CHAPTER ONE: IN THE BEGINNING

In the beginning, we really had no reason not to trust Claire. She was pretty and petite with blonde hair, and had bright blue eyes and a nice smile. There was nothing very special about her, or so I thought, but all Daddy could do after Mommy hired her was praise her 'luminous beauty', as he was wont to say in those early days.

"That cleaning girl you hired, she's a real looker," he told Mommy over dinner, the night after we hired her.

Mommy only shot him a cold look as she cut her meat with her fork and knife. "It's nice that you like her, Jeremy," Mommy said, coldly. "But that's not why I hired the girl."

And that was the end of the conversation. I knew something had been going on between Mommy and Daddy, but I was too young and naive to know what was really happening to our family. I figured the problems would be solved in the morning and everything would be fine come dawn.

I began thinking about what Daddy said, after dinner, as I lay in bed. He never says Mommy's pretty anymore, I thought, as I struggled to get to sleep. He used to call her pretty all the time. In fact, he called her gorgeous; he called her beautiful, sizzling, hot Now, all he does is talk about how luminous our stupid maid is...

I thought Mommy was much prettier than Claire was. Mommy had high cheekbones, a clear, olive-coloured complexion without a blemish, bright black, polished eyes and the sleekest, glossiest raven mane. Mommy said she got her unique looks from her Spanish ancestors, and would tell me stories from the past, late at night, when I was a girl.

"When I was a girl, Spring, my mommy Esmeralda would tell my about my great-grandmother, Sofia. Sofia was Spanish nobility, and lived in a town called Majorca, in Spain. Sofia was so beautiful, Spring, with long, black hair and dark eyes like onyx jewels. All the young men of her town longed to possess her, but Sofia was like the wind. She could not be possessed. Well, one day, shortly after she turned fifteen, Sofia met a handsome young man as she was returning home with her footman from visiting a friend in Castille. His name was Reynaldo. Reynaldo was seventeen and had skin darkened by working in the sun. He had a beautiful smile with dimples, and bright black eyes like polished stone. Reynaldo was immediately smitten with Sofia, as she was with him. Sofia and Reynaldo returned to Majorca and told her parents they planned to marry," Mommy whispered to me, as I struggled to sleep. She would hold my head on her lap and stroke my hair. I was almost ashamed that I got Daddy's dirty blond hair and not Mommy's sleek, black mane.

"What happened, Mommy?" I asked, even though I had heard this particular story millions of times.

"Well, Sofia's mommy, the elderly Teresita, and her husband, Pedro, forbid Sofia from marrying Reynaldo just because he was a vagabond-"

"What's a vagabond?" I asked, holding on to her tightly. Her voice always became so small and distant when she told me these stories, and I feared I might lose her to the past.

"Well, Spring, it means a drifter, someone who travels the world. Someone with no real place to call home. Anyway, Pedro and Teresita did not want their daughter, descended from a noble family, to marry this drifter. 'You can not wed her!'" Mommy switched to the voice of Don Pedro, a high pitched, wheezing voice. I loved when she did their voices because she was so good at it. "'I forbid it! My daughter will not marry a worthless vagabond!' Well, needless to say, Sofia was enraged! She became so mad at her mommy and daddy, and begged and pleaded with them to let her marry her beloved Reynaldo, but they would not budge. After weeks of begging, Sofia and Reynaldo sneaked up to the highest tower in her ancestral home and pledged themselves to one another. Then, Sofia brought a box from behind her back."

"What was in the box, Mommy?" I asked, smiling up at her.

Mommy smiled back. "Beloved Spring, Sofia had a vial of poison in that wooden box, and took it out." Mommy switched to Sofia's voice, which was soft and flowing, like a river. "'My dear Reynaldo, the only way we can truly be together is if we die together! They will not let us marry in flesh, so we must marry in spirit instead!' Sofia was just about to lift the poison to her lips when her daddy busted the attic door down. 'SOFIA,' he cried, 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!' He ran to her and grabbed the poison from her hand. 'You will not let Reynaldo and I marry, so we will die together instead," she told her daddy, glaring coldly at the old man. Now, old Don Pedro was a smart man, and he could not let his only child, at the time, pass on to the spirit realm. So he said, 'I am sorry, Sofia darling. You may marry Reynaldo if he means that much to you, even more than your own life.'"

"Yay!" I cried, clapping my hands.

"Yes," Mommy smiled. "Reynaldo and Sofia were married, and before long, they had four beautiful girls and a dear son. That son, Enrique, grew to be a strikingly handsome man. Enrique moved to America when he turned eighteen and took a wife from Mexico-"

"Grandma Rosita," I said.

"Yes, Grandma Rosita. And Grandma and Grandpa moved to Boston, Massachusetts; had your uncles Mariano, Alejandro and Ramiro; and one daughter" Mommy's ruby-red lips curled into a smile as she came to this part in the story.

"Yes, a daughter named Priscilla," I finished the story for her.

"Good night, darling Spring. Don't worry about your daddy and I, dear. Everything will be better in the morning." She kissed me on the cheek and shut my bedroom door.

I should have known better than to believe her. I should have flipped the shining coin to look for the tarnish that I knew I would find, if only I searched hard enough. If only I had not trusted Claire at the beginning, if only I had not befriended her. If I had shunned her, as I had wanted to do in the beginning, Mommy would probably still be here with me.

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TBC