Delia's Heart (23 page)

“
Mi dios
,” her sister Margarita said. “
Es
Delia.”

They looked at me as if I were a ghost.

“You are a grown woman,” Señora Paz remarked.

I quickly introduced Edward and Jesse and explained that we were there to visit. I knew they were full of questions, so I promised to stop by to spend time with them.

“You are a grown woman?” Edward quipped.

“They knew me only as a young girl. They helped me when I…” I stopped myself.

“Ran away?” Edward asked.

“
Sí
.”

“But, like Batman and Robin, we came to your rescue,” Edward joked.

“Your mother calls you the Lone Ranger and Tonto.”

They laughed, and we pulled up to the hotel. The owners, Señor Agular and his wife, Teresa, remembered me, of course, and, just like the Paz sisters, remarked about how grown-up I looked. They gave us the two best rooms of the six, both with windows looking out on the main street. None of the rooms had
bathrooms, but there were two in the hallways, and at the moment, as was true most of the time, there were no other guests in the hotel. They made their living mostly from the small cantina. The cost of the rooms in American dollars brought smiles to Edward’s and Jesse’s faces, especially when they heard the price also included breakfast.

“Three lattes at Starbucks would cost more,” Jesse said. “Maybe we oughtta look into buying up some real estate.”

They were laughing at everything now, and even though I had anticipated it, I couldn’t help being a little annoyed.

“This isn’t Palm Springs,” I told them, “but you will not find the people less friendly.”

“She’s right,” Edward said. “Besides, I come from this place, too. Let’s go right to the house, Delia.”

It didn’t take us long to settle into the rooms, and then we started up the street.

“Where’s the school?” Jesse asked.

“Back there,” I said, pointing behind us. “We can see it later, if you like.”

When we reached the town square, I told them how, as a child, I believed the prayers said in church went up through the steeple and directly to God’s ears.

“Maybe it’s true,” Edward said.

“You see what that boy is eating?” I asked, nodding at a little boy enjoying a chocolate-dipped
churro
. “It’s nothing more than chocolate-dipped fried dough, but it’s delicious. You’ll have to have one before we leave.”

We walked past the
menudo
shop, and I saw Señora Rubio’s son, Pascual, serving a customer. He looked
even heavier. It was hard now to imagine that I had almost married him. Neither Edward nor Jesse noticed how I looked back and shook my head. They were taking in everything as if they had gone to Disneyland.

We turned down the dirt street to my family’s
casa
. There was still no lawn or even any grass in front of it, just some shrubs, stubble of grass, stones, and the remnants of the faded pink and white fountain that no longer had water running through it unless it rained hard. We hadn’t sold it or removed it, because it had an angel at the top, and
mi abuela
Anabela believed that if you had a replica of an angel in or around your house, real angels would stop to bless you.

“This is it, Edward,” I said.

He and Jesse stopped and just gaped at it for a few moments, before Edward took out his camera.

“I can’t imagine Isabela Dallas living in this,” Jesse muttered. “In fact, Delia, I can’t imagine you living here.”

“I did, Jesse, and I didn’t think myself so bad off. In fact, this
casa
is one of the nicest in the village. My grandmother and I had slept in our own bedroom.”

“You are truly a remarkable girl,” he said.

Edward agreed, took more pictures, and then, because of the time and the heat, suggested we return to the hotel and cantina and have some
cerveza
.

“I want to go to the square tonight and hear the music and see the people, the artisans, all of it. We have to do some shopping and bring back some nice gifts for Sophia and my mother.”

All the while, I was trying to think of a way to separate from them so I could meet Ignacio at the cantina just a little ways north of the village. I thought I might
use the excuse of visiting with some old girlfriends. I would tell them they would be bored, so I would visit and return to be with them in the square.

I waited until darkness began to fall and they had become very relaxed, drinking their beer. Neither objected. In fact, Edward said I should feel free to do whatever I liked.

“I know you want very much to go to the cemetery yourself, Delia. Don’t worry about us. We’ll amuse ourselves fine.”

I went up to my room and changed into the dress I had brought for my meeting with Ignacio. Now that I was literally only an hour or so away from seeing him, I was trembling with excitement and nervousness. Would he think I had changed? Would I bring disappointment instead of great happiness to him? Would our reunion be sad or wonderful? Had I done the right thing by coming here, or should I have waited for him to make his way back?

I knocked on Edward and Jesse’s door and told them I would meet them in the square later.

“If you get hungry, don’t wait for me,” I said.

“We’ll wait,” Edward insisted. “We’ve been gorging on the chips and salsa and some
empanadas
in the hotel cantina.”

“Okay,” I said. “See you later.”

I hurried out. It would be a long walk that would take me past the cemetery. I decided I would stop there on my return.

As I walked, I did see some of my girlfriends and some of the boys I knew, but I didn’t approach them. I did not want to do anything to delay my reunion with Ignacio. I clung tightly to my purse, which contained
the cross his mother had given me for him and her letter.

When the cantina came into view, my heart started to pound again. My legs felt wobbly, and my stomach did flip-flops. I saw some trucks and some cars nearby, but I did not see Ignacio. What if he had been unable to come? How would I know? How would he get a message to me? How long could I wait? Why wasn’t he standing outside watching for me?

Drawing closer, I could see men and women and some children eating in the outside patio, but I did not see Ignacio. My heart seemed to drop in my chest. I had come all this way to be disappointed, and I would have to bring back his mother’s cross and letter. I looked inside but still did not see him. For a few moments, I just stood in front looking down the street and then up from the way I had come. No one approaching from any direction looked at all like him.

Suddenly, I felt someone touch me at the waist, and I turned around to look into his smiling face.

“Ignacio!” I cried. “Where were you?”

“In the rear watching you.”

We stared at each other a moment, and then he embraced me.

“You are more beautiful than I remember,” he said. “Life in America has been good for you.”

“And you look older, more mature.”

“You either grow up quickly or die when you’re desperate,” he said.

“I brought you this from your mother,” I said, before I forgot, and handed him the cross and the letter.

He looked at the cross and shook his head. “She was saving this for my wedding.”

“She thinks you need it now,” I told him. “It was very important to her that I get it to you, and her letter.”

“
Sí
. So,” he began, “how long…”

He paused, and the expression on his face changed quickly to a look of shock and fear. I turned to see what had so frightened him and gasped. Seemingly out of thin air, a half-dozen federal police officers appeared. Police cars came flying down the street as well.

Ignacio looked at me with such accusation in his eyes I couldn’t speak. All I could do was shake my head.

“What did you trade for this? What will your aunt give you?” he asked.

“No. I did nothing. I did—”

Two of the officers rushed at him to seize his arms.

“Ignacio Davila, we arrest you. You are wanted for murder back in the United States.”

“No, he is not! No, it wasn’t murder!” I cried.

They pushed me aside and put handcuffs on him. When they did, the cross and the letter his mother had sent with me fell. No one stopped to pick them up, so I did. I started after him.

“Ignacio!” I screamed as they led him toward the police cars that had now appeared.

He turned and looked back at me with such pain I thought my heart would literally tear in two.

“I did not do this! I swear. Ignacio! Your mother’s cross, her letter,” I said, holding them up.

“Take them back with you!” he cried.

They stuffed him into the back of a police car. I started toward him.

A police officer seized my arm.

“You will have to come with us,” he said. I was taken to another car, but I was not put in handcuffs. I put the cross and letter back into my purse quickly. They drove me to the local police station, where I was taken to a small room with two chairs and a table and told to wait. While I did so, I went through my purse to look for some tissues to wipe the tears from my face and suddenly realized I was missing something.

Where was the note Ignacio had sent me through his mother, the note that had described where we would meet, the note that I had read often before we had left for Mexico?

A cold realization made my body shudder.

Sophia, I thought. Sophia had found it but had not said a word. She had let us go, and then she had told. Why hadn’t I noticed? Why hadn’t I realized it was missing? Why hadn’t I torn it up the way Ignacio’s father had torn up every correspondence from him? Look what my carelessness had brought down upon us.

I lowered my head to my forearms on the table and sobbed.

Ignacio would never believe me.

And worse, maybe, neither would his parents.

Nearly an hour later, the door opened, and Edward and Jesse stepped in along with a police officer. They both looked down at me in disbelief.

“He’s alive?” Edward began. “All this time, he’s been alive, and you knew?”

I took a deep breath and nodded.

“And you got us to make this trip just so you could meet up with him?”

“No, not just—”

“You used us,” he said.

“No, Edward. Do not think that.”

“What else should we think, Delia? All this deception. This is very, very serious.”

I started to cry.

“Why didn’t you trust us with the truth, Delia?”

“I…was afraid you would get into trouble, too, Edward, both of you.”

“What do you think we’re in now?” He nodded at the policemen. “They think we knew and that we brought you specifically to meet him.”

I didn’t know what else to say. I just lowered my gaze to the floor and cried.

“You know what’s the worst thing about all this, Delia?” Edward said.

I looked up and shook my head. What was worse than any of this so far?

“The worst thing,” he said, “is we’re going to have to call on my mother to help us.”

It was as if a flag had been lowered to the ground, and there was truly nothing else left to do but surrender.

T
he journey back resembled a funeral procession. Even when we sat in the airplane, there was a heavy cloak of morbid silence draped over the three of us. Before we boarded the plane, I tried once again to explain to Edward and Jesse why I had kept Ignacio’s existence a secret from them, but I could see they were still so hurt that my words were like bubbles bursting in their ears.

“Let’s just not talk about it, Delia,” Edward said, sounding totally emotionally exhausted. He sighed deeply. “Let’s just not talk at all.”

I closed my eyes, swallowed back my tears, and waited for the horrible journey to end.

I did learn some things from them. Tía Isabela had to get Señor Bovio to contact the Mexican ambassador to intercede on our behalf. I couldn’t imagine how Adan might be reacting to all the news. We had
been told that the Mexican legal authorities were being cooperative and sending Ignacio back to be tried in the United States. Bradley Whitfield’s father still had a great deal of influence. The fact that Ignacio’s death was faked and the secret kept not only by his family but by friends in Mexico and the United States proved to be too great an embarrassment. No one could defend such a thing. We heard the local newspapers and television and radio stations, as well as some of the state and national newspapers, were reporting it all in great detail.

I felt like running away again and might have, but the police and government people were all around us, making sure we were quickly sent off. No one wanted me here, and certainly no one wanted me now in America, either. I hadn’t even had the chance to visit my parents’ and my grandmother’s graves. I wished I could disappear, form a shell around myself, and crawl into it. I had even disappointed the dead.

Despite the newspaper accounts and television stories directing the spotlights toward us, however, Tía Isabela and her influential friends were able to keep the cameras away when we arrived at the airport. Señor Garman greeted us and led us to a different automobile in order to keep us incognito. In minutes, Edward and I were on our way to the
hacienda
. Jesse’s parents had made separate arrangements for him. They scooped him up so quickly we didn’t even say good-bye.

If I had ever felt I was entering a courtroom to face an unmerciful, cruel judge, I felt it again when Edward and I, both entering the
hacienda
with our heads lowered like flags of surrender, confronted Tía Isabela. She sat in the heavy cushioned chair facing
the entryway and waited for us to walk into the living room. Sophia was nowhere in sight, which I thought was a little blessing.

“Now, before you start, Mother,” Edward began, holding his hand up like a traffic cop, “I think you should know—”

“Just sit on the settee, Edward. I know all that I need to know,” she interrupted. She turned to me. “Sit,” she ordered, pointing down at the floor as if I were a dog.

Edward and I looked at each other and then sat across from each other. Tía Isabela pressed the tips of her fingers together and brought her thumbs to her chest as if she were going to begin a prayer.

“The damage you two have done to this family is irreparable. If it had been created and caused only by Delia, I could have faced the community and even been the object of sympathy. After all, I have tried to civilize this third-world wretch, given her the finest education, provided far more than her necessities of life, housed her in luxury, and introduced her to the highest levels of our society. I taught her etiquette and thought I had begun to turn her into a classy young lady.

“Instead,” she continued, her eyes now narrowing into hateful, angry slits, “you took everything I offered, and you crushed it, spit on it, destroyed it, and delivered a serious blow to my reputation, a reputation I’ve taken years to build. Whatever motivated me to bring you here and get you out of poverty and ignorance was surely my undoing. Yes, I blame myself, too, blame myself for believing I could turn a pig into a princess.”

“Stop it, Mother,” Edward said. “Enough.”

She turned so slowly to him I held my breath.

“You’re a bigger fool than your sister and even a bigger disappointment to me and to your father’s memory. Supposedly, you have brains, an honor student, and you go along with this deception?”

“He did not know, Tía Isabela. I swear,” I said.

“Then he’s a bigger fool for not knowing, for being sucked in by your sweet, false act. I guess you’re more of a man than I thought, Edward, just as blind when it comes to a female’s guile.”

“I’m not going to sit here and listen to much more of this, Mother. What’s done is done.”

“It’s only done because I’ve been able to put an end to it, you fool.”

She sat back and pulled up her shoulders, as if her spine had suddenly hardened into a steel rod.

“You’re right. You’re not going to sit here and listen to much more of this. You’re going to leave this house, get into your car, and go back to your campus. You are not to return until the end of the school year or unless I call for you to return. You are not to have anything more to do with your…” She turned to me and nodded. “Your cousin. I want the registration to the car you foolishly gave her, and I want that car sold immediately. I can’t imagine why you would ever do it now, but should I hear that you’ve bought or done anything for her, I’ll see to it that the authorities reconsider your actions in Mexico. That goes for you both and for Jesse, especially Jesse. Am I clear?”

Edward glanced at me and then looked down.

“Am I clear?” she repeated.

“You’re clear,” he muttered.

“I think your, what should I call him, friend? Your friend Jesse might not even return to college.”

Edward looked up quickly.

“His family might not be as capable of rebounding. His father and mother are both in a deep depression. We met to discuss you both, and we all agree that neither of you is good for the other.”

“None of you has a right—”

“We’ll see about rights,” she said confidently. “Pack whatever you want, and go. The sooner you are out of the house, the better it will be for all of us at the moment.”

“Gladly,” he said, rising.

“Where’s the registration to her car?”

“It’s in the car with the title and insurance cards.”

“You’ll bring me the keys,” she told me. “As soon as we’re finished here. Get your tail between your legs and go, Edward.”

He looked at me again and walked away.

“Do you have any real idea what your conspiring with this Mexican family has done to them and to their son? He will spend more time in prison than he would have had to spend, and unless there is some arrangement made, his parents could be tried for obstruction of justice. They could both go to prison, too.”

“
Mi dios
,” I said.

“Yes, you’re right to call to the Almighty for help. He’s the only one who might provide it.”

She pulled herself up again in the chair.

“I will keep you here until you’re old enough to be on your own, and then I’ll send you back into the world to fend for yourself. You’ll have what you need to survive but nothing more. I’m having you trans
ferred back to the public school. The other students at the private school would ostracize you, anyway. Their parents wouldn’t permit any of them to have anything to do with you, and by now, all of the teachers at the private school know about you and would certainly look at you differently. Every one of them would feel he or she had been duped to believe you were a sweet, innocent, bright star and would be embarrassed.

“And don’t expect Fani Cordova to help you in any way,” she quickly added. “Her parents are quite upset about her friendship with you as it is. So I’m doing you a big favor by taking you out of the private school.

“You’ll go on the bus and be with your own common stock, where you belong. I’m reestablishing your chores here at the house. You’ll earn your keep again. Mrs. Rosario has already been instructed to give you a list of your duties. You’ll begin immediately. I’ll permit you to remain in the room. I can keep a closer eye on you that way. The phone has been removed, however, and I’ve taken back some of the clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics I gave you. You won’t be needing any of it, since I forbid you to do anything off these grounds but attend school. The less you are seen in public, the better it will be for Sophia and me and even my idiot son.

“Do you have anything to say?” she asked. I felt like someone about to be executed asked to utter her final words.

I took a deep breath. I wanted to say much. I wanted to tell her again that Edward and Jesse were innocent. I wanted to explain why I had helped Ignacio, how he had been trapped, and how his family had suffered, but I could see no warmth in her eyes. The revenge she
had sought and perhaps been prevented from achieving before was now hers, and she was basking in the pleasure. Surely, in her mind, she had reached beyond the grave and given my mother great pain.

I shook my head.

“Good. Go up to your room, get the car keys, and bring them to me immediately. Then stay out of my sight. You’re to take your meals with the help from now on, by the way.
Comprende
?”

I looked up sharply. From her lips, Spanish had become profanity.

“
Sí
,” I said.

“I hope you realize how lucky you are to be my niece. Any other girl who had done what you did would be looking at jail time. I think I deserve to hear a thank you. Well?”

“Thank you, Tía Isabela,” I said, without a speck of emotion.

“Go on and do what I told you to do,” she said, and turned away.

I rose and went quickly up the stairway. Edward was in his room, getting things together. I paused at his open doorway, and he looked out at me with an expression of helplessness that made me press my lips together to stop myself from bursting into tears.

Before I reached my room, Sophia stepped out of hers. The moment that I had so dreaded was here. She gloated and smiled and then threw her head back and laughed.

“I know you did this,” I said. “I know you stole the note that was in my purse.”

“Of course I did, you
stupido
. You thought you were so superior. You were in control of everyone, my
brother, my mother, even me. Now you’re no better than you were the day you arrived. You’re just a poor slob of a Mexican. I really have to thank you for giving me the opportunity to show my mother who her real daughter is and who isn’t.”

“Oh, you’re your mother’s daughter,” I said. “I never doubted it.”

“You did this?” we both heard. I turned. Edward had come to his doorway and had listened to our conversation. “You caused all this trouble?” he asked, stepping toward Sophia.

“I saved us,” she claimed.

“Saved us? You’re lower than I ever imagined.”

“You’re still taking her side? Even after the way she used you?”

He looked at me. “That’s between us,” he told her. “What she did she did for someone else, to help others, but what you did was purely and simply selfish and cruel. You hurt me and Jesse as much as you hurt anyone. I don’t want to think of you as my sister any longer. I can’t imagine you married to anyone, but I pity him. I pity all your friends, but I don’t pity you, Sophia. You make me sick to my stomach,” he concluded, turned, and walked back to his room.

“Go to hell yourself!” she screamed at him. “I don’t care what you say or do, either.”

She glared at me, went into her room, and slammed the door shut.

I got the keys to my car and hurried downstairs with them. Tía Isabela was talking with Señora Rosario. She turned, took the keys from me, and turned her back to me. Before I reached the stairway, she called to me, however.

“Get changed,” she said. “Mrs. Rosario has work for you to do, bathrooms to clean and floors to wash.”

I did not look back. I went up the stairs quickly. Edward, carrying his bags, stepped out of his room.

“Please don’t hate me, Edward,” I said, and rushed past him.

During the remaining days of the spring vacation, I realized Sophia was right to make her hateful prediction. I had returned to the poor Mexican girl I was when I had first arrived. Once again, I worked beside Inez, cleaning toilets and sinks, washing floors, doing laundry, serving food, and polishing furniture. Whenever she could make more work for me, Sophia did it. She left things lying about, deliberately made things dirty, or messed up rooms. I avoided her as much as I could, but she found ways to hover around me or nearby, making her comments, laughing.

I was actually grateful when the vacation ended and I could go to school. I didn’t mind returning to the public school. The students and teachers there weren’t as into the news about me, Edward, and Jesse as I was sure the students and teachers at the private school were. Sophia would keep the topic alive, anyway. At least, Tía Isabela had been right about sending me back to the public school, I thought. The work was easier for me, but I had lost so much spirit I did little more than was required. I decided not to make any new friends, because I was so restricted that I wouldn’t be able to do much with them, anyway.

The news about Ignacio and his family trickled in slowly over the following weeks, but Sophia was happy to bring any of it to my attention. Ignacio had avoided a trial by plea-bargaining. He received the
most severe sentence of all the boys involved, however: six years. It was devastating news, and I spent that night crying and choking back tears until I fell asleep. His parents were severely reprimanded but were not charged with any crimes. Fortunately, Señor Davila held on to most of his customers and did not go out of business.

Although Tía Isabela still saw Señor Bovio from time to time, they were not together in the public eye as much. I had yet to hear a single word from Adan. If he had tried to call me, I was never told, and he never came to the
hacienda
. I imagined he and his father had discussed me and had concluded that I would only bring negativity to the campaign. I was sure Adan felt betrayed by my secret rendezvous with a former boyfriend. After all, I had told him nothing as well, and I hadn’t told him that Tía Isabela had forbidden the trip.