The Tiger in the Grass by Harriet Doerr

Author:Harriet Doerr
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mexico, Short Stories (Single Author), General, Literary, California, Latin America, Fiction, Short Stories, History
ISBN: 9781568953588
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 1995-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Kate, rising early the next morning, brought her train ticket to the breakfast table.

“It’s for tomorrow,” said Richard in a voice grown husky overnight. “From Concepción to Juárez. We should be at the station by six in the evening.” He looked up from his plate. “But you’re leaving too soon. There are things you haven’t seen.”

“Yes, stay on,” said Sara. But in the end Kate refused their invitations to visit outlying points of interest—the hot springs, the bull ranch, the cathedral in an adjoining state.

“None of them is far from here,” said Richard, and, on his way out, left some maps beside Kate’s plate. She was still there, alone, looking at maps, when Lourdes arrived for the day.

“How did you like the program?” she asked Kate.

“Very much,” said the visitor, and added, “Your grandson is a fine actor.”

Lourdes said, “Yes, and he already helps his father mold and fire clay pots.”

“How many children do you have?” asked Kate.

“Six,” said Lourdes. “Two dead.”

Kate reached for her coffee, which had grown cold. “And how many grandchildren?”

“Fourteen. Three dead.”

A moment later Kate heard, as she had all her mornings in this house, Lourdes’ clear contralto filling the kitchen and the adjoining rooms with song. She sang love songs and songs about places. “Ay, ay, ay,” sang the cook.

Before she left for the village that afternoon, Lourdes approached Kate. “Señora, I saw the tickets. Do you mean to leave us?” When Kate nodded, Lourdes shook her head and said, “So soon.”

At noon on Friday, Kate heard Sara say, “Dígame,” and saw the visitor was Inocencia, asking again for a ride, this time to the railroad station.

“How did she know we were going?”

“As soon as Lourdes left here yesterday afternoon, all of Ibarra knew,” said Sara.

That afternoon they drove off at dusk, seated in the car as they had been a week ago. On this trip neither Richard nor Inocencia had anything to say. Kate and Sara each spoke once.

“Lourdes put this in my bag,” Kate said, and held up a twist of red thread.

“It is meant to bring you back,” said Sara.

When they arrived at the station, two trains, one facing north and one south, were already there, standing on adjacent tracks and preparing for departure.

“The southbound is six hours late,” said Richard, “and the northbound half an hour early.”

He hired a porter and said to Kate and Sara, “Wait here.” Inocencia had already established herself beside the northbound train, reciting lists of her infirmities at the open windows of day coaches. Through the glass door of the waiting room Sara could see Richard attempting to validate Kate’s ticket to Juárez at a counter besieged by hands, peso bills, and protestations.

When she turned back to the platform, Kate had disappeared. Sara ran up to Inocencia. “Where is the North American señora? But the old woman misunderstood and began to beg from Sara.

The southbound express, on the farther track, was now in motion, was gliding almost silently past a switch to the main line, and

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