I didn’t answer, but I could hear her moving about. She opened some of my boxes and looked at what had been bought for me.
“Wow. And you got the shoes, too! My mother was very generous.”
I turned and looked at her sifting through the skirts and blouses.
“Some of this she recently bought for me. In fact,” she continued, inspecting everything, checking labels, “wait a minute. It’s all what she bought for me! What the hell?”
She glared angrily at me. I had no idea what would make her so angry so quickly.
“Of course, you’ll look a helluva lot better in all this than I will.”
“I do not understand,” I said.
“My mother bought you the same clothes I have,” she said. “Same, same, you know the meaning of same?”
“Yes.”
“Well, these clothes…same,” she said, pointing to herself. “She bought them in the same store. Did she take you to Mrs. Lester?”
“Mrs. Lester, yes,” I said, wiping my cheeks. “But she did not take me. Señor Garman…”
“Where the hell is my mother?” she cried. “She’s just being bitchy. I know what she’s going to say, too, if I complain. She’ll say, what am I upset about? After all, I gave you my necklace and dress.”
She stood there with her weight on one foot, her arms folded under her breasts, fuming. I still did not understand all of what was happening. She looked at me strangely, and then as quickly as her anger had filled her face, it left, and she smiled.
“It’s all right. It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll fix everything. After all, we’re cousins, right? Cousins?”
“Primas, sí.”
“Yes, primas.” She smiled, and then she went over to Edward’s CD, looked at it, and turned to me. “I’ll use this and learn some Spanish. Then maybe we can get even closer, be closer, understand?”
Before I could reply, she took the CD and left my room.
Something was telling me that getting closer to Sophia was like ignoring the rattle of a rattlesnake.
I could see Señora Porres waving her finger at me.
“Foolish girl,” she was saying. “The ojo malvado lives not only in Mexico.”
The evil eye had followed me.
17
Interrupted Fiesta
“Well, guess what?” Sophia said, coming back to my room just before we were to go down to dinner.
I had showered and changed and was reading the last chapters of my ESL workbook. I had finished nearly all of the exercises and completed all of the homework Señorita Holt had assigned. I worked just to keep my mind off what was happening.
“What?”
“My mother sent word that she won’t be home for dinner and probably won’t be home until Sunday. I’m sure she’s with that Travis. He’s ten years younger than she is! It’s all right for her to act like a fool, but not us.”
“Tía Isabela no está aquí?”
“No, she’s not home. Speak English. I took the disc to learn Spanish, but you have to give me a few months.”
“What about Edward?”