The Butler(10)
“Javier would never have come with us, even if you had tried to force him,” Joachim reminded her. “You forget how obstinate he was then. And I think he already had some bad plans by the time we left, which would have shocked us if we’d known about them. He started hanging around the wrong people as a teenager.” It was hard for either of them to imagine who he was now. He had strayed so far from anything familiar or acceptable to them that Joachim suspected they were better off not knowing. As sad as it was, especially for his mother, the silence was perhaps less upsetting than the truth. But he was hoping to hear some echoes about Javier anyway when he went to Buenos Aires. It was hard to let go of the fact that he had a twin brother somewhere in the world.
“What are you going to do when you get there?” Liese asked.
“See friends, enjoy the city. Visit my old favorite places. It’s sort of a pilgrimage. I haven’t had time for a trip like that. Now I do, before I take another job, and get caught up in service again.”
“When are you going to do that?”
“I’m in no hurry.” The marquess had left him some money, as had Francois. Joachim had been careful and invested what he had. He had enough to be comfortable for quite some time without a job. He didn’t want to make a mistake and take the wrong one. He had enjoyed his first job briefly, and his second one had been deeply rewarding. He wanted to take his time and find the right job and employer for the next round, although there were fewer and fewer great houses and grand estates anywhere anymore, even in England. Few people wanted a large formal staff, which was Joachim’s forte to run. His skills were outstanding. He had listed himself with the best agency for butlers in London and had told them he was in no rush. He could have his pick of the best jobs, with his experience. He doubted he would find a new one he liked as much that used all his skills.
Seeing his mother made him think that he should stay in Paris for a while, to spend time with her and make sure she was in good health. She was remarkably energetic for a woman her age, but she lived alone, and at eighty-one, he was concerned that she might fall ill, or injure herself. But she’d had no problems so far. It was nice staying in the apartment with her. He’d been so busy preparing the Cheshire homes to be sold that he hadn’t been to see her in three months and felt guilty about it. He was planning to spend a month with her after he got back from Buenos Aires. He had a flat in London, which he rarely had time to use, but it would give him a comfortable place to stay when he went back to look for a new position. He used it on his days off, sometimes to meet women, but he was always available to the family and staff, if needed. He was feared, and admired, by the employees he managed, and held in great respect by his employers. He was well liked but kept to himself. He saw his life as a butler more as a vocation than a career.
* * *
—
When he got to Buenos Aires, the city was as beautiful as Joachim remembered, and he still felt at home there, even after so long. He easily found the small, shabby apartment building where they had lived. He was shocked by how dreary it looked to him now. The neighborhood had gotten worse than he remembered. His mother had often pointed to the house she had grown up in. Other people had lived there for more than forty years now. It had been sold when her father died, right after the twins were born. It had changed hands several times with reversals in the lives of the owners, which had become run of the mill in Argentina. Many fortunes had been lost, and once very wealthy people had almost nothing now. Their exquisite homes had been sold, their French antiques filled the antique shops, and there were wonderful purchases to be had, which wealthy Americans and Europeans had known for a long time. Liese had only once pointed out the pretty house where she had lived with Joachim’s father before he died. She said it was too painful for her to talk about, so he knew very little of his father’s history, except that he had died in a riding accident, and his family had lost everything, and had all died shortly after he was born. Liese didn’t like to talk about the sad times in her life. She was private about them and was vague whenever he asked.
He walked all over Buenos Aires in the first few days he was there, soaking up the sounds and smells and familiar sights. Having lived in France for so long after he left, he realized now how French the architecture of Buenos Aires was. The wide boulevards, impressive buildings, small lovely parks, and famous plazas all looked similar to the landmarks of Paris he knew so well now. The Avenida de Mayo looked distinctly like Paris, and the Plaza de Mayo, with historic monuments. The Congreso de la Nación resembled the grandeur of the Paris opera house. He remembered the Plaza del Congreso from his youth, and the Casa Rosada, the pink palace of the presidential offices.
He sat in small parks, wandered through the barrios, and remembered his childhood on the streets where he and Javier had played. It was a trip back in time for him, full of sights he remembered, smells which jogged his memory, and familiar music. It was different now, seeing it as an adult, and a tourist. And everything he saw brought back tender memories.
Joachim contacted all the old friends he’d planned to in Buenos Aires. He hadn’t seen them since he’d left, and no one had heard from Javier in at least twenty years, or longer. Joachim and his twin had shared many of the same friends in their childhood, and it touched Joachim to see them again. But in his mid-teens, Javier had collected another group of friends, racier, tougher, from a different background. Joachim was told that his twin had gotten in trouble with them, once Joachim and their mother left. It was everyone’s opinion, among the people he spoke to, that Javier had disappeared into a dark underworld. Some of their old friends were outspoken, saying how dangerous his friends and connections were, and that many of them were suspected of being involved in the drug cartels of Colombia, once they were adults. They were a bad lot, and they suspected Javier had become one of them. Joachim believed that too and wondered if his twin might be dead by then. But he had a gut feeling that he wasn’t. Joachim knew no one in that world to contact.