And so, upon hearing his country and his president disparaged in this manner, Carter might have been inclined to look the other way had he been back home in America and had heard it from another American. But he was not back home now; he was away, on foreign soil. The insult had issued forth unprovoked from a foreigner, a non–family member, and it rankled Carter. He took it very much to heart, and he glared at Alfonso in a way that made the others fall quiet and step back a discreet step or two.

“Ayyy, what did I tell you all?” cried Elena, suddenly appearing at Carter’s side. She shook her head at her friends. “Didn’t I say no politics? It’s Friday night, time for fun, so give it a rest!” Then, in English to Carter, she whispered, “Don’t pay them your attention, Carter. All they like do is make arguments about nothing all night long.”

With that, Elena seized Carter by the hand and began to drag him back across the piazza toward her car.

“Elena, where are you going now?” called Agostina, one of her girlfriends.

“A mangiare,” she called back over her shoulder. “We’re going to eat dinner.We’ll meet you all later at the club!”

Carter had assumed they would have dinner at one of the restaurants right there in town, but at reaching Elena’s car she motioned for him to get in the passenger’s side, while she climbed in behind the wheel. When the engine growled to life, Elena stepped on the gas and accelerated away from the curb so quickly that Carter’s head snapped back against the headrest. Before he knew it, they were tearing down the road at a dizzying speed. Carter’s first instinct was to reach for his seat belt, but he saw that Elena was not wearing hers, so he left his unbuckled lest she think him faint of heart. His fingernails digging into the leather of his seat, he did his best to show a brave face as they careened around the corner and flew down the street out of town.