As soon as she got there, the doctor handed over the report. There wasn’t any doubt about it. Alexis Smith was in fact Gladys Mercedes Lazo, and daughter of Gladys Elena and Mauricio and not the daughter of Raimundo Alberto Gonzalez Lazo.
The first thing she did was to call Alexis Smith’s house. No one answered. She called her husband’s cell phone, which he picked up on the third ring.
“I need to talk to your wife,” she explained. “I have some news to give her.”
“Can’t you just tell me?”
“I’m sorry but…”
“Well, I’ll leave a message for her to call you on her lunch break. She should be getting out of the classroom any minute now and should be free between twelve thirty and one o’clock.”
Maria waited anxiously and, sure enough, one minute after twelve thirty the young woman returned her call.
She explained that she had been able to locate her real mother and other members of her family, and that her mother had never given up hope that she was alive and that she would be found one day, and that she had never stopped looking for her… She sensed that the young woman on the other end of the line had started to cry.
“When can I meet her?” Alexis’s question took her by surprise.
“First, I need your permission to let her know that I’ve found you and then, if all agree, you can talk by phone and make arrangements.”
“Right now I’m at school. Can you call back at four o’clock?”
“Sure, but do I have your permission to let your mother know that I’ve found you?”
“Of course, but just one question first… What’s her name?”
“Gladys Elena.”
“Gladys Elena…” Alexis repeated the name as if she were caressing it. “Tell her I’m sorry for everything that she has gone through…please.”
“Look, Alexis, one last thing. Could you give your husband permission to send me Soledad’s letter? No one’s going to explain what happened better, and I’m sure if Gladys Elena reads it, she’ll forgive her.”
“I don’t know…”
“Well, think about it… Right now I’m going to go see her and give her the good news. I’ll have to do it cautiously so she doesn’t faint.”
Maria wasn’t sure if she should call first or just stop by the house in Hialeah unannounced. She opted for the latter. She wasn’t too surprised when Mercy appeared at the door with a smile from ear to ear.
“I’ve been expecting you,” she said with a mischievous grin.
“Is your daughter home?”
Gladys Elena suddenly appeared. She was shaking like a leaf. Had Mercy told her to expect a miracle from Saint Lazarus or was it mother’s intuition? Was it possible that she had lost her impenetrable detective face and that her expression showed that she was the bearer of good news?
Since all three of them were standing, it was Maria who spoke up first.
“Why don’t we sit down, if that’s ok?”
This time Gladys Elena showed her into the living room and not the little office as before.
Once there, Maria couldn’t find any way to tell her other than just coming right out and bluntly telling her the news.
“We’ve found your daughter. She’s fine. She doesn’t live far away, in Tampa. She’s married and you have a granddaughter. She’s led a good life. The people who raised her have passed away. She’s anxious to meet you.”
The rest was just hugs, tears, and laughter.
When they calmed down a bit, Maria asked Gladys Elena:
“Have you spoken with your husband?”
“Yes, and he’s going to be so happy, but…”—she glanced at her mother—“she’s the one who doesn’t know.”
The grandmother smiled once again.
“Of course I know all about it. Nothing gets by me. The girl is Mauricio’s daughter.”
“Her name is now Alexis, Alexis Smith,” Maria clarified. “I’m going to call her at four this afternoon, and I’ll ask her to call you or for her permission to give you her number.”
Both of them said goodbye to Maria with effusive gestures of gratitude and strong hugs.
“I told you Duchess. It’s a miracle from Saint Lazarus!” the grandmother declared emphatically.
That very afternoon, Nicholas Smith sent Maria an email with the letter that Soledad had written to her daughter and permission to share it with her birth mother. Maria did so but not before speaking to her first and asking her not to judge the woman harshly.
Maria didn’t know how the phone conversations went between Alexis and her mother, grandmother, and siblings, or if they even told her who her real father was. On December 22, as she was drinking her morning coffee at the same stand as she usually did, Maria received a call from Alexis. She was so nervous that Maria had to ask her to calm down just so she could understand her. She explained that she had thought about coming down by car but that her daughter gets carsick on long trips. Instead, she had a found a flight early on the twenty-fourth but hadn’t been able to rent a car. Her family had told her not to worry about it, that they had offered to come pick her up at the airport, yet she was a bit nervous about it all.
“Detective Duquesne, I really hate to bother you, and I know it’s Christmas Eve, but would there be any way you could possibly pick us up and take us to my family’s house? I would feel so much better.”
Maria gladly agreed and by eleven o’clock that morning, Alexis and Nicholas Smith along with their young daughter were sitting in her car with quite a few suitcases.
“As you can see, we’re bringing a few gifts,” Nicholas explained.
Maria started to speak to the young girl, but then realized she didn’t know her name.
“Her name is Helen…”
“Her grandmother’s going to be delighted that she has her middle name.”
“I hadn’t even realized that!”
“I forgot to ask you, Alexis, have you ever been to Miami?”
“Yes, a few months ago, we came for three days to see some close friends.”
“Did you by chance go to a Heat game?”
“Why, yes, we did. How did you know? Wow, you can tell you’re a detective…”
Maria just smiled.
The small house in Hialeah was decorated with balloons and welcome signs.
Maria got out with them but didn’t want to go in.
“You go ahead, go on, it’s a very private moment. They’re a beautiful family. Everything’s going to work out just fine,” she said as she nudged them toward the front door that opened right away. She saw them go in, and, even from the yard, she could hear the uproar of laughter and excitement.
She put the car in drive and headed for home. Her father was waiting for her to put the pork shoulder in the oven and finish the final preparations for dinner. Patrick and Mathilda would be arriving any moment. Lourdes and Yolanda had said they’d also come by to drop off some gifts for their “adopted grandson.” On Monday, she’d go back to work. She’d file a report with Keppler on how useful Fernandez had been. They’d assign her new cases.
Before leaving the Hialeah area, Maria saw more statues than ever before of Saint Lazarus covered with his purple cape. I guess I never noticed before. Could he really be miraculous? she asked herself. Suddenly, her eyes teared up, even though she wasn’t quite sure why.
About the Author
Uva de Aragón (Havana, 1944) has published a dozen books of poetry, essays, short stories, novels, and one play. She comes from a family of Spanish and Cuban writers and continues to write mainly in Spanish, although she has resided in the United States since 1959. Some of her work, translated into English, has appeared in various anthologies. The bilingual edition of her award-winning novel The Memory of Silence/Memoria del silencio, translated by Jeffrey C. Barnett (Cubanabooks, 2014) is being taught a
t several universities. For many years she was a columnist for Diario Las Americas and later El Nuevo Herald. Until her retirement in 2011, she was the associate director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. Dr. de Aragón graduated with a PhD in Latin American Literature from the University of Miami. She has received several literary awards in the United States and Europe. Thousands of readers around the world log into her blog Habanera soy uvadearagon.wordpress.com.
Mango Publishing, established in 2014, publishes an eclectic list of books by diverse authors—both new and established voices—on topics ranging from business, personal growth, women’s empowerment, LGBTQ studies, health, and spirituality to history, popular culture, time management, decluttering, lifestyle, mental wellness, aging, and sustainable living. We were recently named 2019’s #1 fastest growing independent publisher by Publishers Weekly. Our success is driven by our main goal, which is to publish high quality books that will entertain readers as well as make a positive difference in their lives.
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The Miracle of Saint Lazarus Page 19
