It's Just Lola (32 page)

Lola sympathized.  She felt sorry for James as he tried to juggle a new job and finding a place for them. 
She was frustrated because she knew she had more time, and she was sure she could do it, but i
t was not her place to interfere.  He had to be the one to talk to the landlord. 

Finally
James announced
that
he had rented a place.  “It isn’t what I wanted, but it
’s
what I found.”

“Never mind.  Whatever it is, we
’
ll make it into a home,” said Lola. 

“I hope so
.
” James clos
ed
his eyes briefly.  His face looked drawn and pale.  “Once we move out of the hotel, things
’
ll
get
better.”

It didn
’
t take long for them to settle into their new home.  Inez found a woman who would come in daily to cook and do laundry.  James was away much of the time and the household adjusted.  Lola kept hoping James would lose his air of worry and stress
, but h
e seemed to become more and more preoccupied.

One night as they
lay
in bed, Lola tried again.  “
T
ell me what
’
s bothering you?  I can
see
you
’
re unhappy.  Is there anything
I
can do?”

“No.  The job entails many responsibilities, and the people I have to please don
’
t always agree with each other.”

“I
’
m sure you
’
ll figure it out soon.  Is there someone at work you feel comfortable talking to?”  James frowned and turned away.
  S
he reached out and touched his arm, “maybe you could invite one of your co-workers
and
his wife some evening for dinner.  We
’
ve been here for months, and we have no friends.  It would be nice to meet some people.”

“I told you, Lola, the people here are unfriendly.  The men I work with are surly and rude.  It
’
s difficult working in that kind of atmosphere.”  Lola fell silent.  She was determined to prove him wrong. 

The next week James was preparing to leave again.  He said the
EFE
was thinking of buying a stretch of rail that belonged to a mining company, and they wanted him to see about the feasibility of making it part of the national network.

“What do they mine?” asked Lola.

“Nitrates.”

“Nothing exciting like gold or silver?”

James
grunted
.  “I don’t think any part of this trip will be exciting.  It
’
ll be the exact opposite of the jungles around the Panama Canal.  The mines are in
the Atacama
D
esert
,
and I expect it to be very uncomfortable.”

Lola
smile
d
. 
“All the more reason to hurry home
.
”

The next day Lola put Carlota in the pram
,
determined to invit
e
some
women over for tea or coffee.  It wasn
’
t as easy as she had hoped, but within a few days she had arranged a
small
afternoon coffee.

She and Inez ma
d
e the house as presentable as possible, and the serving woman outdid herself in the kitchen.  Lola was expecting four women, but
o
nly two women arrived.  Lola delayed serving, expecting the other two women to come momentarily.  When she felt any further delay would be rude, she brought in the coffee and tea and small cakes.

“I hope the others come before the coffee gets cold,” she said as she poured.  She was startled to see the woman she was serving get flushed and look very embarrassed.

“They w
o
n
’
t be coming.”

“But they accepted the invitation.”  Lola was puzzled.  In polite society people who couldn
’
t attend an event after accepting an invitation always sent their apologies.

The older of the two women finally told Lola that the women’s husbands had forbidden them to come or to have any further communication with Lola.

“What have I done that
’
s so terrible?”
Lola was thunderstruck.

“If you must know, you married an Englishman.”

“I married an Englishman?  He
’
s a man like any other.”

“
Have
n
’
t
you
been reading the papers?” 
T
he woman seemed to take perverse pleasure in explaining to Lola why she was being shunned by her neighbors.

“James
doesn’t
bring the papers home.  He has no interest in politics, but it saddens him to read of his countrymen being killed.”

“Then you don’t understand that Chile is suffering because of the British war?”

“But we
’
re all neutral.  Chile is neutral, and so is my country, Peru.  If we
’
re neutral, how can we be suffering because of the British?”

“Chile depends heavily on exports.  The blockade
’
s wreaking havoc with our exports, especially the major one, saltpeter or nitrate.  My husband says that taxes on nitrate form a major pillar of our economy.
  Nitrate is used in gunpowder so we shou
ld be getting rich off this war, but the blockade is preventing us from doing business.
”

“
So that’s what nitrates are
. 
But
James
has nothing to do with the war.  He’s helping the national rail service.  Right now he
is examining some rail lines of a
nitrate
mining company
to link
them
to the EFE
.”

The two women looked at each other.  The older one lifted her eyebrows as though to say, “See?  I told you so.”

Carlota
started crying
in the other room
, and
Lola excused herself to look in on the baby.  The women began to talk almost before she was out of the room, causing her to pause just out of their line of vision.

“Why would a Britisher want to look at our most sensitive mining areas?  And she’s from Peru
.
”

“What does Peru have to do with it?”

“Consuela, I despair of you
.
  Don’t you ever think about anything besides babies and fashion?  Peru has always wanted our nitrates.  They claim
ed
it was their territory.  They even went to war over it, but we won, of course.  I
’
m sure the Peruvians will do anything to keep us from getting the benefit of those deposits—up to and including collaborating with the British
.
”

“No.  He works for the EFE.  He works for us, for our railroad.”

“That’s what
he
says.”

“It’s true.  My husband was complaining about it the other day.  He said the EFE should look for an engineer from Chile, or even Argentina.”

Lola
hurried
to the children’s room and closed the door noisily.  The silence as she reentered the
living room
seemed to suck the air out of her lungs.  She tried to smile and offered refreshments.

The younger woman reached for a tea cake, but her hand froze in midair when her companion spoke.  “We didn
’
t come to eat from your hand today, Señora.  We came to tell you we don
’
t approve of you trying to become part of our society.”  Consuela looked as shocked as Lola felt at the woman’s
words
.

“My husband
’
s not responsible for what the British do,” she said as calmly as possible. 
“
He has chosen to make Chile his home.  He left England years ago to work on the Panama Canal, and he decided not to return to England.  He has nothing to do with the war.”

“That
’
s what he says.”  The older woman was now definitely looking down the length of her nose at Lola.  “All we know is that the war broke out and the British sent their ships to blockade our coast; at the same time this British man turns up in our midst and travels to all parts of the country.  It seems like too much of a coincidence.”  The woman rose and frowned at her companion who was still seated.

“I
’
m
here
to tell you, Señora,
that
you
’
re not welcome in our neighborhood.”

Lola felt as though she had been kicked in the stomach.  She could hardly breathe.  How could these women believe such horrible things about her husband?  He was working for
their
country
,
trying to improve
their
rail system
.
  How could they believe he was working for the British? 

As the older woman swept out of the room, the younger woman placed a hand on Lola’s shoulder, her eyes full of sympathy.  “I
’
m sorry, Lola.  I wish we could be friends.”

Those words stung Lola more than the other woman’s haughty exit. 
S
he stood there, unable to reply.  Now she understood
the problems
James
was having.
The pieces fell into place. 
The woman said the
blockade
started when they arrived.
James
must have known about it when he
made them take the first ship leaving for Chile. 

“Are you all right?”  Inez asked.

“
Thank you, Inez,
I’ll be fine.  It was just a shock.”   Inez began to clear the room of the remains of the disastrous event.  She soon came back with a small tray with two steaming cups of tea. 

“Cook is watching out for Estela and Joseph.  Carlota
’
s sleeping, so this is a perfect time for you to relax.”

The two sat in companionable silence
.
  Lola
missed
the
fragrance of
Earl Grey tea, but now she
knew
why she couldn’t find any in the shops
. 

“Inez, I
’
m sorry to have embroiled you in this ugliness—but I
’
m very, very grateful that you
’
re here.  I wouldn
’
t survive without your friendship.”  Lola drank some more tea and looked at her friend over the rim of her cup.  Inez
’s
only
relative
was a married sister who lived in Lima.  Now this poor woman had followed them to a country where she knew no one and was being shunned by everyone for no fault of her own.
 
“Inez, if you wish to return to Lima,” Lola nearly choked on the words she felt compelled to say, “I
’
ll understand.  This isn
’
t a situation either one of us could have anticipated.  It
’
s not fair to you.”

“Thank you, but I
’
ll stay.  You need me and, to be honest, I
’
m not sure it
’
s safe for a woman to travel alone these days.”  No more was said about the subject.  Life went on much as it had before, but Lola no longer had the hope of making a full life for herself and her family in Chile.  She would always be isolated.  She
’
d been isolated on the plantation, but that was an isolation of space.  Here in Santiago she lived in the midst of a large vibrant city, but she was only welcome where the people around her didn
’
t know she carried a British passport. 

Lola maintain
ed
a façade of normalcy, but
some
days she would catch sight of a woman crossing the street to avoid walking near her, and she would be close to tears by the time they reached home again. 

One day she saw Consuela walking toward her.  She held her breath, hoping and praying she would say a pleasant “good day”—just a touch of normal human relations.  To her surprise the woman stopped to look in a shop window just as Lola and her family approached.