Chapter 27
Winter diminished and with it, Señor’s health. Although truth be told, he had been dying for a long time, everyone at Bethzatha whispered, if he weren’t already dead in a manner of speaking. Jade learned to cope with these close calls by sending poor Miguel as a go-between or by not responding at all.
Then one morning early in the spring, the phone rang at five A.M. It never rang at five before, and Jade knew that this was it.
“Jade, it’s Paris.” He could hear the panic in her voice on the answering machine. “Señor took a turn for the worse during the night. His breathing is very ragged. The death rattle is upon him. It won’t be long now. Come quickly, please.”
But Jade didn’t pick up the phone, and he didn’t rush either. Instead he made the bed, exercised, shaved, showered,
