Read Online A Blossom of Bright Light by Suzanne Chazin - Free Book Online

again.
    Adele tried to imagine herself shopping in a place like this in Washington, D.C. Would she even find such a store? Every time she traveled there, she was struck by the cookie-cutter sprawl of the surrounding suburbs. All the town houses and shopping malls looked the same. Bland. Brick-veneered. Soulless. People always seemed in flux and on the move. Oh sure, there were plenty of immigrants in D.C. But how could she form real relationships if her fortunes were tied to an electoral calendar? In Lake Holly, she knew everyone. Leaving would feel like a betrayal. And yet—
    â€œDoña Adele! Que bueno verte! ” Claudia called out from behind the counter. Claudia was a short, energetic Salvadoran with a body like a Russian nesting doll and hair the color of a used chalkboard eraser. She worked seven days a week and carried herself like she was everyone’s mother—something the young men in the area, so far from home, really appreciated. Like a lot of the immigrants in Lake Holly, Claudia still used “Don” and “Doña” as signs of respect.
    Adele lifted her hand in greeting. Usually Claudia’s daughter, Inés, was behind the counter helping her. But today there were only two people in the store besides Claudia: a customer at the front counter and Claudia’s mildly retarded grandson, Neto, who was unloading crates of guavas and habañero peppers while his miniature dachshund, Chicha, danced around his legs.
    Chicha rolled over for a belly rub the moment she spotted Sophia. While the girl was scratching the dog, Neto grabbed a habañero pepper from the crate he’d just unloaded and held it out to Sophia between his stubby fingers.
    â€œThis? Don’t eat,” he said in Spanish, then laughed in his thick, nasal way. “You eat this?” He fanned his mouth. “Ay, it’s hot!”
    â€œDon’t be silly, Neto!” Claudia chided from behind the counter. “She doesn’t want that.” Claudia reached behind the register and held out a tamarind-flavored Mexican candy to Sophia. The child hesitated.
    â€œGo take the candy and say thank you to Doña Claudia,” Adele instructed her daughter in Spanish.
    Sophia gave her mother a smoldering look, then took the candy and sputtered out a shy gracias . The child understood Spanish, but getting her to speak it was another matter. Adele hoped that that would change as Sophia got older, but with a last name like Kessler, her ties to her Latin roots already seemed like a thing of the past. Sophia didn’t even like tamarind.
    â€œWe were just talking about you,” said Claudia. She nodded to the woman whose order she was ringing up.
    â€œMe?” Adele stepped closer. The woman at the counter was dressed in a tailored black wool jacket with a poufy, furlike collar. Her nails sported a French manicure, and her handbag looked expensive. Claudia had only one customer Adele knew of who could afford such things.
    â€œDoña Esme, cómo está? ”
    Esmeralda Gonzalez ran a hand through her high, tight ponytail and mumbled a shy greeting in return. For some reason Adele could never fathom, she made Charlie Gonzalez’s wife nervous—which struck her as odd since she and Gonzalez got along well. Carlos “Charlie” Gonzalez was something of a legend in Lake Holly, a man who crossed the border from Mexico thirty years ago with nothing but the clothes on his back and rose to become the owner of a multimillion-dollar string of car washes as well as a political force in the state Democratic Party. He was a big supporter of La Casa and one of Schulman’s chief campaign advisers. Yet for all the years Adele had known Gonzalez, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d said more than hello to his wife.
    â€œWe were talking about that terrible situation,” said Claudia.
    Adele thought for a moment that Claudia was referring to the infant behind La