As José carried on down the tiny alley, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Each step became easier; the water got shallower with every step. He emerged outside the Archbishops Palace behind the hulking cathedral and basilica – no water. The entire area was dry, no water dared to ravage through this sacred part of the old town. José ran, covered in muddy water, around the Archbishops Palace, stunned by the isolated pocket of safety. A row of homeless men sat against the wall by the back entrance to the cathedral; these men had God shining down upon them. José continued to run, his body aching, through the brick archway that connected the cathedral and basilica and into Plaza de la Virgen. A tram sat still in the square, the whole place dry and empty. For a moment, José stopped and looked around himself. It was as if time had stopped; God had reached out and saved this spot from nature’s fury. He glanced down Calle de Navallos back towards the river; flooded. The water had come to a stop right at the feet of the churches. Across the plaza, the main road of Calle del Caballeros was flooded, along with Calle de Reloj Viejo, José’s home street. José charged across the dry plaza with a renewed sense of energy, and his feet splashed water into his face as the entered the flood on his own street. He always considered Valencia a flat city, but whoever had first settled here, thousands of years ago, had seen something in this area, a tiny pocket higher than anywhere else.
José’s wooden archway door at number nine was only half submerged; the street had been mostly spared. He stepped through the open door and looked around the dark entrance where he had killed Aná just a day earlier. Only the first four or five stairs were underwater. His family would be safe upstairs. José squinted as he heard a noise; crying. It came from inside Aná’s ground floor apartment. The children! José pushed through the thigh-deep water and threw himself against the door. It yielded with a single blow and the crying intensified. Across the room, there were all eight of Aná’s children, from the youngest, just a newborn, to her sixteen year-old daughter. They sat huddled together on the table, which had been pushed against the corner of the room. These poor children would have been there all night as water poured into their home. Their mother would never come home; she lay in the mud in the Valencian mountains, her head smashed for just overhearing a phone conversation.
“Come,” José said and gestured for the children to climb off the table. “I promise you, the water has stopped. You can come with me.”
“Mamá is gone,” one young boy wailed. He looked no more than six years old.
“I know your Mamá isn’t here. Please, come with me up the stairs and we can get you dry and safe. I promise.”
One by one, the shaking children climbed down, the older ones carrying their younger siblings. José led them out the tiny apartment and up the stairs of the building. They stopped on the second floor landing and José felt the dizziness return. Just a few more flights and he would be home. But it seemed too much to bear. José collapsed just as the woman in the second floor apartment opened her front door to all the commotion. José watched as the woman he vaguely recognised saw him, lying in his mud-covered uniform. He saw her cry out but heard nothing. He couldn’t move another muscle.
José lay back and blinked a few times as all the children moved away from him, to give him space. The slightest smile curved his sore lips when the world shone a light on him; Consuela was there. She appeared in a flurry and fell to her knees; her eyes searched his for a sign of life. He watched her mouth his name, but the dizziness all but paralysed him.
“My darling,” he whispered. “Are you all right? Inés, is she safe?”
José watched Consuela nod with tears on her cheeks, and he closed his eyes. The Valencian water had served out its vengeance - for now.
40
Valencia, España ~ Junio de 2010
Luna couldn’t swim. The sound of being surrounded by water panicked her. Being under the water was a silent and isolating place, and now she thought she had been underwater forever. There was a constant echo of something, but she had no idea what it was over the sound of the water in her ears. Luna could swear sometimes she looked up at the surface, and Cayetano was there. Sometimes, she could hear Giacomo and Enzo. She had sworn she had heard both Darren and Paco. But no one was ever there. No one would pull Luna to the surface.
The only thing that the cold, wet abyss hadn’t counted on was how much Luna wanted to rise to the world beyond the water. A few times she got her face out of the water, and felt the air on her skin. It was hot. Overly hot. It didn’t smell like anything she had experienced. Luna would kick and kick, but her legs were so heavy that they pulled her down again. Just when she would open her mouth to breathe, something would come to her face, something plastic and suffocating. She would float down again, too exhausted to fight. It hurt too much. Cayetano called out to her, but he didn’t know she was watching him. She had even managed to get to the surface and look over at him on the water’s edge. He was so far away. Cayetano wouldn’t reach out. Why wouldn’t he jump in and help her?
Luna felt heartbroken. She was in the river and not where she should have been. There was so much beyond the surface, and she should have been there with her children. Every time she swam up for air, her head started to pound, but she didn’t care anymore. This headache was coming with her. Just swim for the surface! This was it; this was the time she going to rescue herself.
She gasped the second she got her head above water. The silence had gone. The cold had gone. She gulped in the air around her. The beautiful weightless sensation had gone. Suddenly she was on hard ground again. She put her arm out; there had to be something to hold on to… a bed rail?
Luna heard a crack of thunder deep inside her head as she opened her eyes. Her throat burned. Hospital. She shut her eyes and took a few shallow breaths; the disorientation seemed worse than the drowning sensation. She raised her hand and touched her face; a plastic tube ran across the cheek, towards her nose. Her fingers carried on, and she touched her ear; no hair. Her long black curls were missing. Luna ran her fingertips around her hairline, but the skin was cold and dry. She opened her eye and looked at her hand; an IV needle protruded from her skin, which looked bruised. No wonder it hurt so damn much.
Luna turned her head and saw Cayetano asleep a few metres away. He sat in an armchair, but had slunk down in his slumber; his neck would hurt when he woke. Luna raised her own hand to her neck on instinct, and bumped against the brace she wore. Cayetano had told her about the brace already; but the moments of consciousness all blended into one corpulent jumble. The last few days only held a few minutes of being awake at a time.
Cayetano stirred his chair, and groaned as he pulled himself out of the awkward position. Luna watched him rub his face and look straight over at her. His eyes leapt open the moment he watched her stare back. “La chispa,” he said as the bounded from the chair, “you’re awake.”
Luna tried to nod, but her head throbbed the moment she moved. “G and E?” she whispered
“The boys are at school. It’s two in the afternoon.”
Cayetano sat on the bed and took her hand, and Luna glanced down to see her right arm in a cast. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You need to pick them up soon.”
“No, Sofía will do it this afternoon. Darren had to work, but he dropped them off this morning.”
Luna opened her eyes and heard another roll of thunder. “Darren? No!”
“Yes, Darren has been helping, and I know that might make you angry. It’s a long story.”
“They’re my boys. No one should be with them.” Luna tried to lift herself from the bed, but her arms couldn’t do a thing.
“No, no, no, preciosa.” Cayetano stood up placed his hands on her shoulders. “You have to lie still until your head recovers.”
“I hurt my head?” Luna’s voice hovered just above a whisper.
“Yes, when you fell at Escondrijo. The doctors had to drain fluid from your head, so there is a hole in your skull. Don’t worry, it’s not as s
evere as it sounds.”
“My hair is gone.”
Cayetano swallowed hard and sat down on the bed again. He took her hand and squeezed it tight. “I’m sorry, but they were in a hurry, so they cut all your hair, to make the surgery easier.”
“But the wedding…”
“Mamá has cancelled our wedding. Postponed, I should say. The wedding is postponed until you get better.”
“Did I go swimming?”
Cayetano frowned, and Luna could see the worry in his eyes. “No, you haven’t been swimming.”
“The boys?”
“No.”
“My boys don’t like the water.”
“Preciosa, no one has been swimming, I promise. Are you worried about the boys?”
“They’re mine.”
“I know.”
“Maybe I dreamed about water.”
Cayetano’s frown eased again and he flashed a smile. “Maybe you did.”
“Am I going to die?”
“No, of course not. In fact, getting your skull drilled is not that serious. You will heal.”
“Someone pushed me.”
“No, no one pushed you, Luna.”
Luna stopped and blinked a few times. “Why was I at Escondrijo?” she asked. Shit, her throat felt like a ring of fire.
“Jorge was there, to look at the graves.”
“Oh.” Nope, remember none of that. “Where are the boys?”
“At school. I just told you that.”
“What day is it?”
“Martes.”
“Tuesday?”
“Sí, Tuesday the 8th of June. Darling, you’ve been asleep for a week.”
“A week? It’s your birthday! I need to get out of bed.” Luna tried to sit, and felt a dull ache in her stomach. Oh no, it was that time of the month again? Talk about poor timing. It seemed ages since she last had her period. Time had gone to hell.
“Give me the best gift I could receive, and don’t try to get out of bed.”
“Happy birthday.”
“It’s amazing to see you awake and okay. Preciosa, you had another brain scan this morning. You’ve have been in a coma, so you’re going to feel drugged for another day or two.”
“Is that why I feel bad?”
Cayetano smiled and rubbed his thumb against her cheek. “I’m sorry, but yes. The doctor was going to come and talk to me about your results this afternoon.”
“Can I go home?”
“You’ve just woken up, Luna!”
“But the boys…”
“Giacomo and Enzo miss you but they’re coping. Sofía is here and my parents and grandparents, too. Fabrizio’s parents wanted to come over, but Max has been unwell.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, sweetheart. Max and Paulina are fine but worried about you.”
“I haven’t cut my hair since Fabrizio died.” Luna paused and touched her bald head again. “That hair was on my head when Fabrizio died.”
“But we needed to take it off to save your life. I’m sorry.”
“Someone pushed me. I felt hands on my back. Who pushed me over?”
“You were with Jorge and his assistants at Escondrijo. They wouldn’t have pushed you.”
“You have been so mad at me.”
Cayetano paused as he recalled the day. Darren had been there earlier, and reappeared just as the ambulance arrived. Miguel had been there just as they left the accident site. “You don’t think I pushed you, do you?”
Luna shook her head just a little but wasn’t that convinced. Someone strong pushed her; that’s all she remembered. Two firm hands right on the middle of her back. No words, no footsteps, nothing. A sharp pain in her stomach pushed everything aside, and she moaned.
“What’s wrong?” Cayetano asked.
“It hurts.”
“Where?”
“My stomach.” Luna took a deep breath and wished she didn’t have to say it. “I think I have my period.”
“No, you don’t.”
Luna half-smiled. “Is that so?”
Cayetano held Luna’s hand tight and tried to smile. Here came the awkward moment of a lifetime. “Preciosa, when you came in, you had a lot of tests done. The doctors found… they found that you’re pregnant.”
“No.”
“You’re about nine weeks now. You had an ultrasound, to check the baby. Don’t worry, I was here. I did tell the doctors you wouldn’t like it. But they wanted to make sure the baby was okay before they gave you more medication.”
“I don’t want a baby. I said I didn’t… we aren’t married!”
Cayetano sniggered and kissed her forehead, which sported a graze. “I had no idea you were so conservative.”
“I can’t have a baby with someone I’m not married to, it’s not who I am.” Luna took another deep breath and tears welled up; she had two children, all she needed. What a disaster. Forget the bloody head injury!
“We will just have to get married then, won’t we? You will have to stop arguing and just give in and be my wife,” Cayetano teased.
“I don’t know where I am.”
“You’re in a hospital in Valencia, about ten minutes or so from your apartment. You haven’t been alone the whole time you’ve been here. I have overseen every single test the doctors have done.”
“You can’t look after me forever.”
“Yes I can, if I move to Valencia. I will be here with you to raise the baby with Giacomo and Enzo.”
“They will be mad at me.”
“For having a baby? I doubt that. You’ve seen Enzo at school, dotting on the babies there while their older siblings get dropped off to class.”
“But this is different.”
“It’s a bit cliché.”
“How?”
“Like any bad romance movie, it’s taken a serious accident for me to realise how stupid I’ve been with you.”
“I’ve been stupid, too.”
“I don’t care about the wedding, or my publicity commitments. I was an asshole when I blamed you for my failures in the ring.”
“Slow down, I’m getting confused.” Just being awake was hard, never mind remembering details. “I worry too much.”
“We both worry too much. Christ, I’m getting a wife and two sons. That’s all I need.”
“And a baby.”
“If you want the baby, Luna. If now isn’t the right time…”
“There’s no such thing as the right time with babies.” Luna couldn’t hold it in anymore; tears ran down her face and she whimpered like an infant herself.
“My darling, I’m sorry,” Cayetano wept as he rested his cheek against her forehead.
“I just want to go home,” Luna sobbed between her tears. “I want to see my boys. I’m confused. I feel terrible.”
“Luna, you need to rest, and then they can see you later,” Cayetano said and hoped it would soothe her. As soon as his prayers were answered, and Luna woke up with a clear head, she became upset at the thought of a pregnancy. That was almost as miserable as her lifeless in a coma.
“Hey, let me tell you this.” Cayetano leaned away and wiped the tears from her face. “Even though you’ve had a serious procedure, you don’t need to stay in hospital too long. Some people have this brain procedure and go home on the same day. Luna, you’re otherwise unscathed, apart from the broken arm. You can go home soon.”
Luna raised her sore hand and wiped a tear from Cayetano’s jawline. Just the movement exhausted her. Her hand fell back on the bed, and she closed her eyes; the whole conversation sucked the energy from her will to live. “I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. It was time to return to the water.
“You don’t have to do anything anymore, you’re part of a family now. You’re not alone.”
41
Valencia, España ~ Junio de 2010
“Mummy!”
Luna saw her boys run at her the moment Cayetano wheeled her through the front door of her apart
ment and couldn’t stop them crashing against her. Gentle, the doctors had warned when they discharged her from the hospital. As her little boys squeezed their mother, she gritted her teeth. The term ‘bruising’ didn’t begin to describe how many aches she still had from the fall. “It’s good to see you, gentlemen.” Luna tried to give each of them a hug from the confines of her wheelchair, with one arm in a sling and a neck brace and foam helmet in the way.
“We thought you would never come home!” Giacomo exclaimed.
“You saw me every day, sweetheart, for the weeks I was away.”
“It seemed like forever,” Enzo said.
“Boys,” Cayetano said behind Luna. “Why don’t you let your Mamá get comfortable, and then you can talk to her all you want.”
Giacomo and Enzo scampered off down the hallway and Luna looked around her apartment, only to receive a painful hug from Paco. “Luna, my girl, are you sure you should be home so soon?”
“You saw me in the hospital. I have been sitting up, getting spoon-fed and bored as hell for five days now. The doctor seemed thrilled I managed to out get out of bed and walk on my own. They like to get patients out as fast as they can. I can recover at home now. Please don’t fuss over me.”
“Luna hasn’t figured out what this accident has done to the family,” Cayetano said with a smile. “She doesn’t realise that she is now a member of our clan and has to let us fuss over her.”
Secrets of Spain Trilogy Page 79