Manu hadn’t told his mother about the layoffs at the construction site because he didn’t want her to worry. If he could manage to survive in Spain for another year, he’d finally be allowed to apply for his permanent residency. Then he’d be able to get a real job again and bring over his relatives, one by one, reassembling his family like a jigsaw puzzle.
At the locutorio the next day we went into side-by-side phone booths, and after a moment, I could hear him talking to his mother, smoothing down the edges of the truth. In my own booth, I studied the number I’d written on my hand. Brigid had emailed again, and this time she wanted me to call her – she said she had something to tell me. It was probably just some news about her wedding, or maybe she was pregnant. If she was pregnant, then
