Nori slipped the tray of tarts into the oven and began to clean up. She was older now and understood that the religion Mariko and Jelly sought had to do with hope. She couldn’t blame them for leaning toward the side of faith. It was something she’d always hung on to when she was young, even if she didn’t know it back then. The only difference was she hadn’t found her faith in a thick black book with onionskin paper, or with a bit of water sprinkled on her head. Her savior had always been Mama.

44. The River

44

The River

By late morning on New Year’s Eve, Daniel borrowed Uncle Samuel’s truck and drove directly to the Natua house to check on Mama again. Five days had passed since both the bombing and her sudden collapse. Mama remained in a comatose state, the world between the here and the there. Daniel thought again of the little girl back in Chicago, hoping she was at least home and happy. He’d carry the scar of it for the rest of his life. He didn’t want Mama to be his second.

Auntie Leia led him to Mama’s room, bright with daylight streaming in through the opened curtains. Mama lay on her bed half covered by a sheet, arms to each side of her, tentacles of white hair spread across the pillow. She looked as if she were floating. Daniel was reassured by the slow rise and fall of her chest, the fluttering of her eyelids. Leia hovered behind him as if he could magically awaken her. But after all his years of study, all he could do was check her vitals and wait along with everyone else.

“Mama needs more care than I can give her here,” Daniel said, trying again to persuade Auntie Leia to move Mama. “She would be well cared for at the hospital.”

Auntie Leia set her steely gaze upon him. “No better care than what I can give her here, yeah,” she said, closing the door once more.

Later, when Auntie Leia left the room for a moment, Daniel leaned closer to Mama and whispered, “Wake up, Mama.” Her wrinkled face in the harsh sunlight looked calm, almost childlike. He wondered for a moment if it was such a bad place to be, shaking away the thought as he bent still closer to her ear and whispered again, “Please wake up.”

* * *