Revenge in Barcelona

by Kathryn Lane

  The hugs and congratulations took very little time after the ceremony.

  Last in line to congratulate them, Fadi introduced his parents, Jamila and Fernando, to the newlyweds.

  “Carmen turned the space into an elegant setting,” Jamila said, complementing Nikki for letting her aunt manage the decorations. “I wish Paula had allowed her mother to do the flowers for their wedding.”

  Pleased to know her aunt’s creativity had been appreciated, Nikki continued speaking with Jamila Massú as she studied the placement of a circular row of planters containing white calla lilies and pink tulips with a second, higher tier of planters of four-foot bamboo behind the white and pink flowers, turning the space into a garden. The backdrop of Gaudí’s playful chimney designs added pizzazz. Carmen had indeed taken all the elements available to her and turned a large expanse of the roof into an elegant and intimate setting. The guest tables, trellis, and dance floor were enclosed within the perimeter, leaving an opening in the circle where Floyd had escorted Nikki past the stormtroopers to the waiting bridegroom.

  Servers offered champagne to the guests and handed out the cocktail napkins Nikki had ordered. Floyd glanced at the one in his hand and smiled. Milena looked at hers. Below the selfie Nikki had taken a few days earlier of herself and Eduardo by the stormtroopers was a caption:

  We first met on this rooftop as kids and we thank you for celebrating our wedding among the stormtroopers!

  Fadi, designated photographer for the evening, had posed Nikki and Eduardo for several dozen pictures. For the last formal picture, he positioned the newlyweds with Paula and Carmen. Milena waited until the photo shoot was complete before approaching Carmen.

  “Your flower arrangements are so gorgeous. I love the amaryllis and rosebud centerpieces on the tables. I can hardly wait to see what you do for Paula’s wedding.”

  “Mama is not doing them,” Paula said. “I’ve asked a friend who works at a flower shop.”

  Seeing Carmen’s expression, Nikki quickly stepped to the rescue. “As mother of the bride, my aunt is so busy that Paula thought it best to order her arrangements.”

  Eduardo saved Carmen from further embarrassment by escorting her to the wedding table. On his way, he turned to the musicians and signaled for them to start playing. Nikki asked Fadi, Paula, Milena, and Floyd to follow her so they could be seated.

  Other guests took the hint and sat.

  Enya’s “Dreams are More Precious” started, and Floyd took Nikki’s hand for the first dance. They pranced and pirouetted their way to Eduardo, where Floyd delivered her to the bridegroom.

  “Thanks for saving Carmen,” Nikki said as she slipped into Eduardo’s arms. “I don’t understand Paula’s behavior.”

  “Don’t let it upset you,” Eduardo said. “This is our special day.” He guided her around the dance floor like a professional.

  Dinner was served and the newlyweds joined their guests. Fadi took a few minutes to snap spontaneous photos of the guests before returning to sit at the main table with the newlyweds.

  Nikki looked up and heard Paula continuing to discuss her wedding plans with Milena. “Our food selection is Lebanese. I think it’s the best food in the world. Have you tried it?”

  “Delicious gastronomy,” Milena said. “So are Spanish dishes.”

  “I agree both styles of cooking are good,” Carmen said, trying to participate in the conversation.

  “But food from the Middle East contains so many wonderful spices. I consider it superb. It’s the reason I chose it for my reception.”

  “I look forward to it,” Milena said.

  “Well, I’m speaking of my Muslim wedding reception. Maybe you can stay and attend that one too. It’s a week after my Christian ceremony.”

  Nikki sighed as she listened. She couldn’t believe Paula’s hurtful words. Besides being rude to Milena, why was she purposely insulting her mother? Paula had moved back in with Carmen, intending to remain there for the week before her own wedding. Had mother and daughter quarreled? Eduardo was engaged in conversation with Fadi. While it was man talk, Nikki was relieved when Fadi included Carmen in their discussion of sports teams.

  Early the next morning, Floyd drove the newlyweds to Barcelona Sants, the city’s main train and mass transit station in the Sants-Montjuïc district. He parked the car at the passenger drop off and they all stepped out. He popped the trunk and Eduardo removed their luggage.

  “Being a man,” Floyd said, clearing his throat, “I’m not much of a fan of weddings. But I have to say, I’ve never been to a nicer one than yours. Have a wonderful trip. We’ll see you for Paula’s wedding.”

  He embraced Nikki and then hugged Eduardo. Floyd felt his eyes get watery with emotion, as if Nikki were his own daughter. He stood by the car at the curb and watched Nikki turn and wave at him before she and Eduardo entered the station.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Train to Burgos, Spain

  Sunday Midmorning

  Eduardo pulled the tickets from his jacket pocket as a conductor sporting a hat knocked on the frame of the open door of their first-class cabin. After the conductor left, an officious server wearing the same conductor-type hat, and dressed in a white jacket over a black shirt with a stand-up starched collar and black pants, came through to take drink and snack orders. When he returned with a cart, he delivered fresh grapes, Serrano ham, Manchego cheese, Spanish olives, crackers, and two slices of Spanish tortilla. He also poured coffee and left two small glasses of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

  As the train sped down the tracks, the newlyweds picked up their glasses of juice and toasted as if they were drinking wine.

  “Salud,” Nikki said. She clinked her glass against Eduardo’s. “Cheers.”

  Nikki sipped her juice and put the glass down and sliced the Manchego. First, she placed a bit of ham and a piece of cheese over each cracker, then topped each one with an olive. She sampled the tortilla. Not exactly finger food. She had to wipe her fingers on the napkin and discovered a fork wrapped inside. She continued to savor the tortilla without getting her hands soiled. When they finished snacking, Nikki took out her tablet to check their wedding photos. Before leaving the reception, Fadi had uploaded the pictures from his camera to her tablet.

  Nikki browsed through the file, discovering three images she had not expected.

  “Looks like Fadi included photos of Paula with his father,” she said, passing the tablet to Eduardo.

  “Nice Ferrari,” he said as he peered at the screen. “If I had one, I would not paint it gray, though.”

  “Yours would be red hot,” Nikki said.

  “Red hot is right,” he said. “Who is the other guy?”

  “Paula’s florist. He’s the one I told you seemed creepy.”

  “Start over at the beginning,” Eduardo said. “I want to see all the photos.”

  She scrolled slowly, stopping to contemplate the photos she or Eduardo liked best.

  “We should enlarge that one,” Eduardo said, pointing. He sipped the rest of his grapefruit juice as he admired the picture. “I want it framed for my desk. I really loved the way you looked in your flamenco wedding dress.”

  “I loved how romantic our wedding was,” Nikki said. “I only wish Robbie could have been with us. You would have loved my son.”

  Eduardo touched Nikki’s arm. “I know I would have loved him. It’s so unfair to lose a child.”

  They returned to the photos, spending the next half hour selecting the ones they liked, discussing which ones to enlarge and frame once they returned to Miami. When they finished sorting and choosing, Nikki copied their favorites into a separate file. She closed the picture app, opened her Kindle, and selected a novel to read. She removed her jacket, reclined the seat, and settled in. Eduardo, next to her, also reclined his seat and fell asleep.

  When Eduardo awakened, he noticed Nikki was snoozing and her tablet was on her lap. He picked it up, closed the cover, and placed it in the rack mounted on the
wall in front of their seats.

  Feeling thirsty, Eduardo opened the door, stepped into the hall, and closed the door behind him. He walked to the rear of their coach to get a glass of water from the bar located in the adjacent car which served as the dining room. As he walked down the narrow hall which curved into an open seating space immediately before the electronic doors connecting to the dining car, he decided mimosas would be appropriate since the noon hour was approaching. He would get one for Nikki too. And a bottle of water. Eduardo turned to head back to their cabin and retrieve his wallet. A man with a full, black beard stood at the door to their cabin. The man reacted by avoiding Eduardo’s inquisitive glare. He walked three cabins beyond and knocked on the door. When there was no answer, the man marched on ahead into the next coach.

  Alarmed at first, Eduardo thought about asking what he was doing. He reconsidered when he realized the man wore the same white jacket and starched-collar uniform, complete with the hat, as their server.

  Nikki stopped Eduardo under the Arco de Santa María, the archway forming the city gate that had protected Burgos since the fourteenth century. “Any superstitions I should know of before I look up?”

  “No skulls and daggers here,” Eduardo said.

  They enjoyed the stroll over the Arlanzón River as they walked toward the museum Fadi had recommended. When they turned the corner, Nikki groaned at the huge crowd of tourists and school kids standing in line on the sidewalk, occupying the stairs, and congregating on the landing all the way to the museum doors.

  Nikki stood in the queue while Eduardo went to the ticket office to purchase their entry. A school bus stopped at the curb. Three museum guards wearing orange vests over their uniforms rushed down the steps to direct traffic while a group of twelve-year-old students exited the bus and squeezed onto the already crowded sidewalk. The kids spread all around Nikki, a few of them invading her space. Two boys right next to her started shoving and fighting, hardly being disciplined by the three accompanying teachers. Once the bus left, Nikki noticed how fast traffic drove on the street, only a few feet away from the curb and the congested sidewalk.

  Taiwo wore his cap low to shield his face. He carried a walking stick, a very sturdy one like he’d used as a kid in Nigeria. Following his target from the moment she and her companion had left their hotel, he saw his opportunity from where he stood at the intersection a block away. He moved in while the school bus activity shielded his movement and he could blend in like another tourist. Acting quickly to take advantage of a perfect setup, he positioned himself by moving into the back row of rowdy kids. He looked down to avoid catching anyone’s attention. Standing close to his target, he waited until the bus had driven away and the guards had returned to their posts near the museum doors. Timing was essential. The traffic light a block away turned green and oncoming traffic sped toward them.

  Then Taiwo did it. Pushing the two fighting boys, making them collapse against his target while simultaneously using the stick against her upper calves, he tripped her backward as the boys fell into her. A delivery truck swerved and applied its brakes, hitting a car in the next lane. Screeching tires, screaming kids, and yelling teachers created the chaos he needed to divert attention toward the accident and away from himself as he crossed the street behind two trucks whose drivers had scrambled into the scene trying to help.

  Not running, Taiwo merely walked fast to the small park. His adrenaline pumping, he did not look back until he positioned himself on the far side of the park. He turned to face the museum and observe the damage he had caused. He was unhappy with the unfolding scene. He had failed.

  His target was standing. A man was helping her, probably one of the teachers. Her companion was running toward her, and when he reached her, he eased her toward the museum. The woman had not fallen into oncoming traffic as Taiwo had intended. He wasn’t sure what had gone wrong. Since his teenage years, he’d used this technique to throw someone into oncoming traffic. And it had worked. Several times. But this time, he had failed. Angry, he spat on the ground. The sound of sirens filled the air. He disappeared into the alley between two buildings.

  Aching from the nasty fall she had taken a couple of hours earlier, Nikki ignored the pain as much as possible and leaned forward in a chair to get more comfortable. Eduardo reached out to touch her.

  “Are you sure you want to stay?”

  Glancing at him, she nodded. “My legs hurt the most. When I cleaned up in the bathroom, I noticed bruises already showing on each calf. The kids fell into me from my right side. The teacher caught me as I lost my balance and we both crashed to the sidewalk. So I don’t understand why my shins and calves hurt.” She leaned over and rubbed the sore areas of her lower legs through her pants.

  “Probably from the fall. We can return to the hotel—”

  “I’m fine. Very lucky, in fact. If that teacher hadn’t intervened, I might have fallen under the delivery truck. Let’s stay and enjoy the museum.”

  Nikki turned her attention toward the three large monitors suspended from crossbeams in the ceiling, showing monochromatic photos of Paleolithic art. After a couple of minutes, she sensed Eduardo had noticed her hypnotic attraction to the images projected on the screens.

  “Not bad for art painted thirty thousand years ago,” he said.

  Nikki glanced sideways at him.

  “Unbelievable,” she said, turning her focus back to the screens.

  She became aware of the ethereal silence surrounding them. They sat at the end of an open floor plan on the second level of the museum facing oversized screens. Although several exhibits covered the rest of the floor, the monitors in front of them provided the only movement in the huge chamber, minimal fluttering as a sepia-colored bison image dissolved into a herd of ochre-hued deer on one monitor while another screen showed a maroon-tinted elk morphing into flowing charcoal lines of mammoths. Rust red pixels forming human hands disintegrated and reappeared as gray and black images of horses on the third monitor.

  Nikki detected movement along the wall to the right of where they sat. With a sidelong glance, she saw it was the elevator doors opening. She barely caught a glimpse of a man with a cap, dark glasses, and a beard peering in their direction. When she turned to get a better look at him, the elevator door had closed and he had disappeared.

  The hall filled with chatter and giggling. A group of kids, the twelve-year-olds who had been roughhousing outside when she fell, climbed the stairs from the first floor. They marched past the monitors to an exhibit containing a boat-like structure where they could climb, tackle one another, and shout. Each shouted to be heard over the jabber of the others. The teachers who escorted them made no effort to keep the noise level down.

  “These kids are about the same age as Robbie was when he died,” she said. She glanced at the group. “It still hurts so much.”

  Nikki saw one of the boys who had fallen into her looking at her from his perch on the boat-like structure. He waved. She waved back, knowing it had all been an accident. Plus the teacher who had kept her from falling into the street had made both boys apologize to her.

  “I could overcome my fear of caves for the pleasure of viewing this art in the environment where it was painted,” Nikki said.

  “You think you can handle the dark caves?”

  “As long as these raucous kids don’t follow us,” she said, “and ruin the meditative atmosphere where the artists worked.”

  “That could be our real honeymoon. After Paula’s wedding,” Eduardo said. “I’ll book the trip tomorrow.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Burgos, Spain

  Sunday Late Evening of Second Week

  The loudspeaker at Burgos Castle announced closing time was in five minutes.

  Nikki sighed. “What a shame we have to leave. So quiet after all the confusion at the museum.”

  “We can return tomorrow,” Eduardo said. “After we plan our cave trip.”

  Nikki reached for Eduardo’s hand as they pass
ed through the gate leading to the park outside the castle walls. People were getting into taxis to take back into Burgos.

  “Hurry, let’s grab a cab before they are all taken,” Eduardo said.

  “On such a gorgeous night? With a full moon barely over the horizon,” Nikki said. “It’s so romantic. And isn’t this our honeymoon? Let’s walk back to town.”

  “Are you sure? I thought your legs were hurting?”

  “A little exercise will help,” Nikki said.

  They walked in the moonlight, following a dirt trail leading from the hill of San Miguel toward the township of Burgos.

  “Fadi is right. Spain has so much history, so many sites to see,” she said. “I had no idea an old castle in absolute ruins would be so interesting to visit.”

  “Archaeological sites are always in ruins,” Eduardo said.

  Nikki stopped. She turned to admire the remnants of the palace fortress. Four large floodlight panels like those used at football fields illuminated the crumbling castle, giving it a look of both fantasy and horror, a sense of the mysterious where anything could happen.

  “Look at the outline of the castle against the black background of the surrounding park. It’s magnificent. And scary,” she said, “especially under this full moon.”

  “Earlier you called it romantic,” Eduardo said.

  “Tell me,” she said as she gazed up into the night sky, “have you ever seen such an exquisite rabbit in the moon? His ears curve along the top of the moon. His body then flows from his head through the trunk all the way to his feet.”