by Brock Booher
“Yes, she could make anything taste good, and she always kept things neat and tidy when she was sober.” She brushed back her hair. “She would tell me, ‘You never know when a man might drop in to visit, and we don’t want him to be turned off by a dirty house.’ She was funny that way,” said Angelica as she stared at her soup.
“My mamá was a good cook too,” replied Julio as he dipped a piece of bread. “She would always say, ‘Appearances can fool the mind, but not the heart.’ When life was difficult, she always had some saying or proverb.”
“Really? Like what?”
Julio was stumped for just a second. “They usually pop into my head when something happens. I don’t know if I can recite any on cue.” Nothing came to mind and he drummed his fingers on the table. “I can’t seem to remember any . . .” As he spoke of remembering, he heard his mother’s voice. “Ah! The dullest pencil is better than the sharpest memory.” Angelica laughed.
“Laughter is the best medicine,” he blurted.
“So true,” said Angelica with a big smile.
“A smile will buy things more precious than gold.” Julio delivered the line with an eloquence that made Angelica blush.
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” he whispered.
Angelica snickered.
Julio leaned forward in his chair and continued in a soft voice, “Love is not found in words, but in deeds.”
Angelica looked down at her bowl of soup and reached for her glass, and they both returned to the unfinished meal. The awkward silence returned for few moments as the traffic on the street below hummed along. A single overhead bulb strained in vain to replace the setting sun as it sank out of sight into the invading sea fog. Car lights and street lamps began to struggle against the oncoming darkness and evening mist.
Julio finished his soup and broke the silence. “The aguadito was delicious.”
Angelica wiped her mouth with a napkin and glanced up at him. “Thank you.” She stood and began gathering the dirty dishes. “Shall we go see Graciela?”
Julio had almost forgotten the reason for their meeting. “I guess so. Does she live very far from here?” He stood to help clear the table.
“About a five minute walk,” answered Angelica, wrapping up the leftover bread.
Julio smiled and grabbed his skateboard. “Who says we need to walk?”
“But I don’t know how to skateboard,” said Angelica as she pulled on her jacket.
Julio grinned and winked. “Mamá used to say, there’s no time like the present.”
* * *
“Bend your legs slightly and tilt from side to side to steer,” instructed Julio. “I won’t pull as hard this time.” He grabbed Angelica’s hand and pulled her along slowly on his skateboard. “That’s it!” He gave a gentle tug on her hand and propelled her forward. She managed to remain on the board, until she tried to kick herself forward. When she tried to kick, she lost control and sent the board flying but landed on her feet.
“You make it look so easy,” she complained.
“It is easy,” said Julio as he stopped the board and hopped on. “You just need to get the feel of it. Let’s try it together.” He offered her his hand and she hopped on to the board in front of him. He wrapped his arms around her and kicked off. “Feel the way the board responds to your input?” He carved back and forth along the asphalt. “Left. Right. Kick.” Her hair was tickling his cheek.
“This is more fun than trying to do it by myself,” said Angelica. Julio had almost forgotten where they were going and why they needed to get there, but Angelica pointed and reminded him. “Graciela lives with a vieja, Orfelia, down the next street.”
Several streetlights ahead were broken and the street was dark until the corner. Julio tightened his hold on Angelica and kicked forward, focused on the lights at the corner. An ambulance without its lights on sped through the intersection ahead of them.
“What was that?” asked Angelica.
Julio kicked again. “It looked like an ambulance.”
“Go faster!”
Julio felt Angelica’s body become tense. He tried to go faster, but he was afraid of wiping out because she had become so rigid. He slowed down as they approached the corner.
“Stop!” she commanded. “We don’t want to be seen.”
“It’s just an ambulance.” Julio braked, and Angelica jumped off and peeked around the corner.
“Yes, but it stopped at Graciela’s house,” she whispered.
Even from half a block away in the dark, Julio recognized Isak Blixt as he got out of the ambulance and went to the door of the house. Doctor Kozyar was not as clear, but it had to be her. He got a sick feeling in his stomach.
“We have to get closer,” whispered Angelica. Julio picked up his board.
The houses were all square concrete buildings butted up against one another, but about thirty meters away was an opening with a broken down cinder-block wall. They scurried up the street keeping to the shadows and crouched behind it. “Why do you think they are here?” asked Julio.
Angelica looked at him in disbelief and said, “To take Graciela, of course.”
“Okay, but take her where? Do you think something happened to her? Did she get injured?”
“I’m guessing the ambulance is just a cover. They’re going to kidnap her and sell her to the highest bidder.” Angelica poked her head over the wall. “Looks like the ambulance has attracted a few of the neighbors.”
Julio looked over the wall and could see a handful of people standing around the ambulance. The front door of the house opened up, and Doctor Kozyar walked out with a black bag slung over her shoulder. A lady with gray hair stepped outside and held open the door. Isak stepped through the door carrying Graciela.
Angelica squeezed Julio’s arm and shook him. “I told you,” she hissed.
Julio watched Doctor Kozyar open the back of the ambulance and slide out a gurney on wheels. Isak carefully placed Graciela’s body on the gurney, and the two of them shoved the gurney back into the ambulance. Doctor Kozyar climbed into the back and Isak shut the doors. Before he climbed into the driver’s seat, he stopped and comforted the old woman who had opened the door for him. Then with the lights flashing, they hurried away in the ambulance
As the ambulance drove off, Julio crossed himself and pulled the pendant of Saint Michael from under his shirt and kissed it. “Saint Michael, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, pray for us.”
Angelica jumped to her feet and hurried into the street. “Come on! We have to follow them.”
Julio stood there chewing on his lip. “It’s no use, Angelica. We can’t keep up with the ambulance, even with my skateboard, and by the time we got a mototaxi it would be too late.”
“You know they’re going to Caritas. Let’s go!”
“Angelica,” he said in a calm voice, “we don’t even know what happened. What are you going to do? March into Isak’s office and demand answers?”
Angelica began to pace back and forth. “Do you believe me now? You said I was just being paranoid!”
Julio stared down the street with the image of the departing ambulance still lingering in his mind. He glanced down at the space between his left thumb and forefinger.
Angelica continued pacing. “You said that we didn’t have any proof! How about now?”
Julio realized there was nothing they could do for Graciela. Either she was legitimately sick and they had taken her for medical care, or they had successfully kidnapped her right in front of everyone. He thought about his passionate testimonial for the camera earlier today. He still wanted to believe in Caritas.
“Are you even listening to me?” shouted Angelica.
Julio did what he had seen his father do hundreds of times with his mother. He grabbed Angelica by the shoulders and kissed her on the lips. She pulled back at first, but then let his lips linger on hers. After the kiss, he stepped back and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
<
br /> Angelica stopped pacing and licked her lips. “What was that for?”
Julio shrugged. “I guess I just wanted you to calm down.”
Angelica grabbed his face and kissed him again. Julio hadn’t expected her kiss and felt the blood rush to his face. “Apology accepted, but now what are we going to do?”
Julio saw the old woman still standing at the gate talking to neighbors about the incident. “What did you say the old woman’s name was?”
“Orfelia, but she’s so senile I don’t think she’ll be much help. She always mistakes me for her niece, Angelina.”
“Come on. Let’s go talk to her, and if she thinks you’re her niece, play along so we can get inside and look around.” He stuffed his skateboard into his backpack and started across the street with Angelica beside him.
Orfelia was still crying and talking with neighbors when they walked up. As soon as she saw Angelica, she cried out, “Angelina! Oh, thank you for coming at this tragic moment.”
Angelica didn’t correct the old woman. “Tragic moment? What happened?” she said, patting Orfelia on the hand.
“Que lástima! Graciela has been taken to the hospital after an overdose,” answered Orfelia. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. The neighbors used the arrival of Angelica as an opportunity to slip away.
Angelica glanced at Julio. “An overdose? That’s terrible! Do you know where they took her?”
“She was so young, pobrecita. I thought she was such a nice girl. I had no idea that she was using drugs, but then again, how can I blame her, after the life she had.” She wiped her nose.
“Orfelia, do you mind if my friend, Julio, and I take a look around her room? Maybe we can figure out what she overdosed on.”
The old woman seemed to notice Julio for the first time. “Julio? Aren’t you Clara’s son?” She kept talking like she knew the answer already. “They showed me some little white pill and told me they had to get her to a hospital.”
Angelica smiled and patted Orfelia’s hand again. “Can we come in and look around?”
“What bad manners of me, leaving my niece standing in the street.” Orfelia opened the gate. “Come in, Angelina! Come in!”
Angelica looked over her shoulder at Julio and shrugged as Orfelia ushered them into her home. Orfelia pulled back the curtain, exposing Graciela’s bedroom. “They found her lying on the floor right here, pobrecita.”
The bedroom was disheveled and unorganized. The sagging bed was covered with stained sheets, and a lamp without a shade sat on a cardboard box next to the bed. A pile of dirty clothes filled the corner between the cardboard box and the opposite wall. The hint of perfume hung in the air, but Julio wasn’t sure if it was from Graciela or Doctor Kozyar. He could see several white pills scattered on the bed and Graciela’s headphones had been tossed on top of the pillow.
Angelica entered the bedroom first and picked up one of the pills. “This looks like some sort of prescription medication.” She handed the pill to Julio and began collecting the rest of the scattered pills. “Do you have a plastic bag, Orfelia?”
“I think so,” said Orfelia. She let the curtain drop and went to find a bag.
Julio examined the plain white pill. “If this is prescription, where’s the bottle?”
Angelica continued gathering the scattered pills. “Usually when people get wasted on drugs, they are sitting or lying down already.”
Julio gave her a funny look.
“My mother didn’t always run with a good crowd,” said Angelica.
Orfelia slipped through the curtain and handed Angelica a plastic bag. “Here you are, Angelina.”
“Orfelia, are you sure they found her on the floor?” asked Julio.
“Yes, the pobrecita was lying facedown on the floor beside the bed. She was still dressed even.” She started to cry again.
“Maybe she was looking for something and passed out. Maybe she spilled the pills and dropped the bottle,” offered Julio. He knelt down and looked under the bed. At first he didn’t see anything other than dirty clothes and a couple of books, but then he grabbed the lamp from the cardboard box and shined it under the bed. Something yellow stood out among the debris. He slid under the bed to pull out a used syringe with a yellow cap over the end.
“Did they give her an injection?” he asked as he held up the used syringe.
“Not that I remember,” answered a surprised Orfelia. “The big brute of a man shoved me into the other room and told me not to interfere. I tried to get past him, but he kept pushing me back.”
“Do you know if she was on any medication?” asked Angelica as she held up the bag of white pills.
The old woman looked surprised. “How should I know? The big man told me she tried to commit suicide.”
Julio and Angelica exchanged a glance. Julio remembered how excited Graciela was to see Sofía Encuentro today. Nothing would indicate that she was thinking about suicide, but then again, he had seen more than one person give up on life in unique ways. He picked up the headphones as if somehow they could speak to him.
“No way,” said Angelica. “She had survived too much already. Not to mention that if she was going to commit suicide, she would do it some other way because she knew the chip monitored her for drug use and vital signs.”
Julio put the syringe and the pills into the bag and took it from Angelica. “I know a doctor that can help us analyze everything.” He pulled his skateboard out of his backpack and made room for Graciela’s oversized headphones.
“Why do you want the headphones?” asked Orfelia.
Julio smiled at Orfelia. “Graciela will want them while she is recovering in the hospital.” He glanced at Angelica and hoped she would play along.
“Yes, of course,” added Angelica. “She never likes to be apart from her headphones and music.” She faked a smile and glared at Julio. “We also need to take this evidence to the policía.”
“Policía? Bah! What a waste of time,” said Orfelia.
Angelica hugged the old woman. “Thanks for letting us in. We will let you know what we find out.”
“You’re such a good niece, Angelina,” said Orfelia as she patted her on the back. She walked them to the door. “Tell Clara hello for me,” she told Julio as he shuffled out the door. “Vaya con Dios!”
They walked to the end of the street in silence. When they turned the corner, Angelica came alive again. “Come on! Your skateboard is faster. We have to hurry back and tell Martín what happened. Maybe we can figure out a way to save her.”
Julio wasn’t as convinced that Graciela needed saving, or that they could do anything to save her, but they climbed onto his board and skated through the evening traffic. With his arms around Angelica and her hair whipping him in the face, he wanted to make her feel better, but he wasn’t sure what to believe. Maybe Graciela really did try to commit suicide.
Martín had closed up shop by the time they got back and was sweeping the floor when they hurried through the door. “They took Graciela. We need to save her,” blurted Angelica before she even got inside.
Martín leaned against his broom. “What do you mean they took her? Who?”
“Isak and Doctor Kozyar took her away in an ambulance.”
“Did she go willingly?” asked Martín as he continued to sweep.
“She was unconscious, but I don’t think she went willingly,” answered Angelica.
“Orfelia, the old lady she lives with, said she overdosed,” said Julio. He pulled out the bag with the syringe and the pills. “We found these in her bedroom.”
Martín swept up the gathered dust and debris into a dustpan and deposited it into the trash can. “Were the police involved?” he asked as he sat down at his computer.
“No,” answered Angelica. “I’ll bet if we hurry we can still save her. You know they took her to Caritas.”
“At this point, we know very little about her fate,” said Martín as he typed at his keyboard. “If she overdosed, they would take her
to a clinic or hospital. Let’s see what we can find.” His fingers tapped at his keyboard. “A few years ago the government started using a central medical database.” He chuckled to himself. “It only took us a week to find the backdoor into the program, but it wasn’t a profitable venture. No money. I haven’t bothered to go back. Let’s see if they tightened their security.”
Julio set the bag on the counter and looked over Martín’s shoulder as his long fingers flew over the keyboard. Within less than a minute, they were looking at the Peruvian central medical database.
“They never learn. Okay, what is her full name?” asked Martín.
Julio and Angelica looked at each other and shrugged. “I only knew her as Graciela,” said Angelica.
“Okay, how about the full name of her doctor?”
“Doctor Oxana Kozyar,” said Julio. “But don’t ask me how to spell it.”
Martín pecked at the keyboard and a window opened on the screen. “Doctor Oxana Kozyar arrived by ambulance at Hospital Edgardo Rebagliati with her patient, Graciela Maria Suiza de Gomez, a seventeen-year-old female.”
Julio glanced over at Angelica. “So they didn’t take her to Caritas.”
“Yes, well, don’t get too excited,” continued Martín. He continued reading the notes from the screen. “The patient was pronounced dead on arrival—cause of death, drug overdose.”
“She’s dead? Already?” asked Angelica. “They just took her in the ambulance less than an hour ago.”
“That’s what it says in this report,” answered Martín. He looked at Angelica and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Angelica.”
Angelica’s face was hard and dark. She glared at Julio. “We could have saved her.”
“How? By the time we got there, she had already taken the drugs,” said Julio.
Angelica shook her finger at them both. “No, by the time we got there they had already given her the drugs.”
“How is that possible? We watched them go through the front door. Orfelia said she was passed out already when Isak got there.”