Danielle Steel - Passion's Promise

“Because I’m working on something here. The only problem is that the kids we treat are outpatient instead of live-in. Man, if we had a resident facility, I could take this shabby operation a long, long way.” His eyes lit up as he spoke.

“You’re treating kids with drug problems?” Kezia was interested in what he had to say. If nothing else, it might make a good story. But more than the story, she was intrigued by the man. She liked him. He was the sort of person you wanted to hug, and she had only just met him.

“Yes, drug and minor criminal histories. The two are almost always related.” He came alive as he explained the services the facility offered, showed her charts, graphs, histories, and outlines of future plans. But the real problem remained: lack of control. As long as the kids went back on the streets at night, back to broken homes where a mother was turning tricks on the room’s only bed, or a father was beating his wife, where brothers shot dope in the John, and sisters took reds or sold yellows, there wasn’t a lot they could do. “The whole point is to get them out of their environment. To change the whole life pattern. We know that now, but here it’s not easy.” He waved dimly at the peeling walls and amply made his point. The place was in very bad shape.

“I still think you’re nuts.” But Luke was, as always, impressed with his friend’s determination, his drive. He had seen him beaten, mugged, rolled, kicked, laughed at, spat on, and ignored. But no one could ever keep Alejandro down. He believed in his dreams. As Luke did his.

“And you think you’re any saner, Luke? You’re going to stop the world from building prisons? Hombre, you die before you see that one happen.” He rolled his eyes and shrugged, but the respect was entirely mutual. It amused Kezia to listen to them talk. To Kezia, Alejandro spoke perfect English, but with Luke he fell into the language of the streets. A put-on, a remnant, a joke, or a bond, she wasn’t quite sure. Maybe a combination of them all.

“Okay, smartass, you’ll see. Thirty years from now there won’t be a prison functioning in this state, or in any other state for that matter.” She caught “loco” and “cabeza” in answer and then Luke flipped up one finger on his right hand.

“Please, Luke, there’s a lady present.” But it was all in good fun, and Alejandro seemed to have accepted her. There was the faintest hint of shyness about him. Still, he joked with her, almost as he did with Luke. “And you, Kezia? What do you do?” He looked at her with wide-open eyes.

“I write.”

“And she’s good.”

Kezia laughed and gave Luke a shove. “Wait until you see the interview before you decide. Anyway, you’re prejudiced.” They shared a smile three ways and Alejandro looked pleased for his friend. He had known immediately that this was no light-hearted fling, no one-night stand or casual friend. It was the first time he had seen Luke with a woman. Luke kept his women in bed, and went home when he wanted some more. This one had to be special. She seemed different from the others too. Worlds different. She was intelligent, and she had a certain style. Class. He wondered where Luke had met her.

“Want to come downtown for dinner?” Luke lit a cigar and offered one to his friend. Alejandro took it eagerly and then looked surprised when he lit it.

“Cubano?”

Luke nodded. Kezia laughed.

“The lady’s well-supplied.”

Alejandro whistled and Luke looked momentarily proud. He had a woman who had something no one else on their block had: Cuban cigars. “How about dinner, big Al?”

“Lucas, I can’t. I’d like to, but …” He waved at the mountain of work on his desk. “And at seven tonight we’re having a group for the parents of some of our patients.”

“Group therapy?”

Alejandro nodded. “Getting to the parents helps. Sometimes.”

Kezia suddenly had the feeling that Alejandro was emptying a tidal wave with a thimble, but you had to give him credit for trying.

“Dinner another time maybe. How long will you be in town?”

“Tonight. Tomorrow. But I’ll be back.” Alejandro smiled again and patted his friend on the back.

“I know you will. And I’m happy for you, man.” He gazed warmly at Kezia and then smiled at them both. It felt like a blessing.

It was obvious that Alejandro hated to see them leave as much as Lucas hated to go. And Kezia felt it too.

“You were right.”

“About what?”

“Alejandro.”

“Yeah. I know.” Lucas had been lost in his own thoughts all the way to the subway. “That sonofabitch is going to get himself killed up here one of these days with his goddamn groups and his fucking ideals. I wish he’d get the hell out.”

“Maybe he can’t.”

“Oh yeah?” Lucas was pissed. He was worried about his friend.

“It’s kind of like a war, Luke. You fight yours, he fights his. Neither of you really cares if you get sacrificed in the process. It’s the end result that matters. To both of you. He’s not so different from you. Not in the way he thinks. He’s doing what he has to do.”

Lucas nodded, still looking disgruntled, but he knew she was right. She was very perceptive. It surprised him sometimes. For someone as dumb as she was about her own life, she had a way of putting her finger right on the spot for others.

“You’re wrong about one thing, though.”

“What?”

“He isn’t like me at all.”

“What makes you say that?”

“There isn’t a mean bone in his body.”

“But there is in yours?” A smile started to light in her eyes. Mr. Macho was talking.

“You better believe it, Mama. Lots of them. You don’t live through what I did, six years in the California prison system, if you’re made like him. Someone turns you into a punk, and if you don’t dig it, you die the next day.” Kezia was silent as they started their journey back into the subway.

“He was never in prison then?” She had assumed that he had been, because Luke was.

“Alejandro?” Luke let out a hearty bass laugh. “Nope. All his brothers were, though. He was visiting one of his brothers at Folsom. And I dug him. When I switched to another joint, he got special permission to come and see me. We’ve been brothers since then. But Alejandro’s not on the same trip, never was. He went the other way from the rest of his family. Magna cum laude at Stanford.”

“Christ, he’s so unassuming.”

“That’s why he’s beautiful, babe. And the dude has a heart of pure gold.”

The arriving train swallowed their words, and they rode home in silence. She tugged at his sleeve at the Seventy-seventh Street stop.

“This is us.” He nodded, smiled, and stood up. He was back to himself again, she could see it. The worry for Alejandro had faded from his face. He had other things on his mind now.

“Baby, I love you.” He held her in his arms as the train pulled away, and their lips met and held. And then suddenly he looked at her, worried again. “Is this uncool?”

“Huh?” She didn’t know what he meant, as he pulled away from her looking embarrassed.

“Well, I can dig your not wanting to wind up in the papers. I made you a lot of speeches last night, but I do understand how you feel. Being yourself is one thing, making page one is another.”

“Thank God I never do that. Page five maybe, page four even, but never page one. That’s reserved for homicides, rapes, and stock market disasters.” She laughed up at him again. “It’s okay, Luke. It was ‘cool.” Besides …” there was mischief in her eyes … “remarkably, very few of my friends ride the subway. It’s silly of them, actually. This is such a marvelous way to travel!” There was pure debutante in her voice as she fluttered her eyelashes at him, and he gave her a severe look from the top of his height.