GG Fernandes

Ana Fernandes owns a fado house in the Alfama where the singing runs until it stops being night, and for twenty years there was a craps table in the back room that paid for the roof. She still calls the numbers out of habit. When a singer starts she stops dead, mid-position, hand off the mouse, and does not move again until the song ends, which can be nine minutes and has cost her matches on the clock. She will not be argued out of it. The chip evenings happen after closing, when the house is empty and nobody is singing. Newcomers assume the connection has dropped. The regulars simply wait, because they can hear it too.