The Santos family does not do reunions.
They do not plan gatherings or coordinate diaries or send group messages about dates that work for everyone. What they do is drift toward the same place when the season allows it when the fixtures clear and the flights are manageable and someone, usually Emma, mentions to one brother that the other is already going and suddenly it is a thing that is happening.
Rico's house in England is where they drift to.
It is late in the year. The garden is the colour gardens go in autumn still green in places but quieter, the light arriving at a lower angle and staying for less time. Rico is inside resting on the sofa with the television on at low volume, the comfortable half-sleep of a man in his late fifties who has earned the right to close his eyes on a Saturday afternoon without explanation.
Outside, his three children are doing what his three children have always done when left unsupervised in the same outdoor space.
Emma is sitting on the garden wall with a cup of tea, watching.
Klaus and Lucas are arguing about football.
LUCAS: "All I'm saying is that if Queensgate had our midfield you would have won nothing this season."
KLAUS: "If Queensgate had our midfield they would be Real Blanco. Which they are not."
LUCAS: "That's not a response."
KLAUS: "It is a complete response."
LUCAS: "It's not — you didn't address the point."
KLAUS: "The point doesn't require addressing."
Emma takes a sip of tea.
EMMA: "You two have been having this exact argument since you were twelve."
LUCAS: "Because he never answers the question."
KLAUS: "Because the question doesn't have a good answer."
EMMA: "You're both right and you're both unbearable. Congratulations."
Lucas points at her.
LUCAS: "She's on my side."
EMMA: "I am absolutely not on your side."
LUCAS: "You said I was right."
EMMA: "I said you were both right. There is a difference."
Klaus sits down on the grass, Lucas remains standing, Emma finishes her tea.
The intercom at the front gate buzzes.
None of them moves immediately, the security system is new Rico had it installed eighteen months ago at his agent's insistence. The gate is solid and the intercom has a camera and the security man, a quiet Scotsman named Dougie who has been with the family for two years, handles most of it without troubling anyone.
They hear Dougie's voice through the garden speaker.
DOUGIE: (through the intercom) "Yes. Can I help you?"
MARCO: (through the intercom) "I am here to see Mr Santos, Rico Santos."
DOUGIE: "Mr Santos isn't receiving visitors today, can I ask who's calling?"
MARCO: "I am a fan, I admire him very much, I have come a long way."
DOUGIE: "That's very kind, mr Santos appreciates all his supporters, but today isn't possible."
MARCO: "I have a letter for him, I need to give it to him personally."
DOUGIE: "You're welcome to post the letter through the gate, I'll make sure it reaches him."
MARCO: "No, I need to give it to him myself, It is important."
A longer pause from Dougie.
DOUGIE: "I understand, but I'm not in a position to let you in, I'm sorry, son."
In the garden the three of them have stopped pretending not to listen.
Then loud enough to carry across the garden the sound of metal on metal, the gate being hit, then again.
MARCO: (louder) "Please, he needs to see this letter, It is very important."
DOUGIE: "Sir, step back from the gate."
Lucas is already on his feet.
LUCAS: "What's going on?"
Dougie appears around the side of the house.
DOUGIE: "Nothing to worry about, just a fan, bit persistent, I'll deal with it."
EMMA: "How persistent?"
DOUGIE: "It's under control, Miss Santos."
He goes back to the front, the three of them look at each other.
LUCAS: "Weird."
EMMA: "It happens."
KLAUS: "Not usually like that."
They drift back to what they were doing, a few minutes pass, the intercom is quiet.
The afternoon continues.
Klaus sees it first, a figure at the top of the side wall, one hand gripping the top, then a leg over, then the whole person dropping into the garden in a single movement and already running before he has properly found his feet.
Klaus is standing before he has processed what he is seeing.
KLAUS: "DOUGIE."
His voice carries the way it does on a football pitch loud, clear, no question in it. Dougie is around the side of the house in four seconds, the figure has crossed half the garden, but Dougie catches up to him, across the grass and intercepts him ten yards from the back door, one hand on his shoulder.
DOUGIE: "Okay. That's enough."
MARCO: "Please. I just need to —"
DOUGIE: "You climbed over a private wall, that's trespassing."
MARCO: "Please, Just let me speak —."
Emma, Klaus and Lucas have moved toward them without deciding to, Klaus is closest, he looks at the figure out of breath, dark-eyed, clothes worn for more than one day. He doesn't look dangerous, he looks desperate, which is a different thing.
LUCAS: (to Dougie) "Is this the gate guy?"
DOUGIE: "Same one."
LUCAS: (to Marco) "That was not a smart thing to do."
MARCO: "I know, I'm sorry, but I need to give something to Rico Santos, It cannot wait."
EMMA: "What is it?"
MARCO: "A letter, for him, only for him."
EMMA: "You climbed a garden wall to deliver a letter."
MARCO: "Yes."
Emma looks at Klaus, Klaus looks at Lucas.
LUCAS: "Look, Rico doesn't see fans anymore, there's a reason the gate exists."
MARCO: "I am not a fan."
LUCAS: "You said at the gate you were a fan."
MARCO: "I said what I needed to say to get in."
Klaus, who has said nothing for the last minute, speaks.
KLAUS: "Then what are you?"
The back door, which is open and in the frame of which Rico Santos is now standing drawn outside by the sound of his son's voice squinting slightly in the afternoon light, looking at the small crowd in his garden with the expression of a man who was asleep thirty seconds ago and is catching up.
RICO: "What's going on?"
DOUGIE: "Sorry to disturb you, Mr Santos. This individual came to the gate claiming to have a letter for you, when I turned him away he climbed the side wall."
Rico looks at Marco, his eyes move over him the way they move over things he is trying to understand.
RICO: "A letter."
DOUGIE: "I'll get rid of him, I'm sorry he got through."
RICO: "No, no."
He steps out into the garden, his slippers, the old cardigan he wears when no one is supposed to be visiting.
RICO: (to Klaus) "One person won't take long."
KLAUS: "Papá —"
RICO: "Klaus."
RICO: (quietly) "You have something for me."
MARCO: "Yes."
RICO: "A gift?"
Marco looks at him steadily.
MARCO: "No, My name is Marco, and this belongs to you."
He reaches into his jacket and takes out an envelope.
Old, the paper slightly yellowed at the edges in the way paper yellows when it has been kept somewhere for a very long time.
He holds it out, Rico looks at it, he takes it.
Rico reads the name on the front, and something happens to his face that none of his children have ever seen before.
EMMA: "Dad?"
He does not answer.
He opens the envelope.
He reads.
The garden is completely still, Klaus, Lucas and Emma are watching their father's face the way you watch a face when you cannot read it and you are becoming afraid of what you might read if you could.
It takes him a long time to finish.
When he does, he lowers the letter slowly, he does not fold it, he does not put it back in the envelope, he holds it at his side, both pages loose in his hand, and he looks at Marco.
EMMA: "Dad. What does it say?"
Klaus says nothing.
Lucas says nothing.
They are all looking at Rico.
Rico is looking at Marco.
Marco is looking back at him.
The afternoon light is going. The garden is almost dark.
Rico opens his mouth.
Closes it.
Says nothing.
Not yet.
END OF CHAPTER 22