Delia's Crossing (Delia 1)

I shook my head, my eyes wide. He laughed.

“Nothing’s wrong with doing that,” he said. “It’s how we get to know each other better.”

The man in the movie was soon with another woman, doing the same things and saying the same things. I became more and more uncomfortable. I saw that Señor Baker was getting more and more agitated. His face reddened, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. If he was so uncomfortable watching this with me, too, why didn’t he stop it?

“I know you like watching this,” he told me instead. He sneered. “All girls your age love watching these movies.”

I hadn’t seen many movies, but none of them was anything like this.

“No,” I told him. “I don’t like it.”

“Sure you do. You’re just being coy,” he said, and went into a long explanation about the word coy. He said it was a natural part of being a woman. Women pretended they didn’t want the same things a man wanted, but they do, he insisted. “It’s all right. You can be coy,” he said.

I shook my head. Now that I understood what it meant, I wanted him to know I wasn’t being coy, but he wouldn’t believe me.

Suddenly, he grew angry and shut off the television.

“It’s time you took your bath,” he told me. “I want you to take a bath every night. I like my girls to be clean and smell sweet, fresh, and innocent. Go on,” he urged.

He jumped from one mood to another the way a little girl would jump from one square to another in a game of hopscotch. I hurried away from him. I took out my nightgown and my slippers and went to the bathroom with my things. I heard him turn on the television set again and start watching something else.

I locked the bathroom door and ran my bath. He had bought some bath oils and soaps and new towels and washcloths. While the water flowed into the tub, I sat on the toilet seat and wondered what would happen to me next and what I should do. I had learned a lot of new words, stuffed many new things into my head, but I was so frightened and confused now that everything was jumbled. I would probably not do well on any test he gave me, and then what would he do? What did he mean by saying I would pay for things without money?

When the tub was filled enough, I got undressed and stepped into the water. I was barely in it a minute before I heard him try the door.

“Why did you lock the door?” he screamed. He rattled it hard. “You never lock a door in this house. I lock the doors in this house! Open this door now,” he demanded.

“I am in the bathtub,” I cried.

He was quiet a moment.

“You unlock this door as soon as you’re out!” he shouted. “Don’t dry yourself completely first. First, open this door. Understand?”

“Sí,” I said, holding my breath.

“Not sí, yes. Yes!” he screamed.

“Yes.”

“From this moment on, every time you use a Spanish word instead of the English word I taught you, you will be penalized,” he declared.

I listened hard and thought he had left, but suddenly, he pounded the door with his fist once.

“Just wash yourself and get out!” he screamed.

I unplugged the bathtub and reached for one of the towels. As quickly as I could, I dried myself enough to put on my nightgown.

He started to pound on the door again, so I unlocked it. He stood there looking in at me.

“I thought I told you not to dry yourself completely,” he said.

“I had to so I could put on my nightgown.”

“I wanted you to wait,” he said. “You don’t listen well. You’re going to be here a lot longer than necessary, because you don’t listen,” he warned me, waving his forefinger in my face. He paused and looked at me. His eyes were glassy, his mouth twisted like someone who had just had a stroke. “Clean up after yourself in here, and get to the bedroom,” he said. Then he left, mumbling to himself.

I let out a breath that was locked in my chest and began to wipe off the tub. I brushed my teeth, folded the wet towel, and left the bathroom. I could hear the television still going. He didn’t come out of the living room. Perhaps he was going to sleep in there after all, I thought, and went to the bedroom. I got down on my knees and said my prayers. My heart was still thumping. I was eager to get to sleep and end this strange and difficult day, but moments after I had gotten into the bed, he came to the doorway and flipped on the lights.

“No, no,