I told him we might find a way to make an exception if he could get off work early some afternoon, and ended the conversation with a warm thanks for getting me into his grandfather’s office. Even if it did mean getting up again at five so I could trek across Chicagoland.

When he’d hung up, I thought again about my time with Rose Dorrado this morning. I had handled the whole situation badly, and I needed to apologize to her.

It was Josie who answered the phone. I could hear Baby María Inés squalling close at hand, and before she answered she yelled at her sister to take the child.

“It’s your baby, Julia, you do some of the work for a change…Hello? Oh, Coach, oh!”

“Josie, hi. Is your mom there? I’d like to talk to her.”

She was silent for a moment. “She hasn’t come home yet.”

I eyed a beat-up Chevy that wanted to muscle in front of me, and eased up to make room for it. “I went to the factory this morning; did she tell you that?”

“I haven’t seen her since breakfast, Coach, and now I got to figure out how to make dinner for my brothers, and everything.”

The worried undertone in her voice got through to me. “Are you worried that something’s happened to her?”

“No-o, I guess not. She called and all, she say she going—I mean, she said she had something else to do, maybe extra work, I guess, but she don’t say what, just help out with the boys’ supper, and, you know. But I already get their breakfast, ’cause Ma leaves for work before we get up, and now the baby is crying, Julia won’t help, and I got my science project.”

I could picture the crowded apartment. “Josie, put the baby to bed. She can cry for a while without it doing her any harm. Unplug the TV and do your science project in the living room. Your brothers are big enough they can open a can of something, and they can play with their Power Rangers in the dining room. You got a microwave? No? Well, you got a can of soup? Heat it up on the stove and let them eat. Your education comes first. Okay?”

“Uh, okay, I guess. But what am I going to do if this keeps on?”

“Will it?” A semi honked at me; I’d lost track of the traffic, and a big gap had opened in front of me.

“If she got another job, it will.”

“I’ll talk to your mom about it. I need to, anyway. Can you write down my number? Tell her to call me when she gets in.”