Delia's Crossing (Delia 1)

“I don’t know whether to believe you or not, but I accused him of it anyway. You weren’t a virgin, right? You did it before, right?”

“No.”

She thought a moment, still remaining beside me, propped on her elbow. “But did you like it? I mean, after you couldn’t stop him, was it still…”

“No,” I said, shaking my head vigorously. “I did not like it, like him. No.”

“I don’t know whether to believe you or not. You know,” she said, her eyes beady, mean, “in some places in the Middle East, if you’re raped, your own family could have you killed or something. You may not understand every word I’m saying, but you get it,” she added, and stood up. She glanced at me angrily and walked about the room again.

“Bradley’s going around telling my friends that he went with you because I frustrated him. He called me names, a tease. I can’t stand him now. We should have him arrested. My mother should have him arrested. You will go to the police, and then you’ll go to court, and he’ll go to jail,” she said. “You go tell my mother to do that. That will shut him up.”

“Police?” I shook my head.

“You’ve got to!” she screamed at me. “Or you’re a liar!”

“I’m not a liar.”

“Then you’ll do it. It’s settled,” she said, and went to the door. “We’ll inform my mother at dinner. I’ll do the talking. I’ll tell her you asked me to do the talking.” She pointed her finger at me. “You just nod when I nod, understand? Nod.”

I started to shake my head, but she walked out.

Later, still trembling from the things Sophia did and said, I went down to the dining room. I felt very strange, just going in to sit without doing a thing in the kitchen, but both Señora Rosario and Inez behaved as if it had always been this way.

“Are you coming with me to the hospital to see Edward after dinner, Sophia?” Tía Isabela asked her.

“I hate hospitals,” she replied. “I’ll go after the operation. Maybe.”

Tía Isabela glanced at me, but she didn’t ask me to go with her.

“Garman will be taking Delia to school every morning,” she told Sophia, “and picking her up at the end of the day from now on.”

“How am I getting to school? Edward can’t drive me, and I wouldn’t be seen breathing the same air Bradley Whitfield breathe

s.”

“For the time being, I’ll have Casto take you in the station wagon,” Tía Isabela said.

“Some Mexican worker taking me to school, and in that old beat-up car we use for deliveries and junk?”

“If you had worked at getting your driver’s license, Sophia, you’d be able to drive yourself.”

“Well, why don’t you let Casto drive her in the station wagon and let Garman take me? They could speak Spanish together. It would be easier for her.”

“I want Garman looking after her,” Tía Isabela said. “With him around, neither Bradley nor any of his idiot friends will so much as look her way.”

“But…”

“That’s final.”

“I won’t go to school. I’ll stay home.”

“You’ll go, or I’ll take away every other privilege you have. Don’t test me,” Tía Isabela warned her.

Sophia glared at me, looked at her food, and then folded her hands and took a breath. “Okay, Mother, but what are you going to do about Delia’s situation?”

“What situation?”

“Her rape, Mother. She came to my room just before we came down to dinner, and she asked me to ask you to go to the police.”