The Living Infinite by Chantel Acevedo

Author:Chantel Acevedo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Europa
Published: 2017-07-26T04:00:00+00:00

Amalia escorted Eulalia out the front door, where her guard was waiting. Tomás watched as his mother cleaned up the kitchen, sighing every so often as she went.

Hanging in the Museo del Arte in Madrid, there is a portrait of his mother and the Infantas Paz and Eulalia on her lap. In it, Amalia’s face is bent towards Eulalia, her mouth soft and open. The painting is called La Nodriza, and her name isn’t anywhere on it, or on the description on the little white card beside it. His parents had taken him to see the portrait when he was young, and they had held one another before it, and Amalia had wept. Then, they were asked to leave by one of the guards, who must have seen their worn clothes, their dirt-caked shoes, and wondered what they were up to.

Tomás often thought of that portrait. He thought of her in her youth answering an advertisement that would lead her to Madrid, to live in a kind of wealth she could not have imagined. That one choice—to apply or not to apply—had sent their lives on a course that led to this moment.

Tomás wondered what the decisive choice in his life would be. Was it when he first let Juana into the shop? Or was it when he delayed her that Monday morning with a kiss that lingered too long? What if he hadn’t? Perhaps the carriage would have rolled down the street in her wake instead, her hair unmussed. Or perhaps he was now on the cusp of such a decision. The important choice. The one that changed everything. Tomás took the notebook out from his pocket and opened it over his thigh.

Amalia had been watching him, deep in his thoughts. “Mi hijo, you’re getting too emotional. Eulalia’s visits always do that to me, too. Sit, sit. I’ll make you some broth.” Then, Amalia, who treated every calamity with food, got to work.

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