78: Niche

Slogging through the rain-saturated soil, Evelyn fretted about ruining her shoes, but with Andrew gone into the office for the day, she had little else to do with her time. Music drifted across the grounds towards her, most likely from the restored pool and spa of the hotel, so she angled towards higher ground, with the intention of making her way there.

As she reached the rise she’d been climbing, the Mona Lisa restaurant she adored came into view. Like her brownstone apartment building in New York, it had been somewhat sheltered from El Cordonazo’s worst destructive efforts by the lee of both the landscape and the nearby buildings.

Still, the neon rooftop sign proclaiming ‘Mona Lisa’ tipped at a precarious angle, its supporting frame badly bent. The window awnings on both the first and second floors were mostly gone and what remained hung in limp fluttering tatters. The two upright potted cypress topiaries that had flanked the restaurant&rsquo