Small Lives, Big World
Page 18
Going up to Constanza, he introduced himself and asked her as acting head of the family, if she would be willing to travel to Santa Cruz with her father-in-law, daughter and friends for a special meeting to organise a trip to Los Angeles for them all to see Pascal’s work exhibited in Matt Marshall’s gallery. Constanza was speechless and while the girls jumped up and down in excitement and Miss Lee translated for Pascal who didn’t know where to put himself, the Governor explained that she need not worry about closing Angel Mart as he would personally ensure that there would be someone trustworthy to run the town’s only shop for a couple of days while they were in Santa Cruz making arrangements. Constanza thanked the Governor and said she would be honoured then very shyly and almost inaudibly added that Pascal wasn’t her father-in-law strictly speaking as she and his son Henri had never got round to getting married.
Alfonso laughed and hugging Constanza round the shoulder he whispered in her ear, “Actually, Senora, my parents never married either!”
The little group spent the next hour chatting and marvelling at Pascal’s carvings and Pascal presented the Governor with a beautiful piece reminiscent of a jaguar but yet strangely human too. The Governor was deeply moved and felt humble to be in the presence of such a genius. Pascal scratched his head as he was sure the interpreter had got it wrong and he could not understand why everyone was so excited about his hobby.
Shooting started on Duel in the Dust about ten months after that morning in San Juan, long after the rains and when the summer was at its most reliably hot and dry. The crew spent about six weeks in San Juan and two in and around Santa Cruz. Matt stayed at the Governor’s mansion during the filming in Santa Cruz and in a huge silver trailer parked outside the Angel Mart the rest of the time.
Eliza, Clara, Constanza and about a dozen of the inhabitants of San Juan were all taking English lessons arranged by Matt at the studio’s expense and Pascal was being taught Spanish by Miss Lee who took time off every week to come to San Juan with her fiancé, Enrique. And while Pascal practised his Spanish with the now much more informally dressed Miss Lee, Enrique who grew up on a cattle farm in New Mexico, would accompany Maximo on his rounds and then relax with a few beers. The film crew took over San Juan much to the overwhelming delight of the residents who organised a fiesta of welcome and several other fiestas for crew members’ birthdays and any excuse they could think of. The chief organisers of these impromptu parties were Denis Ryan and his partner in crime and rum, Paco, the grubby-vest wearing innkeeper.
An odd little group of travellers left San Juan about six weeks before the film crew rode into town and took over.This curious little group, consisting of Constanza and Clara, Eliza and Helga and Pascal, were met at the Angel Mart by a white mini-bus on which Miss Lee and Denis Ryan were waiting and the party set off for the four-hour trip to the international airport and the week’s only direct flight to Los Angeles. Matt Marshall had organised an exhibition of Pascal Cheung’s carvings and using all the undeserved clout of his celebrity status had tracked down the majority of Pascal’s brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews and flown them over for a family reunion in California. Pascal remained in a daze throughout the entire experience and when Matt told him, via Miss Lee, that one of his pieces, the ‘Dragon in the Sun’ had sold for $200,000, the old man fainted and had to be revived with Jasmine tea laced with a little whiskey. In all, the exhibition which displayed twenty-six of Pascal’s carvings, of which seven were for sale (the rest Pascal gave to his relatives as gifts), raised a little under $500,000. Pascal kept $20,000 for himself for wood and some new tools and gave the rest to Constanza who, in consultation with Matt’s financial wizards, decided to put half of it into a trust fund for Clara’s future and used the rest to build a lovely two-storey brick house in San Juan, to buy a nearly new Hyundai and to extend the Angel Mart (by way of another container) and install air-conditioning inside. After all of this and other expenses for restocking the shop and donating money to the school for a permanent English teacher (her donation was matched by Alfonso out of his own pocket), there were a few thousand dollars left which she knew how she was going to spend.
During the exhibition in Los Angeles, Angel Mart had remained open. The store was left in the capable hands of its founder and owner, Henri. This Henri was somewhat chastened but relieved and delighted not only to be back in San Juan in his cherished Angel Mart but also to be back with his beloved and ultimately forgiving Constanza, his darling daughter, Clara and his now celebrated father, Pascal.
A couple of months after that first meeting between Matt and Pascal in San Juan, Constanza summoned up the courage to call the office of the Governor. It took several days and hours of waiting to be connected but finally, Alfonso Dominguez was on the line. Their conversation lasted about twenty minutes. A day after that, Sr Canto, the visa officer at the consulate in Hong Kong received a call from home. Twenty minutes after this, Henri got a call on one of the mobiles in his cab from Sr Canto. Two days after that, Henri boarded a flight to Los Angeles with an onward booking for home.
When he arrived back in San Juan, Pascal and Clara were not around but Constanza was there, standing outside the Angel Mart rather than wait for him at home. Henri had been gone three months and things had definitely changed. He had missed his family and his home so much that Henri had determined to stop gambling and be a better partner and father, and that he would work hard to earn Constanza’s consent to marry him, not for the passport, but because he loved her and he wanted to show the world how much.
Constanza kissed him and just said, “It’s good to have you home, Henri. Now, let’s just be a family, ok?”
The wedding took place during a break in filming and San Juan had never seen anything like it. The Governor and his wife were there as well as an assortment of Hollywood actors and actresses and the entire town of San Juan turned out.
Pascal had been working in secret on a special gift and only Clara knew what it was as it had been her little bit of gossip that had inspired him. The gift caused a gasp of joy in Constanza and fairly knocked the legs from under Henri… it was a crib.
Six months later, Constanza Cheung as she now was, gave birth to a little boy. She named him Lionel. The first syllable of the name was in honour of his great-great grandfather, the first Cheung to find himself in this strange and wonderful land, Li-Han.
Henri, Constanza, Clara and little Lionel went off to visit Constanza’s parents for a couple of days to introduce them to their new grandson. They left the shop open at Pascal’s insistence and by now his Spanish was just about sufficient to reduce the amount of angry shouting and gesturing at the hatch of the Angel Mart to no more than a few huffs and puffs and the occasional stamp in the dust.