“That's beautiful,” Jenny whispered. She hurried downstairs and through the kitchen, where Kisa was slicing up a mango while a tortilla fried on the stove.
“Eat breakfast soon, Jenny!” Kisa said.
“I want to go out and look at the ocean,” Jenny said.
“Coffee?”
“Yes, please! Thanks! Want to go outside with me?”
“I make breakfast.”
“Okay. I'll be right back.” Jenny pointed towards the back door, which stood wide open to catch the open air.
Kisa smiled and nodded, possibly understanding Jenny's meaning.
Jenny walked outside. There was a huge patio paved with clay tiles, shaded by a roof. The patio had furniture arranged in clusters, like outdoor rooms—a dining table with chairs in one area, a pool table in another.
For one weird moment, the entire place reminded her of Seth's house in Fallen Oak, as if there were some deep similarity under the surface of the two places, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Then she shook those thoughts away. She didn't want to think about Seth, or anything back home. She might be in deep over her head here, but this was where she needed to be. All of this felt increasingly like a dream, where she got to be somebody else in a completely different world. She definitely enjoyed that feeling.
Jenny continued beyond the patio and into the huge sunlit yard, which was mostly wildflowers mowed short like a lawn. She crossed the yard, past Iztali and Yochi, who were working at some sort of brick-lined firepit. They didn't look up at her.
Jenny leaned out between two broken pieces of wall.
Below her, the rocky cliff was a sheer, straight drop to a silvery beach more than a hundred feet below. Jenny watched a large wave roll in and crash, the water spreading across the beach and slowly flowing back into the ocean.
“Watch your step,” a voice said, and Jenny jumped. Alexander had walked up behind her without making a sound. His dark, longish hair blew in stripes across his face. His laughing eyes looked down at her. “What do you think?” he asked.
“It's amazing here,” Jenny said. “Why is the beach gray like that?”
“Volcanic sand.”
“I've never seen that before. So...how did you get a place like this?”
“Not so hard.” Alexander swept his arm around to indicate the buildings. “This used to be a private retreat of Senator Hector Ramirez, a big gun in the Institutional Revolutionary Party. After the Zapatista uprising in '94, he was too scared to vacation here. The place was abandoned for a decade. Real mess when I moved in.”
“The what uprising?”
“Some of the local revolutionaries took over a big chunk of the state in 1994,” Alexander said. “And in a lot of places, the federal authority still hasn't returned.”
“So this is kind of a dangerous place,” Jenny said, thinking of the broken glass embedded in the walls.
“Only if you go looking for trouble,” he said.
“Why do you live here?”
“Papa Calderòn needed me close to the Sierra Madre,” Alexander said. “The mountains, where we do a lot of work. So he gave me this place.”
“He's your boss?”
“Yep. Everything you see belongs to him.”
“And his name is really Papa...something?”
“That's what everyone calls him.”
Jenny looked down at the ocean again. “Why did you bring me here?”
“You need a place to hide for a while.” He took her hand. “And I need you. I always need you.” He stepped closer, his face overshadowing hers, and Jenny's heart beat faster.
She pulled her hand back. “I don't have all the memories you do,” she said. “I only know you from my dreams. You're still new to me.”
“You'll remember.” Alexander smiled and started back toward the house, where Kisa was setting out Jenny's breakfast on the outdoor dining table.
“When?” Jenny asked.
“I'm already working on it.” Alexander walked away into the house.
Jenny walked back up the gentle slope to the dining table, where Kisa had set out coffee, eggs, and a corn tortilla topped with beans and green chiles. There was also a big sliced mango, probably plucked from one of the trees in the front yard. Kisa smiled and stepped back, pulling out the chair in front of the food.
“That's so much,” Jenny said as she sat down. “You should have some.”
Kisa just smiled. Jenny gestured to the empty chair across from her, but Kisa waved both hands and backed away. Apparently, she intended to just stand and watch while Jenny ate.
Jenny bit into a slice of mango, and sweet juice dribbled down her chin. It tasted like candy.
“Oh, this is so good!” Jenny said to Kisa, who smiled and nodded quickly. Jenny could never be sure how well the girl understood her.