Well, all that aside, Doctor Tolentino had been practicing in the Rio Abajo region since before Lorenzo of Isleta Pueblo’s time, Lorenzo, looking around ninety or so, being the oldest person living in the area that comes to mind. Doctor Tolentino not only delivered all of Sofi’s girls at home but delivered Sofi herself in that same house. So with all that familiarity (or maybe because Loca didn’t have it in her no more), Loca did not refuse to see him.

Doctor Tolentino came over with his Anglo wife the same day that Sofi called him. Now, Doctor Tolentino was not native to the area, but because his wife, the daughter of a Protestant missionary who had settled in Tome a long time ago, insisted on staying there, he had made it his home away from home, which was, as a matter of fact, actually in the Philippines.

Both Doctor Tolentino and his gringa wife spoke very good Spanish, better than anybody around there, for that matter (but then, they had studied theirs in college back East, which was where they’d met), so all the local familias had always accepted them and saw them as belonging there.

Now besides this, nobody knew much else about el Doctor Tolentino and la Mrs. Doctor. They did not even know if the Tolentinos had ever had children, for example. It appeared not, since no children were ever seen, nor mentioned for that matter. They did not know what kind of food they ate at home, neither. Like, did they eat chili and did la Mrs. Doctor ever make posole for el Doctor Tolentino? Although they never turned away little gifts of food that were offered to them in addition to or in lieu of payments for home visits.

Although nobody ever saw him, nobody knew for sure if el doctor ever went to Mass (even if the Protestant wife didn’t). Nobody knew these very personal things and nobody asked. People were just glad to have such a good doctor and assistant who never complained about being called at any time of the day or night and who would be there administering flu shots and bandages as quickly as their 1953 deluxe station wagon would get them there.

It is true, however, that by the time he came to see Loca, whom he had not seen since the day her mother gave light to her, his eyes were not what they used to be. And there was something particularly disturbing about that cough of his, especially since he smoked those smelly cigars all the time. But aside from these frailities, Doctor Tolentino looked as able as back when he had come to tell Sofi’s strong father three decades ago he’d better take it easy if he didn’t want to push his heart too much, a piece of good advice that unfortunately Sofi’s stubborn, proud father did not heed.