Summary

In present tense narration, Tish describes her mother’s journey to Puerto Rico – limited in cash, “which means that she knows how rapidly she must move against time – which is inexorably moving against her” (144). Sharon manages to think her way through the pressures of the crowd at the airport, with its unexpected noise and size, and engage a car with an English-speaking driver named Jaime who takes her to the hotel that Hayward had booked for her (which turns out to be unexpectedly nice). She changes clothes and goes to the nightclub where Hayward has told her Pietro works. She fights down nerves as she makes her way to a table and orders a drink; she also fights down memories of her time when she worked in nightclubs as a singer (Tish comments, in narration, on...