A Better Day is Coming
PG for now building to NC17 in the future. I'll mark each update to let you know.
I own nothing, I expect nothing
This Otalia story takes place in the mid 1950's. The hardships for gay people I write about in this story were real. How Otalia works around them is my imagination. Please feel free to state your opinion at anytime. I love a good discussion. Now let's get in our way back machine and head to 1950's America.
Natalia is standing in front of a full length mirror. She is looking at her reflection. She sees a woman in a beautiful wedding gown. This woman is deeply, passionately in love. Anyone can see it in her eyes. In fifteen minutes Natalia is going to become Mrs. Nicky Augustino. It is not Nicky that she loves, but nothing in the world will stop her from marrying him. This will keep them safe and in process, hopefully set them all free.
How her life had changed. It was hard to believe that it was just a year ago that she was scared out of her mind, sitting on a bus headed for Springfield, to start over, yet again. Sadie had told her about a hotel in Springfield that would hire you if you were queer. The owner was supposed to be family. Natalia hoped with all her heart it was true. She was due a break.
Life had been so hard in the eight years since she had been expelled from high school. She was just sixteen years old. She could have kicked herself. She knew better than to kiss a girl in broad daylight, in a car, parked in the lot by the gymnasium of her catholic high school. But Martha was going away for Christmas. She would not get to see her for two whole weeks. Martha always smelled so good and looked so pretty. When Martha leaned over to kiss her. Natalia kissed back. When Martha slid into her lap, Natalia wrapped her arms around her.
A teacher was walking passed on his way to his own car. He was just as shocked as the girls were, when he knocked on the window of Martha's car. He most definitely was not expecting to find two girls making out in the car.
Everything happened so fast after that. Father Michael dragged them out of the car and directly to the principal's office. Their parents were called. They were both expelled. Martha tried to save herself by saying Natalia took advantage of her. Father Michael put a stop to that and told Principal Jorensen that wasn't true. Martha had been on top when he pulled them out of the car.
The only thing that kept going through Natalia's head was, "Oh my god, I'm so screwed!" It was like an endless loop in her brain. She was unable to form any other sentence. Natalia's parents couldn't even look at her. They sent her directly to her room as soon as they got home. When the shock finally wore off and Natalia was able to think and speak again. Her parents wouldn't listen to a word she had to say.
She overheard her father on the phone, speaking to the family doctor. The doctor strongly recommended committing her to the local sanitarium for electroshock therapy. The hospital had already accepted her. Natalia quickly packed up everything she could and climbed out her bedroom window. She hadn't seen or spoken to her parents since.
Here she was, sixteen and all alone in the world. With what little money she had, she made her way to downtown Chicago. She lied about her age at a boardinghouse, so they would rent her a room. You had to be eighteen. She had a place to stay. Now she needed to make money. She got the only job she could. She became a waitress at the Russell Family Coffee Shop. It was in walking distance from her room. It paid enough to cover rent and clothes, but little else. Luckily a benefit of working in a coffee shop was they gave you one free meal per shift. If she wanted extras, she'd have to work extra shifts or get a second job.
Natalia swore to herself that she would leave girls alone. She would date boys. It would be just fine. There was nothing wrong with her. She did not need to be committed to a mental institution. It took a year before she got so lonely that she sought out the bar, she had overheard customers talking about. The one where the faggots and dykes went. It took her a month to save up for a fake ID. The bar was called The Big Horn. It was a ratty little bar in a bad neighborhood. The first few times she went, she was afraid to talk to anyone. But she couldn't stay away. The owner Sadie Morgan, noticed Natalia and tried to keep an eye on her. The first time the bar was raided while Natalia was there, Sadie got her out before the cops noticed her. It became her sanctuary. Natalia spent what little free time she had, there. It took several months before she accepted and invitation to go out. Over the years she had a series of short affairs that she would end before they got serious.
Natalia worked hard at the coffee shop. She was well liked by the customers and the other staff. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Russell, were an older couple with no children. They treated the waitresses like their daughters. They were very proud of Natalia. She worked all the busiest shifts and never called out sick. They had never gotten a single complaint about her, from either the customers or the other employees. It pleased them that Natalia was bringing home nearly forty dollars a week. Natalia felt like she had lost one family, but had found two new ones.
The men that worked at the coffee shop and the male customers all loved to flirt with shy little Natalia. She got asked out at least once a week. In the first year, she tried to go out with several of the customers. Hoping against hope that maybe just maybe she'd find a man she was attracted to. Not one of them ever made her feel the slightest inkling of attraction. They weren't pretty to look at. They had scruffy faces, that she had no desire to touch. They all had an indescribable man smell. It wasn't body odor, they all appeared clean. It was just some underlying odor that she just didn't like.
After a year or so, she only went out every few months. Sadie told her it would stop the people at the coffee shop from getting suspicious. She never went on a second date with any of the men. She would make up silly excuses to tell her friends, why the date didn't work. His ears were to big, or his hands were to hairy, or he smelled funny, or her favorite, he tried to kiss her goodnight. They all teased her, telling her she was too picky, that she was never going to find a husband that way, that she'd end up an old maid.
Natalia was very careful to keep her life at the Big Horn very separate from her life at The Russell Family Coffee Shop. If people from the bar came into the coffee shop. She acted as if she didn't know them. If someone gave them a hard time, she never joined in, but she never stopped it either. The guilt would sit on her chest for days.
Mr. and Mrs. Russell were driving to dinner one evening to check out a new competitor, in a neighborhood they seldom visited. They both saw Natalia walking down the street in a very bad neighborhood. Mr. Russell pulled the car over to the curb and was about to get out of the car to offer Natalia a ride. Instead both he and Mrs. Russell watched as Natalia cautiously looked around before going into what looked like a bar. Mr. Russell looked at the name over the door. They both recognized the name. They were heartbroken. The next afternoon they called Natalia back into the office. They told where they had seen her go. They asked her if she knew what kind of place The Big Horn was, before she went in. Natalia was so shocked that they had seen her, that she foolishly nodded yes.
The look on the Russell's faces was the same as her parents, eight years prior. They handed Natalia her final pay envelope. They told her in no uncertain terms, not to come back, not even to eat. Mrs. Russell told Natalia not to apply to any of the restaurants in the area. If she saw her working anywhere, she would go in and tell the owner Natalia's disgusting little secret. Mr. Russell told Natalia she should be thankful they hadn't called the police.
For the second time in Natalia's twenty four years, her life had been torn to shreds.
TBC
