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were able. There will always be your father, of course, but you know how he is so busy with his business. There is only one thing, my darling, that I can offer you. It may not mean anything to you now, or for a long, long time. Yet, I know that eventually it will wrap its arms around you like a true mother.
    “So now, I am going to give you something. A token. You must try to understand that it is not the thing itself which has this power. It is a receiver only, like a radio. It holds something so much greater than itself…” She looked into his troubled and uncomprehending face, so handsome, so fragile, and her voice caught in her throat.
    With her slender musician’s fingers, she undid the top buttons of her white linen blouse and pulled up from the depths of her bosom a long gold chain. On its heavy, curiously wrought length, she held up the locket which had so recently been his fascination. It swung in the spring sunshine like the pendulum of fate.
    “This, my darling, as I have told you, is a very wonderful thing. It is a religious medal from Egypt…oh, I know you’ve no idea where that is…but it’s very old. Twenty centuries before the birth of our Lord. That means almost four thousand years, Roberto, which is a long, long time.”
    She bent down so he could hold the locket in his hand. “It’s enamel on gold. A beautiful picture of the Blessed Mother of God, you see? And she is holding Her Son on Her lap. That is how I want you to see me—always, even when I am gone, holding you, helping you in every way possible. Even when you are a very, very old man. I will be there for you, I promise, if the will of God allows it.”
    “Why is the Virgin black, Maman? Her face and hands are so dark!”
    “Why, because she is like our very own
Virgen de Guadalupe
, son—one of the dark ones who brings the mystery of the cosmos, imprinted on her very flesh. In Egypt, she was called Isis. And before that, other names.”
    She slipped the chain around the chignon at the nape of her neck. Carefully, she placed the locket in Roberto’s hand, saying, “You must never wear this yourself. That is very important. Only a woman may wear it. I have written all about it in a letter that you will find in the box where this locket will live.
    “But more important, Roberto my little love, the Mother Herself will always be there for you. She is One who never sleeps, never forgets, never lapses. Her love is eternal and invincible.” His mother spoke with such radiance, such sonorous musicality, that she might have been standing beside the piano downstairs, singing while Tía Isobella played.
    “It’s very beautiful, Maman. How did you get it?”
    “It was given to me years ago when I was a student in Paris. There was a very refined and aristocratic man who was the very last of his family, that had lived in France so long that no one knew when they started there. But through various misfortunes, all his family died, leaving him alone, the last of his lineage.
    “He told me that the women of his family, his mother and grandmother and ever-so-many-great-grandmothers had worn this locket, and that it had magical qualities so profound that only the wearer could understand them.”
    Roberto turned the locket in his hands, examining it minutely. “How did his family get it, Maman?”
    “It came into his family during the Crusades. He told me it had the blessings of the Holy Mother Herself upon it. Who can say? But I have worn it every day of my life since then, and in spite of my present condition, I can tell you that it is a miraculous thing. I feel confident that its magic will protect you in the coming time, when I cannot.”
    “What magic, Maman? What miracles? Tell me one.” Roberto looked feverishly into her eyes, knowing somehow beyond a doubt that if she could tell him a story convincing enough, he could make the leap of faith that would bind him to the magic of this locket.
    “
¡Precioso!
” she crooned, stroking his