Lesions began to spread over his body like torch wounds. This, he resigned to himself, was the final assault.
“I’m not going to make it,” he told his family two weeks after Kennedy was buried.
“Juan, please, don’t say that,” said Alberto. “This week has been a little better. You’ve lost no weight. Your complexion is better. Trust me.”
“I cannot keep food down. They keep taking more blood for tests. No medication is working. Nothing!”
“There is an eternal flame on Kennedy’s grave. Do not believe he is gone, my son,” said Abuelo Huberto.
“Why would anyone want to kill him? He wanted peace,” cried Juan, sitting up in his bed, furious with his illness, enraged at his body for not fighting back.
No one had an answer.
The next day, before they left for the hospital to see Juan, Alberto watched as Cuca worked in the kitchen. She began by filling up a large cup with half guava and half cranberry juice. On the counter, she had tiny packets of bilberry fruit, small pieces of boxwood leaves, pinches of Echinacea, and crushed primrose seeds. She carefully added each ingredient into the juice and stirred with a spoon. Next, she tossed in milk thistle, saw palmetto, and hawthorn. She stirred up the contents again. Then she opened a small package of honey and another of ginger. She poured them in and stirred once more. Lastly, she removed from the front pocket of her blouse a tiny blue fabric pouch with yellow strings. She stretched the top open, the strings retracted, and she sprinkled in a flaky, leafy substance, not unlike the reefer Sharkey used to roll up.
“That ought to do it,” she said. She stirred up the entirety of the contents a final time. She poured the viscous liquid into a jar, sealed it tight with its cap, and put it in her purse.
“What is it?” asked Alberto.
“Something I’ve been studying up about,” she said. “I had misplaced the secret ingredient. I feel awful that Juan has had to suffer this long.”
In Juan’s hospital room, Cuca removed the jar from her purse and moved close to Juan. “Here, mi hijo, drink this. I promise it will work for you.”
It took Juan several minutes to finish off every drop in the jar. He said it tasted funny, but not bad. Three days later he hadn’t vomited once. He controlled his bladder and intestines. He held down arroz con pollo. His lesions turned to crisp scabs. That quick, he gained two pounds.
“A pound of flesh for me, who would’ve thought?” he told Cuca when she came back with more of her medicine over the next week.
Within five more days, Juan was out of bed and walking around with newfound vigor. He was hungry and eating every few hours. He began to regain his normal weight. Proceeding blood tests indicated rallying T-cells. His lymph nodes were not bulging the size of marbles. His body was not rotting away.
There was no sign of illness as Christmas neared. The doctors shook their heads and granted his release. From vigor destroyed, to vigor restored. It was miraculous. He was a new man.
When he was finally well enough to leave the hospital, his recently-engaged brother and Guadalupe took him to South Beach. They walked along the shore. The water was too cold to put their feet in, but Juan was just glad to be back out in the world, alive, a survivor of something that no one knew what to call. And since he seemed cured, no one thought to question whether he had fought through anything other than a bestial strain of some unnamed virus. The medical field had nothing else to diagnose it as. That evening on the beach, the sunset limned all its colors—an array of streaming yellow, red, and orange.
Juan didn’t want to sound sentimental, but after all he had gone through the past five weeks, he couldn’t help believing.
“I can see Cuba on the horizon,” he said.
“I can see papá,” smiled his brother while holding Guadalupe’s left hand, her ring finger adorned with a single carat diamond.
Juan stared out at the ocean, a tear dripping in his heart, “Sí, I can see him too.”
The Ramos brothers felt peace in their hearts. They imagined sitting under the cool shade of a ceiba tree in Cuba. Their hearts traveled the waves on the horizon.
Acknowledgements
While working on this book, my deepest gratitude goes out to several individuals for providing me with their time, support, and encouragement: my wife, my mother, and my father and uncle, who lived the life and inspired the story behind the Ramos brothers. Each of you sustained me throughout this long process. I also need to give a tremendous amount of thanks to my friend Joe Stoner. You convinced me that I had succeeded and that the book was ready. Your knowledge and optimism inspire me. Also, I am greatly indebted to my good friend and fellow writer, Subiandran Arunakrinathan, for illustrating the cover art for the novel. Your vision and commitment to the creative process leave me breathless. I will forever be your editor for all your future work.
Literary Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge a number of outstanding works that were instrumental in providing information and details for this novel: An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek; Let Every Nation Know: John F. Kennedy in His Own Words by Robert Dallek and Terry Golway; John F. Kennedy: A Biography by Michael O’Brien; Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas; Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot; Brothers in Arms: The Kennedys, the Castros, and the Politics of Murder by Gus Russo and Stephen Molton; The Real Fidel Castro by Leycester Coltman; Fidel: A Critical Portrait by Tad Szulc; Fidel Castro by Robert E. Quirk; Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography by Fidel Castro and Ignacio Ramonet; Waiting for Snow in Havana: Confessions of a Cuban Boy by Carlos Eire; and Child of the Revolution: Growing Up in Castro’s Cuba by Luis M. Garcia.
About the Author
Roger DeBlanck is the author of two novels, The Sky Buries All Sorrow and The Ramos Brothers Trust Castro and Kennedy, and a book of poetry, Empire of the Mind. He has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a master’s degree in Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He works as a librarian in a large public library in Las Vegas, Nevada. He and his wife Alison live in Henderson, Nevada. They have a beloved dog named Brody. Roger is currently finishing his next novel, The Destruction of Silence. Visit the author’s website for news and updates. You can also connect with Roger on Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter. All links are available on his website.
www.rogerdeblanck.com
Table of Contents
Part I: Cuba Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Part II: America Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
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