The value of a college education, perhaps. Is that what you are saying? she wanted to ask. But she did not feel justified in her anger.
She knew: He was worried about law school, how much it would cost to attain his dream. Occasionally, they would find a particularly fine-looking suit for Mariano to try on. All went well if the
suit fit. But if it didn’t—it depressed him. Sometimes, it made him so angry, he couldn’t bear the thought of attending class.
Rage, Eloy thought, must be the price of hope.
Suddenly, the vision: herself, laughing among strangers, intoxicated by light and drink and danger. Herself as someone she had never been, or imagined becoming. Loveliness she alone could never
have imagined. In that moment, the imagined self was real, was sufficient, absolute.
And then th
