Edward wore a beret and had one of Tía Isabela’s fancy hats in his hand to give me.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t you ready?”
“Sophia and her friends,” I began, and choked back the words.
“What?” Jesse asked.
Without explaining, I picked up my beautiful dress and showed it to them.
“That little mean…”
“When did they do that?” Edward asked.
“While I was in the bathroom, they came in, and they saw my dress on the bed. It was the one I was going to wear to the party next weekend.”
“Before we leave tomorrow, we’ll take you to buy a new dress, Delia,” Edward said. “I’ll have a few words with the stone princess, too.”
“Don’t waste your breath,” Jesse told him.
“I’ll waste hers,” Edward vowed. “C’mon, Delia, throw something else on. Don’t let her ruin our night. We’ll wait downstairs. Here,” he added, handing me the hat. “Wear this anyway. We’ll still make it a French night, d’accord?”
“Mais oui,” I said, and took the hat. I chose another dress and quickly washed my face, put on some lipstick, and ran a brush through my hair.
As I came down the stairs, the two of them began to sing the French national anthem. It was very hard to be sad or upset in their company. My heart was light and happy again. Arm in arm, they escorted me out, with Señora Rosario looking to see what was the reason for all the commotion.
When we arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to see one of my girlfriends, Katelynn Nickles, there with her family. I could see she was even more surprised to see me, especially with Edward and Jesse. I waved to her, and she waved back, her parents looking our way.
But the bigger shock came an hour later, when Christian Taylor came in with Zoe Stewart, a girl in the tenth grade. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw us. He smiled and went to his table. Up until that moment, I was really having a good time with Edward and Jesse. They had me laughing constantly with their imitations of some of their teachers and fellow students at college. Both Edward and Jesse recognized Christian, too.
“No moss grows on his rolling stones,” Jesse said, and they laughed.
I didn’t. I had not told either of them about the rumors and stories Sophia had been spreading about us at school. After what she had done to my dress tonight, I was afraid of adding salt to those wounds. In my mind, perhaps too naive and innocent, despite all I had been through, I couldn’t imagine people readily believing such sordid tales about Edward, Jesse, and me. However, I got my first hint that things were not going to be smooth for me when Katelynn got up with her family to leave and not only didn’t come over to say anything on the way out but avoided looking my way as well.
“Hey, you’re not falling into another funk because of that idiot being here, too, are you, Delia?” Edward asked me.
“Funk? I do not know this word, Edward. Where is this funk?”
Jesse smiled. “It’s not a place, exactly. It means depression, sadness.”
“Oh, no. I don’t care about him. I just don’t want there to be more trouble at home,” I told them.
“My sister will push and push if she’s not slapped down,” Edward said. “If anyone lived by the rule, give her an inch and she’ll take a foot, it’s Sophia.”
“I cursed her tonight,” I confessed.
“Cursed? How?”
“I told her that she should feed on her goodness and starve.”
Jesse roared.
“That’s neat. I have to remember that one,” Edward said. “You see, Jess? As I told you, I’ve got to reconnect with my Latino heritage. One of these days, we’re all going to take a trip into Mexico.”
I perked up at the idea.
“Really?”
“Sure. I especially want to see where my mother came from. You’ll be our guide, Delia. Right, Jess?”
“Sounds like a real trip to me,” he said.
“This would be wonderful,” I said, my mind reeling with the possibilities. If there was enough time to tell him, Ignacio could actually meet me. The possibility of such a reunion filled me with new optimism.
“We’ll give it some serious thought. Maybe we can do it during the spring break,” Edward said. “It coincides with your spring school break.”
“That would make me very, very happy,” I said.
“We aim to please,” Jesse said, and we were back to laughing and joking again.
Every once in a while, I looked at Christian and Zoe. I thought he was putting on an act for me by being so cozy with her. Sometimes they looked our way, whispered, and laughed. Edward saw where my attention was and assured me I had made the right decision in turning Christian down.
I was very nervous when we started for home, afraid of what would now occur between Edward and Sophia. When we arrived, Tía Isabela appeared, obviously just returning from Los Angeles. Sophia wasn’t home yet, which didn’t surprise anyone.
“I thought you two weren’t coming home until next weekend,” she began almost as soon as we entered the house.
“Impulsive decision,” Edward told her, “and as it turned out, a very good idea.”
“Why?” she asked, looking from him to me and Jesse.
Edward told her what Sophia and her friends had done to my dress.
“You’re kidding,” she said. “That dress cost eight hundred dollars!”
“Well, if you’re keeping accounts, deduct it from her inheritance,” Edward suggested.
“Where did you get that hat?” she asked me. I quickly took it off.
“I gave it to her. It fit the night,” Edward explained.
“Fit the night? Where did you three go?”
Edward told her.
“Weren’t you a little extravagant, Edward?”
“It was educational,” he said, smiling.
“Um. Where did your sister go tonight? All she told Mrs. Rosario was that she was going to a party. What party?” she asked me.
“I do not know of any party, Tía Isabela.”
“Wherever Sophia goes, it’s a party,” Edward said.
“Well, I’m not waiting up for her. I made up my mind long ago that I would not permit that girl to destroy my health,” Tía Isabela said. “We’ll deal with her in the morning. I’m going to sleep.”
I started to hand her hat back to her, and she looked at me as if I were insulting her.
“I don’t lend out my clothes, Delia. My son gave you that hat. It’s yours now,” she said, and walked away.
“Great,” Edward said. “You’ll wear it to the party next weekend.”
“She was not pleased you went into her closet,” I said.
“Delia, you ever look into my mother’s closet?”
I shook my head.
“There’s more in it than in most clothing stores. She doesn’t even know what she has anymore, believe me.”
“She knew this was her hat,” I said, and he laughed.
“She only said it because it looks better on you,” he told me. Jesse agreed.
We went up to our bedrooms. I kissed them both good night and thanked them for a wonderful evening.
“You are truly my knights in shining armor,” I told them, my arms around them both.
They wore identical smiles. It made me laugh, and for that I was grateful. I would not toss and turn within a kaleidoscope of emotions, as I had expected. Instead, warmed by their love and concern for me, I settled comfortably into my bed and didn’t awaken until I heard Sophia’s loud laughter very late at night. She stumbled down the hallway to her room. Edward stepped out of his to chastise her, but it was a waste of time. She was either too drunk or too high on something even to know he was there. I held my breath until she went into her own room and closed the door. Then I fell back asleep, just as I would had I been woken by a nightmare and then driven it from my mind.
But nightmares need not worry about their future in this house. There was no more fertil
e soil for their well-being and growth than the Dallas family. Rain the color of blood moistened it, and the pale yellow moon replaced the sun and gave the dark dreams the light they needed. They moved freely from Tía Isabela’s sleep to Sophia’s to Edward’s and then to mine. Casto had told me that Señor Dallas’s love had kept his family together. Now it was Tía Isabela’s bitterness that bound them, chained them together like prisoners of their own troubled souls. What would free them was still something impossible to imagine.
Sophia did not get up for breakfast, nor did she call down for any late into the morning. Jesse, Edward, and I ate alone because Tía Isabela was taking her breakfast in her room this morning, perhaps to avoid any more conflict. True to their word, Edward and Jesse insisted I go with them to buy a new dress, something even more beautiful.
“And something definitely more expensive,” Edward said.
We went directly to a boutique in the upscale shopping area of El Paseo in Palm Desert, which was comparable to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, according to both Jesse and Edward. Of course, I had been to neither of the other places.
The truth was, both Jesse and Edward knew more about women’s designer clothing than I did. They rejected dress after dress as being too ordinary and finally settled on a beaded gown that sold for fifteen hundred dollars, nearly twice the cost of the dress Sophia and her friends had destroyed. It was red with silver-tone beaded shoulder straps and waist. It had an open back, a surplice V neckline, and a gathered front with a full skirt.
“What about shoes?” Jesse asked, and the saleslady immediately brought out a pair to match the dress. Before we left the store, Edward had spent more than two thousand dollars. When I thought what this money would mean back in my little Mexican village, I was speechless.
“I want to be there when Sophia sees you in the dress,” Edward said gleefully. “Don’t show it to her until next Saturday.”
He didn’t have to tell me that. I was afraid of another sabotage job. In fact, as soon as we drove up, I hurried upstairs and hid everything deep in my closet. Sophia had still not risen and come out of her room. Tía Isabela was furious about it and forbade anyone to bring her anything.
“I do think it’s the perfect time for us to leave, don’t you, Jesse?” Edward said, smiling at his mother. “We have weak stomachs.”
“You’re just like your father was, Edward, when it comes to facing unpleasantness.”
“Maybe that’s because there’s so much of it here, Mother,” he snapped back at her. Then he smiled, said good-bye until next weekend, and started out.
“You mean you’re coming back again next weekend?” she shouted after him.
“We just can’t seem to stay away, Mother, which shoots down your theory about facing unpleasantness.”
Jesse said nothing. I followed them out to their car.
“Thank you for everything,” I told them.
“Just keep your chin up, and don’t let either of them get to you,” Edward advised.
They both hugged me. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them about all the nasty rumors now, but I held back. Why let them drive off worried more than they already were? I stood and watched Edward’s car turn out of the driveway, and then I walked back into the house. It was deadly quiet, but I knew that was a deception. Soon, as soon as Sophia was up and about, there would be a great deal of static and noise.
However, Sophia had such a bad hangover from whatever she had done the night before that she didn’t get out of bed all day. Tía Isabela finally went up to her room to see about her at dinnertime and returned furious. I was afraid to ask anything. She sat fuming. Ten minutes later, Sophia appeared, looking like she had just risen from a grave. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes bloodshot, and her complexion pale. Even her lips were a pale red. She kept her hand over her eyes and leaned over her food.
“I’m not hungry,” she moaned.
“You should eat something, Sophia. And don’t give me that story about someone putting something nasty in your lemonade. I’m not a fool.”
“Well, someone did!” she cried, and immediately cringed from the pain of shouting.
“You know why you’re a dummy, Sophia? This is not the first time or the second you’ve suffered after being so reckless, and if I had to gamble, I’d say you’re going to do it again and again.”
“I’m going to throw up,” Sophia said, and she lifted her head slowly and glared at me. “I’ll tell you why I’m in such pain, Mother. It’s her fault.”
“Her fault?” Tía Isabela smiled. “How, pray tell, is it her fault, Sophia?”
“She put a Mexican curse on me, and she wouldn’t tell me what it was. It was probably this.”
Tía Isabela held her smile, but the humor left a vacant mask. She looked at me.
“What curse is she talking about, Delia? Does this have something to do with the dress?”
“Sí,” I said. “Yes.”
“Why did you tear up that dress, Sophia? That was a very expensive dress.”
“It wasn’t deliberate. Alisha tried it on, and it ripped.”
“She is lying,” I said softly.
“I am not. You weren’t there. You were hiding in the bathroom.”
“Enough,” Tía Isabela said. “We don’t believe in curses. That’s primitive. It’s ridiculous for you even to think such a thing. It’s just an attempt to pass blame away from yourself.”
“I can’t believe how much you take her side now, Mother,” Sophia whined. Then she paused and smiled. “Maybe you’re more of a Mexican than you want people to believe. Maybe I should talk about it.”
Tía Isabela’s face nearly exploded from the rush of blood into her cheeks and forehead. Her eyes bulged with rage. Even Sophia saw she had crossed some line. She tried to swallow and then quickly looked down.
“I’m sick!” she screamed, and got up to run out before Tía Isabela could respond.
Minutes seemed to pass. I didn’t move, didn’t lift my eyes from the plate. Finally, she spoke.
“What was the curse?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“What did you say?”
“I was very angry, Tía Isabela. It means nothing.”
“I know it means nothing, but what was it?”
“I told her that she should feed on her goodness and starve.”
Tía Isabela said nothing. I looked up at her. She was nodding.
“My father…he said the same thing to me,” she said.
“I was very angry,” I repeated.
“Someone put a curse on this family,” she muttered, more to herself than to me. “It’s been with us for years. Never mind,” she added, returning to herself quickly. “I don’t want to hear any more about any of this. Get through a week without any turmoil. I have a lot to do this week.”
She rose and started out, then paused and turned back to me.
“You should have come with me to Los Angeles. Maybe none of this would have happened,” she added, and left.
Maybe she was right, I thought. Perhaps she was changing. Perhaps she was tired of the bitterness in her heart and was hoping to rid herself of the past. Despite how cruel she had been to me and all of the unhappiness she had caused or participated in, I couldn’t help having this desire to win her over, to bring her back to her family, to have her see me as her niece, her blood. Was I weak and stupid for wanting this, or was it what my mother would have wanted?
I spent the remainder of the day keeping to myself. Sophia did the same. I finished my homework, did some reading, took a walk around the grounds, and spoke in Spanish to the pool man who had come to clean it and treat the water. Then I changed to have dinner. To my surprise, neither Sophia nor Tía Isabela appeared. Tía Isabela went out to meet someone, and Sophia ordered her dinner brought to her room. I half suspected she would not rise in the morning to go to school, but she was there at breakfast, bouncing about with unexpectedly renewed energy. I thought nothing o
f it. After all, she had slept away most of the day.
However, her enthusiasm and flashy smiles came from a different source of rejuvenation. I should have realized she was spending more of her day on the telephone plotting with her other two witches, as Edward and Jesse would say. I was not fooled by her overly friendly behavior toward me at breakfast and in the limousine. Señor Garman had returned from delivering Tía Isabela in time to be the one to take us to school.
“I hope Mr. K isn’t going to pull one of those Monday-morning history quizzes on us,” she said. “I didn’t have time to study. What do you think?”
“I think yes,” I said, and recited some of the areas and answers to questions I expected him to ask. I didn’t do it for her. I was reviewing it for myself as I described it.
“You really are better at school than I am,” she admitted. “I don’t understand why. I thought girls were thought to be too stupid to go far in school in Mexico.”
“Who told you that?”
“My mother.”
“It is not so.”
“Whatever,” she said. “I’m not worrying about it. If I don’t go to college, I don’t go.”
“What will you do?”
“I won’t work hard, I can tell you that. I’ll do something simple in one of our businesses just to pass the time maybe. Maybe not. I have time to decide. Well, here we are. In Wonderland,” she added, smiling at me. “Have a good day, Alice.”
“Alice?”
“Alice in Wonderland, stupido. I thought you were supposed to be the well-read one, not me,” she said, getting out of the car to hurry in.
Señor Garman, who had overheard us, turned to look at me as I got out slowly. His face was full of skepticism and warning.
“Count your fingers and toes every time you’re near her,” he told me, and drove off.
I looked at the entrance to the main building. Sophia was already inside with her friends. Something really wasn’t right, I thought, but I headed for the entrance, too, walking slowly, like someone who was anticipating an ambush.
5
Down the Rabbit Hole
When I was little, no more than six, there was a very old lady in our village, Señora Baca. My mother told me she was one hundred and five years old and had outlived all her children. Her grandchildren looked after her now. Because of her age, she was venerated and revered. Everyone wanted her blessing, and no one would pass by her without stopping to ask her how she was and, more important, what the weather would be.