Confessions of the Five De Silva Girls
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with the Mediator Series by Meg Cabot/Jenny Carroll, including Jesse (coughIt would be a great present…cough).
Claimer: I may not own the fact that Jesse has five sisters (ages 6-16 when he died), but I do own who the five girls are – i.e. their personalities and names. In short, I own Juanita "Nita" De Silva, Estefana De Silva, Felicidad "Felly" De Silva, Dolores "Dolly" De Silva, and most of all Carmen De Silva. I also own their parents, uncles (except Ricardo's name), aunts, and cousins' personas and names.
To UnangelicHalo: I've never made that connection, but you're right – CeeCee and Felly are sort of similar. (laughs) Yes, "feel free to terrorize my dear husband." I love that part too. Thanks again for reviewing!
To Shlane: I know what you mean. My almost three years of Spanish are coming in handy myself. Thanks for the review.
To happydrummergal: I didn't forget about you. (laughs) I had other projects to do. Thanks again.
A/N: Those who read Timeout will notice this retells in more depth what Carmen told Suze in Chapter 11: The Rebirth of Her World… FYI, this takes place in 1869.
A/N 2: Also, I think this will be the last round of sister chapters. Then, they'll be one Jesse chapter and…The End. I think so anyway.
Chapter 11: Carmen's Chronicle – Numero Tres
When you're twenty-five, you tend to think you're invincible. You think you're at the prime of your life and are wonderfully lucky.
Well, in most instances, you're not. You're really just like everyone else and will now start to age. Even a spirit shaman ages and gets injuries – though they tend to be less severe.
I am no exception. When I was twenty-five, I was great and all, but I realized I couldn't control everything that happened around me.
I saved up my money to take a carriage into San Francisco for two days and then Los Angeles for two more. I was going to sightsee and look for information about spirit shamans in the libraries of those two big cities – something that was hard to do living out in a rural area and even in little Carmel-by-the-Sea.
Felly, of course, thought it was a foolhardy idea. "Didn't Abuela teach you enough about being a spirit shaman?" she demanded. She didn't want me to leave her to help William take care of Elisa and the twins, Juana and Julia, along with her own daughter Ana.
"No," I replied, packing my dingy brown suitcase with extra petticoats and a corset.
Handing me my notebook – no writer should go without one – Felly said, "How long are you going to be gone again?"
"At the least…three weeks," I answered, stuffing the notepad and an inkbottle and quill into the suitcase. I had to sit on it with my skirts bunched up at my knees to close the bag.
"What is there you need to know about this ghost business anyway?" grumbled Felly.
"You know our Carmen," said a voice at the door to my bedroom. She needs to know everything there is to know about a subject she loves." Dolly grinned at us from a slightly plump tan face. She was pregnant with her second and last child after all and already huge.
"Very true," said a taller figure behind Dolly. I always feel very short next to Nita – who is lanky and beautiful with a nice sun-darkened face and bright eyes. Meanwhile, I only reach her stomach in height and have very long course hair and a strained weathered face from working on the ranch fields in the sun too long.
Dios, what did William ever see in me? I'm hideous.
I'm just kidding, but seriously, I am no beauty.
"I'll help Fell and William take care of the children," announced Dolly.
"How are you going to catch them?" asked Felly, poking Dolly's little round stomach.
"I'll manage," Dolly said, beaming. "Besides, we have long-legged Nita, the Experienced Mother with the Five Children, to help us too, don't we?"
"Of course," Nita responded warmly.
"Estefana would help too, but she's the Great Experienced Mother with the Eight Children," laughed Dolly. "And poor Pedro can't handle all of them at once."
"That's an understatement," mocked Felly, smirking.
"Well, I think three women and one man can take care of three young children and a seven-year-old," I said, heaving my suitcase off my bed and dragging it out the door and down the hall.
"William! Elisa, Julia, Juana, Mamá has to say good-bye!" I yelled.
The three kids came running with William grinning at me in the rear. My wonderful nineteen-year-old husband.
"Mami!" shouted Julia. "Do you have to go?"
"Yes," I replied, bending down on my knees to hug and kiss each girl. I stood back up and kissed William squarely on the lips. I could hear Elisa making gagging noises in protest. We broke apart and William heaved my suitcase into his arms. We all followed him out to the waiting carriage – where he tossed the luggage onto the back. I kissed my sisters on their cheeks and climbed into the wagon.
The last view of them I had for two months was them all standing together and waving to me.
"What's a pretty little thing like yourself doing in a dusty library reading?"
I looked up to see a man with very dark hair, gray eyes, and a lot of features a woman tries to avoid to stay true to her marital vows. He was beaming at me in a way I didn't like…from everyone but my husband.
"I am researching," I replied curtly.
"Ah, of course," said the man. "My name is Henry Vate. And you are, miss?"
"Carmen De Silva Fiero," I answered, turning to search for another book.
"Oh," whispered Henry Vate. "You're married."
Um, yes. So? You thought you could court me so easily? Tonto.
"Yes," I replied, taking a book marked The Great Mysteries of This World & the Next. The title seemed promising enough. "And I have three children," I continued with a hidden smirk. "Good day, Mister Vate." I curtseyed and exited the aisle.
Who says being a woman is a bad thing? It adds grace.
Here was what I was looking for. Here was what would change everything…
I batted dirt off my hands as I stood before a circle with an eye in it. I had drawn it with a stick in the soil outside Los Angeles. A few hours before, I marched from my boarding house room to avoid having to explain to a carriage driver why I wanted him to leave me in the middle of nowhere. Now, I took a piece of crumbled parchment out of my pocket and smoothed it out against my chest. I had carefully copied every word out of several pages of a book in a library in the City of Angels.
I stood in the middle of the circle and began to read. The book had explained how to pronounce each ancient word, and, for that, I was grateful. It would've meant too much more research. I had little idea what the words meant – the book hadn't said – only that the result would be I'd be sent back to whatever time I wished.
I wished for July 2, 1850…
The day Jesse died.
I was going to rewrite it.
As my petticoats swirled around me, I felt strange. Too light. My body was swallowed up in green light. The paper was torn from my hands by a fierce unnatural wind as I was yanked into a dark hole beneath my feet. I admit I screamed, but I had never felt like that before. I was thrown though dark space with multi-colored strips of light running across it.
And then I stopped. The abruptness of it sent me to my knees. I was sitting in a pool of pale pink flower petals. Where was I? Had something gone wrong? I saw her then. She was very pretty with long colorless hair that reached the floor and a long gown the same color as the petals on the floor.
Honestly, I would give a lot to look like her…minus the gold pupil-less eyes. They were just eerie. She was staring at me under a white parasol held in her graceful hands. A bird appeared out of the darkness, alighting on my head as I stood up. The black bird had an uncomfortable amount of my hair clasped in its claws. I attempted to bat it off to no avail. The bird snapped at my fingers, clamping down its beak. I let out a little cry and scowled.
"Tahemet," said the beautiful lady with a hint of annoyance. The raven thankfully flew off my head and onto the woman's parasol. The woman nodded to herself and turned back to me. I squirmed underneath that pupil-less gaze as she said, "Thou wish to rewrite the history of thy brother kin, thee who is called spirit shaman." Her voice was very detached as she watched me.
"Yes," I answered nervously. "My name is Carmen De Silva Fiero."
"I am well aware of that fact, spirit shaman," said the lady. "I am Pasebakhaenniut, or Pase. I find that people of thy era can no longer pronounce the name of someone of old. This is Tahemet." The raven squawked again. "She is thy guide to ages past."
A crimson rose appeared lying on her palm. She gave it to Tahemet, who set it down in my hair. I untangled the thorns from my hair as I questioned, "What is this for?"
"Thou must keep it with outside thy own time," Pase replied. She turned away and pointed behind her. That is the way to thy destination. Be wary, young one. Do not change the past so readily. Think carefully. Thou must search for another time-traveler like yourself…with her, thou will find thy kin. Her name is Susannah Simon. Fare thee well, Carmen De Silva Fiero."
I nodded and said, "Thank you." Pase vanished in a swirl of pink petals and I was sent through time once again. This time I had a companion. Tahemet nestled in my hair again. I ignored her and kept the rose held tight against my chest.
When the dark tunnel ended, I was tossed out onto grass. Tahemet screeched and took flight. Annoying bird. I tucked the rose into my handbag and studied my surroundings. I was sitting behind some bushes on the lawn of Henderson's mansion! It was where a party had been held the day before Jesse's wedding…the last time I would see Jesse alive in that time. The manor was very stately with marble stairs leading up to a veranda and the double doors that bared the way inside. Guests were already starting to arrive, causing the doors to open.
My heart nearly stopped at the sight of my family climbing out of a carriage. Jesse was with them, looking spruce and healthy. He held out his hand to assist Nita in getting down from the wagon and then…me. I was very small with two braids and wearing my best dress back then. It was red with black embroidery. Nita was in the same colors, but with more petticoats. She still looked stunning in my eyes. I slipped in behind them and snuck into the house.
I kept a close eye on Jesse. I made sure none of my family paid attention to me though and if anyone asked, I was "Alicia Dulce" – a combination of the name of my puppy back when I was six and Nita's former bad-tempered cat Dulce.
It was towards the middle of the ball that Jesse asked a girl to a dance that made me look up from my drink. The girl was perhaps four years Jesse's junior, or Nita's age at the time, with very emerald green eyes and long brown tresses. She was adorned in two-piece dress of pale blue trimmed in white lace with several petticoats. The thing that really caught my attention though was the name she told Jesse…Susannah Simon. One red rose had been tucked in the ribbon wrapped atop her bonnet. This was the time-traveler Pase had told me of, but what was her purpose here?
After the dance, Susannah Simon and my hermano sat and talked until the end of the party. I recognized something in the strange pretty girl though.
She was in love.
The realization hit me like a stampede of cattle. This girl, this strange other spirit shaman, loved Jesse. I especially saw it in the heartbroken way she watched him leave the party with my hermanas and padres.
She knew he would die, was that why this time-traveler was upset? Then, why didn't she help me stop Jesse's slayer?
I decided to follow her. She was going to the boarding house. The place of Jesse's murder.
Susannah Simon sat on the front steps for awhile, until she heard the sound of Jesse and Felix Diego quarrelling. I was hidden in the shrubbery with my petticoats bunched up. A carriage pulled up with a few policemen and a civilian inside. They piled out of it, and Susannah came up to them.
"Gentlemen!" she shouted. Her voice was very plain and pretty much accent-less, unlike my own slightly Spanish accent. What year and place could she be from?
"Suze?" yelped the civilian. He had brown hair and was wearing a slightly surprised expression on his handsome face.
"Please listen to me," said Susannah Simon. "The men upstairs are just quarreling over a trifle. No need for the law to get involved."
What was she doing? Was she trying to get Jesse killed?
Tahemet landed on the ground beside me from seemingly nowhere. "Where have you been?" I hissed.
To my surprise, the bird spoke, "Everywhere." The voice was in my own head. The raven's beak didn't even move. "Don't you understand why that girl is helping your brother kin's future stay the same?"
"Not at all," I whispered back, anxiously looking up at the window where Jesse and Diego were.
"She is from a century and a half after your brother kin's death," Tahemet explained.
"What?" I squeaked.
"She's in love with the ghost of your brother kin," continued Tahemet with a resigned air – like she were talking with a fool.
"Jesse's ghost?" I mumbled. Did that mean my hermano would never move on in my time? "He's still around in so far into the future?"
"Aye," confirmed Tahemet. "Now just watch."
I did as she told me. Susannah screamed dramatically to stall even further. She pointed to a black bird sitting in a tree in mock horror. Tahemet? I looked down. She was no longer beside me.
"T-That bird!" stammered the other spirit shaman. "I-It's a raven! A sign of death!"
She was a pretty good performer. My head was spinning though. I had to let Jesse die. I couldn't take him away from this girl. No matter how much I loved him.
Jesse died then. I could see him in the window alone and ethereal.
Susannah and I burst into tears at the same moment. The last glimpse of her I had for many years was her darting away. I curled up then and sobbed.
What was the point of this journey? Why hadn't Pase or Tahemet told me from the beginning I couldn't take Jesse from the woman that loved him? Why?
When I picked up my head several moments later, wiping away my tears, I found myself in the darkness again. Pase – with Tahemet sitting on her shoulder – was standing over me. I hurriedly got to my feet and told Pase what I had witnessed.
She nodded and said, "I will make an agreement with thou, spirit shaman. If when thou have passed on, thou give Susannah Simon the message I am about to give thee, I will allow thou to stay with thy brother kin until sunset of the following day."
Eyes widening, I nearly hugged Pase. "Do you promise?"
"Of course," Pase said with a faint smile. "Now go, your kin awaits."
About a hundred and fifty years later, I appeared before Susannah Simon and my Jesse's grave. Before going to visit Jesse's ghost, I gave her the message I had been told:
"Now that thou hast greater fortune, thou may acquire thine heart's desire. Just prove thy love thrice over, and thy love shall receive the gift of life's touch."
Before sunset of the following day, Jesse was given life once more.
Now I shall rest in peace, having seen my hermano one last time in this world.
Carmen Lucia De Silva Fiero
Fifth Daughter of Fernando & Jacinda De Silva,
Wife of William Fiero,
Mother of Elisa, Juana, Julia, Guillermo, & Sofia,
And beloved little sister of Hector, Juanita, Estefana, Felicidad, & Dolores
Feb. 11, 1844 - Aug. 9, 1913
A Spirit Shaman & Aficionada of Life, Love, & Her Family
Jesse's little Carmenita
A/N: Well, that ending was happy…yet sort of depressing. I hope you all read Timeout, otherwise you may be a little confused as to why Suze is here and the meaning of Carmen's message to her. (laughs)
A/N 2: Sorry this took so long. Review! Please? Bye!