don't know. Why he would want the priest killed, I have no idea. It could just be personal. Hacenderos take small matters very seriously. I think it must warp ‘em, to have things their own way all the time, all their lives. That's how it's been for Luis. You can't psych him out. He's got his own way of looking at things.

     “I can tell you, Nonoy didn't know I was alive. He wasn't even guessing. That was just his way of getting you to stay around. You were his wild card, man, you were his great white hope. He didn't want to lose you.”

     “But he couldn't tell me?”

     “That's exactly it, he couldn't. If he was my father, I'd be ashamed, too, I wouldn't be able to tell anybody. And with him it's even more complicated. Luis isn't just his daddy, he's Nonoy's amo, too.

     “Think about it, what it must be like. He's got Correon blood in him, so Luis hauls him out of the barrio and dresses him up. But he's got the barrio too. Every time he comes up there, he knows it's in him, but he's not part of it any more. On the other hand Luis doesn't treat him like a son. So he's everywhere, he's nowhere, he's got two families, he has no family. For sure, I wouldn't want to be sleeping in his skin. You have to understand his position. Like you have to understand Vangie's position, if she tells you to take a hike.”

     “Vangie and I have plans.” The present tense sounded empty.

     “No doubt you did. I'm sure she'd be with you if she could. But if Luis found out about you two, and he tells her she's not going anyplace, and she knows that he's got her mother—I mean he has got her mother—then plans mean nothing. She's not even gonna fight it.”

     “What?” I said. “I just go home, forget it? Nothing's changed?”

     “That's the hardest thing for Americans to understand. That some things can't be changed. Actually in your case the situation isn't necessarily so bad.”