so far back she was looking straight up at the ceiling.
Magdalena smiled, and it occurred to her, in so many words, that this was the first time she had smiled even once over the past forty-eight hours, and she said, “This new interest in working out, I mean really working out, it wouldn’t have anything to do with neurosurgery, would it?”
Amélia chuckled faintly and lifted her head and sat up straight. For the first time she noticed the television was on. The Loboloco show was still going, displaying a lot of grins and orthodontically perfect white teeth and gestures and moving lips… giving way to what were no doubt convulsions of laughter that made almost no sound at all, since Magdalena had turned the volume down… “What’s that you’re watching?” said Amélia.
“Ohhh… nothing,” said Magdalena.
“Isn’t that Loboloco?” said Amélia.
Immediately on the defensive, Magdalena said, “I wasn’t really watching it, and I had the sound down really low, thinking you might still be asleep. I know Loboloco is stupid, but there are shows that are stupid stupid and some that are stupid funny… like The Simpsons and anything Will Ferrell is in, and I think Loboloco’s kind of like that, stupid funny, or sometimes he is—” ::::::Let’s get off Loboloco!:::::: “Wait, what were you saying?”
“Saying? Gosh, I already forgot,” said Amélia.
“We were talking about spinning,” said Magdalena, “and how you got into it…”
“I don’t remember what I was saying,” said Amélia. “Well… whatever… I found out today you can’t exercise really hard and think about anything but ohmygod can I make it through this! You can’t think about your problems at the same time. You should try it, Magdalena. I can guarantee you can’t spin really hard and think about… all this other stuff, too. You have to give yourself a break! You know what I mean? But how are you feeling? You sound a little better.”
Magdalena said, “A little… did I tell you I saw Nestor yesterday?”
“What?! Umm… no! You somehow failed to mention that one… Why?”
“Well, I just… I guess I just…”
“You just what?” said Amélia. “Come on, spit it out, girl!”
Sheepishly Magdalena said, “I called him.”
“You called him? You probably made his decade hahahah! Oh boy, a few dozen Hail Marys have hit the jackpot.”
“Well, I don’t know. I called him because he’s a cop. And I guess I just thought he could help me, you know, with what happened with Sergei.”
“You told him about that?” said Amélia.
“Well, I mean, not about me being left naked in Sergei’s bed. Nothing about Sergei’s bed at all, or anything at all about how I know Sergei except that I was visiting him, me and some other people—and, you know, I didn’t even tell him what time of day this all was. I just said the whole setup freaked me out, Sergei giving people orders like he’s Mafia, the head of the Pizzo crime family or something, and he orders this huge bald-headed robot goon to drive me home—and maybe Nestor could tell me what to do besides go to the police, because if I did, it might get out, and then Sergei would send the goons after me for real.”
“Isn’t he on the outs, though?” said Amélia. “Like, is he even still a cop?”
“Well, I don’t really know. I mean, we know he’s been in the papers and everything, and even though some of it seemed pretty bad, it’s like he’s almost famous or something.”
“The boy from Hialeah you couldn’t wait to get rid of?”
Amélia had begun to smile, and it was pretty obvious that she found all this amusing, but Magdalena didn’t hold it against her. Just having somebody to talk to helped her see things in a more organized way and, come to think of it, assess Nestor’s place in the world.
“Yeah, I was kind of surprised myself,” she said. “It was like he was different, though—you know? When I saw him the other day, it was like he was bigger or something or—”
“Maybe now he just has more time to go to the gym…”
“It’s not that. I mean like if he got any more muscles, I don’t know where he’d put them,” said Magdalena. “But I don’t mean physically bigger. I didn’t really know who else to turn to, and when I first saw him again, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s the same old Nestor,’ but then after I started telling him the story he just got like… so mature, concerned, like he was really listening to