Naked in Havana Read Free Page B

man who talked over the top of his wife and sweated too much and smoked fat cigars. I imagined how easily he could have bullied Angel into this. I would talk to him about it today, we would work something out, run away together if we had to.
    I made the decision that I would forgive him. I would be his mistress if that’s what it took, all I knew was that I could not let him go.
    But another part of me was screaming: Who are you fooling, Magdalena? Would you really shame your Papi like that? Could you go keep going behind his back, run off with some boy and leave him alone? Of course you couldn’t.
    You are loca .
    Can you really stand the disappointment on his face when he finds out about this? And he will find out, you know he will.
    There were other things that were eating at me. The invitation to Angel’s engagement party had arrived the day after our last afternoon together. Yes, how would he explain that? He had waited until the last possible moment to tell me.
    Papi was right: the boy had no cojones .
    But I would give him the chance to explain. Angel please, please tell me there’s a reason for all this.
    Luis slowed down.
    “What’s wrong?” Papisaid.
    “There’s a police roadblock.”
    Papi leaned forward. There were police cars and an army truck up ahead, blocking the road, green-uniformed soldiers everywhere.
    “They must have a tip-off,” Papi said.
    As we slowed down, skinny kids in rags tapped on the car windows asking for money, holding out grubby hands and rubbing their stomachs with the other. Luis wound down his window and shouted at them. One of them kicked the car. Luis was about to get out and chase him, but Papi put a hand on his shoulder. “Leave it,” he said.
    Luis twisted around in his seat, tried to reverse back far enough in the traffic so that he could turn our car around.
    I remember saying “Can’t we just get there?” just as the bomb went off.
    Flames poured out of one of the buildings, and the shock wave from the blast hit our car just a heartbeat later, rocking our Bel Air on its wheels.
    I screamed. Papi put both arms around me and pushed my head into his chest.
    “Get us out of here!” he shouted at Luis.
    I forced my head up. Luis was grappling with the wheel, trying to turn around. I looked down the street. Black smoke billowed out of one of the office buildings into the street. A man ran out, his clothes on fire. Another was walking in circles, his clothes burned black, an arm gone. Papi threw a hand over my eyes.
    “Drive!” Papi shouted at Luis. “Just drive!”
    Luis gunned the engine and reversed into a side street. We roared back the way we had come. I clung to my father like a child, but even with my eyes tight shut, all I could see was the man with no arms walking in circles in the billowing smoke.
    I had heard the bombs exploding in the city, it was happening almost every day. This was the first time I had seen it for myself.
    “Fucking Castro,” Papi said. He never swore, at least never around me. I caught the look on his face. I had never seen him frightened of anything until now, but now it was plain enough, he was scared.
    I couldn’t stop shaking. Papi kept his arm around me. We passed a clanging ambulance and fire truck coming the other way. When I looked back I saw a plume of smoke rising over the Rampa.
    We drove out to the harbour. I was still trembling when we arrived at the Macheda house. Papi wanted to turn around and go home, but I insisted that I was okay. Even after the bombing and what I had seen, I didn’t want to miss this chance to see Angel, to stop what was happening.
    Even though his father had asked half of Havana to witness the engagement of his only son to the daughter of a top Miami mafia don, I thought I could talk everyone out of it, just because I loved him.
    That’s how I crazy I was then.
     
     

Chapter 4

     
     
    The Macheda house was on Calle 30 in Miramar, just down the road from the president and the yacht club.