Chapter 10, Thanksgiving Is A Nightmare, Whether You're Cuban, Cooking, Or Just Plain Cursed.
That night when Katey and Javier finished dancing, they were sitting at the bar of the club, eating pretzels and watching the club fill up.
"Plans for dinner?" Javier asked. Katey crunched a pretzel between her teeth and nodded.
"Big, huge, exciting, life changing ones. With my parents and Susie. They're letting her cook. But I have to be home by nine." Katey rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you have dinner with me first?" Javier asked suddenly. "I mean, not just me. Maria's making us dinner. My whole family. She and Mama would love to see you again, everyone would."
Katey surprised the both of them by saying yes. And that was why, ten minutes later, they were walking into Javier's house. His mother gave her a big hug and a smile.
"Hello, Katey." Maria said from the kitchen. Rafael came running up to Katey and hugged her around the knees.
"K! K!" he said. Katey smiled. Then his father came into the room and barked something at his son that sent him skittering away.
"Hello, Carlos." Katey said politely. She hated Carlos for abandoning his family and his son, but she'd never let him think that. He nodded at her and said something to Javier, who, as far as Katey could understand, (Susie was teaching her to curse in Spanish) told him to go screw himself. Javier took Katey's hand and pulled her away from Carlos, into his room. Katey sat on the bed and looked around. The room was sparsely furnished with only a desk and dresser besides the bed. A small victrolla, looking hardly used, sat in the corner with records stacked on top.
"I see you're a minimalist." Katey noted. Javier shrugged.
"It's hard to leave things lying around when you have a seven-year-old running around. I keep most of my things under my bed." He pulled out a big box of assorted clutter and put it on the bed, "Just junk."
"Can I see?" Katey asked. He nodded and she started to leaf through his 'junk'. It was mostly paper things, old report cards from school and notebooks that he'd written in. Katey couldn't read most of it, but she could tell that he had had a lot to say. His marks in school were good, very good. Top marks in everything but math, which was average. There was a small photo album, with his name written across the cover in blue pen. Inside were a few pictures, put in sloppily a without much glue, so they were falling out.
The pictures all had dates under them, again in smudged blue ink. What looked like a baby picture of him; his sister was holding him on a couch while his brother sat next to her, looking angry. A picture Katey supposed was one of Maria's wedding pictures, because she was beaming in a white dress next to a very tall, skinny man with glasses. Him at seventeen holding baby Rafael. Katey smiled, it was an adorable picture. And at the end of the album, she was surprised to see a picture of herself.
She was lying on the beach on her big, Channel sunglasses and floppy hat, just looking at the ocean. "Huh." she said. And when she turned the page; the last picture; her. She had Javier, a picture that she had never seen before and didn't even remember posing for. The two of them were standing against the balcony of her family's apartment when they had lived at the Oceana. Her hair was damp and was being picked up by the breeze coming off the ocean. He was standing behind her and had his arms were wrapped around her waist and he had his head on her shoulder. He was whispering something in her ear, making her laugh. They both had their eyes closed in a dreamy, serene way. It was the most flattering picture that Katey had ever seen of herself. She looked…happy.
"Where did you get this?" she asked. Javier, who had been sorting through his music, looked up.
"Susie gave it to me before you left," he looked back at his music, carefully averting his eyes from her. Just then Chabe came into the room and announced dinner.
Saved by the little sister once again. Though Javier as Katey and his family sat down at the table. The adults, trying to be polite, were speaking English but Chabe, Rafael and Diego were oblivious. They were sitting bunched together at the end of the table and the boys were throwing food at each other. Chabe had decided that eleven was too old for something so childish and was sculpting her rice into something resembling the Eiffel tower. Katey, who was sitting next to her, complimented her on it and said that it looked like the real thing. Chabe understood enough English to blush and say thank-you.
Katey was still intimidating to her; the beautiful American girl that Mama and Maria would talk about to Javier.
Javier tried to ignore the fact that his brother was giving Katey the evil eye over his food. Actually, he had been trying to completely ignore his brother since his prophetic return. He was staying at home, and he had been staying inside during the day. He was sleeping on the couch and would only go out late at night.
As he was walking Katey home, he was thinking about the resolution he had made the night before while he was out.
When he was nineteen, before he had met Katey, he had been fighting with Carlos one night and went out walking. Carlos had been going out and left Rafael with him (again) when he was getting ready for a date and he had to stand up some poor girl. (Again.)
After Carlos came home (the sun was coming up) Javier stormed out the door without a word and went walking around the neighborhood. He was walking past the Erelezs' empty house (the father had been killed by Batiste's forces when he resisted arrest) and saw something moving in the shadows next to the house. Thinking it was someone following him, he disappeared into the shadows in hot pursuit of whoever it was.
It turned out to be nobody (his sleep-deprived mid was playing tricks), but when he got behind the house he found himself in Mrs. Erelez's garden. It was beautiful, with a little pond with a little dwarf willow tree that hung with low branches above it. Javier climbed into the low hanging branches and sat there. He dipped his bare toes into the cool pond water and rested against the smooth bark.
It had become his place to think. When he was stressed or angry or feeling especially bitter (he felt bitter a lot lately) he would sit there and think.
He was sitting there and watching the sun come up when he made up his mind to ask Katey on a date. The fact that they were still just friends drove him insane. They had made love, and now she was almost pretending that it had never happened. Did she harbor some deep-felt resentment towards him? Since her return they had shared a few awkward kisses that she later refused to acknowledge. Did she not love him?
He had been pondering this when he looked out the ally way and saw two kids in the ally, holding hands and talking. They had to be about eighteen. Somehow, they reminded Javier of him and Katey, the way they used to be. How could he doubt what they had? She had to love him.
And so he was taking a chance, something that he had stopped doing lately.
"Katey…do you…" he started, unsure of where to go. It had been a long time since he had done this. She looked up, half smiling. He looked at her, smiling, and hugged her. She didn't pull away like he thought she would. Instead she rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. She wrapped her arms around him in a small squeeze. He touched her glossy curls and brushed a kiss on her cheek.
It wasn't an I love you or a promise, but it was a start. She pulled away.
"I don't want to be late for dinner." she said. He nodded. She held his hand the way back, and she kissed him on the cheek and waved good-bye when they got to the large lit-up entrance of the Oceana.
When she got into the apartment she saw her mother in the kitchen, not Susie. She said a quick hi before disappearing into her room. Susie was there, reading Seventeen with a pair of scissors, cutting out outfits that she liked.
"My birthday's coming up. I'm in college. I have no money." she said, seeing Katey's face.
"Why aren't you cooking?" Katey asked.
"I forgot to make the sweet potato pie the way Mom likes it, so she banished me and is doing it all herself. What a baby," she flipped the page, attacked it with the scissors, and set the glossy scrap of paper on a pile of many others. "Oh, and I almost cut off my finger again. She overreacted."
"You're cursed. That's it." Katey said.
"Were you with Javier? You look happy."
"Yes. We were dancing and then I had dinner with him." Katey pulled off her shoes and threw them on the floor and picked up a magazine from the bedside table. She flipped through it but was aware of Susie watching her intently.
"What?"
"Like a d-d-d-d-date? You two were on a date!"
"No. we ate with his family. And I was in his room, but that was something else."
"You were in his bedroom? Were you on his bed? Were your loins burning with your desire for him?" she was practically yelling now.
"Susie!" Katey hissed. If their parents heard, they'd go crazy. Susie fell over, giggling.
"Burning loins!" she laughed.
"Must you be so childish? We're friends."
"And ex-lovers," Susie quieted down. "If you had told him about the baby, you two would be married right now. He would have come and you two would have gotten married and you'd be happy. He makes you happy."
"Stop being so prophetic. I can handle my own love life, thank you."
Suddenly a loud scream came from the kitchen. The girls ran out into the living room to see their mother standing in the doorway of the kitchen, her hands covering her mouth.
"Susie!" she said. "Something's wrong with your oven. I turned it on and flames spurted out. And now my turkey is smoldering!" Susie rolled her eyes and looked into the kitchen. The oven was, indeed smoking, but the flames were minimal and looked self-contained. The three Miller women looked at each other. Bert was out with an old work friend and wouldn't be back for an hour, and none of them had ever had to deal with something like this.
Just then Dave poked his head into the apartment.
"I heard screams." he said, always dependable.
"We're in here." Susie said. "And please bring with you a fire extinguisher."
When he came back he safely stopped the impending fire and Susie clapped.
"You did it! I never would have been able to do that. Now you need a name, a special name…" Susie thought, her finger pressed to her mouth. Suddenly she smiled and yelled happily. "Flame boy!"
"We're cursed. Us Miller women," Katey shook her head. "When we cook. We cut off a finger, or we break the oven, or we…I've never cooked, actually. So never mind."
Before and maybe while this was all happening, Javier was walking home. He passed the dark and almost empty street corners humming happily to himself. Maybe he was getting somewhere with Katey. Thinking of this, he tripped. He put his hands out to stop himself. The rough stone scraped the skin of his palms and drew blood. He had also hit his kneecap. Javier sat on the ground rubbing it until it felt better.
"Hello, Mr. Suarez." said a voice above him. He looked up to see three masked men standing over him.
"Wha--" one of the men put a knife to his throat and another dragged him into the dark, empty ally way. Resisting, he thrashed and lashed his arm out, but the men were all much bigger than him.
One of the men held a cloth over his mouth. Javier tried not to breath, but hungry lungs obey no one. Something, some sort of powder in the cloth made him go limp. The men all sniggered. They sounded almost recognizable, like old friends whose voices he had forgotten.
"Stay away from the American. She is not worth it." they shoved him up against a wall and one of them held his arms behind his back.
"Hmmph. Yeah. I'll be sure to remember that next time we do it." Javier mumbled, his voice almost gone. The man holding him tightened his grip.
"We mean it," he whispered in his ear. "Stay away from her."
And he let him fall. A familiar swagger was all he saw of the men walking away before everything went black.
"Dave, would you like to have dinner with us?" Mrs. Miller asked. "I'm sure we'll be able to get a turkey from room service, and then we'll be all set!" she said happily. Dave, who had told Katey earlier that he already had plans with friends, accepted.
"I just need to go wash up." he said.
"Use the girls' bathroom. And take your time, dinner won't be ready for a while." Mrs. Miller smiled before
Katey went out and sat on the balcony. She curled up in the white deck chair and pulled her hair out of the bun and let the wind reclaim it. She could just see a black sliver of the ocean, rippling darkly. Above it hung the moon, opalescent in the clear and starry sky. A cool breeze form the ocean cooled her skin and she closed her eyes, listening to the quiet and the waves. A bird chirped somewhere, and then she opened her eyes to see it sitting on the railing, looking at her, it's head cocked to the side. It was a little brown finch, just like the ones that sometimes landed on her terrace at home.
"Hey, little guy," she said. "You from New York? You lost? Me too." it let out a little chirp before flying away.
Katey went inside, and saw Dave standing at her desk, reading something. He looked up when she walked in and jumped.
"Oh. I--I wasn't reading it. I was…gum. I was gum." he said.
"You were gum?" Katey asked.
"Yes. I was--no. I needed gum. I was--"
"Reading my sister's diary." Katey observed as she got closer.
"No! I was…yeah. Katey please don't tell her. I think she's just getting to like me. Dave begged. He ran a hand through his curly blonde hair. He adjusted his tie, one that Katey had always hated. Electric pink was not Dave's color. It made him look--well never mind. You know what I mean.
Katey sighed. She told Susie everything, and this was definitely something Susie would want to know. She bit her lip, considering.
"I'll do anything. Come on Katey, everybody can use a favor."
"What kind of favor?" she asked suspiciously.
He dipped his head, and the light from the twin Tiffany lamps on the desk illuminated his bright blue eyes and showed Katey how earnest about this he was.
"Anything, Katey. Doesn't matter how big." she thought.
"Okay. I got something. But I don't think you'll want to do it…"
"Really! Anything!"
"Uh, to make it short, it did something dumb. And now I have to fix it. But I can't tell my parents where I am. So if I could just tell them that I'm with you, then it'd be okay."
Dave smiled. "What'd you do?"
"Nothing. That's the favor."
"Sure. I just…I really like Susie. So…" he screwed up his face, trying to think of how to voice something.
"I keep my promises, Dave. Don't worry."
"It's not that.. I'm just trying to think of what you might have done. So, for now, friends? Comrades in arms?" he smiled. She smiled. He held out his hand, and she shook it.
"Friends. And…you're like my brother, Dave. I know we didn't really work, and I'm sorry, but I really--"
"Kate! It's fine. Completely fine. I'm over it. So, I'm like your brother, huh? Does that mean I can scare all of the guys that you date? 'Cause I can look real threatening with a shotgun in my hand." he smiled; she shook her head, a look of amusement on her face. Susie would be lucky to have him.
Javier woke with a headache like a drop of water had been pinging onto his forehead for hours. Not that it had, but he had heard somewhere that the Chinese had been quite fond of that kind of torture. Eventually the water would bore into the head of the unlucky soul, and then bore into their brain and kill them.
He dragged his aching body along the dim streets. He cursed the nine blocks that he had to walk home. The streets now tended to empty after dark, and the only people that heard his cursing were a poor homeless man on a bench and a sad teenage girl with a tiny baby in her arms, who also looked homeless. When he passed the girl, she looked up.
She wore a face that so many victims of the revolution had. She had once been happy and beautiful, but now she looked sad and worried. Her face did not look well with the hunger her body was obviously going through, and she tried to give him a small smile as he walked by. He nodded to her.
Then he stopped and back peddled. She was sitting in an ally, singing quietly to her baby, a small thing with blonde hair. Strange; almost no Cuban babies were born with blond hair. He knelt down in front of her, much to her surprise.
"Hello." he said.
"Hello." she moved her baby closer to herself. She was obviously afraid of him. He felt a tiny pang of pain in his stomach; he wasn't used to people being afraid of him.
"No, no, I mean you no harm. I was just surprised to see your baby. Most babies here don't have blonde hair."
The girl shrugged. "Her father was American. Lost in the revolution months ago." she blinked back tears.
"What of your parents? Don't they help you?" Javier usually was never this nosey, but there was something about this girl.
"They have enough to worry about." clearly no lost love there.
"What is your name?" he asked. The girl tugged at one curly lock. Her hair was black and thick; she looked like she needed a good bath.
"Rosa. And this is Catie Isabella Luarez Jefferson." she smiled, holding her baby so that Javier could see her face. She clearly loved the baby desperately, all she did was smile at her little baby.
"Catie? I know a girl by that name," he paused. "You remind me of her a bit. She is blonde, like Catie. Do you mind me asking of your husband?"
Rosa shook her head. She seemed as if she had once been carefree and wild. She gave off spirit. "We met because he couldn't dance. Eh, they all said it wouldn't work. Too much difference. Mama didn't like it when
we got married. And Castro didn't like it when my husband tried to off his wingman." Rosa pursed her lips.
"Wingman?"
"Michael, my husband, was no fan of Che Guevera. My brother died at his hands, as did Michael's father. We both came from families…opposed to our new government," she shrugged, and then peered at Javier more closely.
"You're the Suarez boy, aren't you? I know you. You used to come into the club. The Katey you love? She is back, yes? You two went well together. I saw."
"How could you remember? That was…years ago."
Rosa smiled. "Ah, it's not very often some skinny white American girl is queen of La Rosa Negra. It's memorable."
Javier looked at Rosa but he didn't really remember her. There had been lots of people in the crowd the night that he and Katey were king and queen. This girl was very pretty, and neither she nor her baby belonged on the streets. Now that he knew her, he was involved.
"Do you need anything? This is no place to raise a baby. And there is room on my house. I could help you find a job…"
"No, no. I will provide. But thank you. You have big heart, Mr. Suarez." Now she definitely reminded him of Katey. She hated to accept favors, too.
"No. No. I insist. If you won't stay with me, my sister has room. At least stay the night at my home. There's room." Javier said, trying to make this girl understand he only wanted to help. But she shook her head.
"Fine. I didn't want to say this, but what would Michael think of you raising his baby on the street, eh? If he can't provide for you, he would at least want you to be safe!"
She looked at him, her dark eyes flashing. Then she looked at her baby. She was sleeping, but she opened her eyes for a moment and looked at her mother. Tiny blue eyes. Rosa looked at her sleeping daughter, then at Javier.
"Thank you, Mr. Suarez. But just for tonight," he held out a hand and helped her up. She was a petite girl and came up to his chin, but she looked straight into his face. "You are a very kind man. And I will find some way to repay you."
"Not necessary. Come on."
He guided her the way home, and she asked about his limp.
"Eh, twisted my ankle dancing. That's all. This is me." he touched her elbow when they got to his house.
"Are you sure your mother will be okay with this? And the rest of your family?" she asked tentatively.
"It's fine, it's fine." he said, ushering her into the courtyard. He locked the gate behind him and opened the door of the house.
"Javi? Javi, is that you? His mother called from Chabe's room.
"Yes, and I brought--"
"Katey? Oh, good." his mother stepped into the living room and saw them.
"Sort of." Javier said.