the top of the fridge and tucked it under his mattress, within easy reach.
After he fell asleep, Daniela lay staring at the ceiling for the rest of the night, understanding that whatever the man in the white suit wanted would be something very bad. Whatever trouble Senhor Finch had been waiting for had arrived with the stranger.
She must have fallen asleep toward morning, because when she opened her eyes, the sun shone outside, and the house was empty, save for herself. She dressed. She didn’t want to leave, but would Mr. Finch be angry if she was still here when he came back? Hehadsent her away.
She picked her favorite dresses, in case Rosa didn’t let her come back here. She rolled them up, tucked them under her arm. The money she had now would buy her a trip up the river in a boat, with plenty left over.
She glanced at her bundle of clothes and held it tighter. What if getting in and out of the boat tore one of her dresses?
Senhor Finch had a large green backpack under his bed. She didn’t dare touch that. But he had an old canvas bag under the sink he kept cassava and yams in. The bag was missing one of its handles. Hehadsaid for her to take what she needed. And she didn’t think he’d miss the ruined bag. So she dumped out the cassava and yam, shook the dirt out of the bag outside, then neatly folded her dresses in there. And then she left.
She didn’t think of running away. That had been a stupid dream. If she ran away, Senhora Rosa would find out, and then she would send the policemen after her again. Then they would beat her. She hadn’t been beaten so long, she wanted very much not to be beaten again. She wasn’t sure she could endure now what she’d been able to endure back at the red house. She’d gotten out of practice.
Daniela couldn’t think of anyplace she could hide from the policemen, not even in her village. The police were always boating up and down the river. And Pedro had taken her to Rosa in the first place. He would just take her back.
She went all the way to the edge of the Santana harbor and looked at the boats going upriver. For money, any of them would take her. If only she waved and shouted to them.
She held her bag of clothes tightly under her arm.In a minute. Just another minute.
She waited for her heart to stop clamoring. It wouldn’t. She even reconsidered running away. She couldn’t hide in her own village, but maybe she could hide in another. She could have her own little hut, and…
She’d missed her mother’s hut over the past months, but now she wanted something different. After living in the house with Senhor Finch, she didn’t want a little hut and the men who’d show up day after day. She wanted to finish learning English. She wanted to be something different from what she had been.
The sudden hope that Senhor Finch might let her—might even let her keep studying and become a teacher—hit her so hard, she swayed and almost fell from the dock into the black river. She jerked back and was bit in the back of the arm at the same time. She whacked at the insect.
