iv.
An hour later they were dressed and clean and on the road. Daniel's friend was named Mitch and he lived in a condo on the nicer end of town. It was about a twenty minute drive, and during the entire time Daniel was playing more of that 'se plin' music he had played for her the day before when he was showing her his silly machines. She didn't care for 'se plin' music, and much preferred tejano, salsa, banda. She wished he would turn it down. Or at the very least, that he would just play some rock music, some sort of compromise between her tastes and his.
Mitch and his wife Betty were pleasant people and they took an instant liking to Ofelia. Ofelia warmed to them also, and to just about all the others who came to eat clams and drink beer. Rock music was playing from a big P.A. system, and even though she didn't like it very much, it was still a far sight better than 'se plin'. Ofelia marveled at the pool, which was lit up with an impressive array of Chinese lanterns. She gave Daniel a firm elbow in the ribs for not telling her to bring a swimsuit. Daniel was even more upset at that oversight than Ofelia was.
One of the couples there were Latino: a good looking young man named Carlos and his equally good-looking girlfriend, Inez. Ofelia learned that Carlos and Mitch were co-owners of a landscaping business, and it turned out that they both knew a few of Ofelia's uncles and cousins who worked in that field. There was another married couple, Philip and Francine, and two young men who had come by themselves, Curtis and Kenneth. Kenneth was Japanese and Ofelia found him striking. He was one of the best looking men she had ever seen. He was not even as tall as Daniel but he was slender and fit, and he had a very young face despite the fact that he was in his mid-thirties. Ofelia would have guessed him to be around twenty or so. She tried not to look at Kenneth too much but it was impossible.
When Ofelia and the other ladies had a short moment alone Inez made a comment about him which made Ofelia blush. She was standing right next to Ofelia and smoking a long skinny cigarette. Ofelia was irritated by the acrid smoke riffling through her hair, hovering on her skin. "It's obvious he's preoccupied with you, though. I guess I can't fault him for that. You're even prettier than he is."
"Oh, thank you. I'm not all that." Ofelia said, and at that point the men came and whisked them off towards the patio where the barrels were set up. Ofelia relished the clams, but she had to keep reminding Daniel that she didn't drink any kind of alcohol. Finally, however, after enough badgering, he talked her into taking a sip. She made a face and everyone laughed.
"Jesus, where did you find this girl." Inez remarked, "She's like a saint. Doesn't drink, doesn't smoke. What does she do, Danny-boy?"
Ofelia could tell that Inez was already drunk. Carlos shook his head, "Hey, let's keep this shindig G rated, kay?" his eyes were daggers as he looked at Inez. Kenneth and Curtis stood off to the side, off the patio, and talked quietly. Kenneth was drinking Seven-up. He was dressed better than anyone else, and he had a gentlemanly style about him which Ofelia found extremely appealing. He wore white slacks from Calvin Klein and a beige long-sleeved golf shirt from Ashworth. One thing Ofelia knew was clothes.
That reminded her of where she worked, and she hoped the conversation wouldn't come around to careers, though she felt that inevitably it would. Then she remembered that Daniel had introduced Ofelia as a member of his department at the mill. She relaxed and let herself take a few more swallows of beer. It began to taste better and better. Soon she was feeling light-headed and hung on Daniel's arm, looking at him with her eyelashes batting up and down. Her admiration was obvious.
Kenneth and Curtis were colleagues of Mitch's wife Betty, who worked with the cable company. They installed cable for TV and Internet, modems, routers, home-entertainment and computer systems. They were also techies and troubleshooters. Ofelia managed to get one of Kenneth's business cards while Daniel, Mitch, and Curtis were arguing over some techno-babble in Mitch's heavily-wired living room.
Carlos, Inez, Philip, and Francine had drifted off toward the pool, leaving Betty, Ofelia, and Kenneth alone on the patio. It seemed to Ofelia that Betty was trying to sell Kenneth to her. She continually mentioned the fact that Kenneth was a bachelor and that he planned on having his own business in a few years. Maybe she didn't realize that she was preaching to the choir as far as that went. Ofelia could see for herself what a draw Kenneth was. He had a soft voice with a barely discernible accent, as he had moved to the states from Osaka as a young teen. By this time Ofelia had consumed almost two entire cans of beer and was animated, nearly euphoric.
Out of the blue, Kenneth asked her, "Are you and Daniel serious?"
Ofelia snapped her jaw shut for a moment, then answered, "Well, yeah, I mean, it ain't like we're getting married or anything, but."
"I see." Kenneth answered, smiling at her, watching her fidget with her fingers, as if she had gloves on. He could tell he was making her nervous. "He's very lucky."
"Oh, no, no." Ofelia answered, and she was blushing. She waved her hand, pushing the compliment away from her. She was letting the old Ofelia re-surface. That bubbly queen of denial.
"You're from Mexico, right?" Kenneth asked.
Ofelia nodded. "Umhm."
"What state?"
"Nayarit."
"Sounds beautiful." Kenneth said, enjoying the way the syllables rolled off Ofelia's tongue. Suddenly Ofelia realized that Betty had wandered off. She worried that Daniel would see her alone with this Adonis and become upset.
"Maybe we should go inside?" Kenneth said, seeing her uneasiness. He turned without waiting for her to acquiesce, and she followed him through the sliding glass doors, into the house. She and Kenneth joined the general hubbub around the entertainment system. Mitch was bragging about his speakers, which were blaring some awful noise. Kenneth leaned towards Ofelia and said loudly so she could hear him over the din, "You have my card."
He smiled, and nodded to her, and she nodded back. She raised her hand and there it was, tucked away against her palm.
v.
Daniel took Ofelia home just shortly after midnight. He wanted her to come back to his apartment but she explained that it was difficult for her to keep doing that. Her mother was still the head of the house, she explained, even though Ofelia and Manuel were adults. She had to respect Dominga's wishes and expectations, which, though they weren't exactly written in stone, had been made crystal clear to Ofelia only that morning.
Ofelia was intoxicated. She had consumed three whole cans of beer, all by herself. She gave Daniel an enthusiastic kiss goodnight which lasted several minutes. Finally Daniel told her in his own beer-laden voice, "Either go now or you're coming back with me."
"Buenas noches, mi amor." Ofelia whispered, and gave him one last kiss. She sang to herself as she ascended the stairs to her apartment. It was the chorus of one of those crazy songs she had heard at the clam-bake: "She's got lehh-ehhggs, she knows how to use them...." What kind of silly words were those, anyway? Those gueros were crazy.
For a moment she thought of knocking on Leonard's door. His apartment was dark, as he had been in bed for at least an hour already. He was a creature of habit, and he always retired at eleven-thirty. He would be angry if she woke him up. He would be doubly angry if he smelled the booze on her breath. But would he be angry if she went down on her knees and gave him what every man desired more than anything else?
She had trouble getting the key in the lock, and used an expression she had heard many times over the past several hours, "Oh, smack my -- ass -- and call me Sally!" She laughed and her muddled brain was full of Kenneth's face. She felt a tickle from some remote place in her stomach and checked to make sure she still had his card in her bag. It was there, permanently curved now from being held tightly in her hand for over an hour.
She finally got inside and then had trouble locating the light switch. That was sure nice of her Mom and Manuel, leaving the place pitch black. She found the switch after much fumbling along the drywall and headed off for her room. She wanted to give that boy a piece of her mind. He didn't even leave the hall-light on like always. She was smiling when she went into her room, prepared to give her brother a playful tongue-lashing. He wasn't there. He must have gone to Jose's again. Her vision was fuzzy, and she felt her stomach twist unpleasantly as she sat on the bed. Manuel had left a long-stemmed red rose for her. Under it he had written a note in his blocky, all-caps. The note was in Spanish. It read:
"As it is now, it will be always. Anyone hurts you, my Queen, my Love, they die. Yours forever, Papi."
Ofelia felt too ill to be as touched as she would have been otherwise. She lay back on the bed, but that was a big mistake. The room began to spin. She saw the dry-wall, the sparkles, the ceiling fan, all swimming by like images of bananas and lucky sevens in a slot machine, faster and faster. "Mama..." she moaned, as she crawled to the bathroom. She leaned over the toilet and spent the next half-hour vomiting and drifting in and out of a shallow sleep which was more like delirium. Her heart pounded in her little rib-cage. Her stomach hurt and her throat was sore from the bile she kept bringing up. The smell of half-digested beer and clams made her even sicker yet, and she quailed, "Mammmaaaaa!" again.
