commute.”
“Have you ever lived in a suburb?” she asked.
“No, but I thought it might be a good compromise,” he said, outlining the opening of her hospital gown with his finger.
Trying to think rationally, she pulled the gown to her chin and tied the strings together. “How could I use everything I know, everything I’ve learned—grafting mutations, crop rotations—in a suburb? Besides I’m not ready to go back to the States. I can’t stand to see how my parents live or what’s been done to our land. Not yet.”
“I’ll wait.”
She sighed. He had that determined look in his eyes, his chin set at a stubborn angle. She remembered how he got what he wanted. By patiently waiting. He said no more about going home or getting married or living in the suburbs. She finished her beans and bread, and he carried her out to the balcony, put her in a lounge chair and spread a blanket over her.
They listened to Andean folk music on his stereo, the reedy flutes and the stringed gourds reminding her of the outdoor restaurant. She’d never be able to hear this music without thinking of him.
What would life on the farm be like if she couldn’t share with him the progress of her potatoes? How would she get along without him coming by the stall when she least expected him, sending her pulse racing and the color flooding into her cheeks?
Tears filled her eyes and blurred the lights of the city below. Fortunately he was standing at the railing of the balcony, looking out, and couldn’t see that she was crying. If he did, he might think she was sad about his leaving, when she was really just sad about being stuck here in town with a bump on her head. That was all it was. Really.
When he carried her back to bed, she fell asleep and dreamed of living in the suburbs with a husband who came home at night with a newspaper under his arm and talked about banking. It wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare. Josh went to work in the morning after fixing her a piece of toast and putting the telephone next to her bed.
She tugged at the drawstrings of her gown. “I want to get out of this.”
“Your clothes are in the plastic bag. But I don’t think you want to wear them. Besides, you should stay right where you are.”
She looked at the sliding doors of his closet. “Do you have an old shirt I can wear?”
“Help yourself,” he said, and kissed her softly on the lips.
She put her arms around his neck. A pain hit her in the chest, but she ignored it. He deepened the kiss and she drank in the taste of him, memorizing the lines and angles of his face for the future. Then she sank back on the pillow, her mouth curving up in a smile.
“I’ll be back for lunch,” he promised.
“You come home for lunch?” she asked, surprised.
“Now I do.”
After he left, she took a shower and washed her hair, very slowly and very carefully. Afterward she put on a shirt from his closet that hung down almost to her knees. It wasn’t an old shirt. He didn’t have any old shirts, it seemed, but she borrowed it, anyway. Exhausted from her activities, she went back to bed and fell asleep again.
She woke up when she heard the door open, then footsteps and hushed whispers. She sat up in bed. The door to the bedroom opened, and Jacinda’s face appeared, followed by Doña Blanca, Margarita and the others. Josh stood behind than, looking pleased.
“How did you get here?” she asked, flinging back the blankets and swinging her legs to the floor.
They crowded forward, throwing themselves at her to exclaim over the bump on her head and the bruise on her cheek. Josh was looking at her as if he were afraid she’d break. She gave him a reassuring smile. They explained that they’d come to town with Tomás in his truck. They had come as soon as they could. They’d been frantic until they’d gotten Señor Bentley’s message. Now they were relieved to see her for themselves. The rain had stopped and they had brought her some food. She must be starving. She looked so thin. They held up sacks of cheese, eggs, peppers, lettuce, potatoes and bread.
Before they left they went out onto Josh’s balcony and leaned over the railing, calling to the people below. Then they looked into his giant