A Woman with a Past

When my cousin Danny introduced me to his new wife, almost forty years ago, Laura was in her early thirties, a radiant beauty of Taíno heritage with a lithe figure and a model’s cheekbones. She wore her hair in a thick plait that swayed when she moved, and she emanated a sensuality that stirred anyone with a pulse. Without meaning to, she seduced my son’s puppy on the day we brought it home from the shelter, and whenever she came to visit, it went mad with joy. But Laura’s most striking feature was her voice, a smoky contralto, rich in…