Page 148 of The Moon Sister
‘I have learnt never to say never,querida mía.’ María smiled weakly. ‘For now, I am only happy to be safe, and for Pepe to finally meet his father. I can never thank you enough, Lucía.’
‘And tonight, Mamá, for the first time in so many years, you will see me dance!’
‘I will, but perhaps I should go and have a rest so I am ready to appreciate it.’
‘But I was going to take you out shopping! Buy you a new dress.’
‘Tomorrow,’ María said weakly as she rose from the table. ‘I will have a new dress tomorrow.’
*
‘I am worried that Mamá is ill,’ Lucía said to Meñique as soon as they were alone in the suite with the remnants of the feast.
‘Lucía, I think you expect too much. Your mother is not ill, she is simply weak from months of starvation, let alone the shock of being here and seeing her husband for the first time in so many years.’
‘Well, I hope you are right. We must do all we can to make her strong. I am not sure she looks happy to be here.’
‘Lucía . . .’ Meñique took a sip of his bitter coffee. ‘None of us can know what it is like to make a decision between abandoning two sons that you love to save another. She has come here for Pepe, not for herself.’
‘Sí, but I hope she is a little glad to be here too. Now, I must go shopping and choose Mamá a dress to wear for tonight. I want her to look beautiful. Will you come with me?’
Meñique agreed as he always did, knowing that his much-needed siesta before the performance tonight would have to be forfeited.
As they left the suite, he also wondered at Lucía’s level of emotional maturity and whether her wish to reunite her mother and father was rooted in a desire to absolve her misplaced guilt for creating their separation in the first place.
*
María listened to the chatter of the elegant drinkers in the Café Arcadio. Even though she could not understand what they said, she knew thesepayos were very wealthy, from the clothes they wore and the expensive alcohol they drank. Never before had she done anything more than pass apayoin the street, yet tonight here she was, sitting in a dress as elegant as any of theirs, with her hair piled up on her head in a fetching style that Juana had fashioned for her.
And they were all here to see her daughter: Lucía Albaycín, the littlegitanafrom Sacromonte. To think that she had conquered the hearts and minds ofpayosin another country! It was too much to take in.
‘I feel as if I’m in a dream!’ Pepe echoed her thoughts as he took a sip of the beer he’d been bought and ventured a look around the café. ‘The queue to gain entrance is getting longer. Can we really be here, Mamá, amongst Portuguesepayos?’
‘We can, and all thanks to your sister for rescuing us,’ María said.
‘And to Papá,’ Pepe added. ‘He told me he provided the money needed to bribe the officials and obtain our papers.’
‘And to him also, of course,’ María agreed with a thin smile.
As if on cue, José appeared next to them.
‘We begin in five minutes.’ His eyes swept over María’s body. ‘You look beautiful tonight. You have barely changed since you were fifteen years old.’
‘Gracias.’ María lowered her eyes, steeling herself to ignore his comments.
‘Now, I must prepare.’ José swept a bow.
‘But Lucía is not here yet.’
‘She is, María, but every night she goes outside to talk with those who cannot get in,’ he explained, then strode off to join the other members of thecuadrowho were gathered at the back of the café.
‘Lucía is very famous,sí, Mamá?’
‘Very,’ María confirmed with the same wonder as her son. The rest of thecuadrotook their places to wild cheering and clapping from the audience. José and Meñique began warming up, and María saw Pepe smile in pleasure.
‘Papá is so talented, isn’t he? Maybe better than Meñique.’
María looked at her son and observed the utter adoration in his eyes. It made her want to weep again. ‘Yes, he is, just like you.’
