Chapter 392 - What Happened?! — four meters
Patricia
"He never did it, if we kissed until our civil wedding, after that he only did it at public events, but they were just pecks. Now I understand everything."
"He's a great friend."
"He is."
"Are you scared?" Amín's crying was heard.
"You all keep talking, I'll go check on my grandson." What a way to meet them.
"Yes, I haven't seen the Alfredo everyone tells me about, I have the attitudes he used to have with me."
"He's my son, but he's stubborn. So you hold your head high."
"Thank you."
"You're just as he described you." I blushed. "God knows how he does everything."
We said goodbye to Máximo, no tears, just joy... just harmony, as my mother said.
My flight was at nine, I got up super early to organize our trip, last night I packed the suitcase, just one for three days for me and Amín, plus the diaper bag. When I entered the child's room ready, Mrs. Judith was rocking her grandson.
"Don't take long, dear, go get my stubborn son and we'll be waiting here."
"I hope so. If it weren't crucial to take him, I'd leave him, Alfredo needs to carry his son."
"Is your brother coming to get you?"
"No, but Freddy is taking me to the airport."
……
Verónica
Roland and I were waiting for our son in what used to be Inés's exclusive rooms, it's a spacious area, Roland had turned it into a lounge a couple of years ago.
"How long has it been since we danced?" It was ten minutes to six.
"A couple of years, we need to fix that oversight." I smiled. My husband still looks so deliciously sexy at forty-five. "Let's warm up," he said.
"Bachata, salsa, merengue..."
"A bachata."
The music started, we focused on dancing, the sensuality of the rhythm, the times when he leads, when he lets me seduce him; his firm hand on the lower part of my hip, right where the line of decency is drawn. My heart started to race.
"This only needed a good black dress to highlight your body to really get me going," he whispered in my ear. "We have onlookers." When I turned around, my mouth opened.
"It's six o'clock sharp," said Dante. "Without meaning to, mom, yesterday at Amín's birthday I mentioned that today I was starting dance class with you, and all these busybodies tagged along. I said they wouldn't get up to be here at six in the morning on a Sunday, and look."
There were my four children, Luisa's twins, Lupe's twins, Diana's two boys, Gladis's Jacobo, Shirly's Gregorio, and Clari's Sebastián.
"We're going to have a problem," Roland commented.
"We're short on girls."
"I can invite a couple of friends," Andrea suggested.
"Your friends are plastic," Milena said.
"You don't have any because you spend all your time with the boys," she pointed at the guys.
"Guys," I said. "For today, we're just marking the beats. What do you want to learn to dance first?"
"Bachata," more than one said.
"Perfect," Roland said. I smiled seeing Liam excited. While I stayed with four girls, Roland had nine boys.
"First, in eight days, I need five friends from your school. Can I count on you?"
"Yes, mom, I know who I'll bring."
"You won't bring the girl who snubbed Dante."
"Not that wretch. But I'll bring good friends."
"Perfect. Let's mark the beats, we'll do the basic in eight counts, emphasizing the bounce on four and eight."
"Mom..."
"Understand the dance terms. Watch me." I stood in front of them. "Legs together, we go to the left, open the leg moving slightly to the left, shifting the weight to it and the right follows; one, two.
"We do the same again; three, four, but on the fourth, just tap, so it bounces back to the right; five, six. We repeat what we did a moment ago: seven and eight tapping to repeat the same. The basic of Bachata is eight steps bouncing on four and eight. Got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," Dayana replied.
"Now it's just repeating."
I left them to it, and while the boys also did the basic marked by Roland, he took Liam by the hand and explained step by step in slow motion. My heart swelled remembering the magic of being the mother of four children and the wife of the Boss.
With our youngest, we need a bit more patience. I looked at my girls and smiled. They're not doing badly, and neither are the boys, some have more rhythm than others, but I liked seeing that my three kids aren't that bad.
……
Patricia
I arrived yesterday and immediately rented a car to get around, also a GPS because I had no idea where I was on the island. I stayed in some cabins outside the city, the trip to the clinic no more than half an hour. I've been calling my mother and brother who are nervous.
Supposedly, Kevin leaves first thing today, well, he should have already left. Alfredo is expecting another of his colleagues, but it will be me who arrives, according to my brother, he was on the morning shift and always has breakfast at a café a block from the clinic, that's where I'll meet him.
My nerves are on edge, so much that my heart aches, but I have to leave now. I picked up my precious baby.
"We're going to see Daddy."
I told him. He made faces, holding his teddy bear, which he hasn't let go of since it was given to him. I settled him into his car seat and realized I hadn't put the rosary on him. With the baby in my arms, I went back inside the cabin to find it. I can't leave him without it. I found it in the area where I had bathed him.
"Now you're protected against everything, my love. As your grandmother Inés used to say, protection to ward off death." I kissed him and smiled. "Today you're all smiles and Mommy is all nerves."
I put the address into the GPS and started the drive to meet him at the café.
The landscapes of this city are beautiful. The morning looks incredible, or maybe it's my silly happiness at the possibility of reuniting with the love of my life. I know he's going to scold me, but just seeing him will be enough for me.
As beautiful as it was, I had to remind myself that he would reproach me a thousand times. The place has gentle hills and the sea in the background, very lovely. Oh God, I'm so nervous, my hands are sweating. I was about to enter the city when Amín started crying.
Looking in the rearview mirror, I saw him stretching out his hands, indicating that his teddy bear had fallen. I tried to reach it but couldn't. So, I pulled the car over, turned on the hazard lights, unbuckled my seatbelt, and bent down to pick it up from the floor of the back seats.
"Here you go, love. Don't drop it again."
I gave him the toy, and as I turned to buckle my seatbelt and return to the road, a truck with failed brakes hit my car.
……
Gustavo
A tightness in my chest left me breathless as I entered the house. At that moment, my mother dropped what she was doing in the kitchen. I came in looking for water because I had been vaccinating some cattle. My sister Patricia's face came to mind.
"Patricia!"
That was old Josefina's scream, confirming that we were connected. Something had happened to my sister.
"Mrs. Josefina!" From a distance, I saw my Reina hugging my mother, and I still struggled to breathe. "Gustavo!"
"Call her, call her. Something happened to Patricia, something happened to my daughter. I knew it, I knew it." Gladis couldn't understand. I slowly approached.
"Bring her some water, love."
My wife nodded. I took out my phone and called her. No answer. I tried again while my mother, on her knees, took off her rosary and began to pray. My wife looked at me from the kitchen.
"I felt something too, I thought it was a heart attack, the pain was in my chest."
"Don't scare me, Gustavo."
"Stay with my mother." I ran to the basement, heading to the station, and called Roland.
"Good morning, Gustavo."
"Is there any way to know everything that's happening in Kaneohe, Hawaii?"
"What's going on?" I was already entering the elevator.
"I'm heading to the station. Something happened to my sister."
"If you want, call Rata. He can help you, and give me half an hour to get there."
"Thanks, Boss."
……
Alfredo
Kevin left this morning. I don't know who will be chosen to accompany me for these fifteen days. I was very hungry; it was my break time. I ran into a couple of colleagues from the emergency area.
"They called to say an ambulance is coming with a severely injured woman. Apparently, a truck with no brakes hit her and dragged her, slamming her against the mountain, reducing the car to scrap."
"How bad is she?"
"I don't know. With your experience, it would help to evaluate her, and then you can have breakfast. They won't be long."
"Alright, but you owe me lunch."
"With you, everything is paid with food." We laughed.
"They're here!" a nurse shouted from the end of the hallway. "The police are coming with her and her son."
"Is the baby injured too?" I asked.
"I don't know, I didn't know about the baby."
We reached the emergency area. The paramedics who had given the woman first aid arrived.
"Fill me in," I said. My colleague approached the woman's body while the paramedic handed me the report.
"Vital signs, stable. We performed resuscitation. She has visible fractures in the tibia and fibula, a broken collarbone and shoulders. It seems her ribs are the same, and she may have some ruptured organs. The vehicle was completely destroyed."
"I heard about a baby." The paramedic looked at me.
"The mother managed to say before we had to resuscitate her that she was coming to this clinic to find her husband, the father of her one-year-old baby." I felt a very strange sensation in my chest. "Miraculously, the infant is unharmed, not a single scratch. My colleague has him."
I followed his finger, and nothing, absolutely nothing in my fast-paced life had prepared me for what was revealed before my eyes. Just a few steps away, the paramedic was holding a baby hugging a teddy bear identical to the one I had sent for Patricia's son's birthday. Looking at the stretcher... My world collapsed.