Jaime

Jaime is an approximately eighteen-year-old taxi driver in Puerto Rico who becomes a crucial helper in Sharon’s search for Victoria Rogers. He first appears as the driver arranged for Sharon, a stranger traveling alone on a risky and uncertain mission; over the next days, he shifts from guide to confidant and covert aide, helping her navigate a town where she is under surveillance.

Introduction and First Encounter

A woman at the hotel quickly finds Jaime to drive Sharon to her destination, reads the address aloud, and instructs him to take Sharon’s bag. Sharon accepts the arrangement and follows him. Though she recognizes that he is very young, she decides on the journey into town to make friends with him and to rely on him, or at least appear to do so. He knows the town and can drive, qualities that make him useful to a visitor who cannot safely move about alone.

Sharon is weighing how to approach her search: she hopes to look into a nightclub and perhaps see Pietro Alvarez or Victoria without announcing herself. She is unsure what kind of place the club is and knows that entering it unescorted may be difficult. Jaime’s presence offers practical help, but the narrative does not establish that he takes her to the club. His first defined task is transportation, and Sharon’s decision to trust him is a quick response to the constraints of her mission.

Guide to the Favella

Jaime is prompt when Sharon needs to go to the favella, arriving with her there by nine thirty. He knows roughly where the particular dwelling is, although he is unsure whether he knows the woman they are seeking. That limited familiarity establishes both his local knowledge and its bounds: he can get Sharon close, but he cannot guarantee that the destination or its occupant will be easy to identify.

He walks beside Sharon, proud to serve as her protector but uneasy about the errand. His discomfort accompanies rather than prevents his help. The journey takes them through a settlement built on a garbage dump, with dwellings on stilts and roofs of corrugated metal; Jaime’s role is to accompany Sharon into this difficult setting while she pursues Victoria. When Sharon leaves after confronting Victoria, Jaime’s taxi is waiting. He opens the door, and after she gets in, he drives her away without speaking.

From Driver to Spy

Jaime’s assistance deepens after Sharon’s visit. She later explains that she waited two more days and that by then the story had spread across the island; Jaime, she says, knew more about it than she did. He tells her that she is being followed, and that both of them are being followed. One night in the taxi, he demonstrates that the surveillance is real, though Sharon postpones explaining exactly what he showed her.

For the final two days of her stay, Jaime becomes Sharon’s spy. His taxi provides a useful distinction between what observers recognize and what they overlook: people know the vehicle when it approaches, but, as Sharon puts it, they do not look inside. The car that makes him conspicuous also gives him a measure of cover, allowing him to report on the attention directed at Sharon while remaining a familiar presence on the streets.

Narrative Role and Significance

Jaime’s importance lies in the practical trust that develops between him and Sharon under pressure. Sharon has come to find Victoria, but the search exposes her to unfamiliar places and surveillance; Jaime supplies local knowledge, transportation, protection, and eventually information. His part is not presented as a grand rescue or as a fully explained backstory. Instead, his loyalty emerges through a sequence of concrete acts: taking Sharon where she needs to go, accompanying her despite his unease, warning her that she is followed, and serving as her spy.

The account also keeps Jaime’s knowledge partial. He knows the town and roughly locates the dwelling, but is uncertain about the woman Sharon seeks; he later recognizes the surveillance and proves it to her, but the demonstration itself is left for another telling. This combination of usefulness and withheld detail makes him an important intermediary in Sharon’s mission without making him its narrator or controlling its outcome.