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NAVIGATION
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This story is by GuiltyAnnie (aka Mistress of Night in Littlepaty's Forum)
 Just thought You might like to know that.
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Mariana Villalobos Daltrey was untying her white satin robe as she heard the first vibrant notes of a trumpet outside her balcony. She knew the melody by heart, it was actually one of her favorites, now however as the music reached her ears the words had taken a deeper meaning. She slowly walked to the balcony door and leaned on the side listening in agony. Mariana closed her eyes and let the music overwhelmed her with confusing emotions.
“El dia que te encontre me enamore. Tu sabes que yo nunca lo he negado. Con saña me lograste enloquecer, y yo cai en tu trampa ilusionado. De pronto todo aquello se acabo, faltaste a la promesa de adorarnos. Me hundiste en el olvido por creer, que a ti no llegarian jamas los años “(The day that I found you I fell in love. You know that I have never denied it. Maliciously you were able to infatuate me, and dreamingly I fell into your trap. So suddenly all of that came to an end, you failed to keep our promise of adoration. You sunk me into oblivion in your belief, that the years would never reach you.)
Outside Jackie stood apart from the mariachi and repeatedly requested for louder, stronger playing from the musicians. In his hands a half-empty bottled of tequila found its way to his lips more than once, and the song continued.
“Por tu maldito amor; no puedo terminar con tantas penas. Quisiera reventarme hasta las venas, por tu maldito amor, por tu maldito amor. Por tu maldito amor. No logro acomodar mis sentimientos, y el alma se me sigue consumiendo. Por tu maldito amor, por tu maldito amor.”(For your wretched love; I can’t seem to end all my sorrows. I’d like to burst my veins, for your wretched love, for your wretched love. For your wretched love. I can’t seem to decide my feelings, and my soul continues to consume. For your wretched love, for your wretched love.)The voice of the singer was deep and stricken with alien mourning. "Y ya pa que quiero la tumba, si ya me enterraste en vida " (What do I want a grave for if you’ve already buried me alive…)The statement pierced through Mariana’s heart as if Jackie’s own voice had made it.
She felt a tear running down her cheek and wiped it in fear that someone would come in and hear the serenade. She realized that it was only a matter of seconds before she was joined by her new husband, so she decided to go out into the balcony and look one last time into the eyes of the man she had refused.
“No quiero que regreses nunca no. Prefiero la derrota entre mis manos. Si ayer tu nombre tanto pronuncie, hoy mirame rompiendome los labios. Por tu maldito amor; No puedo terminar con tantas penas. Quisiera reventarme hasta las venas, por tu maldito amor. Por tu maldito amor. Por tu maldito amor, no logro acomodar mis sentimientos, y el alma se me sigue consumiendo; Por tu maldito amor, por tu maldito amor, por tu maldito amor…Por tu bendito amor.”(I don’t ever want you to return, no. I prefer my defeat within my hands. If yesterday your name I unceasingly pronounced, today you watch me tear my lips apart. For your wretched love; I can’t seem to end all my sorrows. I’d like to burst my veins, for your wretched love. For your wretched love. For your wretched love, I can’t seem to decide my feelings,and my soul continues to consume; For your wretched love, for your wretched love, for your wretched love... For your BLESSED love.)
She stood above him and their eyes meet instantly. Nothing was said, no words exchanged between them, but there was nothing that either of them could offer as an explanation to their foolishness.
As the song came to an end Jackie took his last shot of the liquor in his hands. In a split second when his eyes returned to her he saw John Daltrey approaching Mariana from behind and placing his hand on her shoulder. She gasped but did not turn around and kept her eyes glued to Jackie’s.
“How much…” Jackie asked the man. “How much do you want for her?”
There was no response.
“How much do you want for your love?” He asked Mariana.
At the sound of Jackie’s remark she turned and walked back into her room with nothing but a glance at John.
The two men remained looking at each other, their stares ablaze. The tension between them grew to an enormous amount. And as the mariachi slipped away the void between father and son became irreparable.
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Three months before...
John Daltrey Junior, better known as Jackie Junior, took his first step on Mexican soil on a sunny Monday morning in the year 1997; he was twenty nine years old. The only child of the infamous Scottish drug lord John Daltrey, Jackie was born with a natural charm that was not obscured by his immense arrogance. Following in his father’s footsteps Jackie took control of one half of the family business when he was only twenty six. Three years later he had known all indulgence ever conceived and women fell at his feet.
He was a little over six feet tall, tan skin, the blackest of hair, his mother’s own had been the color of ebony. But his fortune was the emerald of his eyes and the intensity with which they pierced through any who had the pleasure, as Jackie himself would point out, to look upon them. It was the biggest cliché in the world but Jackie Junior was tall, dark and handsome, not to mention filthy rich. He was every woman’s dream, and their nightmare all in one, for Jackie saw women as nothing but a distraction. The woman who graced his arm today was only holding the place for the one who would come within the next hour. He discarded of them as if he were eating apples. A single bite with a hint of sourness or the faint essence of monotony and he was done with them, who wants a bad apple after all? This he had learned from his father, it was perhaps the wisest thing his father ever said to him.
How ironic that was now that Jackie found himself in the foreign city of Hermosillo Sonora due to his father’s request that he be present at his upcoming wedding. John Daltrey was to be married to Mariana Guadalupe Villalobos Huerta, the owner of one of the biggest Haciendas in all of Mexico. Jackie’s father had told him that the Villalobos’ family was famous for breeding Mustang horses, a tradition and trade that many saw as unworthy since the Mustang was a mixed breed horse, but that the first Villalobos believed to be a sacred testimony to the strength of their own race. At first Daltrey Senior was impressed not by the history of the family and the horses, but by the speed of the stallions. The Villalobos’ fortune was made by racing their animals against the best purebreds around the world. Incredibly, Jackie was later told by his father, that there were even songs written by the folk people about the Villalobos’ winning horses. They called them ‘Los Caudillos’ (The Chiefs) and the Hacienda were they came from, Villa Negra (Black Hill) became famous throughout the Mexican nation. Jackie couldn’t care less about all that bull. It was bad enough that he was practically forced to come to this hot desert land and had to stay for over a month until the wedding, on top of it all his father had managed to give him a history lesson agonizingly unnecessary and boring as the depth of hell.
As Jackie tried to block the music emerging from the speakers above his head in the airport, he wondered if it was too late to return to Scotland. He would have been content with a phone call from his father telling him he had eloped. He could not understand why the big fuzz over marrying again, at his father’s age he should have been planning his funeral not a wedding. The man was nearly seventy for fook’s sake! Consequently Jackie presumed his future mother-in-law would be a lot younger than his father, an old spinster, more likely in her forty’s or early fifty’s. Jackie flinched as he recalled the woman’s name. Her mother must have had a hard time bringing her into the world, for only that could explain the need to burden the child with such a horrifically long name, which Jackie could not spell much less pronounce. At least she had her own money and was not a gold digger like every other woman his father had bedded. Miss Villalobos was the sole proprietor of her Hacienda and business. Her father Don Joaquin Ignacio Villalobos, whom John Daltrey took great pride in sharing had lived to be ninety years old, had been gravely ill for the past years and she took control of the place before he even died. It is obvious that when her old man bit the dust she was named heiress to his entire fortune. She too was an only child like Jackie, a couple centuries apart in birth Jackie was sure of that, but only children to two powerful men nonetheless. That was probably the only thing they would have in common, unless she too despised the awful airport music slowly torturing Jackie to death.
Why Mexico? Why not Australia, or Italy? Jackie speculated in silence. When a year ago his father first told him that he was taking time off from the business due to his failing health Jackie had thought he was joking. What failing health? Much to Jackie’s dismay the man was still quite strong. Sure his asthma had been a little worse in the months previous to his decision but we all have to die of something. But John Daltrey was not having any of that, he packed his belongings and fled to the dry rural town of San Pedro outside of Hermosillo to visit his old gambling pal Joaquin. Dry land meant no more asthma attacks, and if that meant no more father trailing behind him and telling him what to do and how to do it Jackie was happy. His father’s choice for relocation surprised Jackie; he knew nothing about the place. He was not even sure his father could speak the language; actually he knew he could not. Now it was obvious why his father was staying in San Pedro, he was marrying that woman and instantly increasing his fortune, for once in a legal way.
“For fook’s sake can’t you shut that thing up?” Jackie exclaimed loudly as passing tourists and natives stared taking him for an insane man. There was no result, the music continued. Jackie gave up and placed his travel bag on a nearby waiting bench.
He rummaged through his belongings and soon found the item he was looking for, a book he picked up at the airport in Glasgow. It was an English/Spanish tourist dictionary and reference guide titled Experiencing Mexico. At the moment however all that Jackie wanted to experience was silence.
He searched the book for any warning to the strain of ear drums caused by terrible airport music, but he found none. It appeared that it was just a problem in this particular city. He accidentally, because he was not eavesdropping Jackie was too proud for that, overheard a group of women speaking English to his right and immediately walked to them. The three women who had been conversing were silenced by his very presence before them. They all looked up at him and smiled idiotically. Jackie let his eyes glide over their features for a second and soon found one to be prettier over the other two. He spoke to her with his enticing Scottish accent, allowing his words to float in the air long enough for the other two women to gasp with delight.
“Pardon me lovely lass. What is that awful noise?” He asked very close to her.
“Th..That is a mariachi, Mexico’s folklore music.” The woman stuttered.
Jackie did not thank the woman; he simply nodded and returned to the bench to collect his bag. He had heard enough of this so called music. He flung the bag’s handle over his head and let it drop on his shoulder. He raised his wrist to eye level and checked the time. His flight had arrived an hour early and though he had been told by his father that someone would be there to take him to San Pedro, Jackie found no one waiting for him. If this meant he had to wait a whole hour he would surely not do it under the speaker from where the source of his anguish poured.
With his book in his hand Jackie walked about the airport trying to decipher the signs he came across. None except for a Coca-Cola advertisement were familiar, but he was not kin to caffeine so he opted against entering the establishment whose window the sign was gracing. A few steps from that shop Jackie saw a place that needed no sign whatsoever, a bar. The smell was enough to recognize the kind of business he was facing. It was not unpleasant, not reeking; it was just the smell of tobacco and beer, one Jackie knew all too well.
“That’s more like it.” He said entering through its door.
It was a small shop, only a couple of tables and a bar with several stools along a long wall. Three television sets in strategic corners of the room, all tuned to different channels, a little noise but better than the waiting lounge. Jackie looked at the man behind the counter and wondered if he spoke English. His hope quickly vanished when the man said something in Spanish, something Jackie could not understand. Defeated, Jackie sat on a stool trying to find the Spanish word for 'beer' in his book. When at last he came upon it and said it to the bartender the man looked at him like he was crazy for a moment, then smiled shaking his head to let him know he had not understood. Jackie cursed under his breath and tried to find an easier word in the book.
“Having a hard time fuereño (foreigner) ?” A female voice said behind him startling Jackie. He turned around and saw before him a strange creature with long brown hair and bright dark eyes. She was short in stature; he was sitting down on a rather short stool and only then were their eyes at the same level. His gaze followed the girl until she was at his side but still standing.
She was wearing faded cowboy jeans and a stripped shirt, her boots made a creaking sound as she walked. All in all she was dressed like a man, a working man, a cowboy. But she could have been wearing anything at all and Jackie would have still had his eyes glued to her like a moron. She let him take a good look at her then turned her head slightly to read the book in his hands. She smiled a beautiful smile that made Jackie reciprocate the gesture without realizing it.
“Experiencing Mexico.” She read. Her voice had a subtle accent unknown before to Jackie. The tone was not soft and giggly like he had expected judging from her feminine appearance, instead it was strong and a bit deep, and yet not for a second did it lose charm and femininity. “Let me give you some advice;” She told him taking the book from his hands “If you really want to experience Mexico then you should start by drinking our national liquor.”
She tapped the counter twice and the bartender rushed to fill her order.
“Enrique sirveme un tequila.” ("Enrique serve me a tequila." ) She said to the man while looking at Jackie. He was stunned, and not at the fact that he did not know what she had said, but because never before had he reacted this way to a woman. He was speechless for the first time in his life, hypnotized by her and taking pleasure in every minute of it.
The bartender placed a shot of a clear liquid in front of her and left. She pushed it to Jackie and watched as he raised it to his nose and smelled it. He was taken aback by the potency of the liquor.
“Drink it in one single shot and without thinking about it.” She said seductively. He obeyed without question and found himself gasping for air as a fire ignited within him. The drink burned down his throat and ceased its path above his heart where Jackie could not decide whether the heat he felt came from the shot of the sight before him.
She smiled as he returned the small glass to the counter and wiped his mouth with his right hand. The girl leaned a little closer to him, too close for Jackie to think clearly, much too close for the sake of his sanity, and whispered in his ear.
“They say that if a foreigner can acquire a taste for our flaming water and our mariachi music, then there is nothing in Mexico that he can’t withstand… or enjoy.” She then pulled back and added “That includes our women.” With that she moved to a side to allow Jackie to see behind her. Two women sitting on a table not far away from him giggled while staring at him. He frowned and returned his eyes to the object of his true interest.
“Take it easy fuereño (foreigner) and good luck to you.” He heard her say. She then shouted at the bartender “Pon lo que tome en mi cuenta.” ("Whatever he drinks add it to my bill." )
“Si señorita.” ("Yes Miss." ) The bartender replied.
Before Jackie could react she was out the door and he was left blinking as he scratched his head in complete awe. What the hell had happened to him? Where did she come from? Was he imagining things?
“Mas?” ("More?" ) The bartender asked him holding out a bottle of what appeared to be the same liquor he had tasted before. Jackie figured he was asking if he wanted a refill. The drink might have been a little strong but he needed another one, and fast. He nodded at the bartender and practically flushed the drink down his throat, just as she had said to do. He then took out some bills from his pocket but the bartender stopped him.
“What?” Jackie asked perplexed. The bartender pointed at the door and refused to take the money. “I see.” He said when he understood that the girl had paid for his drink. He stood and walked to the door with his bag still over his shoulder, he was ready to give mariachi music one more try.
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Jackie was still thinking of the girl when he reached the entrance to the waiting lounge. He was lamenting not having asked for her name and the reality that he was never going to see her again. He wished he had at least kissed her. It was not unnatural for him to kiss complete strangers; in fact Jackie found that women rather loved this from him. It almost made it seem like had fallen for them at first sight when the truth was he just felt like snogging someone to preserve and practice his skills.
But even with that Jackie realized that there was no possible way he could have kissed this woman when he was too stunned to even speak a single word. She was an apparition, the devil incarnate, Jackie decided, there wasn’t another explanation to her phenomenon. Jackie smiled and pushed the revolving gate to enter the sitting area. To his surprise a uniformed man stopped him as he tried to take his first step.
“No puede pasar.” ("You can't get by." ) The man said to Jackie.
“What the…?” Jackie exclaimed trying to push the gate further.
“Que no puede pasar; que esta sordo?” ("You can't get by; are you deaf?" ) The man, who was quite shorter than Jackie insisted pushing against the gate with great force.
Jackie let go of the hold he had on the gate violently and stepped to a side. It was not necessary to know what the man was saying Jackie understood he was not going to let him go through. Jackie raised his hand and signaled for the man to come to him. The man did as asked and walked to Jackie with an irritated look on his face.
“Do you speak English?” Jackie asked trying to control his temper. He had been ready to embrace this place thanks to the girl’s advice but now this fellow was making it very difficult for him to remember just what she had said that made him think he could like Mexico.
“I do.” The man answered surprising Jackie.
“Where the bloody hell where you thirty minutes ago?” He said irritated. The welcoming committee in this town was terrible.
“I will not have you insult me.” The man replied angry.
“I was not insulting you, you want to know an insult you come to me on a day when I could care less whom the fook you are.” Jackie answered a bit too fast for the man to understand “Today I just need to get past this piece of shiet gate so I can go sit and wait for my father’s idiot maid to come get me.”
“You stepped outside the waiting area and I cannot let you get back into the lounge unless you have a plane ticket or a visitor's pass from the front desk.”
“A visitors pass?” He asked stumped “You are fooking joking. I threw away the ticket when I got off the plane, its in one of the trash bins over there, go find it and let me in.” He said pointing to a far away trash bin.
“Without the pass you can’t pass. “ The man replied standing his ground.
“You don’t say?” Jackie mockingly said with an insulting smile.
“Turn around and walk away before I call security.” The man told him putting his hand on the firearm at his side.
“Call them.” Jackie responded defiant “We’ll see how many of you little toy soldiers it takes to take me down.”
The man whistled loudly and signaled someone in the distance behind Jackie. Jackie crossed his arms over his chest waiting for whatever dared come his way.
Five minutes later he was shouting at the two men pushing him out of the airport’s main entrance.
“I can walk out you fools!”
“Don’t ever come back.” The man he had first exchanged words with told him.
“You can shove your stoopid airport up your arse see how you like that!” Jackie said angrily “You don’t know who you are fooking messing with!”
The automatic doors closed in front of Jackie as the two men walked away laughing. Jackie screamed more foul words at them. He took his bag off his shoulder and threw it on the floor along with the book he had bought in Glasgow. He let out a deafening scream and kicked the book, sending it tumbling onto the street. A car passed over it and Jackie watched as it flattened. If only it had been the two soldiers and not the book, Jackie thought.
“Fooking great, brilliant!” He said furious. He had been kicked out of the airport; there was no way that his father’s messenger could find him there. “Bloody ridiculous.” He said to himself as he picked up his bag and carried it by the handle.
A few feet away from him he saw the United States flag waving in the air next to a sign reading U.S. Consulate. He had a couple of business associates in the States, though he highly doubted that his acquaintances would be of the U.S. Consulate’s approval. There is not a lot of respect for drug dealers; Jackie thought sarcastically, they ought to be ashamed of that. Well at least Jackie knew that in the U.S. Consulate he was bound to find an English speaking human being that was not an imbecile. He dodged the cars to get across the street and walked in the direction of the building where the flag was. It was outrageous that not even the traffic had any consideration for pedestrians, he had almost been killed twice and the street was not even five meters wide.
“Son of a…” Jackie said as his shoe got stuck on a crack in the sidewalk. He really hated this place.
Outside the U.S. Consulate Jackie found that the entrance was forbidden for non-citizens of the United States unless they carried with them a letter confirming they had an appointment with one of the counsels. There was no way around the guards there either.
“I’m walking back to Scotland, this is enough!” Jackie exclaimed furious.
Behind him a light laugh made him turn abruptly. His eyes found the source of the laughter in a man of about thirty years old that was leaning on a vehicle with a ‘Taxi’ sign on its rooftop. Jackie took a step closer to the man.
“What exactly are you laughing at?” He asked angered.
“You.” The man responded in very understandable English. “You don’t sound American they are not going to let you in.” He said referring to the guards standing by the consulate gates.
“Is there a consulate for Scotland here?” Jackie wondered out loud
“Not that I know of.” The man answered for him. “What brings you here anyways, you don’t seem to like our city very much.”
“Believe me I don’t. If it had been up to me I would be home having a good time with a nice looking lass.”
The man did not know what a lass was but by the sound of Jackie’s voice he figured it was either a beer or a woman. Only those two things could make a man smile like he had smiled as he said its name.
“So you lost your flight?”
“Naw, I just got off my flight. I need to get to…” Jackie searched his pant’s pocket for his father’s letter where he stated the name of the place Jackie had to go to. “Saint Pedro?” He said hesitant.
Jackie had pronounced name wrong but the man was accustomed to strange versions of the places around Hermosillo, he had worked as a taxi driver for over ten years. It was by driving Americans to their destinations that he learned to speak English.
“You want me to take you there?”
“Would I?” Jackie sarcastically asked “I would fooking kiss you if you do.”
The man laughed again as he opened the back seat of his car to let Jackie in.
“I think I would rather get paid.” He told him.
They had been in the car for fifteen minutes; it was quite difficult to exit the airport zone, especially if no one dared give them a chance to enter the main street. They had spent ten minutes trying to cut in between two cars only to be given the universal sign for ‘go visit hell’ and a melody of honks from every single car around them.
“Cheeses is it always this bad?” Jackie had asked
“No, sometimes there’s traffic.”
“What’s your name?”
“Francisco, but people call me Pancho.” The man answered. “Where are you staying in San Pedro? There aren’t any nice hotels there.”
“My father is marrying a woman from here. She owns horses or something.” Jackie told him.
“You are going to La Villa Negra?” Pancho asked stunned
“You know the place?”
“My girlfriend works there, in the main house. That’s a nice place.”
“I couldn’t care less; I am just here for my Father’s wedding to this woman.”
“So your dad is marrying Doña Marianna? He is a lucky man.”
“If she is as rich as he has told me yes, he is.” Jackie replied looking out the window.
Instead of a reply Jackie found himself holding onto the door’s handle as Pancho steered his away between a distracted old man. More hoots came their way but it did not matter anymore they were finally on their way to San Pedro.
They rode in silence for over thirty minutes; Jackie took advantage of the time and threw his head back to rest his eyes. His comfort was short lived since less than a minute later Pancho entered the unpaved road to the rural town of San Pedro and Jackie found that where there was not a hole you found a crack on the road. The car jumped merciless, giving Jackie a headache and angering him even more.
“What… the… hell… is… this?” He tried to ask the driver.
“It’s… the…road…it’s… a…little…bumpy.”
“A…little?”
A few miles into the road they came to a flat area Pancho explain was in such a condition thanks to the Villalobos.
“They had bulldozers flatten the dirt.” He told Jackie “That is why it’s so nice; it’s like this until we reach La Villa Negra.”
“Why didn’t they do it to the whole fooking road?”
Pancho smiled at Jackie’s question. It was evident that he knew nothing about the ways of this place he had come to.
A little further, the image of a broken down car came into view. Standing next to it was a plump woman waving for them to stop. Pancho steered the vehicle a little to the side so he could park behind her but Jackie’s sudden cry stopped him.
“Don’t stop!”
“But she needs help.” Pancho said
“I am not paying you to help her, I am paying you to take me to the Olive Mountain. This is my time you are wasting.” He said annoyed “So get back on the road and keep driving. I don’t even know who she is why would I help her.”
Pancho frowned at Jackie’s logic. It seems like this foreign man was very inconsiderate of women, he thought, I hope he doesn’t get beaten too badly by Doña Marianna. The woman was known to be tough on any who treated her people with anything but kindness.
As the gates of La Villa Negra came into view Jackie sat up straight. It was indeed a marvelous place. It’s tall cement fence and black gates with the figures of horses in iron on them were magnificent. The main house was probably a century old, and it had been kept so efficiently it could very well have been build yesterday. In the center of the pathway to the entrance of the house was large fountain also in the shape of a house. The water pouring from it mouth was crystal clear and inviting. The heat was nauseating, Jackie felt his pulse rising. Were taxis in this place not required to have air conditioning? He wondered.
“This is where I have to turn back.” Pancho said stopping the car next to the fountain “Just go up those steps and knock.”
“How much do I owe you?”
“Three hundred pesos.”
“How much is that? I can’t tell these bills apart.” He said to Pancho showing him the colorful bills he carried in his pockets. It was strange money to Jackie.
Pancho picked out two bills, one for two hundred and one for one hundred, making it the grand total of 300 pesos. He narrowed his eyes at Jackie thinking that if the man had only paid close attention to the bills he would see that their value was printed at the right hand corner of each and every one of them. If he continued to offend every aspect of this place the foreigner was bound to end up regretting it. It would not be long before someone tried to give him a piece of him…or her.
Jackie exited the taxi and pulled his bag out of the back seat. He thanked Pancho, something the man hadn’t expected from Jackie, and started to walk up the steps. Pancho drove away as Jackie gave the first knock on the tall wooden door. It wasn’t long after an old woman answered. She looked at him afraid and closed the door as he was to take his first step inside the house.
“You got to be foo...” He started to say as the door was once again pulled opened, this time by a young gorgeous woman with black hair and light brown eyes. Jackie smiled and moved his eyes up and down the girl’s body. He liked what he saw; he gave it three hours tops before she was in his bed. “John Daltrey…” He tried to remember the Spanish word for ‘here’, it took him a while “aqui?” He managed to say.
The girl giggled and opened the door wider to let him in.
“Yes, he is in the hacienda but because Doña Marianna is out he went to check on the men in the pastures with Simon.” She told Jackie in an accent very similar to that of the girl from the bar.
“I am so glad you speak English.” He laughed “I have not been having a very good day today. You might be able to make it better though.” He said looking at her lips. “Are you my father’s future step-daughter?”
“No sir. I am the maid’s daughter. My name is Angela. Doña Mariana has no children.” The girl responded shyly. Her cheeks had acquired a slight red color.
“Better yet.”
“Please follow me to your room, your father will be soon here.” She said walking in front of him. Jackie followed her while his eyes took in the exquisite detail of the inside of the house. Its ceilings were high, and there was a hand painted mural on them, more horses there too.
“This lady must be horse crazy.” Jackie mumbled loudly
“It is a tradition in her family.” Angela replied looking at the ceiling along Jackie
“Why?” He asked her only to make conversation with the beautiful girl.
“They are Mustang horses. A mixed breed horse, just like our people here in most of the northern part of Mexico. We are mestizos.”
Jackie moved his eyes to Angela, he didn’t know what races had mixed to breed her but they sure had done a good job.
“This way please.” She beckoned to him
Sadly Angela did not stay with him in his bedroom. It had been such a pity that her mother had come for her just as he was about to kiss her. And even worse was that when he saw how angry the mother had been he was bound to ask for her age. He had almost fainted when she said sixteen. She was very well developed to be only sixteen, but as much as he would have liked to bed her Jackie had a rule about not getting involved with women over 30, or under 20. It was a good gap that allowed for more than enough room to explore, and the closer he got to that number thirty the better the f…fun was.
Jackie was happy to find that his room had its own bathroom, which he quickly took advantage of. After about an hour he came out of it refreshed and very hungry. He dressed in his usual slacks and a white shirt that hugged his muscles, just in case there were any women over twenty around this Bob forsaken place, and walked down the staircase slowly. He was half way down the darn thing when he heard a slightly familiar voice approaching his location.
“I waited an hour and a half and he was not there so then I decided to come back and tell you so you can call him. Maybe he decided not the come after all, either way it was rude of him not to at least tell you. Here I offered to pick him up and he stands me up like a novia de rancho. ( ranch girlfriend: a term used to describe the women who were stood up by the men they loved ) ” The voice was saying. Jackie froze in his track. “Then I was driving back and I find Ernestina in the road, her car was broken and two idiots had just passed by her and did not stop to help. What kind of person does not stop to aid a woman?” It asked furious. Me, Jackie thought. “I took her home and had Juan tow her car to the shop. That is why I am late.”
Jackie ran down the remaining steps as his father entered the foyer laughing, the girl from the bar was at his side. It took everyone a second to recognize each other.
“Jackie!” John Daltrey shouted hugging his son as the girl watched them in shock.
“You?” She asked him went John had released him.
“I thought I would never see you again.” Jackie replied smiling.
“You did meet each other?” John asked smiling amused. “You met him and you didn’t know it was my son Jackie?” He asked the girl
“If he had spoken a single word in English I would have probably figured out it was him. He sounds a lot like you.” She told John smiling as well.
“I was a bit stunned by the heat of this place.” Jackie said jokingly “But after the shower I just took you’ll be begging me to shut up.”
“Oh really?” She teased
“Don’t tempt him, he is a chatterbox.” John jumped in. “How do you like Mexico Jackie?”
“I don’t know yet I have just barely stepped off the plane. I am hoping for a native tour guide to help ease my transition into the culture.” He responded looking at the girl intensely. “You know of anyone who would be interested in the position?” He asked her.
John Daltrey laughed and hugged the girl by the shoulders bringing her very close to him.
“You have to find another one son, this one is taken. But I am sure Mariana will not mind showing you the horses she is so proud of.” He said winking down at his fiancé.
Jackie felt the room lengthen before him, within seconds he was yards away from his father and the girl. It had to be a joke, she looked about twenty five years old, thirty maybe if you were willing to think the horse outside was a fountain of youth.
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The room was in complete silence. John’s eyes moved from his son to his fiancée who were both playing with the food on their plates; they had barely touched the meal that had been served half an hour before. John was suddenly reminded of Jackie’s stunned look as he had cleared that the young beauty was in fact his fiancée. He had expected his son to be surprised, but his reaction had been more than unsettling. Jackie had immediately asked the girl’s age and when Mariana replied twenty five John thought he saw his son furrow his brow disapprovingly. Yet Jackie had no saying in his personal business, John had learned to ignore his son’s many disrespectful comments and looks.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” John asked Jackie as he elevated a spoonful of pozole (Mexican dish of beef and hominy) to his mouth.
Jackie cleared his throat and stared at the contents of the bowl before him.
“I don’t think I want to eat something I do not know what it is, or was for that matter.” He answered callously.
“Don’t you have cows in Scotland?” Mariana mocked the young man.
Jackie’s eyes flashed her an evil glance before responding.
“Yes we do.” He said “But they look nothing like this even after they’ve been killed.”
“You haven’t touched your food either.” John added looking at Mariana.
“I…I had something to eat at the airport while I waited for… for your son.” She quickly replied and as soon as she had said that she reached for the glass of water next to her plate.
John nodded accepting her response.
“Oh,” Jackie said with a wicked smile “at the bar?”
Mariana forced the water in her mouth to fall down her throat; she coughed feeling the rush of the liquid overflowing the path to her stomach.
“Are you okay darling?” John asked her concerned.
“Ye…yes.” She said with teary eyes. “Thank you.”
Jackie rolled his eyes disgusted. Darling? He wondered on the verge of internal vomit.
“No, not at the bar.” Mariana told Jackie staring into his eyes angrily “Actually there is a very good restaurant in there, second floor, Milpa’s. Did you happen to see it while you roamed the place instead of staying in the waiting lounge like you were told?”
The man’s narrowed gaze was a good enough answer of defiance, Mariana smiled triumphant.
“Jackie never does what he is told.” John said continuing with his meal.
“I bet.” His fiancée replied turning her eyes to him. “Like father like son.”
John laughed lightly at her intimate comment.
“I’m tired and I’m going to sleep.” Jackie’s voice interrupted “Good night, enjoy your meal.”
**********
Later that night…
After what seemed like forever, plus a day, Jackie finally managed to find the kitchen. He could not believe how enormous the house really was. As he went through an arch-way that led to the kitchen he realized he was not the only one that had been stricken with midnight hunger. A small shadow was cast in the opposite wall of the refrigerator and all you could see was an undersized hand holding on to the door.
Walking in the direction of the light Jackie reached for the hand.
“Anything in there I would recognize?” He asked flirtingly.
The small figure was not startled, she took a step back and Jackie immediately released his touch.
“Oh, it’s you.” He said and started walking around the kitchen’s island.
Mariana turned to see who it was, walked over to the light switch, flicked it on and without a second look toward Jackie returned to the refrigerator.
“What is that suppose to mean?” She asked as she pulled out a container from the fridge.
“I was expecting to find a beautiful maid.” He answered scratching his neck.
“Sorry to disappoint you but you won’t find any maids roaming the house at night.”
Or beautiful for that matter, Jackie thought.
“Why would you want a maid?” Mariana wondered out loud.
“Well,” Jackie started, “I haven’t had sex in over 48 hours and I’m experiencing withdrawal. At first I thought it was hunger, but no…I feel that particular tingle.” He finished off looking down.
She followed Jackie’s gaze and once she realized where it led to she rushed to a cupboard to pull out a plate.
“And why exactly did you find the need to tell me that?”
“You were the one that asked.” Jackie answered even though he knew she wasn’t looking for an answer at all.
Mariana shot him a look of revulsion and poured the leftovers from the container into the plate. Without another word she walked around him and found the microwave where she inserted the plate and punched three minutes into the number pad. She crossed her arms over her chest as she waited.
“I was joking, can’t you take a joke?” Jackie asked her hoping she would share the food whose delicious aroma had filled the kitchen and increased his appetite.
“Don’t you think you are a little old for jokes?”
“Old?” He asked incredulous “You are calling me old and yet you are about to marry a corpse?”
Mariana dropped her arms at her sides in shock.
“How dare you speak about your father that way?!” She shouted hurt.
Jackie laughed at her reaction.
“He almost triples your age; he could very well be your father, your grandfather even.” He told her amused.
“But he is not.” The woman said smiling proudly “He is a wonderful, charming, brave and mature man that…”
“Oh well that solves it all doesn’t it.” Jackie cut in “An open mind is very convenient in your situation.”
“Okay that does it.” Mariana snapped “Spill it, just come out and tell me what it is that you have against me!”
“Where should I begin?” Jackie mockingly replied.
“Si seras…” (You're a..." ) She began to say infuriated.
Jackie took a few steps toward her and ended a few inches from her position next to the microwave that continued its heating duty.
“Why don’t you tell me what this is about? Come on sweetheart, you can trust me.” He said smiling, his handsome face lighting up instantly “Is your family broke? Do you need to marry my father to save your family’s name? Or are you just another gold digger wanting to increase her fortune through my idiot old man?”
“What?!”
“So which one is it?” He insisted.
“Neither!”
“What other reason would you have to marry an old rich man like John Daltrey?”
“Many others a man like you would never understand.” She responded; her breathing intensified by her anger.
“Is that so?” Jackie said taking another step.
“Yes.” Mariana answered raising her chin. Jackie’s head was above hers; he looked down and traced her chin with one hand.
“You are not bad looking, maybe I can give you some things my father has surely lost in his advanced age.” He told her.
Mariana took a step aside.
“You make me laugh!” She retorted sincerely entertaining by his overfed ego.
She tried to move farther away but Jackie turned swiftly and grabbed her by an arm. He pulled her against his chest and spoke into her face enraged.
“Listen to me you little devil, and listen good because I am not going to repeat myself, my father wrote his will two years ago and for your own safety when he dies my name better be the only one on that document, understood?!”
“Let me go!” She ordered trying to free herself.
Jackie released his hold on her and she shook off the feel of his hand from her arm.
“You’ve been warned.” He told her serious.
The woman blinked several times and breathed in agitated. Jackie kept his eyes on her the whole time. After a few seconds of tense silence, Mariana closed the gap between them again and spoke against his jaw looking up at him.
“Se necesitan muchas agallas para amenazar a una Villalobos.” ("You must have a lot of guts to threaten a Villalobos." ) She said with composure “Te vas a pudrir en el infierno.” ("You are going to rot in hell." )
And with that she walked out of the kitchen, leaving Jackie baffled by her incomprehensible words. He frowned trying to decipher the curse she had probably placed upon him. Seconds later, the beeping of the microwave oven reminded him of the real reason for his midnight stroll through the house. Refusing to let the goods go to waste, Jackie rummaged through the cupboards and drawers until he found a fork. He then went over to the microwave and treated himself to a plate of barbacoa (barbeque). |
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It took Mariana over two hours after her encounter with Jackie to go back to sleep. Her mind had been occupied by images of his threatening gaze, which in no way made his face less handsome, and she could still hear his evil words spilling out of his lips like acid rain. She found no comfort in her dreams of poisoning his food during breakfast because as she remembered, he refused to eat anything he did not know what it was. That ruled out all possibility of carrying out her plan of assassination and increased her anger toward him.
She also found it increasingly odd that a man like John could have fathered a demon like Jackie. Where John was caring and cheerful Jackie proved to be full of resent and sarcasm. Physically the men resembled each other a bit; she had to admit that they both had an aura of power around them and that though John was not in his prime anymore he still had the vigor of a youth. It was that same energy, the electricity of his stare that made Mariana first approach Jackie at the airport bar.
At the time she did not know he was John’s son but there was something about him that called to her. He seemed so lost and yet he commanded the room with his mere presence. She had seen the way two women at a nearby table had looked at him while he tried to decipher the words on his little tourist manual, and the Good Samaritan that she was, she offered her help before one of them got to him first. He had acted thankful; but he would have been even more appreciative of her aid if he knew what had been at stake and how a woman/man relationship worked around a local bar. Had she not rescued him from those women Jackie would have ended up in some cheap motel and found himself a father before the year ended. It was an old trick, a wicked tactic, but some women still used children as means of trapping a husband. But let it not be understood that it was that way for all women in Mexico. Those who used such a conniving play only lurked the airports and cantinas (bars) hoping to catch a foreigner before he knew what had hit him. Other than that, women in Mexico were traditional and chaste, most of them at least. Though as the years passed, more and more young girls were starting to rebel against the old beliefs of their parents. Therefore if Jackie had come to Mexico wanting to find a girl then the airport’s bar was perhaps the least of places to look for one. Not that this all mattered to Mariana, in fact her last thought before drifting off to sleep was that she should have left Jackie defenseless and allowed the women to pry on him. She would have done just that if she had known what a devil he would turn out to be.
When the sun first entered through her window Mariana groaned and voicelessly asked why the night had been so short. She swore that she had just closed her eyes a few seconds ago and now she was faced with the dreaded reality of facing that jack…ie once again. There was another more suited name for him, one that she had almost uttered in her despair. The very thought of him and the sudden reminder of his vicious accusations made her blood boil and her stomach churn.
Who did he think he was? Insulting her the way he had when she had done nothing more than welcome him into her home. What…he was her fiancé’s son for Pete’s sake? And not only had he shouted that she was a gold digger, he also managed to insinuate that there could be something between them, as if she was no better than a prostitute. What had possibly made him assume that she wanted to marry John for his money when she was very capable of supplying for herself she did not know. Jackie was wrong to think she was after his father’s wealth; he was very mistaken if he believed her to be marrying for anything other than affection and a sense of security that had nothing to do with money. Of course she had not wanted to disclose the actual arrangement made by her and his father, but she also had not given him any grounds to believe her an opportunist out to nail a rich husband. Jackie did not need to know that her grandfather Joaquin had asked John to marry her just before he died.
Her poor grandfather had practically raised her since her father had died in a riding accident and her mother had been so grief stricken she fell into a deep depression from which she never covered and died when Mariana was ten. Don Joaquin, who had had only one son, was left to care for his only grandchild, Mariana, all on his own. Despite her parent’s deaths Mariana grew up to be strong and was her grandfather’s pride and joy. He taught her everything he knew about horses and by age twelve she had vowed to keep her family’s tradition going after he was gone. Her love for her ancestry and the wild horses representing it was immeasurable. When Don Joaquin became ill three years ago Mariana was devastated. But perhaps more worried was her grandfather, for he knew that because he had made sure Mariana was someone to be reckoned with she would never allow herself to fall in love. Not only that, there was also the concern that no man would be brave enough to get close to her; She was a Dona before she was fifteen, a term used to describe a powerful woman, a term that too many men understood as making her unreachable. Yet Don Joaquin knew better, he knew Mariana still needed a man to share her life, someone to take care of her like he had done for so many years. Living under the shelter of her grandfather would undoubtedly leave her vulnerable to the pain of solitude and Don Joaquin was sure Mariana needed a man, not a boy, to share her life. Don Joaquin had pondered for months, as the ill will of cancer debilitated his body, and when he had all but given up on his fruitless thinking the answer came to him as if fallen from the sky and created in Scotland.
John was several years older than Mariana but still much younger than Joaquin himself, and he was a good man despite his previous line of work. Don Joaquin was well aware of John’s business dealings but his friend vowed he was through with them and knowing John Daltrey as a man of honor Joaquin believed him. John had come to visit Joaquin hoping to escape from the weather in his homeland which aggravated his asthma and found himself not only welcomed but also desperately needed by his old friend. It was not long before Joaquin presented his thoughts to John on where Mariana was concerned and though at first the man was surprised he asked only to speak to the girl himself before making any decision. The talk with Mariana left John stunned, she was a woman any man would be lucky to call his own and shockingly she said that she did not only not find him unattractive but would be happy to be his wife if he would take her. John requested that she speak with the truth for he was not a man to be taken for a fool and her grandfather could not guide her life from the grave, but she stood her ground and repeated her acceptance of him.
Her grandfather died one warm Sunday and a day later John proposed to Mariana as he had promised Joaquin he would. She smiled as he placed the ring on her finger and hugged him tightly, whispering into his ear that she would do her best to make him happy. It was then that he kissed her for the first time and the girl was pleasantly surprised by the warmth his kiss gave her heart. Though it was true she was not in love with him and their union would lack passion, she loved him because he had loved her grandfather and was such a good friend he was willing to take care of her. She also admired him as a man and as the months passed she found she enjoyed his company more each day. John soon became at home in La Villa Negra and Mariana realized her grandfather could not have picked a better man for her. She often thanked him in her prayers for giving her the opportunity to have a family life with John. They would be good to each other, they would be good together, she was sure of it.
So what if John’s son didn’t understand? So what if he didn’t approve? She did not give a rat’s bottom and he was better off leaving her alone or she would have to give him something to mourn over for the rest of his life.
**********
Thirty minutes after she had first opened her eyes, Mariana walked out of her room smiling, hoping that perhaps she did not have to see or talk to Jackie all day. But her hope vanished as she saw him exiting his bedroom and making his way down the corridor toward the stairs. She tried to go back into her bedroom but she had already closed the door and ended up looking foolish as she bumped against it.
“Great, I was having a good day and now I see you.” She heard Jackie’s voice say behind her. She removed her hand from the door’s knob and slowly turned to face him but said nothing. Jackie looked her up and down and smirked. “So you don’t yet share a bedroom with my father?” He said more a statement than a question “How ridiculous, I would expect him to want his pay’s worth every night.”
“Spill your venom somewhere else snake, I am unmoved by your attempts to anger me.” Mariana retorted holding his gaze.
“A new formed policy?” He asked “Because if I recall correctly last night you were very moved by my… attempts.”
“A needed reform in my character, you may say.” She said coldly as she leaned against her door and folded her arms over her chest casually “I thought that, since we are going to be family I might as well adapt to your childish outbursts and treat you like the scum that you are. All this of course with your father’s consent,” She added standing straight and smiling “he did warn me you were not easy to manage and that there is a slight tendency for psychotic behavior. I will attribute last night’s drama to that.”
“If I were you I wouldn’t believe everything my father says.” Jackie responded through pressed teeth.
“Oh, but you are not me.”
“Of course; I am the son of the man you are trying to ruin. But to your disadvantage I will not let that to happen.”
“Don’t be too quick to make assumptions. You know nothing about me.”
“I don’t need to know much about you to realize that you are after his money.” He added with smiling eyes “He has to come to his senses and see you as the little whore that you are. You can’t marry him, I won’t allow it.”
“Mind you, I did not know he needed your approval.” Mariana defied.
“You won’t get away with this.”
“John and I are getting married and that is final.” She said walking past him and beginning to descend to the lower level.
“Over my dead body!” Jackie finished loud enough for her to hear. She stopped mid step and turned her face to him. She smiled mischievously as she answered.
“Then I’m sorry for you. Because like it or not…I’m going to be your mother.”
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His mother? Who did that little witch think she was? Thinking that she could scare him by walking away like she had done.
“I’m going to be your mother.” Jackie repeated mockingly and infuriated.
Of course he knew the next thing the woman would do was run to his father and tell him everything that he had told her. But perhaps not, Jackie thought as he descended the stairs. Perhaps in was in her best interest to keep quiet about what she had tried to do with him. Certainly his father would not be pleased to know she had tried to seduce Jackie at the airport. No, she would not tell his father. That would be ruining her own wicked plan to inherit his millions. She was indeed hoping Jackie would also keep silent and be a big happy family by the end of the month. A family! What kind of stupid nonsense was that? That demonic woman could never be his mother. She did not have an inch of the grace his mother had had. Not only that but if she was expecting Jackie to simply stand aside while she deliberately toyed with his father’s fortune she was out of her mind.
One big happy family, Jackie laughed at such a thought.
“Good morning Mr. Jackie.” Angela, the girl that had let him inside the house the previous day saluted him with a warm smile.
“Good morning.” He replied straight faced.
She kept smiling at him and his mouth soon curved into a wicked grin.
“Angela, right?” Jackie asked. The girl was halfway out the front door as if she suddenly realized something very important. He hurried behind her and held her by an arm. “Hey hey hey! Where are you going?”
“I’m sorry, but I am not allowed to speak to you.” She answered with her eyes on the floor. Jackie raised an eyebrow and rolled his eyes.
“Says who?”
“My mother.”
Yeah, her mother and the mad cow that owns this place.
“Why would your mother say something like that?” He told her “She doesn’t even know me. Tell her I don’t bite.” He then pulled her against him “Not unless you want me to.” He finished with a playful growl aimed at her neck.
Angela giggled but pushed him away gently.
“So what would you say if I asked you to give me a tour of this place?”
The girl looked positively grief stricken as she spoke her answer.
“I’m very sorry, I really am, but Dona Mariana said…”
“Who cares what that woman says?”
“I do. She has been kind to my family.”
“I can be kind, very actually, and if you were a little older I would show you just how kind I can be.”
The sudden pink blush of her cheeks told him that she was not very bothered by his confession. She was in fact very content with it. Having a man like Jackie flirt with her was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. She was about to agree to his request of a tour of the hacienda when he interrupted her thoughts.
“Forget it.” He said reconsidering the offer. She was much too young for him anyways. “I might as well leave you alone. You are a tempting little thing though I got to give you that much credit.”
In the end it was Jackie who walked out the door, leaving the girl somewhat confused. He had only taken a few steps outside when a familiar voice reached his ears.
“Hombre, que sorpresa!” (Man, what a surprise!)
Jackie turned to his left and saw Pancho, the crazy taxi driver. The man was smiling at him like an idiot. Did he not know how to stop smiling? Why was everyone in this place smiling? It was fooking eight in the morning!
“You are still here.” His very eager friend announced.
“Against my will but yes I still am.”
“I would have bet you had walked back to Scotland like you vowed to do.”
Jackie gave the man a look that could have killed corpses.
“Regardless of my desperation I am still sane enough to know that is impossible.”
“So I take la Villa Negra hasn’t won you over.”
“Not in the least bit.”
“Pity.” Pancho sarcastically added.
“What are you doing here anyway?”
“Came to visit my girlfriend, Carla, but she is out with Dona Mariana.”
“So the devil is out of the house?”
Pancho smiled and lightly tapped the side of Jackie’s right arm.
“I got to go. It was nice to see you again.” He said to him.
“Where are you going?” Jackie asked without realizing he even cared about the man’s destination.
“To the plaza to see if I can spot Carla before I head back to the city.”
“The plaza?”
“Yes, it’s a little market place in San Pedro, that’s where they went.”
“Oh.” The Scottish man murmured perplexed.
A few seconds of silence followed. Pancho started to walk away then suddenly turned feeling Jackie was still looking at him as if waiting for something.
“You want to come with me?” He asked him more out of courtesy than as a true invitation.
“What for?” Jackie responded trying not to sound too excited about a little trip to a market.
Pancho laughed wondering why the man was so defensive all the time. He could not admit he was simply curious about the place he had to make it seem like he was being forced to go along.
“I think I know a place in the plaza that you might like.” He told him motioning with his hand to the direction of the taxi.
“What place?”
“Come and you’ll find out.” Pancho replied. “By the way, do you have money on you? Because you are going to need it where we are going.”
**********
“Yo no se nada de carburadores pero si tu dices que eso es lo que necesita entonces cámbiaselo.” (I know nothing about carburetors but if you say that is what it needs then change it.) Mariana told the mechanic at Juan’s auto repair.
She had made a quick stop to check on the progress made to Ernestina’s car and make sure the vehicle would be ready by the next day because the woman had meant to visit her son in the city that weekend. Mariana knew that Ernestina was a widow and that her only son, Marcos, was a student at the state university located in Hermosillo only thanks to the woman’s hard work. She sewed beautiful dresses that could be the envy of any high end designer gown. A broken down car was the least of things Mariana wanted to poor woman to worry about when she worried so much already about paying for Marcos’ schooling.
“¿Si va a estar listo para mañana?” (It is going to be ready by tomorrow?)She asked with a tone that requested the answer be ‘yes’ or else.
“Seguro!” (Sure!) Juan responded laughingly.
Mariana smiled knowing it was unnecessary for her to ask. Everyone knew Mariana was someone to be reckoned with but most importantly they also knew she was a kind and caring person so they did not mind her requests. She always paid more than enough for the services she requested and not because she tried to make it seem like money did not matter to her or that she had so much she could spend it without flinching, but because she always thought the work they performed was worth a lot more than they requested. She valued people and believed everyone’s worth to be immeasurable. The only thing she asked for in return for her generosity was respect for her and others who did not have as much as she did. Treat the maid as you would treat the queen, her grandfather always said. It was a lesson she would never forget and one she wanted her children to learn as well.
The thought of being a mother one day made her smile broaden. She could picture herself round and happy. She was sure John would not object to her desire to have children because that had been one of the many concerns he had presented to her when he first asked her about her grandfather’s suggestion that they marry. When she asked him if that meant he could no longer father any children he smiled and said that was not it at all but that he wanted to make sure she would not object to sharing a bed with him. And of course she would not object for she had not known any man in the course of her lifetime and her husband would be the only one she would give herself to. So after not much thought Mariana had made up her mind and knew that on their wedding night she would begin her quest to get pregnant. The sooner that better. She had wanted to meet John’s son with such eager enthusiasm because she had imagined she would find a friend in Jackie and also because she wanted to see what she could expect her child to look like as an adult. Now she still not so much minded that her son could look like Jackie, he was handsome she had to admit that, but that was about all she wanted her children to have in common with that scoundrel.
Mariana frowned at the slightest recollection of the man and was about to shake her head to erase the awful thoughts from her head when in the distance she spotted what she believed to be his figure. At first she considered the idea that she was imagining things and that the fact that she hated him so much was what was making her believe she could see him everywhere, but after narrowing her gaze she realized that indeed it was Jackie just a few feet away on the other side of the street.
He looked a little lost, as if he was searching for someone or something. Then suddenly he stopped in front of a brown door with a bright yellow sign hanging from it. Mariana gasped as he entered the establishment for she knew that even when the red light above the door was not on the women in there were still open for business.
“Hijo de… ” (Son of a…) She started to say a bit loudly.
“¿Que?” (What?) Carla asked.
“Huh? No, nada, pensé que había visto a alguien conocido. Juan, en cuanto este listo el carro se lo llevas a Ernestina.” (Huh? No, nothing, I thought I saw someone familiar. Juan, when the car is ready take it to Ernestina.)
“Si senora.” (Yes ma’am) The man responded.
“Vamonos.” (Let’s go) She told Carla and hurriedly walked to her car trying to forget what she had just witnessed. Jackie had gone into the town’s prostitute house! That basket!
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© Littlepaty 2005 All Rights Reserved.
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