paused to consider, then decided to blaze forward. “Yeah. Maybe you can call sometime, just, you know, to make sure that none of the bad guys have hauled me away.” She pressed her lips together and tried to match Alejo’s small smile. “You are going to be pretty hard to get a hold of out here on the farm with Rupert.”
Alejo blinked fast, obviously pleased with her idea.
"Should I give you the phone number to my parents’ house?” she asked.
Now Alejo’s mouth flickered into a full-blown smile.
“Naw. Don’t worry, Wara.” The warm white light of the lamp glinted off his eyes as the two of them sat facing each other, she with a spark of curiosity, he with eyes making a solemn promise. “I’ll find you.”
33
grape
AFTER THE OSTRICHES HAD BEEN FED and all the fences repaired and in working order, Alejo carried a wooden porch chair into the luxuriant grape arbor. He plopped down in the chair, slinging his feet up on an overturned five gallon bucket he left inside the arbor for the times he was too lazy to bring a chair.
It had been two months since Alejo had visited his family in Lima, then flown with them to a medium-sized city in Italy, where they would make their new home. Since he had come back to Rupert’s farm, Alejo had been busy studying the Bible with Rupert and doing odd jobs around the property. Usually he was done feeding the huge birds by about five. It was now winter in Bolivia, leaving him an hour before sundown to sit out here and think.
It was crazy, but a lot of the time he thought about her.
He had talked to Wara a few times at her parents’ house, short, uneventful conversations that still made him really happy. In only three more weeks, he would see her face-to-face, and they would take a trip together to decide if they would work with CI. As to the destination of the trip, Rupert had kept silence, not even wanting to hint.
In reality, there were only nineteen days left until Alejo would talk with Wara in person. Less than three weeks. Alone behind the grapevines, Alejo couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t counted the days a few times.
Besides Wara, no one should have the number of the nondescript little cell phone Alejo carried in his pocket. So when it rang now, he startled. The number wasn’t hers, though. Alejo warily punched the talk button and pressed an ear to the speaker.
“Alejo? Is that you, che?”
The hairs on Alejo’s arm stood on end. “Stalin?”
“Who else? Oh my goodness, it’s been so long!”
Alejo was stunned. “How did you get this number?”
“Relax, che!” Stalin’s tone was not cautious at all. “I’m not with them anymore. I’ve run away, to join the circus, as they say. As to how I got this number---don’t ask. Let’s just say since I’m the only living member of the Prism who knows you’re alive, I’m the only one who thought to have a look around for you.”
“You left the Prism,” Alejo stated warily, crossing one leg over the other on the five gallon bucket.
“Yeah, che, I should have listened to you earlier. After you told me what was going on—about the poor kids being recruited and going over to do holy war—well, I just didn’t feel right. And Gabriel…man, I can’t even talk about that. I still can’t believe Gabo’s gone. But then that day, you know, at Pairumani…” Stalin’s voice cracked and he swore softly. “Alejo, I was a loser and a coward. I just stood there. I let Ishmael shoot my best friend for being an infidel.”
Alejo found himself grinning, despite the contrition in Stalin’s voice. It was so good to hear from a friend. “Yeah, well, there wasn’t much you could do,” Alejo said. “We would have been a pretty pair, both lying there with holes in our heads. You did the right thing in the moment. And from what Wara tells me, you saved my life later, dropping me off at the hospital.” Alejo couldn’t bring himself to mention the fact that Gabriel had also been there.
“Yeah, so what happened to her?” Stalin asked curiously. “She go off back to USAlandia to live happily ever after with some gringo?”
Alejo snorted. “Yeah, something like that. She certainly wasn’t about to stay here with me to live happily ever after.”
Stalin may be out of the Prism, but there’s no way he’s going to get any info out of me about Wara.
“So