There are tubs of iced beer, a phonograph player issuing ranchero music. They have all had several rounds of beer when Morgan James recounts the time Marina caught them exposing themselves to Vicki Angel on the beach and threatened to tie their things in a permanent knot, an episode that comes as news to Mama Sofi and Remedios, who belatedly berate the boys for their nastiness—and then a minute later and despite their blushes they are laughing along with everyone else, including Vicki and Catalina.
So does it go the rest of the night. They eat and drink and dance and tell funny story after funny story about their lost beloveds. In the middle of a dance with Catalina, Cesar Augusto asks her to marry him, and she laughs at that too and says maybe she will, maybe she won’t. He asks what the hell kind of answer that is and she says it’s the kind he gets for now, and he goes out on the porch and sulks. A short time later she goes out to him and gives him the best kiss of his young life and he beams his happiness and asks if that means yes and she says no, it only means maybe she will, maybe she won’t. In that moment he senses the sort of marriage ahead of him if she should finally say yes, which he also senses she has decided to say but in her own good time.
The neighbors shake their heads at the loud music and raucous laughter from the Wolfe house. They regard as most unseemly such a party only hours after burying two of their own and eight friends besides. They should be mourning, the neighbors tell each other. They should be grieving.
The Wolfes
