So it turned out that a tragic morning in Caridad’s life turned out to transform itself very much the way it is when we wake up to an overcast day and suddenly the sun breaks through. That’s how she took doña Felicia’s offer to teach her to heal.

“But I will miss my Corazón …,” she told doña Felicia. “It was my only friend …”

“I, too, am your amie—tu amiga,” doña Felicia assured Caridad, patting her hand with her shriveled one. Caridad smiled as best as she could because one look at doña Felicia and anyone could tell she wasn’t exactly destined for too many more years in this life. On the other hand, how many had she already endured, and how many wars had she witnessed, and how many children had she borne herself as well as helped bring into this world? It was very possible that doña Felicia had no intentions of leaving the earth until she said she was good and ready.

“I’m tired, doña Felicia,” Caridad said.

“Yes, I know, ma petit, go to bed, get some sleep …”

“No, I mean, I’m really tired, doña Felicia,” Caridad went on.

“Yes, I know, cheri,” doña Felicia said again. “Go to bed now. Descansa.”

Caridad let doña Felicia take her to her room and put her under the covers. She did not even change out of her orderly’s uniform nor remove her “pantinghose” (as doña Felicia called them), and her head had hardly touched the pillow when she went into a deep sleep.

In the meantime, doña Felicia called Sofi and told her to expect the sheriff’s office to deliver the remains of Corazón, and this was done. La Loca wanted to go to her sister but could not bring herself to travel into the unknown terrain of the city, so she prayed, as she so often had done for the women in her family. Don Domingo simply said they should never have let Caridad take the mare. For that matter it was obvious that since Caridad’s trauma, despite her unexplained physical recovery, she had no business on her own either. And by the way, did anyone get the number of the license plate of the deputy who had gone out to Caridad’s trailer?

“How the hell can you think of such things when your daughter has just had such a tragedy!” Sofi scolded her husband.

“The death of an animal always foretells something,” he replied, shrugging his shoulders. “That mare was a beautiful creature. I don’t see what’s wrong with thinking somehow its death could bring us good fortune. And anyway, I would do it for Caridad to get back some of her losses …”

Sofi lost her temper. “You can’t recuperate that kind of loss with money!”