Part 1

Alonso Residence

"Almost got it" Omar stretched to place another novel on the bookshelf's highest tier.
"Think we've got enough?" Raya smiled at her husband

"The way our kids go through them, we'll need as many as we can get" he laughed

"You know" Raya mused aloud, "Maybe we should finally tell the girls about how you and I met" by "girls", Raya didn't mean her daughter or nieces, as she considered Kimber and Aja's daughters, Kyra, Sherry and Lea, but rather her pseudo sisters, Jerrica, Kimber, Shana and Aja.

"Do you think they can handle it?" Omar grinned

"Handle what?" Anissa appeared at the end of the hallway, at the entrance to the living room

"Something between your mother and I"
"Oh, Dad" Anissa shook her head and turned to her mother, "Can I go see Paco?" she was blunt with her request

"It's 'May I', and no" Raya was firm, "You're still grounded for that stunt with Jericho and your cousins"
"He needed our help" Anissa frowned
"He could've been killed" Omar chimed in, "besides, your brothers aren't complaining"
"Oded's holed up with his drums and Carlos is happy with his books, reading about God knows who!"

"Whom" Omar corrected his daughter
"Who cares!" Anissa scowled, "Besides, you said that Paco was a nice boy"
"Maybe twenty years ago" Raya sighed, "But he's no longer a boy, and you're still very young"
"I'm almost fifteen" Anissa was adamant

"There's nothing to discuss" Omar put his foot down, literally and figuratively, "If you want something to do, there's still breakfast dishes in the sink"
Anissa was about to say something when there was a noise at the front door

"The post is here" Omar realized aloud, "Will you please go get the mail?" he looked at his daughter

"I have to do everything around here" she stormed off

"Three is such a nice round number, you said" Omar rolled his eyes

"We're outnumbered" Raya sighed

"Mum" Anissa returned, "This came for you" she tossed the envelope on the coffee table

"Thanks" Raya smiled, "but you're still grounded. Maybe you should try to read ahead in your History textbook. Isn't there a test coming up next week?"

"Oh, alright" Anissa grumbled and left the room

"Kids" Raya smiled, sat on the couch and tore open the envelope, but her smile faded as she silently read the letter

"Is everything ok?" Omar put his crutches aside and sat on the couch next to his wife

"It's from" she began, but couldn't finish

"Who's Sheila?" Omar frowned as he looked over Raya's shoulder, at the letter

"Her stage name was Jetta"
"Oh yeah, I forgot" he laughed "Like the car?"

"Sort of" Raya guessed, "we'd fought bitterly years ago, and after the bands had split up, we each went our separate ways. It looks like she wants to make amends"

"Right" Omar knew the story of how the Alonso Nursery had been vandalized, and how Jetta had been the ringleader of sorts, "Well, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know" she rested her head on his shoulder, "I just don't know"

"It's been a long time since Ryan called us" Omar finally spoke
"A lot has happened over time" Raya agreed, "we moved"
"We had two more kids"

"We hadn't spoken to each other since Oded was in diapers" Raya sighed

Omar glanced at her, "So, what did she say?"
Raya sat up and stared at the paper in her hands. She read aloud,

"Carmen,

I know I've done and said some horrible things to you in the past, but I didn't mean to flip ya off for the most part. I still even think about when I had your father's greenhouse trashed and it haunts me to this day. I know you forgave me and we became close afterwards and nothing made me happier than seeing the look on your face when you had your first child. The truth is that I was jealous and that's partly why I shut you out for so many years. I would rather tell you why in person why I was so upset after the birth of Oded. If you could maybe meet with me sometime soon I would really like that. I miss ya and never had a friend like you Carmen. I know all of this sounds mushy, but there is a reason for it I assure you. Write me or call me if you want. Again I'm truly sorry and I never meant to hurt you or anyone else.

Love, Sheila"
"I just-" Raya flipped over the envelope and glanced at the address, "I don't know what to say, let alone do"
"She wants to meet and talk with you"
"Apparently, she thought we were still in Houston" Raya pointed at the address written on the envelope, "this has been forwarded here"
"Maybe that's why we didn't receive it until now" Omar postulated aloud

"But that still doesn't help me find a solution"
"You don't want me to just listen to you?" Omar queried his wife

"Of course I do, but this is one time when I need to figure out what plan to take"

In Anissa's bedroom, Anissa sat on the bed impatiently, nervously playing with the ballerina fashion doll that lay on her night table. Her phone vibrated on the night stand and she reached over to answer it. The text message flashed, "Were U "

"Hme" she texted back, "Miss U"
"Thnx" the reply beeped

There was a knock on the closed bedroom door and Anissa quickly slipped the phone into her jeans' pocket, "Who is it?" she called out

"Me" Oded replied

"And me" Carlos chimed in

"What?" she stood up, perturbed at having been disturbed

The boys took that as a sign to enter, Carlos opened the door and he and Oded made themselves at home; Carlos sat heavily on the bed and Oded spun in a doughnut until he was pointed towards his sister

"What do you two want?" she sat back down on the bed
"I couldn't read with his drumming" Carlos patted Oded on the knee

"And I couldn't drum properly with his mumbling to himself"
"Not that you could hear it over that racket"

"I don't see why you two are so upset" Anissa scowled at her older brothers, "Now that Jerry has quit being Jemini, there's no reason for you to bother practicing" she looked at Oded

"Hey" he retorted, "I can be the next Keith Moon"
"Sure, a brown Keith Moon" she laughed

Anissa's phone beeped again and Carlos picked up on it, "Mum's going to be pissed if you're texting"
"What else can I do in here? The computers in the living room, and we can't even have televisions in here" she indicated her bedroom as well as her brothers' room

"Try reading" Carlos suggested as he made a grab for her phone, which had slipped out of her pocket and onto the bed

"Who's P2?"

"Nobody" she snatched her phone back
"Whoever he is, he can't spell worth beans"

"Refried or pinto" Oded laughed

"If he's white, they're probably the beans that Jack used to climb to the giant's lair" Carlos joked

"He's not white, and even if he was, so what?" Anissa frowned

"Hey, take it easy, hermana" Carlos put up his hands in mock surrender, "I—we think you're kind of young for a boyfriend"
"And you two aren't too young to be dating"
"Well, we can't all be the chick magnet our esteemed older brother is"
"Hey, it's not my fault that you take after Dad" Oded grinned

"At least I don't take after Mum" Carlos shot back, good naturedly, "what with your drumming; but then, it's in the genes"

Chenoweth Residence

It had been scarcely a week since Jetta had mailed the letter. She busied herself at home, after her shift at the hospital, with mundane household tasks. Things had changed so much since she and Ryan had been young, since his business had been going well. Now, with him working several nights a week, and her meager salary at the hospital, times were tough, "How can I face Raya again, after everything I'd said to her earlier, after she'd seen my good fortune". True, gold plated household appliances were now a thing of the past as Ryan and Jetta had a small house, albeit in a good part of Los Angeles, but still, it was a far cry from their days of mansions and luxury automobiles.

"Mummy" Diana's voice pulled Jetta out of her thoughts and back to reality. The kindergartener entered the living room, clutching a crayon drawing on construction paper, "See what I made for you and Daddy" she thrust the paper towards her mother. Jetta held the drawing and smiled. There were four stick figures on the page, each with a different color of streaming hair. One figure had green hair, another had blue, a third had barely discernible scrawls of white wax atop her head, and the fourth had thick streaks of black at a right angle protruding from her circular head. The child's scrawls proclaimed what Jetta knew, albeit with misspellings, "Pizza, Stromy, Roxi," had been written over three of the figures, but the fourth figure had the caption in perfect capital letters, "Mummy".

"Teacher gave us homework" Diana explained, "What do your parents do?"

"Well darling, I work in a hospital"
Diana frowned, "Hospitals are boring! Being a rock star is really cooler" she proclaimed

"Yes, I suppose so" Jetta nodded absently, "what about Daddy?" she pointed on the page

"You and Daddy didn't get married until your band went away" Diana shook her head

"Ah" Jetta smiled, "How about we put Daddy here, anyway"

"Sure Mummy!" Diana took the paper and ran back to her bedroom

Alonso Residence

In the living room, Omar and Raya looked at each other and then back at the letter

"I guess the best thing I can do is contact her" Raya shrugged. She fished her cell phone out of her pocket, "The last number that I have them" she scrolled down and pressed Send.

"It's ringing" she glanced at Omar, "Hello?" she spoke when the line was answered. There was a pause as Raya listened, "I'm trying to reach Jetta—Sheila Burns. She might be Sheila Chenoweth" Another pause, longer now, "Oh, I see" she frowned, "Thank you" she hung up.

"Well, that was that" she shook her head

"Now what?" Omar looked confused

Raya pulled a heavy phone book out of the side table nook and set down heavily on the coffee table, "Now we let our fingers do the walking"
"Good, 'cause my feet are killing me" Omar put his sneakered feet up on the coffee table

Raya didn't smile. Omar's grin left his face

"Ok" he sighed, "Let's start looking"

In her bedroom, Anissa's phone beeped again. She glanced at it and smiled, "Ltz tlk" the message read. Of course, to talk, meant to simply send text messages back and forth. Anissa never thought about actually calling him up.

"This is boring" Olded rolled his eyes, "Come on, bro" he rolled out of the room with Carlos trailing behind him.

"I wnt 2 si U" the next message chimed

"Wen?" Anissa texted a reply

"2nite" the message shot back

In the living room, Omar and Raya thumbed through the white pages of the phone directory, "Chenoweth, Chenoweth, Chenoweth" Omar ran his finger down a list, "Kristen, Jessica, here we go- Ryan" he jotted down the number on a pad of paper

Raya dialed the number, "Hello" she spoke up when the call went through
"Hello" a child's voice

"Hi" Raya smiled, "Is your Mummy home?"
"Yes"
"May I speak to her?"
"No, she's busy"
"Oh" Raya sighed, "Is your Daddy home?"
"Yes"

"May I speak with him?"
"He's busy, too"

"Ah" Raya looked at Omar for support. Omar shrugged since he couldn't hear the other end of the conversation

"Is there anyone else there with you?"
"A police man"

"Oh, can I speak with him?"
"No, he's talking with Daddy and Mummy and the fire man"
"The—um" Raya seemed at a loss for words, "What are they doing?"
"They're looking all over here"
"What are they looking for?"
"Me"