Chapter 9: She Stops Waiting

Lorena did not cry over the boxes.

She stood in the doorway of her emptied room for a full minute and counted what was left.

There was a bed, a lamp and two empty coat hangers.

Then she went downstairs and found the housekeeper in the kitchen.

"I need the driver and the small van tomorrow at eight," she said.

"Señora, the señora Consuelo said everything goes to the guest house."

"The guest house is Consuelo's idea. These are mine."

The housekeeper looked at the floor, then at her.

"I'll tell the driver," she said.

At eight the next morning the three boxes went into the van.

Lorena rode in front with the drawing table folded across her knees.

It was a cheap table she had bought with her own money at nineteen, and she had not let anyone move it in a year.

Pilar met her at the workshop door.

She looked at the boxes and said, "Spare room is upstairs. Bed's made."

"I'm not moving in."

"I know. I'm saying the bed's made."

They carried the boxes up together.

Lorena set up the drawing table by the window, where the morning light came through the sawdust.

She put the pencils in the cup and the sketchbooks in a row.

It was the first time in a year she had unpacked anything.

At ten she went to a bank on Avenida Vallarta.

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