“You know it,” she said. “I have only one request.”
“What is it?”
She drew from her purse an object and held it out to Jake.
“A stamp in my passport.”
“You got it, Mabel,” he said, grinning. “You got it.”
Epilogue
The young woman in the yellow sundress strolled down the Cuban street, hat in hand, taking in the architecture of the place and feeling the endless weight of history all around her. Men stopped what they were doing and gazed after her as she passed, but she ignored their stares and the occasional catcall.
Climbing the steps to La Casa Del Habanos, she bought a box of ten Cohiba cigars. The lady behind the counter smiled as she wrapped it in paper and put it in a plastic bag.
“Your man is sure to like,” she said softly.
“Gracias,” the young woman answered.
Catching a taxi back to the Hemingway Marina, she stepped onto the deck of the sailboat and greeted the man waiting there.
“Find everything you wanted?” he asked.
“Sure did,” she said.
Later, sitting on the deck of the boat, they puffed on the redolent cigars, watching the smoke drift lazily into the night sky.
“How do you feel?” he asked, putting his arm around her.
“Intoxicated,” she said, smiling. “By the romance of the unusual.”
“Who said that?” he said.
“Who else? Hemingway.”
“I should have known.”
They sat in silence then, feeling the gentle rock of the boat, and the vastness of the gulf before them.
“We made it,” she said.
“Yes we did.”
Lightning flashed over the water as a storm raged to the west.
“Are you going to be ready to leave tomorrow?” he asked.
“Sure. I’ve gotten all I wanted. I suppose we need to get back to work.”
“I suppose we do.”
“Jake?” she asked.
“Yes, Mabel?”
“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Well.”
Silence again. It was comfortable, just sitting together with their legs dangling above the dark water, finishing their cigars. A gentle rain began to patter down around them and Jake got up to go into the cabin, but Mabel still sat, face lifted to the sky, free and unafraid.
Make Me Disappear Page 9
