Chapter 7

It was scary to look at that sullen, bony face in the mirror and realize it was mine. There were sunken eyeballs, protruding cheekbones, pale skin. Ten months in that bed really had taken their toll. I understand why Daniella seemed to be staring at a ghost. I sure looked like one. Almost weighted like one too, 50 pounds lost in the past.
A week before, when I gave my first step, before collapsing into Pedro’s arms, I had asked for my cane. Pedro said that it had been broken on that night. Probably on my skull, I figured, but didn’t mention it. Anyway, they thought it would not be good to have it around, because of the memories it would arise, so they threw it away. I was upset, but didn’t complain. After all, it was just a cane.

They gave me a new one, though. Beautiful, also made from hard oak wood, with a carved ivory handle. I said they didn’t have to do it, but got quiet after it was clear I indeed needed it, my legs still not strong enough to support my scrawny body. Despite that, I ate like a bull. I could listen to Maria’s complaints all the way back to the kitchen every time I asked for more broth or the occasional meat they were serving me now. She took good care of me, though, as everyone else inside that house.

However, one thing did worry me. My mother was nowhere to be seen. Her health wasn’t that good even before the incident. Seeing my father dying from cancer the past decade and all our money dwindling together with him made her only a shell of the women she was before. And that shell clang to me as if I was the only thing that kept her alive. My fear blocked me from asking about her to anyone. I just hoped my worries held no substance.

Unfortunately, a few days later I discovered I was the last in my family. Pedro accidentally let it slip in a conversation about Daniella’s father that he was sorry about me losing my parents too. When he noticed the plural it was already too late. Suddenly all I had tried to ignore came back in a tsunami of emotions, and I almost drowned. It was three weeks before I tried to walk again, sulking in bed as if there was room for my face to look any more somber. But it eventually wore off and I decided I should not waste my life anymore. To not let happen to me what happened to my mother.

They invited me to stay at their home, or better, to make it my home too, since they both liked me and thought I was already part of the family. Grabbing with both hands the possibility of remaining close to Daniella, I eagerly accepted.

She was always polite, but never really relaxed while we took the short walks around her home yard, the only exercise I was allowed to make so far. We talked about many things, and soon I realized she was not only gorgeous, but also brilliant. When most women were content to be little more than a walking hat stick and coat hanger to their husbands, she had studied accounting, and was responsible for managing her family’s heirloom since her father died two years ago. A little before that, she had started to work in a respected law firm that happened to be owned by Pedro’s family. I tried to think their marriage was a convenience move, that she just did that because she needed a new parental figure in her life, but it was impossible to not see she really loved him. And why wouldn’t she? Besides loving her back with such fervor, Pedro was impossible not to love. He was always responsive, completely trustworthy and, for a lawyer, even a tad too much naive. When you were with him, you seemed to be the center of the world. He listened to my ramblings about how flawed and easy to explore our law system was, and that it needed corrections, with genuine interest.

Even then, I couldn’t hide the surprise from my face when, one month and 30 pounds later, I was given permission to start looking for a job, and he offered me one at his company. It was a small job, of course, but again, I had not graduated yet.

I was slowly getting my life back on track. The ghost in the mirror was all but gone, and in many regards I actually thought I was stronger than before. I kept studying, and in a few months I finally finished college. I had a job, good friends and a whole new life to experience. I didn’t know yet how long it would be.