Gambini

Elga patted the bed, “Come over here and tell me about it.”

It was dripping with sympathy. Esmeralda was annoyed that she was expected to pour out her troubles on a first meeting. “I don’t think I really want to—”

“Sorry, it’s just me, trying to keep the conversation going. I don’t mean to pry, dear. I just was hoping to get a little background, that’s all! See if there’s anything I can do to help. No need to get into the little bitty personal details.”

Esmeralda kept it as simple as she could. Her siblings ran away, her mom got sad, and she came to look for them. Elga just hugged her and waited. Esmeralda let it happen, unsure what she could do besides push her away, which seemed cold. She considered what she could say when Elga pulled away from the hug, and wondered why the woman smelled like peppermint. When Elga did pull away, Esmeralda was left feeling confused and a bit invaded, but thanked her for the hug anyway.

They sat for awhile before she spoke again, “So, I’ll be heading back once I find them."

“I can help you.”

“I don’t think…”

Elga sat straight up and patted Esmeralda on the back, “No! I insist! We have a great number of connections, and we may as well put them to use.”

“You don’t know who I am. You don’t know if I’m telling the truth, you don’t know if I’m in any way a decent person.”

“I can feel these things.”

She couldn’t tell whether she was being played, or Elga was just incredibly naive. “You wouldn’t want to help me if you knew who they are. I don’t like them much myself.”

“You are not your family. And being worried about them regardless of what they’ve done shows a good person. I won’t judge you based on them, I promise.”

“I guess I might as well. I already mentioned their names to your husband. Curtis and Mary. Both redheads.”

“Oh. Oh, you don’t want to be involved.”

After all that poking and prodding, and ‘you’re so good for being worried’? She wasn’t going to let Elga shut up now. “Maybe not, but if you know where they are, you have to at least tell me.”

Elga looked away, “I don’t know if you…”

“You don’t know me at all! Tell me where they are.”

Elga strained, trying to decide if the fact that this girl deserved the information outweighed the fact that none of it was good news. She came to the conclusion that the child was persistent enough that she’d find out eventually. Why make her go through all that extra effort? “They’re working for the Gambinis.”

Esmeralda closed her eyes and sighed, groaning internally. Oh, wonderful. “Hmm… Can I get a room from you?”

“Absolutely no problem, dear. How long will you be staying?”

“I don’t know. I guess until I find them.”

"Are you sure? You won’t be safe if you get involved with what they're doing."

What exactly were they doing? She didn't actually know much about Gambini. She'd heard the name before, and she often heard about people dying and gossip around it being caused by Gambini family. Of course, not too long ago, Penance was like that for her too. Then again, it was understood even to the this woman, who trusts so readily, that the Gambinis were not people you wanted to get involved with. 

"Yes. Yes, I need to find them. How did you and Murgin find out they're with the Gambinis? Are you sure?" 

She said they had come here with the Gambini son, Marco. 

"Why?" 

"To conduct some sort of business, I assume. We wanted to stay out of it. He introduced us to them, almost as a notification that these were his people. I think they're in too deep for you to get them out, sweetie, and we can’t help you with this." 

Esmeralda closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She felt like her whole body was moving but realized it was only her heartbeat. She was stuck. There was no win for her. She should be used to this by now. Story of her life, as they say. “Goodnight then.” 

“Wait, are you sure you don’t want to talk about it more?”

“Talk about what?”

Elga knew she should let it be, but she couldn’t. “How you feel, maybe more detail about what happened?”

“No, not really.”

“You need to. You can’t let it eat you up inside.”

“Maybe later. Can you just leave me alone for now?”

“Sorry, yes, of course.  I’ll just get you a room.”