Free Dancing with the Tiger by Lili Wright

my own reasons.”
    â€œProfessional.”
    â€œProfessional and personal.”
    â€œWhat personal reasons could a fact-checker have to want an Aztec death mask?”
    It was his first genuine question, one Anna had no intention of answering.
    She waited out the silence. Gonzáles looked uncomfortable, then rallied a smile. “Well, that settles everything, except, of course, my commission.”
    â€œShouldn’t we wait and see if everything goes smoothly tomorrow?”
    Gonzáles pretended to actually consider this. “I think not . . . No, I’m afraid that’s not how these transactions work . . . Not that I don’ttrust you, but we’ve just met. I forwarded your deposit to our friend, as promised.”
    Anna debated whether to argue, but thought better of it. She reached into her backpack and handed him two grand. The dealer fanned the bills and smiled.
    â€”
    Anna’s phone rang as she walked back to the
zócalo
.
    â€œYou went, didn’t you?”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œYou have the money, I trust.”
    Anna was proud of her moxie, but her father sounded more worried than pleased. She told him she had the money. Had he noticed the urn was missing? Apparently not. She wouldn’t bring it up.
    â€œYou shouldn’t have gone,” he said. The springs in his chair whined as he sat. Anna listened for ice cubes. “I was going to go.”
    She found some shady steps across from a toy shop and a
papelería
. “You’re not much of a traveler these days,” she said. “It’s better I went.”
    â€œNonsense. I’ll meet you in Mexico City tomorrow.”
    â€œDon’t worry. I’ve got it covered. I’ll call when I have the mask.”
    â€œWhere are you staying?”
    â€œThe Puesta del Sol, but—”
    â€œSee if they have another room. I’ll go back to Oaxaca with you after. Or do you have two beds? That would save a few bucks—”
    â€œI repeat:
Do not come to Mexico.
” He’d probably already packed his explorer’s vest with bug spray and batteries. “By the time you get here, I’ll have the mask. Then I’m taking a vacation for a week. Buying folkart. Getting a tan. Everything’s set. I’m meeting Gonzáles tomorrow in Tepito.”
    â€œTepito?”
    Anna smiled. “That was the address. Google Maps. Click, click.” She couldn’t help herself.
    â€œHave the twigger come to his office instead. It’s safer.”
    â€œThe twigger has an office?”
    â€œGonzáles’s office.”
    â€œGonzáles doesn’t have an office in Mexico City.”
    â€œHe probably does. The guy has a finger in every pie.” Her father still sounded put out. “If I’d known you were going to take off like that, I wouldn’t have told you. Your mother would never forgive me.”
    Her father did this a lot. Extrapolate what Rose would have wanted or done or thought. Anna softened her tone, told him she was happy to do this for him, for the family. “Mom would have done the same. She often did.”
    His chair squeaked. He’d gotten up, was walking somewhere.
    â€œYou’re not going into the kitchen for ice, are you?”
    Her father said he was not.
    â€œI mean it. No ice.”
    â€œIf you must know, I need to take a piss. I am walking to the bathroom, so when we hang up, I’ll be eight steps closer.”
    â€œNo cocktail to soothe your nerves. No father’s little helper.”
    They spoke about his drinking with code words and black humor. Daniel Ramsey had never been a mean drunk, more a sentimental bore, weepy and apologetic, praising his late wife, building her into a saint.
Your mother understood me. She was the only one.
Anna had quit listening. She wanted to remember her mother in her own way, just asshe wanted to forget her father’s worst days, like the morning