‘lupe!’ the girl tells him loudly. ‘just my mom and grandma call me lupita. and dad, but he’s–’ lupe’s words hang in the air. "still in greece.” nayeli finishes the sentence for her, finality in her voice. it’s not an unkind tone, but the reality that lupe’s father is likely dead seems to harsh a reality for a five year old girl. there’s a fine line between the appreciation of someone acknowledging lupe as her own person and the healthy fear of a strange man likely trading with someone in the camp.
“she likes dr. seuss too, but we’ve been reading more chapter books lately.” lupe was clever for her age and, thankfully, had the focus of two parents working on their phds. it made for a girl whose reading skills were above average before kindergarten, even if she didn’t alwaysunderstand what she was reading. “i’ve been looking for a copy of the witches or matilda, but with the card catalogue out of date and no use of the computers, this place can be a bit of a maze.
“Oh!” Noah smiles without skipping a beat. “My sincerest apologies, Miss Lupe, I’ll make sure not to call you Lupita.” He smoothly adds, “Greece, huh?” His eyes briefly dart to Nayeli’s before flying back to the little girl, “Sounds fun.” He says nothing else of it, because he knows what still in Greece implies. He suddenly feels sorry for the bright little girl, but at the very least she has her mother which is already more than most.
Noah’s kindness towards the woman and her child are sincere, stemming from the broken heart of a man whose own children were taken away from him far too soon. Four and six. The ages at which he had still been the world’s greatest father, his kids’ very own superhero. He assumes the little girl can’t be too far from that range. Still, he knows of the impression a tinfoil-hat-wearing bearded stranger with an interest in saying hello to a child can make. So he fixates his gaze on the library as Nayeli speaks. “I have all the time in the world. I’d love to help look.”
