Dalia chose to remain silent. The tears were falling down her cheeks all the way to the floor. Emmanuel stayed on the couch, processing everything the woman had said. He could also see that she needed to be alone, at least for a few minutes. When he first found her he felt tempted to call the pres. She was right, no one on Aurum would believe him, but the press was as powerful as the State. But when he saw how worried she was about the kids, genuinely worried, he decided he would wait until she was at her house.
"Could you wait after Easter?" Dalia had emerged from the kitchen after she had washed her face and composed herself. She filled her glass one more time. The bottle was almost over. She poured the last bit into his glass. He looked puzzled, so Dalia felt she needed to explain further "The kids at school and I are preparing a recital for the Sunday Easter mass" she added, this time taking her time to savour the wine.
"A dance recital?" he sounded surprised, and Dalia nodded, not even ashamed at the reason. "You want to stay for a dance recital? With kids?" Emmanuel was starting to sound stupid and Dalia fought the urge to laugh.
"I am a teacher at the school, yes" he rose his eyebrows surprised by that statement and Dalia rolled her eyes, annoyed by the judgemental way he was looking at her. "What?" she barked the question.
"Nothing. I just didn't know that they'd hire someone to teach dance at a school so... small" She knew that wasn't the adjective he was looking for, but he couldn't blame him. She had thought the same when she first set foot on the place. But she had learned to love the school, and everything about Delcahue.
"If you must know, I'm not a dance teacher. Officially they pay to teach English. I dance with them because I want to" He saw she was getting defensive, so he didn't say anything. "How did you know to look for me at the school, anyway?" The curiosity got the best of her.
"I asked at the market for a woman of your description. Although they didn't know any Dalia." For the first time in hours, she saw a sincere smile from here, which caught her off guard, but she was not going to get relaxed.
"I'm Louanne now" she didn't see any point to lie to him. He already had her trapped in a corner. She wanted to ask again if he would wait after Easter, but she didn't want to push her luck. She figured that if there was no one looking for her that second, it meant that he hadn't told anyone.
"Did your fiancé know about your plan?" The question was more of an accusation, but the way he had asked made Dalia feel bad for the man. She knew her plan had been perfect, to the last detail. It hadn't failed because she was not careful in her planning but because she had gotten so comfortable in her new life that she had forgotten about the risks.
"He was never my fiancé" she stated like it was obvious "and yes. He knew the end-game, but not the details" she didn't know what had gotten over her, but she told him the truth, something she hadn't done in a long time, not really.
"You are conniving and manipulative" he started. The words felt like daggers to Dalia "but you are smart. Not even the intelligence services could find you" the amazement in his voice had betrayed them, but he had to admit he was surprised. He hadn't imagined a girl like her could pull off a stunt like she did.
"You did" she shrugged and drank some more of her wine, relaxing herself a bit on her armchair. She saw that his wine was almost over so she looked at the glass and then at him and he shook his head.
"I have to get back to the shithole hotel I got stuck with." she laughed genuinely at his words. The only hotel in the island was in fact horrible. "I'll give you until Easter." With that, he stood up and nodded at a dumb folded Dalia before he went straight for the door and left her speechless.
When Susanna got back Dalia had already put the glasses away and was getting ready for bed. They talked for a while about the date and their plans for the following day and they went to bed. But Dalia couldn't sleep for a minute. She kept replaying he day, minute by minute, every single word they'd said. But the thing that kept her up all night was the fact that he had agreed to give her until Easter, which was more than two months away.
On the following day, Emmanuel had the good sense of not crossing her while Dalia was with her friend. She was taking a boat around the island with her friends, Monica, Susanna and Nicolás, so he just decided to look around for better accommodations in the town, but he came out empty.
The group had decided to make the best of the last sunny days before the fall would take over the island, so they rented a boat to go around the entire Chiloé peninsula. Dalia could see that she liked Nicolás; she had known her enough time to understand that she wanted to keep seeing him, but she also knew her friend was realist, so she was trying to make the best of the day she had left.
"You've been distracted today," Monica said when she found Dalia in the front of the boat, alone, looking at nowhere in particular. "Does it have something to do with the man that found you, Dalia?" the way she said her real name was not in an accusatory manner. The blonde woman turned to look at the other one with guilt written all over her face.
"How long have you known?" At the question the black haired woman smiled with kindness and motioned for them to sit down at the prow.
"After new year's" once they were sitting down, Monica squeezed her hand lightly, as if to reassure her that she wasn't mad "You kept looking at your phone, waiting for someone to call you. But you never speak to anyone on your phone. And then you kept searching for news about your country. At first I thought you were just weird, but then I looked it up. From then it wasn't hard to connect two and two together"
"I am sorry" she felt like she had been apologizing for days, about everything. Like she had been trying to justify her decisions to everyone and she felt tired. She felt like she wanted to jump on the ocean and let the tides carry her away.
"I can't say I understand, but I don't judge you. And you don't have to give me an explanation, not if you don't want to. Just know that you don't have to hide things from me. I wouldn't give you away" Monica finished and squeezed her hand again before rising again and going over to the back of the boat, where her brother and Susanna where.
On Sunday morning Susanna left. She was worn, from knowing her time there was getting to an end, and because she hadn't slept in two days. When they said goodbye, she had cried, because she felt that was the last time she was ever going to see her again.
She had been giving her situation a lot of though. She knew she had gotten herself into a mess she couldn't see a way out of. But she knew enough about politics to know that problems were better dealt with and that if you had an enemy you had to keep them close. When she arrived at the hotel her determination was admirable. She knocked on the door she had been instructed.
"You can stay in my home" She proclaimed once the door opened. The man in front of her looked at her like she had grown a second head. "You stay out of my way when I'm there. You stay out of my room and I'll stay out of yours. You can track my every movement, to know I am not going anywhere. When the time comes, you know where I'll be. You don't talk to me if it's not necessary and you don't tell anyone who I am" the pace she was speaking was calm, but definitive "Take it or leave it" and with just a nod, they had an arrangement.
YOU ARE READING
72 Hours
רומנטיקה"That was so corny" That was Dalia's response. He took the bracelet and locked it in her wrist "And we've been engaged since I was 5" "Yes, I know. My parents felt the need to wait until I was in love and off age to tell me" he retorted. "See. I hav...
