Serendipity on the Beach

On the beach there's a huge noise coming from behind me and I look up to see a mass of teenage boys screaming and running toward the water, just a few feet away from where Machi and Taina are pretending to swim. My heart drops to my knees. Looks like every gangster in the Encampment has just turned up here. So many, there must be hundreds of young men and old boys.
One boy screams, “El agua esta caliente.” And another one responds. “Te digo que no, esta fria.”
They rush into the sea screaming and jumping and splashing. There goes my son. I start to cry.

And now, from the path to my right comes another invasion. Las Senoras de los Frijoles are also here. The boys who don't sleep and the women who rise early to shell and sort their beans converged. The Ladies bunch up their dresses and tie them up at their waists. They wade to their knees and splash their faces. Taina screams Abuela and runs up to Julia who is among the Senoras, wading.
Now a big contingent of women, men, children, all dressed in orange suit to look like the Camp detainees rush into the water carrying signs Set them free
We won't go until they're free. The thug boys and the Senoras de los Frijoles form into a mass behind them and they begin to wade in the direction of the camp, chanting, the Senoras ululate a war cry.

So much for hiding in the Encampment...So much for saving Machi from the street.
I study what's going on with Machi and the boys, I begin to lose him among the many bodies dressed enough alike that it is hard to tell them apart. I try to gage the degree of his interest, the degree of the attraction. He is focused on Taina who is staring, looking hard at the faces. And then she screams, “Papi, Papi, Papi.”
And I stand up because I've seen him too, and so has Machi, and so has Julia.
David.
We have found the first of the men we have come here to seek.
Julia and Taina both reach him at the same time. He picks up his daughter and Julia embraces them both at once. I feel a pierce of joy like a violin note in my chest, I am grinning and sobbing