Okay, this is a VERY Important Chapter, in which karma and destiny and the Universe smacks both Leed and Ashlynn around and the consequences will be both swift and horrible and long-term and fateful. If you think we've had drama up til this point...well it's cresting here and we'll be riding the wave through the rest of the book!
Song is Bambina by Vampire Weekend. I know, I know, that's Italian, not Spanish, but I think the lyrics are Prophetic for Ashlynn and Leed and Luis..."My Christian heart cannot withstand/the thundering arena/I'll see you when the violence ends/for now, ciao ciao bambina " (or bambino as the case may be)
Who's Luis, you ask? Well, read on...
Ashlynn
Before I can even regain my footing from being jerked backwards, I feel the weight around my shoulder gone, and a boy is running away behind me. I look down and realize that he slashed the strap of my crossbody bag and he's making off with it.
"Hey!" I yell, and automatically take off after him, narrowly avoiding crashing into a moving moped. Our passports are in that bag!
Leed overtakes me in a second and is dead after the kid, dodging cafe tables, market stalls and pedestrians. By the time I catch up with them, a block later, Leed has the kid by the shoulders, bent over him, breathless, trying to hold on while the kid struggles to get away.
He can't be more than ten years old. He's clean, but his clothes are worn, his hair is longish and shaggy. His defiant expression makes him look older and savvier than a ten year old should.
Leed is trying to speak to the kid in low tonesâagain in a few phrases of broken Spanish.
"Your legs work good, but not your Spanish," the kid mutters in English. He looks up into Leed's faceâdefiant, dark eyes glittering. "Let me go."
Leed does not let go. "Lucky for me your English is better than your quarter mile. Listen up: give my girlfriend her bag back."
The kid sighs and hands it over. I bite my lip, because it's on the tip of my tongue to say "thanks" to the little thief. He's a cute little fella, or he would be if his brows weren't furrowed and he weren't scowling at us.
"Why did you take it?" I ask.
The kid shrugs. "For money."
Most people are ignoring the little scene we are causing but a couple of people have come out of a shop across the street are pointing at us. "Let me go, that old guy hates me."
Leed gives the shopkeeper a brief glance. "You steal from him too?"
"When I have to. Let me go before the Paco comes."
"Are you hungry?" I ask, offering him the bag of fruit and nuts I just bought.
He shakes his head. "They feed us at Hogarcito."
"Hogarcito?" Leed asks.
"Where I live. I eat there. I go to school. I learn English, there. They say we will need it. But I don't need it," he sneers.
I'm looking up the word Hogarcito on my phone. It means "little house" but in this boy's case, I think it means a specific little house.
"Leed..."I murmur, and show him the picture of the brightly painted dwelling on my phone with the word Hogarcito spelled neatly on a handpainted sign out front. Beneath the picture, my phone helpfully tells me that Hogarcito is a home for children without families.
The little old man across the street is calling to us in rapid Spanish. Leed flashes him a smile. "No pasa nada," he calls to the shopkeeper with a wave of his hand. Still gripping the kid by the collar, he takes me by the other hand and walks us in the opposite direction of the shop.
"Let me go," the kids repeats.
"What's your name?" Leed asks, ignoring the question.
"If I tell you will you let me go?"
I smile at the kid. His attitude reminds me of Trace, when Old Man Donner would corner him.
"No, kid, I won't. I'm stronger than you, faster than you, and meaner than you. Right now, you're gonna take me to the place you live, and while we walk there, you're gonna tell me your name and why you are stealing."
I smile at Leed's dry tone. Stronger and faster? Yes, he just established that. Meaner? There's not a mean bone in Leed's body. The kid looks up at me, his face assessing, like he's trying to figure out if he should be scared.
"He's not really mean. But he is used to getting his way. Best to cooperate."
I wink at Leed over the boy's head, he grins at me but then gives me a bewildered shrug, like What the fuck are we supposed to do now?
"Luis," the child mumbles.
"That's your name?" Leed asks. "Luis?" He perfectly copies the kid's pronunciation, putting accent and mild hiss on the second syllable.
The kid nods. "I'm Leed," my Lion says, tapping his chest. "That's Ashlynn," he points at me.
Luis gives me a slightly guilty glance and sighs. "Sorry. But I need the money and you two look rich."
"How you figure?" Leed grumbles. Our clothes are just regular mallwear and we aren't wearing any jewelry except what we've bought in country. Leed was adamant that we look very low-key, especially since we weren't bringing West.
"You're both too beautiful not to be rich," the kid says matter-of-factly. "You can afford to lose the money in the bag."
"It's not about that, Luis," I say softly. "Our passports, my phone, all of our ID and travel documents are in that bag. It would have been a big problem for us, if we lost all that."
"Well, you are really messing me up,too, you know. I will be in so much trouble now."
"You should have thought about that before you resorted to a life of crime, Luis," Leed tells him firmly. We've come to an intersection. "Which way?" Leed demands.
Half an hour later, we are on the outskirts of the town at Hogarcita. Luis has still refused to tell us why he wanted the money.
When we enter the open courtyard of the orphanage, where lots of children Luis' age are playing, a thin older white woman with a gray ponytail, bustles toward us in jeans and a tank top, completely ignoring us and firing at Luis in rapid Spanish. He tries to fire back but she cuts him off with a hand to his face.
She looks between us for the first time. "Thank you for bringing my lost lamb home. He is not supposed to be at the market without one of the older kids..." she gestures to a group of girls that look like teenagers, who are talking together at a picnic table. "Did he steal from you?"
Leed scratches his chin. "What? Uhhhhm. No...no...that would be...crazy. Cute little kid like this? No. We were just worried about him, alone out there..."
I lower my head to hide my smile as he squeezes Luis shoulder. This man. So sweet. He doesn't have the heart to rat our little thief out.
The woman makes a dismissive sound, looking at Luis suspiciously, and then at me. I try to put my bag with the cut strap behind my back but she see is. She looks at Leed again.
"You are a bad liar."
"Yeah, I get that a lot," he says grimly.
The woman leans down and fires more Spanish at Luis, and his shoulders slump in defeat.She points a finger toward a door and he skulks toward it, kicking rocks.
Just before he enters, he glares at Leed. "Double chores for a week. Thanks, asshole."
Leed laughs, but the woman hisses at him in Spanish again and he disappears.
With her hands on her hips, she sighs in exasperation and turns back to us. "I'm sorry. He's not a bad child but he's...had a hard time."
"We didn't come here to complain about your resident pick-pocket." Leed stares around at the the neat little complex of buildings and then at me. He raises his eyebrows at me, and I know what he is thinking.
"We thought maybe there was a reason Luis was stealing," I tell the woman. "If your facility has needs, maybe we can help."
She smiles at me, putting out her hand. "That's nice of you. My name is Laurie Davis."
"Ashlynn Ballard. This is..." I look over at Leed, thinking about his passport and travel documents, suddenly wondering if he wants to remain incognito. "Oliver Lawson," I say with a smirk. He gives me a slight eye roll but he shakes her hand.
"Most people call me Leed," he tells her.
She stares at him for a minute, like she's recognizing him. She's clearly American and I wonder what her story isâhow she ended up running an orphanage in Costa Rica.
She blinks, apparently unable to place Leed. "Well, Leed, Ashlynn...thank you for bringing Luis home, and it's not that I don't appreciate the offer of help, but we get a lot of young people with good intentions, wanting to help out for a day or two. It usually causes more disruption for the kids than good." A bell rings and all the children on the play ground rise, as if conditioned. "And I have a class to teach..."
Leed pulls out the black American Express card from his wallet.
"You know what this is?"
She stares at the card. "It means you're very rich, to have a card like that." She looks at him again. "You're that rock star, aren't you?"
"Yeah. So we aren't just some bleeding heart college kids. I would maybe consider...helping out with a substantial donation...if you can show me you run a good ship here. Your place looks nice, but are there things the kids need that you don't have? Is that why Luis steals?"
She still has her hands on her hips. She turns to one of the older girls and tells her to start the lesson without her, and gestures us into the front door of Hogarcita. She leads us through the clean and neat facility, introducing us to a couple of adult staff members and showing us the large empty dorm for the two dozen older children, the industrial kitchen where the lunch being prepared smells delicious, the classroom where the older kids are working right now, and then we move on to the nursery.
My tears were already near, thinking that the kids here couldn't possibly get enough love and attention from three or four staff members. But there are five babies under two in this facility and they are mostly watched by the teenage girls. "Most children's homes only house children until they are twelve or so," Laurie comments as she asks one of the teenagers about one of the babies diaper rash.
"Where do they go after that?" I ask.
She smiles at me sadly. "To the streets. That's why I keep the older girls as long as I can." She nods at the two teenage girls. "Because they fall victim to sex traffickers."
Leed sighs. A baby girl with dark curls toddles over to me and reaches up her arms to me. I automatically pick her up. I feel tears fall even as I smile at her.
Laurie smiles. "That's Beatriz. She's a very sweet baby but her chances of being adopted are not so good."
"Why?" Leed asks.
"Because Costa Rican Law will not allow siblings to be separated. She has three older siblings here with us. Most people aren't looking to adopt four children all at once."
"No, I imagine not," Leed says grimly. "What happened to their parents?"
"Their mother is a prostitute," she shrugs. "She keeps having babies and the state takes them and places them here. Most of the kids in these homes are the same."
Leed smiles at the curly headed baby in my arms and frowns a little at me. "Don't smell her," he murmurs. "They get in your heart like that, and I can't have you leaving here broken-hearted Sunshine."
Laurie laughs at him and looks between us. "So this is strictly a philanthropy inquiry? You're sure you aren't considering adoption?"
I blink. "We...no. We aren't married."
Laurie shrugs. "Lots of single people adopt children. You don't have to be married."
"I...I...no," I say gently, smoothing the baby's curls. "I'm nowhere near ready for that." I give the baby back to her caregiver with reluctance.
Leed replaces my empty arms with hug and a kiss on the top of the head. "You can't take these kids home, Sunshine. But...maybe we can do something for them..."
"I know," I tell him.
Leed's hand roams my back in comfort as he says to Laurie, "You never told us why Luis is stealing."
"He's a special case. Come. I'll tell you about him."
There is a tiny reception area and she ushers us past it into an office piled with files. We sit before her overburdened desk.
"It takes a lot of paperwork to run a place like this..." she mutters. "To keep my government funding. We do okay with keeping everyone clothed and fed and their basic needs met. But of course there are many more things we would like to have for the childrenâtechnology for the school, more money for better health services, a travel budget to take the children on trips, play money for toys and sporting equipment," she gives Leed a quick glance. "Musical instruments and formal instruction," Leed gives me a knowing grin at the way she slipped that one in there, "But none of that is why Luis steals." She searches through a pile of files on the floor. She spreads it across the desk. There is a picture of Luis and a familyâhim at maybe five or six in the midst of a smiling young mother and father and a baby girl a little older than Beatrizâin pigtails.
"Luis is not like most of the children hereâborn to prostitutes or teenage mothers. Luis had a mother, father, a baby sister. From what the things he says, he remembers a happy familyâuntil the father was arrested for some petty, nonviolent crimeâ" she searches the file, "credit card fraud, it says here.
"Without the father, things became difficult. The mother fell into depression and stopped caring for Luis and Elena. Luis was maybe six, but he tried to take care of his sister and his mother. There was no money for food, so he started begging and thieving food. One day while he was out scrounging, his baby sister accidentally wandered away from the home. She was found a week later, dead from exposure."
It's crazy how pain can rock through you for strangers, for people you never met. But Leed and I both feel the shock of her death. His hand reaches for mine, and our fingers wrap tight even as we are both holding our breath.
"Louis was seven, at the time. The state placed him here for his safety. His father was killed in a prison riot and his mother...well...she lost all hope. She has since become a prostitute herself. There was a time that she perhaps could have gotten Luis back, but the state terminated her parental rights last year after an incident in which her pimp tried to coax Luis away from here, using her as bait. I try very hard to keep him on a short leash--I have two girls out looking for him right nowâbut he's stubborn and very slippery. He runs away to town to steals flowers from a shopkeeper for his sister's grave. I suspected he was picking pockets, too, but you are the first time he's been caught. The little bugger probably has a cash horde somewhere. He thinks his mother will come back for him one day, and they will need money to live."
"Jesus." Leed's face is ashen, and I know that Luis story hits close to home for him. He's thinking of his broken family, of his mother's lack of nurturing, of how he took care of Mac practically his whole life. I squeeze his hand and he gives me a wan smile in thanks for the comfort.
"Luis seems like a very bright and capable boy. He's adorable really, picking pockets aside," I say. "Why hasn't he been adopted?"
Laurie shrugs. "Most people want babies. And the candidates that have been interested in Luis...well, he sabotages the process every time. He doesn't want to be adopted. He wants his mother."
"I see."
Leed is looking down at the file with Luis and his sister's pictures. He closes it, like it's just too much. "So what's your story? How did an American end up running an orphanage in Costa Rica?"
Laurie's face is expressionless as she opens a desk drawer and places a stack of flyers on the desk, with the name Megan Davis beneath the "Missing" header. Megan is a blonde teenage girl but from the hair and clothes I would say the picture was probably taken in the nineties. "My daughter Megan came to Costa Rica for spring break her freshman of college with a group of friends. She didn't come home. Local police suspected foul playâher new boyfriend that came with her. But I didn't believe she was dead. I came down here, determined to find her. I swore I wouldn't go home until I found Megan. I had the means to stayâ although I have long since run through my funds. After a few years, I accepted the fact she was gone, but I wanted justice and I tried to piece together her disappearance. There was never any evidence. I didn't believe the police at first when they suspected her boyfriend, but over time I kept tabs on him. Now my gut tells me, he knows what happened to her, but he has never admitted a thing, there is no evidence, and all their friends corroborated his alibi. Nothing every came of my amateur detective work. It was nearly a decade before I realized, I needed purpose, not vengeance. I couldn't help Megan, but I could help these children."
I'm listening to Laurie's story with empathy but I can't take my eyes off Megan's picture. She seems so familiar to me...
"You look so much like her," Laurie smiles at me, and I jerk, realizing in that moment why she looks so familar to me. Laurie is rightâwe do look alike. And I've seen Megan's picture once before.
I put a hand to my face to cover my horror. "You're right. I'm...I'm sorry. That must be very strange for you."
"It's alright," Laurie says kindly. "For a long time I thought I saw her everywhere. And she would be forty now. Nearly old enough to be your mother."
There's an awkward silence as Leed stares at the picture, too, then at me. I don't look him in the eye. The down side of Leed's incredible sensitivity is that he can read my emotions.
Like now.
He feels my horror for Megan and empathy for her mother and he squeezes my hand and kisses it, then clears his throat. "Laurie, I'm so sorry about your daughter. Truly. I can see you must be an incredible woman, to turn such a personal loss into helping other people. So, I'd like to help you. Make a wish list. Ashlynn and I will spend the day shopping for Horgacita to get you guys what you urgently need and we'll take the rest of the list to MdM Philanthropies."
"MdM Philanthropies..." Laurie's eyes are wide. "You know...Matt and Marianne del Marco?"
He chuckles. "Yeah, they are...practically family. I guess you don't keep up much with celebrity gossip, huh?"
Laurie smiles. "No, I'm a little busy."
"Well, I do know them. Fairly well. Before I make any promises other than a shopping spree, I'd like to talk all this over with Marianne del Marco because she's way more experienced with philanthropy than I am, but I will tell you that I'm thinking...maybe with her help and my underwriting, we could explore giving your outfit more long-term support."
Laurie blinks. "That's incredibly generous. It's...it's hard for me to comprehend how you could turn Luis stealing from you into...this kind of offer."
"Let's just say...I know what it's like to have your family explode at seven years old. Plus, Luis reminds me very much of one of my best friends, and I'm a softie for a bad-ass kid who's gotten a raw deal from life."
I find myself smiling and tearing up again. So, I was right about Leed empathizing with Luis, and it wasn't just me that saw something of Trace's wounded soul in Luis. My body feels like a battlefield, with all the mixed emotions running through it. A sorrow for the little boy who wants a family back that he can't have, a deep dread in my stomach when I look at Megan Davis' picture, a heart bursting with pride for Leed's giving nature.
Laurie stares at Leed for a long moment. "You're a very unusual person, Leed Lawson."
He grins at her. "I'd say we have that in common, Laurie Davis."
She nods, then she pulls a notebook toward her and starts making a list.
An hour later, the children are being released from their afternoon lessons as Laurie escorts us into the courtyard. I search for Luis. He's playing hacky-sack with some other boys. When I approach, the two other boys beam at me with their "adopt-me" smiles. One says, "You're a pretty mama," I laugh at him and give him and his friend a piece of chocolate from my market stash. I offer one to Luis but he crosses his arms and says, "A piece of chocolate does not make up for the double chores your boyfriend got me."
I nod. "I guess not. But you got yourself in trouble, Luis. You know that, right?"
He picks dirt off the hacky sack. "You're nice. I shouldn't have stolen from you."
"You shouldn't steal period. If you keep going like this, you might never be happy again."
He turns away from me and throws the hacky sack at one of his friends, hitting him in the back. The boy turns, sneaks a look at Laurie who is still chatting with Leed, and hurls the ball back hard, right at Luis' face. He doesn't flinch, he just shoots a lightening fast hand up and catches the ball. I bite back my smile and try again with Luis.
"Luis, I'm sorry that you miss your family. You will never stop missing them, but you might have a different kind of family one day. You might find something good again, if you try to go down a better path."
"What does a pretty rich girl from America know about it?"
"My family got messed up, too. After that, I started stealing, too," I say softly, and his dark moody eyes snap to me.
"Why?"
"Because like you, I thought I needed to. I had a drug habit. You're right, I'm rich, by your standards, and sometimes I didn't need to steal, but when I would use all the money available to me, I would steal."
He looks at me curiously. "What would you steal?"
I shrug. "Drugs, money, jewelry to sell, other expensive things from rich people's houses. I did other bad things. I was mixed up with bad men, sometimes."
His eyes fire, and I know he is thinking of his mother. I bite my lip, not wanting to give him too much hope for her, because I don't know enough about her or how things work in the countryâI don't know if she could ever be his mother again. So, I simply say, "I was lost down a bad road myself, and my boyfriend and some other friends came and found me there and help me find a happier road again. And now, I have family again, thanks to them." I turn Luis toward Leed. "He's a good manâand like you say, a rich manâ and he wants to help you and all your friends here."
"He wants to buy things for us?" Luis says softly.
"Some things. We are going in to San Jose to buy computers for your school and toys for your playground, and maybe some music instruments. But maybe he can figure out how to help in bigger ways, too."
He looks suspicious. "Why would he do that, when I stole from you?"
"Because some things happen for a reason," I smile at Luis. "Maybe we were supposed to meet you today. Maybe even though you did something wrong, maybe some good was supposed to come out of it."
He snorts. "You sound like Laurie."
"Maybe that's not a bad thing," I wink at him. Leed and Laurie are strolling over.
Leed swoops the hacky sack from Luis and kicks it.
"Hey, that's mine," the kid snarls.
Leed keeps kicking it. "That's kind of ironic for you to say, Swiper."
Luis shoves his hands in his pockets. "You can keep it."
Leed kicks the ball up high and catches it with a flourish. He holds it out to Luis. "I don't want your sack, man. But I do need your help. Ashlynn and I have some shopping to do, and our Spanish is terrible. Laurie says I can borrow a translator. What do you say? Will you do me a solid, and ride down to San Jose with us, make our shopping trip less stressful? We'll bring you back tomorrow."
Luis is working on a rock star face, but he's nowhere as good as the real rock stars I know. His eyes widen slightly before he remembers not to look excited.
"Will we stay in a hotel?" he asks.
"Yup."
"Will there a swimming pool?"
"Mmmm-hmmmm." Leed says casually, gesturing at me for the chocolate bar I'm holding. He unwraps it, snaps off a piece.
"And room service?" Luis asks.
"You can order whatever you want, but if you eat too much ice cream and cake and puke on the ride back tomorrow, I'm leaving you on the side of the road."
Leed chews the small piece and casually hands Luis the rest of the bar. Luis takes a big bite and gives Leed an eye roll. "I can handle my dessert, dude."
Leed gives him a chin tip. "Go pack your shrap."
"Shrap?" Luis look from one adult to another. "I...I don't...know that word."
"Well, I guess your English isn't so great after all, is it?" Leed says coolly. "Hurry up, kid, it's an hour to San Jose and we've got stuff to do."
Luis looks at Laurie questioningly. She nods.
"Go fold two sets of clothes and some shorts you can swim in. Ask Isabel for a going home kit to put them in."
His demeanor changes again. He stiffens. "I'm not going home with them."
Leed snorts. "Kid, I gotta kid already. I just need a translator for the night. Are you coming with or have I gotta ask your bud over there instead?" He points to the boy who Luis has some kind of hacky sack rivalry with.
That seals the deal. "Julian? His English sucks. I better go."
When he comes back with his bag, Luis holds up a needle and thread. "Your bag, please. I'll fix the strap. It's a long walk back to town, you'll want to wear it."
I hand over my bag and walk away. Leed follows me and wraps his arms around from behind as I breathe and try to blink back tears. "You gotta toughen up a little bit, Sunshine. We can't do this if you're gonna lose your shit over every one of them...unless...maybe you just want to leave it to Marianne. Or maybe Kat..."
I slide around in his arms, hugging him tightly. "No, I want to help. I'm tough enough for this, believe me."
He bites his lip. "Maybe this should be your baby. I mean...your project with Marianne's guidance. She doesn't do much international philanthropy, and she's deep in her new domestic violence foundation. This might be a stretch for her. I know you have your own plans, but..." he sighs. "I've been thinking, ever since the disaster with the acroyoga class. As long as we are together, you probably aren't going to be able to teach yoga like a regular person, you know that,right? My fame is your fame...it won't work. For you or the students."
"I know. Gabe and I already talked about that. Paps kept showing up to the mom-baby yoga class and making the new mothers uncomfortable. Plus...I'm always canceling, because of travel, or Cam, or because I want to be with you and Ollie..."
He strokes my cheek. "I'm sorry. I don't want to rule your world with my lifestyle, Ashlynn. But I'm selfish and I want you, even at the cost to your plans. How do you feel about that?"
"I want you, tooâ way more than I want to be a yoga instructor. There are lots of great yoga instructors in the world. This..." I look gesture to the school, "is something not everyone is in a position to do. I can put my own money in, too. This is finally something I can do to pay Trace's generosity forward."
"You're sure? This is moving crazy fast," Leed says.
"I'm sure. Plans change sometimes, right?" I look into his eyes.
His eyes pan the playground and then return to me. He brushes my hair out of my face, and takes a deep breath. "Plans change all the time," he smiles.
Well now, what do you think of this turn of events?
Let's just say, their final words in this chapter about things moving crazy fast and plans changing all the time...that's foreshadowing people. More crazy changes coming!!
Guess what? If you'll forgive my editing mistakes, I'll give you a double update today...