The Second Time We Met by Leila Cobo

Author:Leila Cobo [COBO, LEILA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC044000
ISBN: 9781455506088
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2012-02-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

Sebastián?” Carla’s voice breaks up his reverie. Asher looks away from the altar reluctantly. As much as he hates to admit it, the nun is right: There is something in this room that invites contemplation, even if Alessandra has dozed off with her head on his lap.

“It’s Asher, Mrs. Bernotti,” he says reflexively.

“Please, with all due respect, that name is unpronounceable here,” she says impatiently. “Just deal with Sebastián for a few days. Come along, now. Sister Teresa found her datebooks.”

This time Sister Teresa sees them in the library, where she sits behind a tall desk that makes her look even more minuscule. She has her glasses on, and she is peering intently at a leather-bound journal open before her.

“Okay, I found her in my notes. I found your mother, Sebastián,” she says, not bothering to look up. “On June twenty-eighth, 1989, a Rita Ortiz came to us, recommended by Father Pablo Quiroga from St. Isidore’s. She arrived alone at the bus terminal and was picked up by someone from our staff—I wouldn’t be able to say who. She left us on September twenty-fifth for a job as a maid at the home of Colonel Antonio Santos. I wrote her a letter of recommendation, as you already know. And,” she adds, looking up at last, “as you also already know, she came back a year or so later, asked for you, and since then no one, at Casa at least, has heard from her. It’s been… what, twenty-one, twenty-two years?” Sister Teresa looks at Asher expectantly, her eyes pensive behind the thick glasses.

Asher, whose glance has been going back and forth between Carla and Sister Teresa, desperately trying to keep up with the account, finally reacts. “What’s St. Isidore?” he asks.

“It’s a church, young man,” says the nun, clearly irritated. “I must say, I have met with other adoptees before you, and most have been a little more… let’s say in touch with the country and its customs.”

Asher feels himself blush, because he truly isn’t that clueless, but the barrage of information, in Spanish, is confusing. He turns for support to Alessandra, who’s been taking copious notes, but, surprisingly, it’s Carla who comes to the rescue.

“He’s trying, Sister,” she says dryly. “Just give him some time. Do you happen to have contacts for St. Isidore or for this colonel?”

Sister Teresa shakes her head. “Well, the colonel’s number is definitely outdated. It has only five digits, and that has all changed. Perhaps he’s listed. As for St. Isidore’s… no. Nothing. But I would have to guess it had to be reasonably close for him to have sent her here. There’s several St. Isidores. You can call them. Well, I hope I have been of some help,” she says, closing the book, dismissal clearly in her voice.

Asher looks back at her, the reality of the situation sinking in. It’s not as if he expected to come here and simply pluck Rita Ortiz’s phone number out of some directory, but this all sounds terribly vague.

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