arms. “Señorita...? No, don’t touch the boy! He’s full of lice, and we have no running water.”
“Lice don’t scare me,” Aurora said. She switched to a slow, basic Spanish she knew the little boy would understand. “Let’s at least give you a name. How about...Alfonso? Do you like that?” Aurora cradled the child, who made no response other than keeping his eyes on Roberto. “Jordan, let’s have Roberto find us a pharmacy and a take-out-food place, then drive to the beach for lunch.”
She carried the boy into the backseat of the truck and held him in her lap, leaving Jordan and Roberto to ride together in the cab.
* * *
THE SOUND OF THE OCEAN failed to soothe Jordan. At the beach, he cleaned off the remains of their lunch—tacos with beans and cans of Coke—from the tailgate of the truck where the four of them had eaten. Though he could hardly say Aurora ate. She barely touched her food. The boy finished all of his meal, and the rest of hers, in record time. Jordan walked the trash to a battered metal drum chained to an ancient piece of concrete and tossed in the rubbish. The seagulls, hovering boldly, immediately descended on the food wrappers with the same ravenous appetite Alfonso had shown earlier.
Down the shore, Jordan could see Roberto offering his services to people on the beach, hustling to make a few more pesos. No job was too hard, no pay too small. A good worker, that one. Responsible, reliable, and he has heart. I doubt that excuse for a dog and this child would be alive otherwise.
Jordan watched Aurora, who crouched by the single pipe rising out of another ancient chunk of concrete, which formed a makeshift public shower. A nearby sign warned Peligro. Agua No Potable. The brackish water couldn’t be drunk, but it was cleaner than seawater. Beneath the makeshift public shower, Aurora combed, rinsed and combed more medicated shampoo through Alfonso’s hair as the boy played with a bright yellow sponge shaped like a duck that she’d bought him.
She had a soft touch—gentle hands. He’d noticed it when she piloted her ship, and noticed it again now. Strange such a woman didn’t have a man and never fit in with her family. Did she want one of her own? He’d have to ask her sometime. He imagined those hands comforting his children.
When Aurora finally finished cleaning Alfonso, she wrapped him in a towel, duck still in hand, and carried him the short distance to the truck’s tailgate. She dressed him in a new pair of underpants and a new T-shirt, fresh from the package. The shiny plastic beach sandals she set aside with the boy’s old pants, now washed and drying in the sun on the hood of the truck. His other shirt and underwear she’d thrown away.
“I wanted to get him some new jeans, but the pharmacy only carried underwear,” Aurora explained. “No proper shoes, either.”
“He must be five pounds lighter without the dirt,” Jordan observed, watching Alfonso scamper into the bed of the pickup, playing vigorously with the duck. He made the duck jump on Jordan’s back, then off, then onto Jordan’s head.
“I don’t know if he can afford to lose any weight, dirt or otherwise.” Aurora sank down on the tailgate. “So many desperate children. Those boys at the jail. Olivia’s sick baby. Now this little one. Children without a future... Where does it end?”
Jordan slung an arm around her shoulders as Alfonso made quacking noises behind them. “How old do you suppose he is?” Jordan asked.
“I don’t know. Going by size, I’d say maybe three. But his vocabulary is mature. He could be a year or two older. He hasn’t had the healthiest of diets—I wouldn’t be surprised if that stunted his growth.”
“He ate today.”
Aurora nodded. “I picked him up some children’s vitamins, too. At least his hair isn’t falling out like Dorian’s.”
“Is she that sick?” Jordan asked, his voice shocked.
“Oh, yeah. It’s bad.” Aurora swung around on the tailgate, crossing her legs in front of her. “Dorian was more worried about Tanya, though. I guess this flu thing is pretty contagious. How did Tanya seem to you?”
“Healthy as ever—and she’s finally using those smarts of hers to good purpose.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told you she’s come up with a plan to break them out of jail. I think it’ll work. Actually, it’s quite brilliant.” Jordan paused.
“But...?” Aurora urged.
“But she hasn’t thought it through beyond getting outside the building. Making it