By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL
Searching…Returning…what’s next? Finding? Becoming? Next month’s chapter will be the final one in this second novella. We will—or will we?—find out what happens to our little holy family. Will they find Lupita? Will Agnes save them or betray them one more time? What will happen to their nemesis Brian Fleming and the forces he represents?
A little recap is in order. In the first novella, “Searching” set roughly in 2006, Angel and Luz meet under trying circumstances. An immigration raid, an assault, the uncovering of family secrets. And the mystery of their shared ancestor. Mateo Kelly Hidalgo, who lived in the swale (East Phillips)—a hundred years ago, and who may still haunt the place. Luz and Angel battle evil from the present and the past. They traveled through many parts of Phillips: Maria’s Café, In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, Mercado Central, and ended up underneath the baptismal window at St. Paul’s the morning after La Natividad. There, the mysterious Agnes explained to them the Swedish words they had been seeing: Laten barnen komma til mig. Let the children come to me.
In “Returning”, set roughly in 2011, Luz and Angel are married, with two children: Angel, 4 and Guadalupe 2. Angel works at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Luz is a student at Augsburg University and an artist with, well, Semilla for Healing and the Arts. Their little girl Lupe is abducted from the daycare, and the family sets out to find them. They meet Agnes, who guides them to a feast at a seniors apartment building and betrays them into the hands of Brian Fleming, who has a bitter history with Luz. The whole novel is a search for little Lupita, including time travel back to the time of Mateo. Oh, and there’s Mother Light, who is and isn’t the same person in both stories, and a host of other characters.
So, see you in September, for the resolution—or will it be a revolution?
Patrick Cabello Hansel is a retired pastor, having served with his wife for 15 years at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Phillips. He spends his days writing poetry and fiction, gardening and yelling at the TV.
