I haven't planned this chapter at all, so I'm just gonna start typing and see where it goes. I apologize in advance if it totally bombs.
"Hi, Naomi." Star looked happy to see me... well, as happy as one can look when one is being held in custody for possession of illegal drugs and for drugging somebody else. She was lucky we didn't send her my hospital bills.
"Hi, Star." I remained as impersonal as I could while talking to somone who used to be my friend.
"Marie's with you?"
"Yeah. She's really happy. Actually, she's starting to think I'm her mother."
"What will Sandy think about that?"
I cleared my throat. I wasn't altogether comfortable with the new position that Marie had given me as her 'Mama', but I really needed to have Star think I was.
"That's the thing. Sandy was on drugs, you know that. She wasn't the most suitable mother-"
"She was a good mother."
"Star, there's more to being a good mother than just loving your child."
"Really? Well, please, elaborate for me, since you're obviously an expert."
For once, I thought I might have just had a glimpse of the real Star - what she was like before drugs messed her up.
"Sandy loves Marie, and I'm sure that she'll accept her, but she can't provide for her, she doesn't know how to raise her, and she'll be a bad influence on her. What if Sandy was all alone with Marie, and she took a bad trip? Or if she OD's and no one finds her?"
"That's not enough evidence to say she's a bad mother."
"Star, she's not a bad mother. She's just not a suitable mother. She can't raise Marie, plain and simple. Now," I cut Star off as she tried to interrupt, "Take my mother. She knows how to discipline, she can provide for me. She knows what she wants me to achieve, and she knows how to help me achieve it. She loves her daughter, and would do anything to make her daughters future bright and promising. But, she can't accept somethings. She couldn't accept that my future could be bright and promising without doing exactly what she wanted me to do. So, I realized that as long as we were both stubborn and refusing to compromise, we'd never get anywhere."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I'm getting along better with my Mom now, because I was the bigger person. I'm going to audition for a role in an opera in Texas-"
"Where?"
"The Grand Opera House. It's in Galveston."
Star blinked. I sighed.
"It's close to Santa Fe."
"Okay... when?"
"In May, but that's not-"
"What opera?"
"Carmen, but would you listen! I'm giving it a chance, and if it doesn't work, then I get to do what I want. We have a compromise, and I initiated it. Now tell me... what would Sandy have done?"
Star sighed.
"She wouldn't have cooperated."
"Exactly. This little girl," I indicated to the baby on my lap, "Will be going to Sandy, away from the two people who could actually care for her, if you don't testify."
Star shook her head. "I'll think about it."
"Good." I got up to leave, then turned back.
"Oh, Star?"
"Yeah?"
"Actually think about it."
She looked insulted, but once her eyes locked with mine, she realized how serious I was.
"You've never been through withdrawl." The ghost of a smirk passed her lips.
"Not of the drug kind, at least." I held Marie close as I left that horrible building.
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As I sat in my room, I realized how badly my upper register had suffered the past year. I'd rarely used it... I realized while singing for my family, but now that I was actually practicing for a real role in a real opera house, it was painfully obvious.
History was repeating itself to some extreme. Everything had come full circle, after I was sure I'd given up opera for good, here I was rehearsing for an audition... at the Grand Opera, no less! And I was thoroughly enjoying it. Maybe I'd just gone through a phase, or something...
I cleared my throat, and began to sing, trying not to notice how my soprano wasn't as clear as it once was. I was singing the part of Micaëla, which was a soprano's part, and trying not to imagine the horiffied patrons as they listened to me...
"Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante,
Je dis, hélas! que je réponds de moi;
Mais j'ai beau faire la vaillante..."
"Naomi," my mother's voice was in my doorway. I squeezed my eyes shut.
"Yeah?"
"I'm not trying to sound critical... but, your voice needs to be trained up a bit more. You haven't used your upper register for a long time, I assume."
"No, I haven't..."
"Maybe you should try audtioning for a mezzo-soprano?"
"What?"
"It's just barely lower than a soprano-"
"Mom, I know what it is, but why?"
"Your voice might not be up to par by the audition."
"You're right," I murmured, "But what part should I try?"
"How about the part of Carmen herself?"
I swallowed nervously. Lovely... another load on my shoulders. On top of all the court procedings for Star, Sandy and Marie, and getting caught up in school and graduating, I was now going out for the title role in an opera in one of the most prestigous opera houses in the South...
Well, this would be interesting.
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"Hey, Curtis."
Sodapop turned around from where he had been sitting with Marie. Naomi had dropped her off from seeing Star about an hour earlier, and she was full of energy, so he decided to sit outside with her.
"Adam," he acknowledged, "What do you want?"
"I want to know what's going on with you and Naomi."
"And I want to know why it matters to you."
"Man," Adam raised an eyebrow, "You really want to make things difficult, don't you? Well, then, we'll see just how difficult we can make things."