"Looks like the snapshot of her, sure. Ummm, hi. Did Serena mention me? I'm Guy's little brother, Sang Trinh, but everyone knows me as Sammy. This is my girlfriend Ellilisai Prabakar; we call her Lily. You're Rosa, right?"
"Yes, I'm Rosa Cortés, or I will be again in a couple days, after my divorce goes through. Do you kids know Serena well? She hasn't mentioned you to me."
"We see Serena when she's with Guy sometimes," Lily said. "We party a little, y'know, now and then."
Hijole,
Rosa thought, these
chicos
must be half my age. Is my cousin really hanging with children? But Serena didn't seem too happy with their dance thing. I wonder what's going on...
"Anyway, I just got a place here. Serena was going to help me haul my stuff over but I think she's busy now."
Entertaining noises drifted down the hallway. Thumping; moaning; et cetera.
Sammy had the grace to look embarrassed. "Uh yeah, sounds like. Say, we'll help if you want. You got much?"
"No, just a few bags, but a little more than I can carry at once. Thanks!"
The three retrieved Rosa's belongings. She closed the door behind them as they left; Serena doesn't need any walk-in surprises, she thought.
They chatted as they walked to Rosa's new studio apartment. Or rather, the kids blabbed and chattered, volunteering more information than Rosa really needed to know. Yes, they were half her age. Both recently graduated from Petaluma High School and were in their first term at Frisbee University.
"Huh?" Rosa asked.
Lily laughed. "Sonoma State U, just up the road. Long time ago, they had a world frisbee championship or something, so everyone started calling it Frisbee U."
Both were majoring in Physical Therapy and concentrating on sports work. "Long as there's teams, athletes will get hurt, they'll need expert PT, so it's a good, solid career move," Sammy said. "And it's sort of a way to atone for our families."
"Atone?" Rosa was only allowed time for one-word questions.
"Yeah, we both work in our families' businesses," Lily explained. "Guy and Sammy's family are petty scuzzy; they run a chain of smoke shops, cigarette stores. My people are high-rent in comparison -- we have liquor stores. So our families live by helping people ruin themselves."
"And we're going to help put folks back together. It's like a calling or something. We're, like, giving back what we can. Not like Guy -- he's happy with just pushing product and making money," Sammy sighed and frowned. "Maybe he'll grow up someday."
"Or maybe not," Lily said. "Not our problem. He'll be the brother-in-law I'll ignore as much as possible. Like when he's bumping up against me."
"Dancing...?" Rosa managed to inject.
"Oh, that!" Lily laughed. "Yeah, he's a real perv. I was grinding nice with Sammy, and Guy came up and slammed me, and that's about the time you and Serena got here. Good thing! Guy thinks he's hot shit but to me, he'll always be a loser."
"Hey, that's my big bro you're talking about!" Sammy feigned indignation, and then laughed along. "And you're absolutely right. He's a user and a loser -- he can use people for only so long before they get tired of his shit. He's been with Serena for, what? A few months, like since the start of summer. That's been, like, about the longest relationship he's ever had."
And it is not going to last much longer, Rosa thought; she had felt Serena's vibes. Still, she had to admit he showed a flash of animal magnetism or something, something disturbing. She pushed that thought from her mind.
"Rosa, what are you gonna do here?" Lily asked. "You got your own place, so I guess you're staying awhile, right? Serena didn't tell Guy much and he hasn't told us fuck-all, only that you're her Mexican cousin or something. You have real good English -- better than Guy's, and he was born here."
"So was I,
muchacha
." Rosa considered how much to reveal. "I'm from Tucson originally. Spent half my life there and half in Guadalajara. I'll just say that I'm through with life in Jalisco. Serena thinks I can get a job here easily, so I'll see what happens."
The three reached Rosa's studio entry. She unlocked the door and led the youngsters inside. "Just throw my stuff on the bed. I'll unpack and move in later. Thank you both so much for helping me! I'm sorry I can't offer you anything. I haven't had a chance to stock up."
"S'okay. And we've got to get going." Sammy glanced at his smartwatch. "Yeah, just enough time." He looked back up. "You're a pretty classy lady, Rosa. Hope you do well here. We'll see you again, for sure."
Sammy stuck out his hand. Rosa leaned into his lean, black-clad form for a quick hug, then turned to Lily to lightly squeeze her thinly-covered curvy body. Pretty nice kids, Rosa admitted to herself.
Rosa unpacked quickly and efficiently. Not much here, and that's good, she thought. I won't be tied down. She already had a mental list of what her kitchenette and bathroom needed. She retrieved her Husqvarna, spun-out to the nearest Safeway market, and bought just enough to fill the bike's panniers. Then back for another load, and her shopping was done.
She had settled into her new home by dusk. She wondered, now what? Saturday night and nothing to do. Well, there's always the fall-back: get drunk. She mixed an iced spritzer pitcher of cheap red wine disguised by citrus soda, grabbed her ThinkPad, and eased into the chaise on her small rear deck.
She keyed in her inquiries. The family store's accounts looked good. Her name was not in any news feeds, but Ally the carjacker's was -- she still had not talked. Her legal-aid lawyer was proclaiming entrapment. Bobo's
tonto
(moron) of a detective, one Tomás Echiverria, was busy chasing leads in Florida. Rosa smiled. So, her spoofed emails had worked VERY well.
Rosa switched-off her computer and her mind. Refill her glass with wine spritzer. Gaze over the darkening orchards and pastures. Try to see stars through the light marine-layer overcast. Don't think about the past or any improbable future. Be here now. Ommm...
She only spilled a little wine on herself when she fell asleep.
*****
Rosa did not usually pass out past siesta hours. She woke around midnight, chilled, stiff, ache-y, dry-mouthed, slightly hungover -- nothing a sweater and a little more spritzer would not fix. Hungry, too. How lazy was she?
Just lazy enough, she decided. She checked the TripAdvisor and Yelp listings on local late-night home-delivery eateries. Hmmm, the choices were Italian, Eritrean, Nepalese, and Korean. No Mexican; no
mamacita
wanted to be working this late. She decided on Korean -- but no Kim Chee!
¡Jesús y María!
What that stuff did to her guts!
Rosa flicked her room's TV on to a premium channel, nicely provided by management. Dinner theatre: Korean Bar-B-Que, sangria spritzer, and a Game of Thrones episode. The Thrones story might have been lifted straight from the doings of Mexico's cartels, almost a costume docudrama. Rosa was amused.
And after the show, she mused. Not that she looked forward to an all-night what-to-do session -- but she needed to get some things clear in her fuzzy head. Might as well make a list.
A roof and transportation: got them. Food and clothes: got those, too. Local identification and money cards, including banking account, and necessary prescriptions: coming right up. Other cards and papers: ask Serena. Job and income: also coming right up, according to Serena.
Okay, the basics are in, or will be soon. What DIDN'T she have yet? Most important: a divorce. She made a note to check with Cici on Monday.
Next most important: friends. Not quite so easy to arrange, but she would see what could be done. So far, she had been here just a couple days, and only knew Serena, Nguyen, Sammy, and Lily. She would need to greatly enlarge that circle of acquaintances. She would meet co-workers (or what some gringos called cow-orkers) and tradespeople, sure. She made a note to find social groups to infiltrate.
Next most immediate: sex. But no pricks inside her till after the divorce. She was an honest, faithful woman; she kept her vows, even if her pig of a husband Bobo did not. She did not cheat. Well, oral-genital with a man or woman was not really cheating, was it?
A little more wine spritzer. A few more puffs on the hash pipe Serena had left her. A lonely session in bed with her active fingers. Oops, make another note: buy toys.
