Border Child
Page 23
“I’m sure she’s just lovely, just beautiful, like her mama. Lilia has always been pretty. You know, I remember her when she was a tiny girl herself, always so—”
The bell on the door jangled as Héctor headed home, leaving Armando in mid-sentence.
As he rounded the final turn before their courtyard, he regretted not buying anything for baby Elizabeth.
As good as Rosa had been to Lilia, Héctor was glad to see that she appeared not to be at his and Lilia’s house but had likely returned to her own place. Lilia sat in a chair beneath her favorite shade tree with the tiny bundle of their new daughter in her lap. They both appeared to be sleeping, and so he crept close on soft feet to take in the soothing, welcome sight of them. How beautiful they were. How utterly peaceful and perfect and beautiful.
Fernando must have been napping or playing inside and when he saw Héctor he ran to him and wrapped his arms tight around Hector’s leg. “Papa! Missed you, Papa,” he said.
Héctor lifted the boy in the air, kissing each of his cheeks. He stood Fernando before him and bent down to the child’s eye level. “What’s in your papa’s pocket?” Héctor whispered.
Wide-eyed, the boy shrugged his shoulders. Héctor tapped his heart, indicating his breast pocket. With cautious excitement Fernando dipped his stubby fingers into the fabric of Héctor’s shirt and withdrew his prize for being a big, helpful boy.
“A feather,” Fernando gasped, holding the bold colors up to the sunlight. “Did you see that bird, Papa, the one from that pretty feather?”
“Yes, sweet boy. The bird was a beautiful bird, and it gave me that feather for you.”
Their talking woke Lilia, and she turned her head so lazily toward Héctor he thought she might drift right back to sleep. Then she seemed to realize his presence was not a dream but real, and her sleepy face brightened and split into a weary smile. She lifted her face to his when he bent to kiss her.
Any moment Lilia would give voice to the questions Héctor saw in her tired eyes. His answers would be difficult for her to hear, but Héctor knew, too, for the first time in three years, that today, finally, Lilia would have her answers. Héctor and Lilia had far more for which to thank God today than they’d had in years, and soon Lilia would come to know this as well as Héctor did. We’ll be okay, he thought.
He kissed Elizabeth on the downy top of her head and whispered, “She’s beautiful, Lilia. She’s okay. We’re all okay, and she’s beautiful.”
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my agent, Marly Rusoff, and editor, Nan Talese, for believing in my manuscript then patiently and skillfully guiding me to make it even better.
Tremendous thanks also to Reverend Rob Brown, Dr. Gordon Sherard, and Jim Thompson for your expertise and your willingness to answer my many questions.
Many thanks to Brenda and Emerly for sharing your personal stories with me.
Thanks to Dorothy Josey, Tim Peeler, and Caleb Fort for reading early drafts and offering honest, invaluable feedback and unwavering encouragement.
Thank you to Karen Spears Zacharias for introducing me to several hundred Oregonians who cheered this book into being.
I’m indebted to and grateful for the Wildacres Residency Program and the Blumenthal Foundation for providing me a lovely space and rare solitude to write, write, write.
Heartfelt gratitude to Mayor Bill Barnet for his steadfast encouragement and insistence that this book needed to be written.
Thank you to Betsy Teter and the gem that is the Hub City Writers Project. I’m eternally grateful that you took a chance on me and published my first novel. The literary scene in the southeast—in fact, nationwide—is enhanced because of what you’re doing in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and beyond.
To the LTDs: You are a positive force beyond measure and you inspire and bolster me in important and countless ways. My gratitude and love for each of you overfloweth.
To my family—the one I was born into, the one I married into, and the beautiful one Eliot and I have created—you are everything.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michel Stone is the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Iguana Tree and has published more than a dozen stories and essays in various journals and magazines. She is a 2011 recipient of the South Carolina Fiction Project Award and she is an Aspen Institute Liberty Fellow. She lives in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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