Casa Azul (14 page)

“Thank you,” said Maria.

“But you know Quetzalcoatl must never defeat Huitzilopochtli, or the other way around.”

Maria knit her brow in confusion.

“They must always be in balance. We must have both life and death, peace and war, happiness and anger. Without one the other cannot really exist.” Frida poured the warm milk into a mug. “Drink this.”

Maria sat at the breakfast table and sipped the milk. “I don’t understand. Don’t you always want the good to win?”

“In children’s stories, of course. But in life we must experience the pain to appreciate the pleasure. Both good and bad must live in a delicate balance.”

“Then my story is all wrong,” replied Maria. “I was planning to have Quetzalcoatl tear Huitzilopochtli limb from limb so that there would be peace in the world forever.”

Frida smiled. “If only it could be so.” Frida pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders and flexed her aching foot. “It just occurred to me that I have been doing the same, but only the opposite.”

“What?”

“Lately, the world has seemed a very bad place,” explained Frida. “So I’ve been preparing myself for death.”

“You’re dying?”

Frida shrugged. “Sometimes it takes the darkest dark of night to finally find the courage to admit the truth.” She looked into Maria’s eyes. “I’ve been planning to kill myself.”

“No!”

Frida sipped her hot milk and thought for a minute. “Well, I was feeling that the world could only get worse so I might as well leave it.”

“But there’s so much good. There’s so many things to see and experience,” protested Maria, her mind flashing to all the things she wanted to do in her life.

“Well, this is true,” admitted Frida. “But I’ve been painting myself into a corner and now either I kill myself or face the paint.” She laughed ruefully at her own joke.

Maria didn’t quite understand and looked at Frida quizzically.

Frida took her hand and squeezed it. “When I was a young girl not much older than you, Diego told me, ‘Art is like ham. It nourishes.’ I don’t think I quite understood that before. Until I met you.”

Maria blushed.

“If I am going to find hope and nourishment, I have to look toward my art, my painting. That’s what Diego’s been trying to tell me all along, and until I do that he can’t be with me.” Frida poured more milk into Maria’s cup. “Does that taste good?”

“Mmmm.”

Maria and Frida sat at the table in silence.

Fulang watched from the doorway. For the first time in days, she had a sense of optimism.

“So why have you ended up in Coyoacán?” asked Frida.

Maria blew into her cup and answered. “We’re looking for our mother.”

“Do you know where she is?” asked Frida with concern.

“We thought we did.” Maria dug the envelope with the address out of her pocket and showed it to Frida.

“Lourdes 27,” Frida read aloud. “That’s the Cisneros’s home. They moved.”

“We discovered that today when we found the house,” explained Maria, pulling out her mother’s handkerchief. “This is the only thing we found in the house … my mother’s favorite handkerchief.” Her shoulders slumped.

Frida took the hanky. “It is beautiful.” The handkerchief was embroidered with red and green thread depicting several cacti and a heart. After a moment she said, “Well, I know they’ve moved north, to Detroit in the United States. Alfredo is an engineer and has gotten a job with Henry Ford. Diego and I have spent a lot of time in Detroit and have many friends. I recommended Alfredo to Mr. Ford, and he moved him up there.”

“Oh,” said Maria. “Did my mother go with them?”

“Was your mother Ana, their cook?”

“Yes, Ana Ortiz. She left our village last year to work here in the city. She wanted to send for us as soon as she could.” Maria looked up at Frida.

“Of course Ana went,” replied Frida. “What a wonderful cook she is. And she always talked about her beautiful children. Didn’t she write that she was going north?”

Maria shook her head.

“She must have. The letter must have been lost. Ana would never abandon you.” Frida looked down at her own cup of milk. “No mother would.” She stood. “Well, I’ll see what I can do to find your mother. Now, you must go to sleep.” She led Maria back to the guest room. “You can stay with us until we find her.”

Maria smiled with gratitude, feeling hopeful. “I guess you’re right. I’d better get some sleep. Good night.” She left Frida in the kitchen and returned to the guest bedroom.

For a moment Casa Azul was quiet except for the chirps and squeaks of the night. Then—

“Noooooooo!!!!”
screamed Maria long and loud.

Maria fell to her knees before the bed.

“Noooooooo!!!” she sobbed. “It’s empty!”

Frida and Fulang dashed into the room.

“It’s empty!”

“What’s empty?” asked Fulang.

Maria pointed at the bed. The blankets and sheet had been pulled back roughly, and Victor was gone. Curtains fluttered at the open window.

“How? Why?” gasped Frida. She bent over Maria to help her. Fulang leaped through the window to search the courtyard.

“Someone stole the kid,” said the portrait of Frida’s sister.

“Oswaldo,” said Maria as her chest heaved. “It has to be him. He
must
have been the one buying tortillas.”

“Tortillas? Who’s Oswaldo?” asked Frida with concern.

Maria explained how Oswaldo had tried to kidnap Victor earlier that day and had perhaps followed them to Lourdes.

Fulang returned. “There’s no sign of anyone.”

Frida stiffened. “Why would this boy want Victor?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but his father, Oscar, seemed very interested in my brother,” explained Maria between sobs. “He also stole my grandma’s brooch.”

Frida made eye contact with Fulang. They both held it for a moment.

“This is not good. We have to do something,” Frida said, her jaw set.

“I’m so tired of standing,” said the portrait to no one in particular, and no one answered her. Everyone had already left the room.

Help from Diego

I
t was like Frida had emerged from a long and deep sleep.

“Fulang, go find Diego,” she ordered. Even though they were now divorced, Frida wouldn’t consider doing anything without getting Diego’s help, and Diego wouldn’t without Frida.
Nothing has really changed
, thought Frida.
Diego will come and help. We are still hopelessly linked to each other
.

Fulang dashed out the window.

“Wait!” shouted Frida after her. Fulang returned.

“Is there any place your brother might go?” she asked Maria.

“The plaza in the center of the city.”

“Good,” said Frida. Then she turned to Fulang. “Take Diego to the plaza in the center of the city. We’ll meet him there in an hour.”

Suddenly Frida was her old self. The great sadness that had blanketed her was gone.

“I must sit for a minute.” Frida sat on the couch. “My leg is hurting today. There will be rain soon.”

“How do you know?” asked Maria.

“Whenever the barometer drops, the leg I shattered in my accident aches. It is doing it now.” She rubbed her leg and pointed to a cane by the door. “Could you bring me that?”

Maria got the cane and handed it to her.

Frida stood and leaned on it. “Let’s go.”

On the trolley to town, Frida took Maria’s hand. “We’ll send Alfredo a telegram first and then we’ll meet Diego.”

It was already early morning. The darkness was beginning to disappear in the dawn light. In the grand plaza, children were playing the blind game, taking turns walking through the crowds with their eyes shut, one leading, the other being led.

Children danced around, singing and laughing.

Maria almost cried. “Victor loved the blind game.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him,” said Frida grimly. “Now, where did you first meet this boy?”

“By the fountain where Viejo Ojoton sings.” Maria pointed.

The old man was playing his guitar on the same bench that Maria and Victor had been sitting on just two days before. To Maria, that seemed ages ago.

“There’s Diego! Diego!” Frida shouted and waved.

With Fulang perched on his shoulder, Diego hurried over the Frida. His massive bulk spread the crowd like a steamship in the ocean. “
Mi vida
, my life!”

“Oh, Diego! It is terrible.” Frida turned to Maria. “This girl has lost her brother and we must help her.”

Diego nodded. He did not question Frida’s quest. “Of course. Where?”

Maria, awed by being in the presence of such a famous person, explained what had happened.

“Fulang,” said Diego.

Fulang stood at attention, awaiting his direction. Though she could not speak, she could still understand.

“Go out and talk to the monkeys in the city. We must find this boy now!”

Fulang dashed away through the crowd.

They returned to Casa Azul dejected. Maria thought she might be sick. The urgency in Diego’s voice brought home once again the reality of the danger that Victor was in and how little they knew. They had searched all day for Victor and for Oswaldo’s secret cave, but they had not found either. Maria had tried to remember exactly how they had gotten to the cave from the plaza, but the city was like a maze to her. She couldn’t even find the window where she had seen the toy maker.

Still, when it became clear that they were not going to find Victor by randomly searching the streets of the city, Maria did not want to stop. Frida and Diego convinced her that they must return home to find out if there was any news from Fulang. Reluctantly, Maria agreed.

“You must eat,” Frida said as she set a plate of tamales in front of Maria.

“I’m not hungry.” Maria tucked a strand of hair behind her ear because it had been tickling her neck and looked away. “Where’s Fulang?”

“She’ll be here soon,” answered Frida.

Diego pulled the plate in front of himself and dug in. “These are good, Frida. I miss your cooking.”

“Then why’d you leave me?” Frida plopped into a chair at the table.

“I couldn’t help it,” mumbled Diego with his mouth full. “You were suffocating with me.”

Frida picked up a knife and gestured violently with it. “I’m not suffocating anymore!”

Diego put up his hands. “Frida, put down the knife. We need to worry about this poor girl and her kidnapped brother.”

Frida dropped the knife on the table. “You’re right,” she said with resignation.

Crash!
A flowerpot on the windowsill hit the floor and shattered.

“Oops! Sorry about that,” said Caimito as he skittered, off balance, through the window.

“Caimito! Where’s Fulang?” said Diego.

“Never mind that. Do you have any news?” asked Frida.

“Victor is breaking into the Federica Diamond Exchange,” replied Caimito. “Hurry! Fulang is already on her way there.” He went back out the window and scurried across the garden. Then he stopped, realizing that humans could not follow him this way. “Hurry!” he called, waiting for them to come through the doorway.

Monkey Shines

A
s Fulang entered the alley, she spotted Victor twenty feet up, hanging from the side of the Federica Diamond Exchange and Oswaldo pacing below. She could see that Victor was too frightened to move either up to the window or back down.

“Climb!” Oswaldo shouted.