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“Soon.” He turned my hand over and began tracing the lines that criss-crossed my palm.

“What about Theresa?” Fernando’s girlfriend Theresa was a professional dancer in Salvador.

“Um...we may be breaking up anyway. I think she has another lover.”

“She’s being pretty dumb to lose you,” I said. “Why do you think she has a lover?”

“She told me.”

“Oh.”

“Look how different our hands are.” Fernando laid out his long, narrow hand beside mine and began to compare their length and size. “She said she has two lovers actually, a man and a woman. I guess I wouldn’t mind if she wanted to experiment, but she wants to continue having sex with them.” He looked at me, and I saw tears in the corners of his eyes.

I took his hand in mine and kissed it. “I’m sorry,” I said. “You love her, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” Fernando pressed my hand against his cheek. “So, I’ve been accepted to do my master’s degree down near São Paulo. I think I’ll go.”

“Everyone in the capoeira group will be sad.”

“Yeah. But I’ll come back.” He looked at my fingers. “But you’ll probably be gone by then, won’t you?”

“Maybe. Are you excited about the program?”

“It’s psychology. The program’s supposed to be good. I got some funding from the government.”

“Oh, Fernando.” I gently pulled him toward me and hugged him. “You don’t want to go, do you?” He nestled his face on my shoulder, and I felt his tears on my neck.

“In some ways. But I love Bahia. This is me. When I go south, people will make fun of my Northeastern accent. I don’t know. Once I get there I’m sure it’ll be good, but now, leaving, I feel so torn. I have this hole where my love for Theresa is supposed to be.”

I took his head in my hands and looked into his eyes. “Fernando, you are a wonderful, beautiful man. You know how to love. And I shall come back to see your face full of light and you laughing again.”

Fernando smiled. “And you will find another good research assistant.”

I laughed and pretended to slap his cheek. “You are so bad! I am thinking only of you!”

Fernando pulled his face away and joined my laughter.

“Liar. You are not so simple as that. And you should ask me who I think would make a better research assistant than I could ever be.”

“Who?”

“Rita.”

“Rita?”

“You never thought of her, did you?”

“No.” I looked down at my notes, scribbled absentmindedly on the margins of the typed pages, and then looked up. “You know, Fernando, I think she intimidates me. She’s always doing so many things, I don’t know how she would have time. She’s a video technician, she does her photography, she does all this political work, she seems to be on all these committees. Do you think she’d want to work with me?”

Fernando gathered up his papers. “You pay in American dollars, Margaret. And after this last election....” He paused. “You know the old party got back in, don’t you? You understand what that means?”

“It means people will start getting paid again.”

“It means Jorge lost his job.”

“What?”

“He worked as a street cleaner. He hadn’t been paid for eight months, but before that he made three minimum salaries. The new government has fired everyone, and they’re going to hire new people and pay them only one minimum salary.”

“Oh, no.” I wondered how this would affect Jorge’s entire family.

“Rita also lost her job.”

“Why Rita?”

“Ask her. I’d say it’s because she’s too powerful. She might say something else.” Fernando paused again. “But, she’ll need money. Being your research assistant is fun. And at least we know you’ll pay us.”

“I see.”

“I’m going.” Fernando held out his hand to help my to my feet. “So, this Friday, we’ll play each other in the capoeira roda, OK? To connect us until we meet again.”

I looked into Fernando’s face and felt a warmth of affection that moved through my blood and bones. “Yes,” I said. “Until I see you happy and in love again.”

Fernando slowly drew his finger along the edge of my cheekbone. He didn’t smile. “You’re getting more Brazilian