Tali ran a hand through her long hair. It was hot, but there was a wind that augured rain and moved the trees, cooling the back patio of Puerto Reyes, just in front of the garden, and beyond that the park, the guesthouse, and the rest of the property that blended with the jungle. After settling in on the cushions, she poured a mate and handed it to me. We didn’t drink it cold, even in summer. Juan was still recovering from the Ceremonial in the infirmary-bedroom, and we were near him but outside: it was unbearable in that room, with the doctors, the noisy machines, the waiting. Most of the Initiates had gone back to where they came from, and only family remained at Puerto Reyes. My father, sleeping off the alcohol on the beach. The three women, locked in with the scribes for days now. Stephen, who did stay with Juan; he was the most faithful, much more faithful even since Eddie’s death. Gaspar was at my feet, crawling around and trying to eat leaves, flowers, bugs.

“Did you take the baby in to him? It does him good.”

“Him, yes, but not Gaspar. Today he realized Juan was suffering and it took me hours to calm him down.”

“Angá, you didn’t tell me that.”

“It was just this morning.”

Tali took a jacaranda flower from Gaspar’s mouth. He was crazy about them and ate them like candy.

“I really liked that little knife.”

“Ask her where it is and she’ll give it to you. The Guaraní love to bury things, she got that habit from her grandmother.”

“When Juan gets better, we have to go back to Asunción. We can take the baby. All four of us could go.”

We were collaborating on a folk art exhibit at the Regional Museum of Asunción, and we had gotten the director to let us use a whole room for the collection of San La Muerte statues. My father had protested, but he didn’t have any authority anymore: most of the time he was so drunk he couldn’t even remember what it was he wanted. Of course, we weren’t donating the statues: the collection was simply on loan for an indeterminate period. And the most important statues would remain in Tali’s temple, in Corrientes. She would never part with the powerful ones.