Chapter 446: Jo XIII—Watching
As if a vacation could not get worse. It seemed funny to Josefina, she’d always assumed that a free ride out of school, an unexpected vacation would be one of the greatest things that could happen. As far as being disappointed at not being in the states to witness Mt. Saint Helens, she thought she could deal with that, news reports and being distracted by her brother would make up for it. But now she didn’t even have that.
“Stop looking at the television Josefina!” Mom sighed and she stepped across the kitchen floor, high heels clipping over the crumbling tile floor, the scent of expensive perfume drifting off her body. “The pictures are too ugly.” She clicked off the TV and stood in front of it, eyebrows arched on her beautiful face.
“Mom,” Jo said weakly and she looked at a scab, itchy and tight on her wrinkled dry elbow. She scratched it, and her fingers felt immediately the surprisingly thick flow of blood that resulted. “Oops.” She held her arm away from her body, Mom had stuck her in a snowy white dress and skirt today, and knowing Mom’s taste, it was probably expensive.
“Josefina!” Mom cried and she grabbed a cloth napkin from the table and grabbed Jo’s arm, wrapping it around her elbow. “What is wrong with you, why are you picking scabs, do you want scars?”
“Mom I’m bored!” Jo whined, and she’d almost not said that, saying one was bored around a parent was the sure kiss of death. In moments now, she’d probably find herself helping to clean and chop vegetables, or roll pasta dough in the kitchen, or maybe have herself submitted to Mom’s tedious instructions on how to be an elegant lady. But at least that’d be something.
“Bored?” Mom said quietly. “How can you be bored here? Look outside.”
And Jo did, she saw the lush green grass carpeting the rust colored sand, she saw a blanket of crimson and purple flowers on a hill in the distance, the darkness of the trees, a small forest that would lead right down to the stream which was calf deep and cool with sharp rocks that would stab the toes and sometimes leave lines of blood flowing downstream. Even farther over the horizon stood the city, the smelly noisy city and the line of brown smog over it. “I’m just bored, Mom, there’s nothing to do.”
There maybe Mom would take her into her bedroom now, and show her how to put on make up in the large mirror, she would put on lipstick and a tiny bit of cheek color but not too much so she wouldn’t look like a whore. Or maybe she’d curl her hair again, or show her how to use olive oil on it so that the ends wouldn’t split, or maybe let her pick out pretty dresses so that she could learn how to sit and walk in them so that they would look graceful on her. Normally, Josefina really hated that sort of attention from Mom but at this point…
“Then go play outside with your brother, where is Phil?”
Jo’s mouth fell open. “Mom?”
Since when did Mom ever pass up an opportunity to cure her daughter of the savage ways of her father’s side of the family?
“You heard me, go on,” Mom said. “Go.”
Jo sighed loudly and she left the kitchen, stopping in the doorway, “Fine. I don’t even know where Phil is.”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
Ever since
that first day when they’d met that girl, Corinne, things had just not gone
well for Josefina. For one thing, Phil obviously had fallen in love with her on
sight and in the few hours they spent with her, it deepened. Even when Corinne,
toying with the long stem of a plucked and mutilated wildflower, told them her
big secret, that her sister Pauline had brought her here to
Yes, sly wink, I almost had a lover!
Phil’s eyes grew big and he soaked in every bit of her sad passionate tale, being as sympathetic as he could to Corinne, and agreeing with her that yes Pauline just didn’t understand what it was like to be really in love and she could never understand because adults never understood. Well all of that seemed clear enough to Jo, Phil was just pretending to be sympathetic so Corinne would like him and as a result neither one of them made any sense. If adults didn’t understand, which of course they didn’t, then why was Corinne so hooked on this Alain guy?
Either way, Jo could feel herself being frozen out. After all she was only thirteen, they were a couple of important, precious years older than her and that meant they knew more and understood more and just did not think like babies did anymore. All of that day Phil and Corinne talked, and finished off the picnic, waded in the stream, laughed, rough housed and Jo could only watch in disgust. Well if Corinne was such a faithful “lover” how come she seemed so keen on flirting with Phil?
She had a brief glimmer of hope when they stumbled back to the house as the sun set fiery orange red, spanning the entire landscape of the sky. Because there Mom sat at the table with Dad and another woman, a tall, ivory woman with jet black hair pulled in a tight bun and perfectly shaped green eyes. The woman stood up and looked straight at Corinne and said her name, narrowed eyes and Corinne shrank against Phil, this must be Pauline. Well that would be that, if Pauline was just as strict as Corinne said, than maybe she’ll take Corinne away now forever.
Unfortunately, because Dad invited both of their new acquaintances to stay for dinner, Mom and Pauline became fast friends and they both thought it would be a wonderful idea for Corinne to befriend Josefina. “Oh I would love to be Josefina’s friend I’m so lonely!” Corinne had exclaimed.
Yeah… sure…
Jo found
the picnic basket by the stream, mostly empty. She grabbed an apple from it to
eat and looked around, listened for the sound of their voices and laughter.
Only the stream, and the birds, only the wind through the leaves of the tree,
they could be anywhere, doing anything. Maybe if Dad hadn’t gone to the city
today, Jo knew she would have found something interesting to do with him, if
only just sit and talk and hear stories about their family history, like when
Grandma was almost shot as she helped her family cross The River into
Biting into the apple she thought about turning back to the house, Mom wouldn’t turn her away a second time would she? Why would Mom want to be alone in the house anyway? She hated being alone! Jutting out her chin she started on the trail back when she heard a high screaming laugh. “No Phil, nooo! Ah hahaha…”
Ruin my vacation! Jo scowled and went towards the voices, into the trees, the ground soft and moist under her bare feet, just sprinklings of sunlight on the ground. And she could hear Corinne laughing even louder. There they were. They didn’t see her and Josefina didn’t make her presence known because the sight horrified her too much. Corinne had her arms around Phil’s neck, his hands were around her waist and they were, kissing. Jo covered her mouth and she felt tears in her eyes, dropping her apple, she turned and ran not caring whether they noticed her or not.
In
Whether Mom wanted her there or not, Jo decided to go back to the house. She grabbed onto the loose folds of her skirt and played with them, swinging her arms and imagining herself as a flamenco dancer with a red rose in her teeth. She even began to hum a Spanish dance tune out loud, and she felt her pulse race with it, “Ta tata tat a dah data ta tata tat a dah…” She sang through her teeth and she began to skip, and then twirl feeling dizzy. She leaped along the dusty roadway, clapping her hands and kicking up her feet and dancing on her toes wondering if Mom would be proud of her for dancing all the way home.
She could see the house now, no noisy relatives yet, no cars, and she closed her eyes and imagined herself alone in the dark, waiting for a spotlight to come on and a hush to go over the audience as she showed them how beautiful she was in her billowing skirt and a red rose in her teeth. She would hold out her hand and then her partner would….
Jo’s eyes opened when she felt a warm hand in her own and she cried out in surprise, a strange brown gypsy man had grabbed her, one warm arm around her waist the other clutching her hand, black flashing eyes and Jo really thought that she had begun hallucinating until she recognized that it was only her Uncle Giancarlo’s wife’s cousin, Peter. So what kind of cousin did that make him to her because she couldn’t just call him Uncle Giancarlo’s wife’s cousin could she? And he held onto her, and Josefina laughed because he was humming the same tune that she had been, and he lifted her off the ground and twirled her and harried her so fast that she tripped all over herself until he ended the dance with a flourish pulling her to his body in that tight nose to nose finish the tango dancers had.
His breath stank like cigarettes.
“Ew put me down!” Jo cried but she couldn’t stop laughing, even if she did feel kind of funny now, his face had been so close to hers.
“Putting you down,” Peter said setting her gently on the ground and stepping back from her, bowing, Jo liked the shirt he wore, a loose billowy linen type of shirt, “And my thanks for the wonderful dance.”
Jo felt her cheeks burn, probably bright red and she wondered if she were still ugly and puffy from crying. “Um, thanks.” What else did she have to say. “Um, is Dad here? Is everyone coming back from the city?”
Peter shook his head, his chin tilted down, dark skin, dark eyes, skinny body but Joe could see the bluish indigo of a tattoo peeking along his collarbones where the shirt fell away from his body. She gulped. “No, no one is home from the city, ‘cousin’ except for your mother yes?”
Jo nodded. “Yeah, Mom’s home.”
“And why are you not playing with your brother, and your friend?” His accent was not at all that thick and his voice seemed actually kinda nasal but Jo liked it for some reason, it gave her goosebumps on her arms.
“I’m too old to be playing games,” Jo said proudly holding her chin up. “I’m thirteen. And I don’t care where Phil is. He can drown in the stream, he and Corinne are stupid, I hate them.”
Peter pursed his lips. “Did they leave you behind, forget all about you?”
Jo shrugged and scratched her elbow, reopening that scab probably but not bothering to check it. “Yeah.”
Peter grinned, his teeth weren’t very white at all. “Well Phil he is your big brother and big brother’s always get girlfriends, what did you expect, cowboys and Indians all the time?”
Not in the mood to be teased Josefina balled her fists, “I’m too old for games I told you, I’m thirteen!”
“Ah but there are some games we have to grow into, not out of,” Peter said with a wink and that sent an alarm clanging in Jo’s breast, sent sweat all over her skin and made her knees tremble. She stumbled around him until she was sure the way to the house was unimpeded.
“I have to go see Mom,” Jo said, “She’s waiting for me.”
Feeling now
more terrified than anything Josefina didn’t stop running until she had tumbled
into the kitchen and into Mom’s arms. And Mom smelled like cigarettes too.