1st 5 Pages February Workshop - Huerta Revision 2

Name: Lizz Huerta
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Title: When My Father Was Beautiful


I heard right after third period. Joaquin, my Joaquin, my dream boat obsession, friend and crush, had been caught in the darkroom of the photography lab with Hannah. They hadn’t been developing film. My face burned. Joaquin, who had given me all the signs he was headed in my direction and one quick kiss close to my mouth weeks before. I was sad, angry sad. Embarrassed for thinking we had a thing sad. I left school, dizzy, ditching for the first time.

There was a strange car parked in front of my house, with OM and Born Again Pagan bumper stickers. The scent of burning sage was in the air. It smelled like Mom was “getting spiritual” again, she probably had a yoga friend over.

I walked in quietly. The good thing about mom in her spiritual phases was that she didn’t get freaked out about things, she and dad fought less. I could tell her about Joaquin and she would forgive my ditching. She would be happy I was telling her something, anything. She was always reaching for me to be closer to her.

I heard a sound coming from my parent’s bedroom, my mom’s voice low, a long laugh.

I walked to the cracked door. I could see my mother reclined on the bed, a sheet over her. She wasn’t alone.

“Oh, Grace.” The naked stranger beside her said my mother’s name softly, kissing her .

“God, Ernie,” she moaned, eyes closed, “I love you.”

I slammed the bedroom door and ran out of the house.
*

Diana found me at J Street Marina. I was sitting on the boulders staring at the bay. There were no boats on the choppy water.

“Sol! You abandoned me! You can’t answer your phone?” she said, climbing down to sit beside me.

“I needed to be alone.” I didn’t look at her. I’d shut my phone off while walking to the marina.

“Alone? The last thing you need is to be alone after what happened.”

I didn’t respond. In my head I kept hearing the stranger’s voice saying my mother’s name. He’d had a graying ponytail and skinny ass.

Diana threw a rock into the water.

“Joaquin is an ass. He totally led you on.” She said, putting an arm around me.

I’d almost forgotten about Joaquin. My eyes filled again. Diana crooned a comfort and I leaned into her. Diana and I had been best friends since we were nine. Her mother Lora used to watch me after school when my mother was attempting to go back to school. Lora had taught me the little Spanish I knew. She’d always said it was a shame my father didn’t each me the language of our people; that I had to learn to speak in the language of my emotions. I didn’t know what she meant back then but wondered if there was a word in Spanish to describe what I was feeling now, the wreckage in my chest.

“Oh Sol, it isn’t that bad.”

“It’s worse. You don’t even- -” I stopped, took a breath. “Can I come over?” I didn’t want to go home, I couldn’t. There was no way I could face my mom, or dad, knowing what I knew.

“Is water wet?” She smiled, picked up a loose rock and threw it overhand into the water, breaking up a group of seagulls at the water’s edge. Diana never pried, she knew I took time to try and figure my feelings out before talking.

“Sol, look at those crazy birds. They are totally related to dinosaurs. You can see T-Rex in their eyes and beaks. If seagulls were the size of humans we’d all be dead.” Diana’s strange observations about the world were one of many reasons I loved her. As we walked towards Diana’s home she went on and on, not needing me to respond. By the time we got to the small apartment she lived with her mother she had broken down the evolutionary chain of seagulls being the last dinosaurs and I was feeling slightly better.
*
“Your Mama came by looking for you.” Lora kissed us both as we walked through the door. I froze. “What happened Sol? She was frantic, she said to call her if you showed up. Should I be worried?”

“Gracie showed up? Here?” Diana looked bewildered. My mom never came over. She felt awkward in the tiny apartment the couple of times she’d been by when we were younger and talked too much about how she had grown up poor. Lora wasn’t my mom’s biggest fan.

“What did she say?” My voice shook and my face got hot. My mom must have known it was me slamming the bedroom door. My father worked long hours and never came home during the day.

“She said you ditched school and she had to talk to you, that it was an emergency. You ditched?” Her voice went up, surprised. Diana jumped in.

“I didn’t ditch but Sol had a crap day and she had to escape. Fucking Joaquin hooked up with that dancer Hannah, Ma. He led my girl on, diiiiirty.” She hissed.

Lora glanced at Diana then looked back at me, eyebrows raised.

“I don’t want to go home,” I whispered, starting to cry. Diana started to say something but Lora put her hand up and pointed to the bedroom.

“Let me talk to Sol,” she said. Diana tried to protest but her mom gave her a look I hadn’t seen the look since we were kids and drank the rum off Lora’s altar. Diana shut up and went to the room and closed the door, grumbling.

Lora led me to the bathroom where Diana wouldn’t be able to hear us. She put her hands on my shoulders, worry and love all over her face.

“What happened?” She asked. I went into her arms, sobbing. Tears and drool and snot all over her shoulder as I cried and cried until there were no more tears, her arms around me the whole time. I pulled back and wiped my face with my hands. Lora exhaled.

“Baby girl, what’s wrong? This isn’t about the boy.” She stroked my face with the backs of her fingers.

“I saw my mom,” I whispered, then stopped, another sob came up, choking my words. “There was a man with her, in her bed.” Saying it made me feel nauseous.

“Oh no,” Lora crooned, pulling me back into an embrace, “Oh no, Sol baby, I am so sorry.”

“Do I have to call her?” I couldn’t imagine. “What do I say?”

Lora smiled her sympathy smile, upper lip tucked in against her teeth.

“You call, you listen. Trust me, this is going to be a hell of a lot harder on her.” She pressed her lips together, “It doesn’t feel like it now but no hay mal que por bien no venga.”

I shook my head. My Spanish wasn’t even close to being good enough for me to understand what she said.

“There is no evil from which good cannot come.” She kissed my forehead. “Call your mama. I’ll be right by you, holding your hand.”