Esperanza's Box of Saints by Maria Amparo Escandon

Author:Maria Amparo Escandon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone
Published: 2010-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

Scott Haynes came back from Europe and brought six envelopes full of pictures to show Esperanza. After complimenting her on her new hairstyle, they sat on the bed to look at the photos.

“This is Gladys, my wife.”

He pointed at a small yellow dot in a mountainous landscape somewhere in Switzerland. In the next picture, the yellow dot was now a tiny person standing in front of a spectacular fountain in Italy. In the next picture, the woman was wearing a baseball cap and dark glasses. And in the next picture, this one taken in a painstakingly groomed garden in France, Esperanza saw that a few strands of her blondish-gray hair had snaked out from under the cap. In the last picture, Esperanza noticed that the woman looked neglected and lonely. She didn’t smile. The dark glasses she wore in every photograph hid the color of her eyes.

“I’m leaving Gladys,” he said as they looked at the last photo. “Will you move in with me?”

“Unfortunately I can’t.” Esperanza answered. “You know I have to find my daughter.”

Scott rubbed his dewlap. Obviously he wasn’t expecting such an answer, especially not delivered in such a straightforward way.

Before his trip, Esperanza had shown him Blanca’s picture without confiding to him why she was looking for her in brothels, of all places. But now that he had dared to show her his wife’s photos, she felt a sense of trust.

“She was kidnapped for child prostitution.”

“How can you be sure?”

Esperanza told him about San Judas Tadeo’s apparition.

“Do you know all this for a fact?” he insisted. “You don’t have sufficient evidence to prove that she is not buried in the grave.”

“She is not. The coffin was empty. I heard it echo. And please, Mr. Haynes, you are not in court. Don’t try to find evidence. I have divine orders and I must follow them.”

He understood that nothing more was to be discussed and, to end the conversation, he embraced her.

“Call me Scott.”

The notes of a bolero came through the window from the next room. Scott began to rock Esperanza in a very slow dance. She whispered dainty nothings in his ear, like a mother. A single light came from the altar, which had more than doubled in size since he left. More saints, more flowers, more candles. More reverence. After they danced for a while, he dragged a screen from where it lay folded against the wall and, as he always did, spread it open in front of the altar. Once the saints were out of sight, he felt it was polite to take his shirt off. Esperanza undressed and he cuddled in her arms. They talked for three hours, side by side on the water bed.

“You wasted twenty-six years with a woman you don’t love. I’ve missed my husband for thirteen years.” This was an unusual sensation for Esperanza. She found herself communicating better with a stranger—even in her broken English—than with Soledad.

The following night, Scott showed up again with a present for Esperanza. She unwrapped the box carefully, so as not to tear the paper.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.