Читать книгу Cave of Little Faces - Aída Besançon Spencer - Страница 16

The “beach house” of Saul Inti Archer, or Uncle Sol, as his nieces and nephew called him, because they said he was so “big and bright” (and it was also the Spanish translation of his Taino name, Inti) was hardly a shack on the sand. It was a palatial two-story compound more reminiscent of a small hotel than of a getaway bungalow. The ground floor had a large dining room and living room that opened into each other to create a great room into which guests were welcomed through the main entrance. A bedroom for visiting dignitaries was hidden by a large mahogany door off the dining room toward the front of the house. It had its own private bathroom, and this is where James and Lea Archer stayed when they visited. A bathroom just to the right of the dining room served all three of these rooms, as well as the kitchen, which was as large as the dining room space and opened from the left into the combined public entertaining area. While visitors may have been puzzled at first why its kitchen was in the front rather than the back of the house, the observant noted that a porch in the left-hand corner had access to the kitchen alone, making a favorite place for meals to be served out in the air. Its access to the kitchen also served as its service entrance, thereby neatly sealing off the two back rooms that were not accessible from that porch. In that way, the house had front public rooms, but back private rooms. The very back corner of the house had become Uncle Sol’s own private bedroom as his heart condition worsened and he was no longer permitted by his doctor to use the stairs. The final room of the first floor was his private office. A personal porch that allowed him to enjoy the breeze of the trade winds and his own private view of the sea was also sealed off from the great porch to its right that spread all the way around the dining room and living room until it reached the front door, ensuring him that he could entertain many guests while his private space was protected.

The second floor was the home away from home that Jo and her siblings knew well, with its three bedrooms with two bathrooms: one for the three girls and the other for the lone boy. Ben always grumbled that his bedroom in the front of the house had no sea view. But Ruby snapped, “You have your own private bath and balcony. All three of us have to share our bathroom, and it’s no fun just sitting on our balcony, looking at the ocean, while Danny is dawdling and primping when it’s my turn to spruce up!”

In the very front of the property, tending the gate that was the main access behind the large wall that sealed the entire compound in, was a large cabaña for the family that served Uncle Sol as his cooks, housekeepers, drivers, gardeners, gatekeepers, and administrators who oversaw the entire property, its maintenance and repair. They were completely devoted to “Don Inti.” The home he had built for them was very comfortable. They had their own porch and their own little version of a dining and living room combination. Their kitchen was in the back of the cabaña facing the main kitchen so they could cook in whichever one they wished, depending on whether guests were present. The laundry room to the left of their kitchen comprised the rest of the cabaña’s back area and served both houses. Three bedrooms and baths off a common hallway made a private space for the parents and their children to live. They loved the home that Uncle Sol had himself designed for them. To the left of the cabaña they had their own small herb and vegetable garden, and the fruit trees, spread around the whole property, served them with coconuts and other edibles that survived in a shoreline climate.

All in all, Las Olas del Sol, “The Waves of the Sun,” was a sanctuary well beloved by all who came to find warmth and encouragement there.

As Jo and her family stopped their car before the great metal gate, she felt so bereft. This was the first time she had ever come to “Las Olas” without her uncle’s warm welcome—and not even her parents were with her. She and the children were now on their own.

Ruby idled the rental car and blared the horn. They heard no immediate sound, so she leaned on it, as Danny covered her ears, Ben grinned, and she only stopped when Jo cried out, “Rube, that’s enough!”

“I can go bang on the gate,” Ben offered.

“Wait,” said Jo. “They’re very old now. We need to show a little patience.”

“Maybe they’re not here,” snapped Ruby. Her hand was hovering above the horn.

“They are always here,” replied Jo. And then a scraping sound began. First, a quivering of the metal gate, then the screeching of movement as the gate slowly, painfully lurched open, infinitesimally space by space, until a grey-haired man wedged his body in between it and the wall frame and walked it open enough to allow Ruby to edge in the car.

They drove inside and everybody but Ruby piled out.

“Don Ramón,” said Jo and threw her arms around him.

“¡Querida!” he murmured, and hugged her to him as if she were his own daughter. “Such a sad time. I am so, so sorry for your loss—for all of our loss. Your uncle was a guiding light for us. Already we miss him so.”

“I was thinking as we drove up,” said Jo, “’Las Olas del Sol,’ it is so much a part of him—it will be so different without him.”

“Yes, as if the sun were eclipsed from the sky. All of us feel it here, but a ‘sun’ will shine again. It always has.” And then he added something that Jo would think about later—again and again. “And, Josefina, you are here now to bring back that light.” Then, he paused and looked to the others who were standing awkwardly at the car, a bit nonplussed by this display of emotion. “Ah, you are welcome all! We did not know that you would come.”

“Of course, we’d come,” snapped Ruby, leaning out the driver’s window. “He was our uncle, too!”

“Naturally, naturally,” soothed the older man. “We should never have thought otherwise. Always, you are—all of you—welcome. You are family.” And they were mollified.

He looked them over. “Every time, more beautiful, Daniela—you are like the daylily in the garden, lovely from morning to night!” Daniela simpered.

“Ben, you are the strong cane stalk, capable of so much.”

“Yeah, I got a system that might make us all rich!” agreed Ben and looked like he was about to embark on explaining it before Ruby’s commanding voice sunk that idea. “Where shall I put the car?”

“Ah, Ruby—the rose—even your thorns are useful! Please, put it in your uncle’s own slot. Do you know it?”

“Of course,” shot back Ruby and prepared to barrel off.

“Wait for us!” cried Daniela.” I can’t walk in these heels.”

“Yeah,” added Ben. “I’m beat after the trip.”

Don Ramón paused and looked to Jo.

“I’m fine,” said Jo quickly. “You three go ahead. I want to stop and see Doña Lucia—and maybe if either of the boys are home—Tamaya is married, isn’t she?”

“Yes, yes,” said Don Ramón, delighted.

“And she has a baby,” recalled Jo.

“She does indeed. And thank you so much for the lovely gift and sweet card that you sent. It was so thoughtful of you and it helped very much.”

“It was from all of us,” Jo faltered, “Danny, Ben, Ruby.”

“Of course, of course,” agreed Don Ramón, diplomatically, “And now you must see my wife, who is eagerly waiting to greet you.”

“How is Doña Lucia?”

“She is well, Josefina. She is over in the main house. She has so much to supervise in the preparation for the dignitaries—we both do. They will be coming from all the tribal centers—Borinken, Nueva York, Kuva. They will be coming soon—the delegates for the ‘passing and passing on’ celebration. You are ready, Querida?”

Jo looked at him baffled. “Ready for what?”

“You have spoken to Señor Cueva de Piedra?”

“The lawyer? No. I received a letter from him, but we didn’t speak. In fact, we’ve just arrived. We came here right from the airport. Dad and Mom said they would meet us or send someone, but they didn’t. I’m worried about them. Are they all right?”

“Yes, of course. YaYa has not heaped sorrow upon sorrow. They are safe, but something has happened—not to them directly—but they have gone to the mountain.”

“The mountain?” said Jo.

“Yes.”

“Don Ramón, all of my life, when I’ve come here since I was a little girl, my parents and Uncle Sol would leave us and go to the mountain. They would be there while we stayed with you and your children here. I’ve always been puzzled by it—why to ‘the mountain’? Uncle Sol would take me out onto the mountains to walk and talk, but—is that what they would do for a month? Walk and talk on the mountains?”

“No, Josefina. You are very wise. That is not exactly what they would do.”

“So, what would they do on the mountain?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“No, what they would do was in the mountain.”

Jo stared at him. She realized her mouth had dropped open. “In the mountain. What on earth does that mean?”

Don Ramón smiled and said, “Josefina, you have much to learn in the next several days.”

“What is the mountain?” she demanded.

“It is your inheritance.”

“My inheritance? You mean, along with the beach house I am inheriting a mountain?”

“No, your inheritance is the mountain.”

“What? What about Las Olas del Sol? We are not inheriting this property?”

“No.”

“Oh, it’s going to our dad.”

“No.”

“Who is inheriting this?”

“No one.”

“I’m confused. I thought I was Uncle Sol’s heir.”

“And that you are, my dear.”

“Wasn’t this his house?”

“It was his home.”

“His home, but not his house?”

“That is correct.”

“Who owns the house?”

“The Tribe.”

Ruby, Danny, and Ben are not going to like this, thought Jo. And so much for my plans to sell the beach house and finance the learning center and the rest of what I’m planning to do in Richfield. “I see,” said Jo, though she really didn’t see at all. “So, someone else will be staying here, then.”

“No, my dear one, this will now be your home.”

“My home!”

“Yes, of course.”

“Wait a minute!” cried Jo. “I’m not moving to the Dominican Republic—I have a life—I have my ministry in New Jersey. I can’t come here!”

“Josefina, you really must talk with the lawyer. He will explain everything.”

Jo’s head was reeling. “I want to talk with my father,” she insisted.

“And so you shall. Let us go up to the house. Your brother and sisters are no doubt waiting for you.”

“And also—no doubt—getting in the way of Doña Lucia.”

Don Ramón smiled, “As you say.”

This was indeed the case, as Jo knew it would be. Ben was sitting in the kitchen when they arrived, eating from the various pastries the chefs were preparing. Ruby was barking orders to several patient helpers who had been moving furniture, and they listened to her deferentially as if she actually knew where everything should be. Daniela was among the missing. Jo guessed shrewdly Danny was up in the bathroom gauging the damage that the trip had caused her hair and her makeup. After that, she would be laying out the new beach attire she had bought in their one obligatory stop on the way.

When Jo finally rounded up her three siblings, they were none too pleased that they would not be staying at the beach house.

Jo tried to lay it out for them. “Many important people are coming from every tribal center to honor Uncle Sol. They must talk with each other and plan the celebrations and meetings and what they have to do.”

“Well, we’re important,” huffed Ruby. “We are the heirs after all!”

Jo decided to let that lie for now. “We have the best of accomodations. We will be staying next door at Los Diamantes del Mar Hotel.” Well, that changed everything, as Jo knew it would.

“Oh, that’s great,” enthused Ruby. “I love Los Diamantes.”

“Yes, the proprietor, who is a staunch friend of all of us, is always gracious and willing to serve you,” said Don Ramón.

“I’m for Los Diamantes!” agreed Daniela.

“I, for one, would rather stay at the Bravado Beach Hotel. I love Los Diamantes, of course—who doesn’t—” started Ben, “but . . .”

Jo shot a glance at Ruby.

“No, you don’t!” ruled Ruby in her most definitive coach-makes-the-rules style. “All you want to do is belly up to the gaming tables there. You’re staying with us so I can keep an eye on you!”

“Hey, Rube, you’re not my mom.”

“Mom isn’t here. I’m the stand-in!”

“You’re younger than me!”

“Yes, but a whole lot smarter—and I’m not broke.”

“But, I got a system I got to try out . . .”

“I’ll go with you some night,” offered Daniela to try to bring back peace.

Ruby shot her a withering glance.

“Let’s get back to business,” said Jo. “We can sort this out later. Right now we need to see how we can be helpful around here. There’s a lot to do.”

“If we’re moving, I’ve got to go over to reserve our rooms,” contended Ruby.

“Me, too, I’ll go with you,” agreed Danny.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not the organized one,” grumbled Ben, still miffed at being thwarted from camping out twenty-four hours a day at the Bravado Beach casino.

“Fine,” said Jo, resigned as always. “You all go ahead. I’ll be there later. I can walk over.”

As the three piled out to the car, Don Ramón Romero leaned toward Jo and confided, “It’s just as well, Josefina. For you will be staying here.”