Estudiante

at eleven o'clock one morning the director of the museo nacional de bellas artes in buenos aires, leonardo martinez, asked cristina rinaldi to come into his office. i want to talk to you about an important job i'd like you to do, cristina. i think you'll be interested in it. off course. what is it?
a museum in paris wants to send some impressionist paintings to buenos aires. i spoke to theparis museum director, philippe maudet, this morning and he's interested in using car museum to show the paintings. it's an important job. would you like to do it?
off course i would. great! you know i'd love to see impresionist paintings here in the museum, answered cristina.
good. i want you to begin work as soon as you can, the director said. `there is alot you'll need to do`.
cristina feltgood all day. she loved impressionist paintings. this new exhibition was wonderful. she couldn't wait to begin.
after work cristina got onto her motorbike outside the museum. she was feeling good. she had an important new job, the sun was warm on her back and it was the start of spring weather in the city of buenos aires. maybe tomorrow she could leave her jacket at home. this year september waswarm, and people were already talking about a hot summer. cristina started her motorbike and felt the warm air on her face as she rode along avenida del libertador. she never wore a helmet because she liked the feeling of the wind in her long hair. but her father didn't know that. she remembered his words when he gave her the new motorbike: always wear your helmet, cristina every time you ride! shehoped her father would never see her without it.
every day at this time cristina rode down avenida del libertador to the gym at the recoleta health club. her day's work at the museum was finished and she was free, she usually forgot about her work as she rode down the avenida. but today was a little different. she couldn't stop thinking about her new job.
cristina began to slow clown for thetraffic lights. the traffic in the city centre was terrible. she didn't work far from the gym but the road had so many traffic lights. she stopped and looked into the car next to her. she saw two men had a gun. then he looked out of the window at cristina. she looked into his eyes, into his dark brown eyes and for a moment the man looked back. then he turned his head and she saw a tattoo of aflower, a red poppy, on his neck.
then she heard the sound of police cars. the man in the car lifted up his gun. cristina felt afraid. she wanted to go quickly. she tried to start her bike but she couldn't everybody else was moving but she couldn't. suddenly a taxi hit the back of her bike. she fell from the bike onto the front of the taxi and then down onto the road. her head hit the road hard. shesaw nothing, she felt nothing she didn't even hear the sound of the ambulance which took her to hospital
two hours later critina was lying in bed in hospital and her parents were wainting outside her room with a policeman.
where's her helmet? asked mr rinaldi, cristina's father 'i know she had a helmet. she always wore a helmet.'
'she didn't come in here with a helmet,' the policeman told him.'i can't believe it, she always wore her helmet,' mr rinaldi said.
'maybe the helmet fell on the road, maybe the police left it there,' mrs rinaldi said quietly to her husband. it's ok.
i'm sure she's going to be all right.'
they waited ten more minutes before the doctor came to see them.
'she's lucky,' the doctor said. 'she's going to be ok. you can see her now, but she doesn't rememberanything about the accident.'
the doctor took them into the room where cristina lay in bed. cristina's mother and father began to cry.
'are you sure she's ok? they asked. 'can't we take her home now?'
'no, it's better if she stays here for a few days,' said the doctor. her mother stood by her bed.
'come back and live with us, cristina,' she said. 'it's not safe for you in the city. it's not...