33. Concierto Por La Paz

Machi wanted to be with David who was with Julia. La Nena was on the stage, sitting on a high backed cane chair like for a baby shower, woven through with ribbons of every color to look like a throne. Marina saw dozens of people she knew from el Partido, from the block. Everybody was in the park. La Virgen del Palo told La Nena she wanted peace, her entire apparition was to make peace in Karaya, end the war. The Virgin told La Nena the only reason she appeared in the tree was that heaven couldn’t take any more dead people. She had come up with this after her first sleepover, the night La Nena, Machi and David stayed up all night in the middle room where the posters and fliers and old issues of Verdad were kept. Had she taken liberation theory in by osmosis? Next morning at breakfast she had shown her little palms to Marina. The boys were still sleeping and La Nena had begun on her own to mix some pancakes. Marina watched the child cook. “Look at my hands.” The centers of both palms were red, bruised. Did she cut herself? Had she use her mothers’ weaving dyes?
“I know the miracle La Virgen wants. I know the prophecy. It came to me in the night. She wants La Isla to be free. She wants peace.”
Rodolfo showed up a few minutes later to get Marina to a press conference for the Partido's mass habeas campaign and Marina asked La Nena to repeat the prophesy. Marina could see him think, decide to seize the opportunity. Right now Verdad sellers were weaving through the concert crowd selling the issue with the photograph of La Virgen del Palo, the trunk of Machi’s tree, on the cover. Above the photo of the tree there was a banner headline: Concierto por la Paz. It didn't take Rodolfo long to call in favors owed to him and other Partido leaders, and pull together this concert, a combination of protest singers and mainstream Latin celebrities.
The two Gracielas, Nena and Vieja, were up on the stage. Machi was tugging Marina forward into the crowd. He passed David who broke away from Julia's hand and dashed ahead of him, parting the crowd with short sharp yelps. As they passed her old student Claraberta reached for Marina and she saw all of the Women in Action, dressed in white tshirts and pants. They were with Dolly Medina, their new teacher, a young woman the chose because they decided they could train her to be their scribe. They carried signs with the name Women in Action although Claraberta had called to tell her Centro Libre was pushing to change the name now they’d taken over the funding. Soli was with them and she managed to catch Marina’s ear as she walked by, “That professional developer job at the Central Board is open again. The last candidate fell through. Call me right away.” Being recruited for a job she didn't think she'd ever want, pursued, made Marina walk tall.
David had accelerated his yelping. He liked making people jump and step aside. They’d almost reached the front row, mostly women hand in hand dressed completely in white. David yelped and a woman turned to face them. Fara! She smiled and kissed Marina. Her eyes were clear, her face not puffy. Sober. La Virgen had made another miracle. Machi dragged Marina through and they joined the group, mostly children, sitting on the ground. She saw Fidel and Maceo and Sandra—Rodolfo she saw up on the stage, in his white linen guayabera, the one for rallies, announcing Soles of all things. She saw the three musicians all in white stand by the row of mikes and begin the guitar riffs that sent chills up her spine. Machi threw himself right onto Myra and gathered Lisa who was crawling on a blanket onto his lap. At the far end of the children’s section she saw Jimmy waving at her with a huge grin on his face. Children from the Centro Libre Day Care sat on him and around him.
Marina put down her folded picnic blanket and squeezed herself beside Myra. She looked up at the stage and stopped breathing. There was Hal. He was whispering into Marisol Garvey’s ear. She had her hand on the arm of a young man carrying a huge video camera. Fara patted Marina’s shoulder. “Look. Behind La Nena.” Standing behind La Nena with his hands on her shoulders stood Amanuel Cole. Was Hal doing production for his show now?
Rodolfo had gotten Soles from Karaya to perform. They burst into their signature song: Fuego al Imperio. Marina felt the song fill her, vibrate through her. More people than she had imagined knew the song and were singing along. She joined them. She welcomed this moment of peace among them. She found her miracle. If he was found, no...as soon as Ori was found, they would take Machi and move to Karaya. A life in Karaya was her miracle. This was her last chance to try. She'd failed when she tried with Machi after she and Ori split. But if, when, Ori was restored to her she would make him reconcile with her, make him move back to their Island. Why should they be forever supplicants in the belly of the beast when they had a country of their own? The Virgin had given her a revelation.
She heard a voice calling to her and saw a small blonde boy and his father. Danny leaned toward her and kissed her on the cheek. “ Rodolfo told me you’d be here.” Everyone was here. Even Danny. “I have good news. Very good news. We located Ori . Still in the City. Not renditioned to the Camp in Karaya. It's a matter of days before he's released.” She smiled, nodded and turned toward the stage. Her miracle! Danny’s little boy she’d never met settled on the floor in front of her and Danny squeezed in beside her.
How was she going to be able to thank this man for help? She’d devoted years to hating him and now,again, he'd been her best hope. She’d asked Rodolfo, “Since when do we rest on legal pressure?” He’d shrugged. “By any and all means.” That included begging for favors from cad ex lovers.
Soles was going off the stage and La Nena came to the front, opened her arms and bowed her head. She said nothing but the crowd went silent. Danny leaned over and whispered in Marina’s ear. “Come to the office Monday. Don’t put it off.” She looked at him and felt her eyes fill with tears. He smiled and pressed her hand. “This is our move.”
Rodolfo was up on the stage making a pitch for Verdad, waving the cover with the tree.
Reading aloud. “Here we have in La Nena’s words: Peace and liberation for La Isla is the necessary miracle. That is the prophecy.” The crowd burst into yells, applause, banging of pots. Rodolfo waited. In the bare beginning of a silence he went on. “La Nena said more. She said, “We are the hands of god, it is our job to make that peace.” Marina walked away from Moon Park with Machi by the hand, one with her people, carried along by the benign crowd, carried along by her miracle. She walked forward certain Ori would be returned to her, her milagro en el Parque Luna.