San Sebastián, Spain

Amalfitano received the next letter from San Sebastián.

In San Sebastián they had plans to stay with a friend of Imma’s, a Basque girl named Edurne, who had been an ETA commando and had given up the armed struggle when democracy came, and who didn’t want them in her house for more than one night, saying she had lots to do and her husband didn’t like unexpected guests.

Edurne herself was very relaxed. She had a little boy (though Lola and Imma never saw him, because Jon always found a reason to keep them out of his room) and she worked almost full-time as a street educator, with junkie families and the street people who huddled on the steps of the cathedral of San Sebastián and only wanted to be left alone, as Edurne explained, laughing, as if she’d just told a joke that only Imma understood, because neither Lola nor Jon laughed.

she described her daily life in San Sebastián and the area around the asylum, which she visited every day.

He bought her a skirt at a little street fair and he bought her some brand-name jeans at a store in downtown San Sebastián.