He knows of a pond close to some pine forests, a place where the sunsets seem like another world. They could build a wooden cabin in the style of the old fishermen’s shacks. They’d buy a used jeep so Soon could go to the city once she gets her driver’s license. Maybe by then she’ll have a friend, and they can see movies or go shopping together. He, Old Man, isn’t crazy about the movies, and much less about shopping!, but he understands that Soon could have other needs.

We need to plan this more slowly, he says, there’s no rush, and Soon is invaded, suddenly, by the suspicion that he’s giving her the runaround. How can there be no rush? It’s a matter of days, or hours, before they catch her! Old Man raises his wounded, badly bandaged hand. Easy, he says. I swear we’ll do it. Later on, but we’ll do it, he repeats, and he points at her: as long as what happened the other day never happens again. What happened the other day can never, ever happen again!

She nods, promises, even laughs.

Finally, a promise that’s easy to keep.

Part Two

THE CAFÉ

YOU’VE GROWN, SOON. You’re fourteen now. You’re more than fourteen!

But he can’t call her More. What an ugly name. She can still be Soon, if she wants! Soon to be fifteen. Soon to be sixteen! She’ll always be something else soon. She has her whole life ahead of her.

Old Man has changed, too. His face is thinner, and two new wrinkles run down his cheeks from top to bottom, as though sliced by a razor. He is also paler. Have you been sick?, Soon asks, and he makes an ambiguous gesture with his head, maybe a negation, but only maybe. She thinks about the days he spent in a cell before they exonerated him. She heard that they didn’t give him the medication he needed and that, despite his nervous fits, no doctor came to see him. She didn’t even know that Old Man took medication, or that he could suffer fits. There were a lot of things she didn’t know about him.

Soon is no longer a marshmallow. Or at least it’s been a long time since anyone said she was. Marga switched schools and took most of the nicknames with her. In fact, when she left, the whole school put an end to that phase. But “marshmallow” is a concept that Soon still hasn’t managed to shake off entirely. A concept that has to do with the way she pulls down her shirt to hide her body, or wears long sleeves in spite of the heat. With the hair hanging over her face and her baggy clothes.

Now, when she hears Old Man calling her Soon again, she’s overcome by a deep happiness mixed with regret and nostalgia. I’m really sorry, Old Man, she says, I’m sorry for everything you went through because of me. Because of her? No, no, no. Old Man shakes his head hard. Why would it be Soon’s fault?