“Not immediately, we’ll have to wait. The boy must be twelve years old. That is the age indicated by the Darkness.”

“Are you going to try with others, first?”

“The attempt has not been forbidden us.”

“You won’t lack candidates,” I said.

“Your son is the continuation,” they repeated. “You can go on living the normal life we promised until the moment comes. The Rite will be held in ten years. The medium and the Recipient must be preserved with life for ten years.”

“I want you to demand less of the medium, then. If you want him to live for another ten years, you’ll have to space out the Ceremonials even more. You had to resuscitate him yesterday. Jorge is planning more surgeries. He can’t keep that up for so long. We have already talked about this too many times.”

“My agreement with the medium can be renegotiated. The Ceremonials are already held when he wants to do them. I’m not going to go to war when there is good news. We’re all a little worked up. The important thing is that we can go on. Be happy, dear. Your family will be the one to bring the future.”

I finished the wine in several sips and asked permission to go outside to think. Of course, Florence said. We understand. It’s so much responsibility! Today, no one in the world is more important than you. Of course you need to be alone.

When the door closed, I walked as slowly as I could until I was sure they couldn’t hear me. Then I ran toward the river. I went down the steps so fast that I was out of breath when I got to the beach. I sat down, dried my sweat with my skirt, and dug my big toe into the sand. I had come the long way around the house to get to the beach. I couldn’t go back to Gaspar and Juan yet, or to Tali and Stephen. I had to compose myself. I needed to find out what I thought beyond my first reaction.

I had birthed a replacement for Juan’s body. Maybe I had known it all along.

I looked at the brown water swirled with oil from the boats. The circularity of the process seduced me. It was closure. I had seen the medium summon the Darkness for the first time, in the jungle: I had found him. We had fallen in love. That was inevitable. I had given him a son in the same place he revealed himself to me. Finally, I would offer him that body as a means to remain alive. The Darkness had guided me by the hand every step of the way. I was the real priestess. Not those three crones.