Chapter 16

It’s mid-afternoon when Danny gets here. I hear his car, the one he rented at the airport, and I go out on the porch to greet him. Hugo hangs back a little, but that’s the right thing.

“Hey, sis,” he booms when he sees me. There’s a big grin on his face, it’s a lot more than I expected rousting him out like this. I give him a happy smile in return.

We hug and I bring him inside. “Danny, this is Hugo,” I say. “Hugo, this is my brother Danny.”

Danny holds out his hand. Hugo looks at it a little strangely for a minute, but then he seems to realize what’s wanted and extends his own hand.

Uh-oh, Danny sometimes gets a little enthusiastic about handshakes. “Don’t, Danny,” I say quickly. I’ve seen what Hugo can do to a man’s hand. Danny looks at me in surprise, but just gives an ordinary grip.

“Pleased to meet you, Linda’s new man,” he says.

“I am glad to know the brother of Linda,” Hugo responds. Danny’s eyebrows go up a little, Hugo’s pronunciation is pretty good but the inflections are a bit off. But Dan doesn’t say anything.

I help him off with his coat. “Little overprotective, aren’t we, sis?” he mutters quietly. “Good strong grip never hurt anybody.”

“Don’t try it with Hugo, Danny, you’ll lose bad,” I reply just as quietly. He looks at me in surprise. “It’s part of the story,” I add.

“OK, so what is this story, Linda?” he asks. “What’s so damn hard to tell me on the phone?”

“You want anything to drink?” I ask, stalling. I still don’t know how to tell him, and I’ve had a good part of yesterday and all this morning to think about it.

“Sis, you called, I’m here, now talk to me,” he says.

“Well ... I got carjacked yesterday,” I start.

“You got what? I saw it in the garage.”

“Hugo stopped it. I was getting out at a gas station to fill up, this guy pushed me down and leaned in and pointed a gun at Hugo and told him to get out and...”

I take him through the whole thing, making a big point about Hugo’s hand-crush. We get to Hugo hitting him, and Danny gets up again. “Jesus, I appreciate the warning, sis. Hugo, that was damn brave, looks like my sissie done pretty good. I thank you one hell of a lot.” He holds out his hand again and Hugo takes it immediately.

“You are welcome,” Hugo says, picking up on the thanks; I’m not sure how much else he got.

Danny turns back to me. “So how is that trouble, sis? I mean for you? The cops must think Hugo’s a hero.”

“Um, we didn’t wait for the cops, Danny. I jumped back in and we got the hell out of there.”

He sits back down and looks at me. “Ohh-kay,” he says. “Go on.”

“Danny, if we’d waited the cops would have wanted ID. Mine, and Hugo’s. And, well, Hugo doesn’t have any.”

“Everybody’s got something, kid. What the hell, where’s his wallet?” He turns to Hugo. “Wallet, Hugo?”

“What is wallet?” Hugo asks.

“Hugo doesn’t speak a lot of English yet, just what I’ve taught him,” I explain. I don’t think I’m doing this well, but I’m not sure there’s really a good way to do it.

“I got that part, more or less, but still—” Abruptly his face darkens. “What is it, girl? Undocumented worker? Illegal alien?”

“Not exactly—” I begin, but Danny cuts me off; he’s always been quick on the trigger.

“What’s ‘exactly?’” he demands. “He is or he isn’t. Which? Was he born here or someplace else?” He turns to Hugo. “Where were you born, man?”

“In house,” Hugo responds before I can motion him to be quiet.

“And where exactly was this house?” Danny continues. “In the U.S.?”

This time I stop Hugo before he speaks. “He doesn’t know,” I say.

“Come again?”

“He doesn’t know. I don’t know. But it’s not so much where, it’s...” I stop, I have no idea where to go from here.

“Well, ‘where’ is a pretty big deal to INS,” Danny says. “So can we start with that? How’d you meet this guy?”

“I found him,” I blurt. “Right outside. Unconscious, and freezing. I brought him inside...”

I tell him the tale, how Hugo had broken ribs and I tried to patch him up when I couldn’t get him to a hospital, how he didn’t speak a word of English, and I hear myself sounding lamer and lamer until I finally peter out. And I still haven’t got to the real point.

“Jesus, sis, you tell weird stories,” he says when I wind down. “But let’s see what we can dope out. For openers, again, where’s he from?”

“I told you, he doesn’t know.”