But on Monday it all started up again. Everyone resuming their posts, and by Tuesday, instead of following Caridad to the little stucco house, Francisco just met her there at the usual time, so to speak.

When he had gone to the stucco house and suspected nobody was around, he had taken the liberty to get out of his truck to see if he could find out who lived there. On the mailbox were the names of two women. It was all a great mystery to Francisco el Penitente and he decided he couldn’t continue not knowing why his sweeter-than-the-nectar-from-a-trumpet-vine Caridad spent every night in vigilance there, so he went to ask doña Felicia, who, being the one who seemed to know Caridad best, most assuredly would know something.

Of course he was going to be tactful. The last thing he wanted his nina Felicia to suspect of him was that he was in love with Caridad, not because it wasn’t true, but because it wasn’t true. At least, he wasn’t in love in the base human sense of the word. But after a couple of doña Felicia’s fried papita tacos with green chile, he found himself just blurting out the question that had brought him to visit his godmother: “Who are Maria and Esmeralda, nina?”

Doña Felicia stopped and looked up, scanning the brown rain spots on the ceiling, like a Serbian fortune-teller searching a coffee demitasse, as if somehow the answer were there. “Esmeralda … and Maria … ¡Ah, sí!”

“Who are they, nina?” Francisco asked again, aware that he felt himself tense waiting for the response. He had caught a glimpse of these women that very morning. They both looked Indian maybe, or of mixed blood, or maybe hispanas. He had been out there waiting in hopes of seeing them and that is what happened as they both left the house together, he guessed on their way to their jobs. They were holding hands and laughing and gave each other a little peck on the cheek, before one got into the truck and the other in the VW.

Who were they and why did Caridad keep vigil in front of their house every night, all night? And why, oh why, could he not let it all rest, and go home and sleep himself, instead of watching Caridad watch the stucco house sunset to sunrise?

“Esmeralda is kind of a friend of Caridad’s,” doña Felicia said, as if carefully selecting the words to reveal this information that was obviously so important to Francisco. But the truth was that doña Felicia was just not really sure who Maria and Esmeralda were. She remembered the names right away. She knew they came by to see her and Caridad. Maria had chronic neck pains and came for sobasos, which doña Felicia administered. They both seemed to have enormous regard for Caridad, but as with most people, Caridad recoiled and had hardly ever spoke to them. But it was the one named Esmeralda who doña Felicia got the impression had made the initial contact with Caridad, although Caridad never did explain to doña Felicia how she came to meet them.