Two years after Filomena’s daughter, Clarita, disappeared, she returned on the 3:00 pm bus from San Fernando. She knocked gently at her mother’s door with her elbow so she would not wake up the dark-skinned child sleeping in her arms.

Filomena was in Heaven. She could raise another girl.

Three weeks later Filomena went to town and took a bus to Santiago. She went to the religious store at the Andres Bello street. After she told the story about how Saint Anthony broke in 3 pieces and her daughter disappeared and appeared again, she explained that she wanted to buy a bigger Saint Anthony with a nice square-looking hair do. “This one should stand firmer on his head”, she told Mr. Barceto, the store owner. He smiled with understanding and called his assistant with instructions to go to the warehouse behind the store.

This man was wearing glasses. One of his eyes was covered with grey and white growths and was a little out of orbit, but the other eye was normal. The thick glass in front of his bad eye was intact, however, the glass in front of his good eye was cracked in many places. Filomena wondered how he was going to find the Saint. But he did. Filomena left holding a big package well wrapped in cardboard and white paper.

About 3 months later the dark-skinned man came to town. He had left his wife and “come to his true loved ones”, he said. Ah, but by the way, he had also lost his job with the phone company. Filomena’s daughter had found a part time job at the only pharmacy in town, so everything was going to be fine, he thought, with a smirky smile.