“Delia wants whatever you want, I’m sure, Adan,” Tía Isabela said, overhearing.
Adan smiled. “Thank you for your generous donation to my father’s campaign,” he told her.
“There are few causes as worthwhile,” she replied.
He kissed me softly on the lips, and then we got into the limousine. He remained there until we pulled away. Looking back at him resurrected my memory of Ignacio when I went off in the bus back in Mexico City and he waved his good-bye.
Only he now seemed much farther and smaller in my mind.
It brought tears to my eyes.
“You did well, Delia. I hear only good things about you. You’re on your way to becoming a real lady. I only wish I could say the same about Sophia,” Tía Isabela muttered, turning away.
Her wish would be reinforced moments after we arrived at the hacienda. The number of cars parked in front was the first warning. When we pulled up, Tía Isabela didn’t wait for Señor Garman to open her door. She lunged out. Even though the pool was a good distance behind the house, we could hear the loud music, laughter, and shouting going on. Sophia had either neglected to watch the clock or had decided to do something else to infuriate her mother.
“What the hell is going on?” Tía Isabela cried, and charged into the house, through the living room to the French doors and out the back, almost before I had entered the house. Señora Rosario was standing off to the side, shaking her head.
“I kept them from taking any of Señora Dallas’s whiskey,” she told me, “but they brought their own and other things as well, I’m sure.”
“What’s going on?”
I went through the French doors to see.
Many of the boys and some of the girls had either been thrown into the pool with their clothes on or had jumped in themselves. Tía Isabela’s looming appearance silenced them. Someone turned off the music. Sophia, who was sprawled on the diving board, sat up in surprise and saw her mother. Everyone scurried to climb out of the pool. I saw Christian Taylor take off his shoes to empty the water out of them before putting them on again.
“I want every one of you off my property in five minutes or less,” Tía Isabela said, “or I will call the police. I know who you all are, and I will make sure that every parent is informed.”
They all stood staring.
“Get out!” she screamed, and they hurried to gather their things. “Don’t dare walk through my house. Go around to your cars.”
Sophia simply dropped herself from the diving board into the pool and swam to the other side. Christian Taylor helped her out and then moved quickly to follow the others, some of whom were still laughing.
“Thanks a lot for making me look like an idiot, Mother!” Sophia cried.
“You are an idiot, Sophia,” Tía Isabela said. “You are not to go anywhere but to school and back until further notice, maybe until you’re eighteen and out of my house. If you disobey me this time, I will ship you off in a straitjacket,” she added, glanced at me, and marched back into the house.
“You can have her for a mother if that’s what you want,” Sophia said, wobbling toward me.
“She is not my mother. She can never be my mother. She is your mother,” I said.
“Yeah, well, I’m giving her to you, whether you like it or not,” she said, slurring her words.
I watched her head toward the house, stumble, and then continue.
She’d be sorry in the morning, I thought, and followed her in. She didn’t get far. Tía Isabela was right at the French doors.
“Take off those wet clothes now. You don’t track in that water and ruin my rugs. Do it!”
Sophia wobbled and then began stripping off her clothes, smiling as she did so. She dropped everything at her feet. Totally naked, she walked to the stairway without any embarrassment, paused to smile back at us, and then went up.
“She has no shame,” Tía Isabela said sadly. She told Señora Rosario to get rid of Sophia’s clothing, and then she went to her own bedroom.
When I looked in on Sophia, she was still naked and lying on her stomach on her bed. I closed her door and went to my own room.
It was difficult to fall asleep. I truly felt as if I had been on a merry-go-round. Ending the night with this terrible scene at the hacienda only added to the confusion and excitement. My nerves buzzed like neon lights. Visions of my parents, mi abuela Anabela, Ignacio, my classmates in Mexico, all commingled with visions of the people I knew now. By the time I fell asleep, the morning sunlight was peeping over the horizon. I didn’t rise until the phone rang at midday. It was Adan. I told him to give me a chance to wake up. He laughed and said he understood. I said nothing about Sophia’s wild pool party.
Sophia, probably suffering a hangover, never came out of her room all day. I saw Tía Isabela briefly after what was my breakfast. She told me she wouldn’t be home for dinner, but if Sophia ever came out, I was to tell her she would be home early enough to check up on her. I was supposed to warn her again that her mother’s patience had run out and she was prepared to send her to a special camp for impossible children. Fortunately, I didn’t see Sophia all day. If I was the one to give her such a message, I knew she would hate me more, if that was possible.