Portrait in Sepia (12 page)

"May I wait here? Am I in the way? How can I help?" Severo babbled, drying the sweat trickling down his neck.

"You are not in the way at all, my son, but you cannot help Lynn. She has to do this job alone. On the other hand, you can help Eliza, who is a little upset."

Eliza Sommers had experienced the fatigue of giving birth, and like every woman, she understood that that was the threshold of death. She knew the courageous and mysterious journey in which the body opens to give passage for another life. She remembered the moment when she began to tumble, unchecked, down a steep slope, contracting, pushing—the terror, the suffering, and the unbelievable amazement when finally the child lets go and comes to light. Tao Chi'en, with all his zhong-yi wisdom, was slower than she to realize that something was very wrong in Lynn's case. The resources of Tao's Chinese medicine had provoked strong contractions, but the child was badly positioned, sideways and obstructed by its mother's bones. It was a dry, difficult birth, as Tao Chi'en explained, but his daughter was strong, and it was just a matter of Lynn's keeping calm and not tiring herself more than was necessary. This was a race of endurance, not speed, he added. During one pause, Eliza Sommers, as exhausted as Lynn herself, left the room and met Severo in the corridor. She gestured to him, and he followed, puzzled, to a little room with an altar, a place he had never been before. On a low table stood a simple cross, a small statue of Kuan Yin, the Chinese goddess of compassion, and in the center, a pen-and-ink drawing of a woman in a green tunic and two flowers over her ears. He saw a pair of lighted candles and saucers holding water, rice, and flower petals. Eliza knelt on an orange silk cushion before the altar and asked Christ, Buddha, and the spirit of Lin, Tao's first wife, to come to help her daughter in giving birth. Severo stood behind her, automatically murmuring the Catholic prayers he had learned in his childhood. They stayed there for some time, united by their fear and love for Lynn, until Tao Chi'en called his wife to come help him because he had sent the midwife away and was preparing to turn the baby and pull it out by hand. Severo stayed with Lucky, who was smoking at the door, as little by little Chinatown awakened.

The child was born early Tuesday morning. The mother, dripping with sweat and trembling, struggled to help, but she was not screaming any longer; all she could do was pant, attentive to her father's direction. Finally she gritted her teeth, clung to the bars of the bed, and pushed with brutal determination. A lock of dark hair appeared. Tao Chi'en grasped the head and pulled firmly and gently until shoulders emerged; he turned the small body and removed it with a single rapid movement, while with the other hand he untangled the dark cord about its neck. Eliza Sommers received a small bloody bundle, a tiny girl child with a flattened face and blue skin. While Tao Chi'en cut the cord and busied himself with the second stage of the birth, the grandmother cleaned her granddaughter with a sponge and clapped her back until she began to breathe. When she heard the cry that announced entrance into the world, and verified that the baby had a normal color, she placed her on Lynn's stomach. Exhausted, the mother raised herself on one elbow to welcome her daughter while her body continued to contract; she held the baby to her breast, kissing her and welcoming her in a mixture of English, Spanish, Chinese, and invented words. One hour later Eliza called in Severo and Lucky to meet the baby. They found her sleeping peacefully in the silver cradle that had belonged to the family of the Rodríguez de Santa Cruzes, dressed in yellow silk and a red bonnet that gave her the look of a tiny elf. Lynn was drowsing, pale and calm, between clean sheets, and Tao Chi'en, by her side, was checking her pulse.

"What are you going to name her?" Severo del Valle asked, filled with emotion.

"Lynn and you should decide that," Eliza answered.

"Me?"

"Aren't you the father?" asked Tao Chi'en, winking.

"She will be called Aurora, because she was born at dawn," murmured Lynn without opening her eyes.

"Then her name in Chinese is Lai Ming, which means dawn," added Tao Chi'en.

"Welcome to the world, Lai Ming, Aurora del Valle," and Severo smiled as he kissed the tiny baby on the forehead, certain that this was the happiest day of his life and that this wrinkled infant dressed like a Chinese doll was as much his daughter as if she were actually of his blood. Lucky took his niece in his arms and blew his tobacco and soy sauce breath in her face.

"What are you doing!" cried the grandmother, trying to take Aurora from his hands.

"I'm blowing on her to give her my good luck. What more worthwhile gift do I have to give to Lai Ming?" Her uncle laughed.

•

When Severo del Valle arrived at the mansion on Nob Hill during dinner and announced that he had married Lynn Sommers a week before and that on this day his daughter had been born, his aunt and uncle were as bewildered as if he had deposited a dead dog on the dining room table.

"And everyone throwing the blame on Matias! I always knew he wasn't the father but I never imagined it was you," Feliciano spit out as soon as he recovered a little from his shock.

"I'm not the blood father but I am the legal father," Severo clarified. "The baby's name is Aurora del Valle."

"This is unpardonable! You have betrayed this family, and after we took you in like our own son," bellowed his uncle.

"I haven't betrayed anyone. I married for love."

"But wasn't that woman in love with Matias?"

"That woman's
name is Lynn, and she is my wife; I demand that you treat her with the respect she deserves," Severo said curtly, rising to his feet.

"You're an idiot, Severo, a complete idiot!" Feliciano shouted as he strode furiously from the dining room.

The imperturbable Williams, who had come in at that moment to oversee the service of dessert, could not contain a quick smile of complicity before discreetly retiring. Paulina listened, incredulous, to Severo's information that in a few days he would be leaving for the war in Chile. Lynn would continue to live with her parents in Chinatown, and, if things worked out well, he would return when he could to assume his role as husband and father.

"Sit down, nephew, let's talk this over like decent folk. Matias is the baby's father, isn't he?"

"Ask him, Aunt."

"I see it all now. You married to get Matias out of this mess. My son is a cynic, and you're a romantic… But you are going to ruin your life for some quixotic gesture!" exclaimed Paulina.

"You're mistaken, Aunt. I haven't ruined my life; on the contrary, I believe this is the best chance I will ever have to be happy."

"With a woman who loves another man? With a child that isn't yours

"Time will help. If I come back from the war, Lynn will learn to love me, and the child will believe I am her father."

"Matias may come back before you do," she noted.

"That won't change anything."

"All Matias would have to do is speak one word and Lynn Sommers would follow him to the end of the earth."

"That is an unavoidable risk," Severo replied.

"You've completely lost your head, Nephew. Those people are not of our social class."

"It is the most decent family I know, Aunt," Severo assured her.

"I see you haven't learned anything from me. To triumph in this world you have to consider the results before you act. You are a lawyer with a brilliant future, and you bear one of the oldest names in Chile. Do you think society is going to accept your wife? And your cousin Nívea, isn't she waiting for you?"

"That's over."

"Well, you stuck your foot in it this time, Severo, I suppose its too late for regrets. Let's try to fix things as much as we can. Money and social position count for a lot both here and in Chile. I'll help however I can—it's not for nothing that I'm the grandmother of that baby. What did you say her name is?"

"Aurora, but her grandparents call her Lai Ming.

"She's a del Valle, and it is my duty to help her, seeing that Matias has washed his hands of this sorry matter."

"That won't be necessary, Aunt. I've made arrangements for Lynn to have the money from my inheritance."

"You can never have too much money. At least I can see my granddaughter, can't I"

"We'll ask Lynn and her parents," Severo del Valle promised.

They were still in the dining room when Williams appeared with an urgent message saying that Lynn had suffered a hemorrhage and they feared for her life, that Severo should come right away. He immediately rushed off to Chinatown. When he reached the Chi'en home, he found the small family gathered around Lynn's bed, so still that they seemed to be posed for a tragic painting. For an instant he was struck with wild hope when he saw everything so clean and orderly, with no signs of the birth, no stained rags or smell of blood, but then he saw the expression of grief on the faces of Tao, Eliza, and Lucky. The very air was thin in the room; Severo took a deep breath, gasping, as if he were on a mountain peak. Trembling, he walked to the bed and saw Lynn lying with her hands on her chest; her eyes were closed and her features transparent: a beautiful sculpture in ashen alabaster. He took one hand, hard and cold as ice, leaned over her, and noted that her breathing was barely perceptible and her lips and fingers were blue. He kissed the palm of her hand for an eternal moment, wetting it with his tears, bowed with sorrow. Lynn managed to murmur Matias's name and then sighed twice and departed as lightly as she had floated through this world. Absolute silence greeted the mystery of death, and for a time impossible to measure they waited, motionless, while Lynn's spirit rose from her body. Severo felt a long howl surging from the center of the earth and passing through his body to his lips, but it did not escape. The scream invaded him, filled him, and burst inside his head in a silent explosion. He stayed there, kneeling beside the bed, voicelessly calling to Lynn, not believing that fate had so abruptly taken the woman whom he had dreamed of for years, taken her just when he thought he had won her. An eternity later, he felt someone touch his shoulder, and turned to meet the deadened eyes of Tao Chi'en. "It's all right, it's all right," it seemed he murmured, and behind Tao Severo saw Eliza Sommers and Lucky, sobbing in each other's arms, and he realized that he was an intruder in the family's grief. Then he remembered the child. He staggered to the silver cradle like a drunk and took the tiny Aurora in his arms, carried her to the bed, and held her near Lynn's face, so she could say goodbye to her mother. Then he sat down with her in his arms, rocking inconsolably.

•

When Paulina del Valle learned that Lynn Sommers had died, she felt a flood of joy, and even whooped with triumph before her shame at feeling such a despicable emotion brought her back to earth. She had always wanted a daughter. From her first pregnancy, she had dreamed of the little girl who would have her name, Paulina, and who would be her best friend and her companion. With the birth of each of her three boys she had felt swindled, but now in the mature years of her life this gift had fallen into her lap: a grandchild that she could raise as a daughter, someone to whom she could offer all the opportunities that love and money can provide, she thought, someone to accompany her in her old age. With Lynn Sommers out of the picture, she could claim the baby in Matias's name. She was celebrating that unforeseeable stroke of good luck with a cup of chocolate and three cream pastries when Williams reminded her that legally Severo del Valle was the father of Aurora, and that he was the one person who had the right to decide her future. Even better, Paulina concluded, because at least her nephew was right on the spot, while bringing Matias back from Europe and convincing him to take responsibility for his daughter would be a long-term project. She could never have anticipated Severo's reaction when she told him her plans.

"For all legal purposes, you are the father, so you can bring the baby here tomorrow morning," said Paulina.

"I won't be doing that, Aunt. Lynn's parents will look after their granddaughter while I go to the war. They want to take care of her, and I agree with that," her nephew responded in a decisive tone she had not heard before.

"Are you mad? We can't leave my granddaughter in the hands of Eliza Sommers and that Chinese man!" Paulina exclaimed.

"Why not? They are her grandparents."

"Do you want her to grow up in Chinatown? We can give her an education, opportunities, luxury, a respectable name. They can't do any of that."

"They will give her love," Severo replied.

"So will I! Remember that you owe me a lot, Nephew. This is your chance to repay me and at the same time do something for the child."

"I'm sorry, Aunt, it's decided. Aurora will stay with her maternal grandparents."

Paulina del Valle threw one of the many tantrums of her life. She couldn't believe that the nephew whom she had thought of as her unconditional ally, who had become another son to her, could betray her in such a vile manner. She screamed, cursed, argued in vain, and got herself into such a fit that Williams had to call a doctor to give her a dose of sedatives large enough to knock her out for a long while. When she woke, thirty hours later, her nephew was already aboard the steamship that would carry him to Chile. Her husband and the faithful Williams convinced her that it was not a good idea to resort to violence, as she planned; no matter how corrupt the law was in San Francisco, there was no legal basis for removing the baby from her maternal grandparents' care, especially taking into account that the purported father had left written orders. They also urged her not to use her customary ploy of offering money for the infant, because that could come back like a brick smashed in her teeth. The only possible course to follow was to be diplomatic until Severo del Valle returned; then they could reach some accord, they advised her. She did not want to listen to their arguments, and two days later she appeared in Eliza Sommers's tearoom with a proposal that she was sure the other grandmother could not refuse. Eliza received her dressed in mourning for her daughter but illumined by the consolation of the baby sleeping placidly at her side. Paulina received a jolt when she saw the silver cradle that had belonged to her sons sitting beside the window, but she quickly remembered that she had granted Williams permission to give it to Severo, and she bit her tongue because she wasn't there to fight over a cradle, however valuable, but to negotiate for her granddaughter. "It isn't being right that wins, it's driving the best bargain," she always said. And in this case, it not only seemed evident to her that right was on her side but also that no one could best her in the art of haggling.