Carribean Fragoza

He had that look on his face again. She remembered it now. It was that troubled look he had six months ago when his snakes got sick. “Angelica,” she remembered him saying softly, almost in tears, “they’re dying, they won’t eat, they’re as limp as noodles, all of them.” What was he going to do? He was supposed to deliver their venom to the lab days ago. They had been calling, reminding him, demanding, threatening to go with another venom vendor. They’d tell the other labs about him, ruin his hard-earned reputation.

He was screwed without his snakes. And what’s more, he really loved them.

Angelica always wanted him to look at her that way, with that much attention and intensity that would show he loved her that much too. That he needed her around. And finally here it was.

“No more pills, Angelica. You’re going to end up killing yourself.”

Our mother used her freshly sharpened tools to cut up the thick roots of unidentified plants that seemed to be waiting for the right time to reveal themselves. She wasn’t going to give them a chance. Eventually, we noticed that her favorite tool was a set of narrow-nosed pliers that she’d stab into the ground to extract even the most reluctant roots. She’d have to pull very hard, sometimes using both hands and the weight of her small body. Often, it was the thin, spidery roots that were the most persistent and dug themselves in the deepest. Our mother, however, was very thorough, for any remnant would have sabotaged everything.

Without another thought, he surrenders to the blinding stage lights and to the music that starts up as soon as he steps onstage. The audience, the cameras, even Don Francisco and El Chacal, despite their antics, dissolve into another world. Enveloped in pure sound and light, Emmanuel finds himself singing as he had done in the school talent show so many years ago, before he learned to be afraid, angry and resentful. He sings with his heart open for everyone to see. With every bit of the tenderness and sincerity he had learned from Juan Gabriel, and the strength and power from Lola Beltrán and his mother, he sings and dances.