by Madyson Grey
Manuela was included in the family’s Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. During those couple of days that she came and stayed with Rafael and Victoria, she was finally persuaded to move into the other house that was still sitting empty across the road from Signe and Erik’s house.
This year, aside from the gifts that they got for each other, Rafael and Victoria decided that their big present for both of them together would be a really high-powered telescope, like they had enjoyed so much at Griffith Park on Victoria’s birthday. With the acquisition of the telescope, the dilemma was where to set it up. The back patio was a good place, but Rafael also wanted a place where he could also look down at the park. The only solution was to build an upstairs balcony off of the master suite that faced the south. That would take a little time to accomplish, but the idea was settled.
The day after Christmas, Rafael took his mom home, and after securing her permission, hired a moving company to come in, pack her up and move her up to their property. He immediately put her house on the market, listing it with Doug Bush, the real estate agent with whom he had previously worked. Because it was a modest home in a decent neighborhood, it sold within two weeks.
Victoria, Lena, and Signe all offered to help Manuela unpack, so the job was done within just a couple of days. The house that she was moving into was a little larger than the one she had just moved out of, and had more cupboard and closet space. So it was much easier to find places to put things away than in the former house. The women all had fun arranging and rearranging furniture and knick-knacks until Manuela was satisfied with everything.
When she was all settled, Manuela threw a modest house-warming party and invited her friends from her old neighborhood, hoping that they would continue to visit her occasionally in her new home.
Rafael and Victoria planned a simple New Year’s Eve party and invited all of their employees as well as the family. There was lots and lots of food, but no alcohol was served. Rafael was a confirmed teetotaler and had swayed Victoria over to his way of thinking, too. Instead, they had several bottles of non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice with which to toast in the New Year.
They played some goofy group games, staged a tall tale telling contest, and celebrated the fact that they were ending the old year trauma-free. Soon after midnight the group dispersed. The group of employees was bonding as friends and family, just as Rafael and Victoria had hoped.
January brought a new round of property inspections, as well as the sentencing phase of Blinky Nelson’s trial. Everyone concerned was thankful when he was sentenced to death. His accomplices were still in prison, also, and would be for the remainder of their natural lives. So that made four scumbags removed from society, never again to hurt anyone. Antonio Cantu was still wearing his ankle bracelet and on probation, but so far, he was behaving himself.
In an attempt to rehabilitate him, Rafael gave Antonio a job out at the park in the botanical garden. It turned out that Antonio had a very green thumb and had a way with plants. The garden flourished under his care, and he seemed to flourish in the healthy atmosphere of Thornton Park. He seemed genuinely repentant for his part in the sex slave trade, especially when all the parts of the sordid business were explained to him. He also expressed remorse for the murdered girls, and testified in behalf of the prosecution at Blinky’s trial.
In fact, he was one of the employees present at the Riveras’ New Year’s Eve party. Rafael had had to do some explaining and convincing of the others to get them to understand what he was attempting to do. But eventually, they all came around to his way of thinking and pledged to be kind to Antonio and help to nurture him in a more moral and legal way of life.
Besides, as the only link in Blinky’s chain that was still free, Rafael really wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure that he didn’t try to take over where Blinky left off. Even the adult bookstore manager was doing time for being one of the links in the sex trafficking chain.
Rafael’s motive was partly to try to give Antonio a new way of life, and partly to watch him, and so far, it seemed to be working out on both counts.
“I didn’t know when I married you that you are such a do-gooder,” Victoria told him one evening when they were discussing Antonio’s progress. “You see wrong and you want to right it. Most people just talk about it, but you get out there and do something about it.”
“Is that okay with you?” he asked her, half teasing and half serious.
“Makes me love you even more,” she said, snuggling up to him. “Where I would be without you, I don’t even want to think about. You have certainly come to my rescue more than once, and I’m a better person for having you in my life.”
Having no sensible response, Rafael just took her in his arms and kissed her thoroughly.
Rafael’s birthday was January 17, which fell on a Wednesday that year. With all of the court proceedings, Christmas, and everything else, the date crept up on Victoria unannounced. It was the 12th when she was down visiting Manuela for a few minutes that she mentioned that her son’s birthday was coming in a few days.
“Oh, no!” Victoria exclaimed. “Is it that close already? I haven’t gotten anything planned. He did so much for me on my birthday last year, that I had intended to do something cool for his. I want to have a family dinner somewhere, of course, but I’d also like to do something with just the two of us, too, during the day. Any ideas?”
“Well, let’s see,” Manuela said slowly. “Oh, I know. He used to talk about wanting to go out on a boat on the ocean to see the whales. We could never afford to do that when he was a boy. Maybe he would still like to do that.”
“Great idea,” Victoria said. “I’ll go home and Google the best place for doing that, and let you know. Okay?”
“Sounds good to me. One other thing, Victoria. Would you mind if I cooked Rafael’s birthday dinner? I don’t mean to trespass into your territory, because he is now your husband. But he is also still my little boy. If it wouldn’t hurt your feelings, would it be all right? I think I have room here for you two, Lena, and the Ericksens. That’s only six people. Unless you have other plans, which is fine. Just say so, if you do.”
“Mama Manuela, I think that is a wonderful idea,” Victoria said generously. “I know he misses your cooking. He doesn’t say much, but I know these things. He would love a good Mexican home-cooked meal. You just tell me what you need and I can buy it. What about a birthday cake? Do you want to do that, too? Or shall I buy one?”
“No, no. Let me do the birthday cake, too. You can buy some ice cream if you want to. But that’s all. Let me do the rest. It will seem like old times when he was a boy. I only wish Mateo could be here, too.”
Manuela’s eyes clouded over, thinking of her older son still doing time in prison for his robbery and assault about a year and a half ago. He’d be out in six months, give or take, and Victoria hoped for everyone’s sake that he would behave when he got out.
Victoria went home and did a search for whale-watching tours. She found a place just over in Ventura that offered whale-watching cruises around through the Santa Barbara Channel. She quickly booked a reservation for the two of them. Only about thirty miles away, they could do the three and a half hour cruise in the morning and still have oodles of time before dinner at Manuela’s.
The days passed quickly. Victoria took Lena, Signe, and Manuela to town with her one day to shop for birthday gifts for Rafael. When Manuela mentioned that he used to like to put models together when he was a teenager, Victoria found him a very detailed model of a sailing ship to assemble. She got all the paints, brushes, glue, and everything that he would need to put it together. She thought it would look really cook sitting on the credenza in his office.
With a little coaching, Lena chose a couple of casual shirts, and Signe got him a couple of DVD movies that Victoria had heard him express a desire for. Manuela bought a small piñata and the candy to fill it with. She also bought him a new wallet, as Victoria had noticed that his old o
ne was becoming worn.
“Now listen up everyone,” Manuela said. “I’m going to wrap the wallet and put it inside the piñata with the candy. So whoever breaks the piñata, leave the wallet for him to pick up.”
“Oh, sure.”
“Of course.”
“Naturally.”
The three other women all acknowledged her unnecessary instruction.
“I’ve never seen a piñata game done before,” Signe admitted. “This will be fun.”
“You know how it works, don’t you?” Manuela asked.
“Yes, I think I get the gist of it,” Signe said. “One person at a time is blindfolded and tries to hit the piñata until it breaks.”
“I think we’d better hang it up outside,” Victoria said. “Don’t you? I don’t want anything in your house to get broken.”
“Probably a good idea,” Manuela said.
Chapter Sixteen
Wednesday morning, the couple arose at their usual hour of around five o’clock. Victoria wished Rafael a happy birthday, and told him that she had a surprise for him that day, and would he please wear the clothes that she laid out for him.
Rafael gave her a raised-eyebrows look, especially when he saw that she had laid out jeans, a long-sleeved Henley, a pullover sweater, and a jacket.
“You don’t have to put it all on at once,” she told him. “But after breakfast, you’ll want to take the sweater and jacket with us.”
“Okaaaay,” he said, drawing out the word.
Victoria dressed in similar clothing, laying out a jacket and sweater for herself, also. After the bed was made and they were both groomed and ready to face the day, they went downstairs where Lena was already in the kitchen with the coffee going and the makings for cinnamon French toast, which was what Rafael had requested the night before.
Victoria set the table, heated the syrup, and set out the butter and jam. After a nice breakfast, Rafael told Victoria that he was going to run down to the park for a quick once-over. He still had to check on things every morning that they were home. Not only was the park his baby, but after all of the terrible things that had happened, he just had to reassure himself that everything was all right first thing in the morning.
“You be back here no later than eight o’clock,” Victoria told him. “We have places to go and appointments to keep.”
“Such as?” he goaded, trying to get her to tell.
“Be home on time and you’ll find out,” she teased. “Otherwise, you’ll miss out. I’ll go do it by myself and you’ll be sorry.”
“All right, all right. Eight o’clock. I’ll be here,” he groused good-naturedly.
“You better be.”
While he was gone to the park, Victoria got her camera, the binoculars, their sweaters and jackets, and her purse all together and put them into the Ferrari. Then she went back into the house and went over the day’s plans with Lena.
“We’re doing the boat cruise this morning, and then have lunch somewhere over near the beach,” she told her mom. “Then we’ll just fool around on the beach or do whatever he wants to do until dinner time. We’ll be back here to Manuela’s by four-thirty.”
“I’ll bring your presents for him down with me,” Lena confirmed.
“Okay, I think everything is under control. Even if the day did slip up on me.”
“Everything will be just fine,” Lena reassured her.
Rafael was back at the house a few minutes before eight.
“So, do I get to drive the Ferrari, or do I just have to give you directions?” Victoria asked with a mischievous grin.
“If you promise not to kill me on my birthday, you can drive,” he said, handing her the keys and ducking her swat.
This was the first time that Victoria had ever driven the Ferrari, so she was just a tad nervous, but excited, too. She backed it very carefully out of the garage, remembering to open the garage door first! It wouldn’t do to ever put a scratch on this baby, and especially not on Rafael’s birthday.
She headed up US Highway 101 for Ventura, refusing to answer any of Rafael’s questions about where they were going. Even when he tried to be sneaky, she was alert and didn’t fall for any of his ruses to pry the surprise out of her.
“Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride,” she told him, grinning wickedly.
“How can I relax and enjoy the ride when I’ve put my life into your hands which are on the wheel of my Ferrari?” he countered, trying to look afraid.
“Your life is in the best place it can be,” she informed him.
“Yeah, well, I like it better when it’s in my hands,” he said.
Victoria took her eyes off the road just long enough to glance over at him and see the mischief in his eyes.
“This car is fun to drive,” she said, changing the subject slightly. “I may have to do this more often.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said doubtfully. “We’ll see if we get to—where is it again that we’re going?—live. Then … maybe.”
“You’ll see when we get there,” she promised. “In fact, we’re getting close.”
Indeed, it was only a couple more miles until Victoria turned the car into the parking lot of the boat cruise outfit.
“SeaJewel Boat Cruises,” Rafael read as Victoria parked the car. “A boat cruise on the ocean? Is that what we’re doing?”
“Yeah. Is that okay with you? Your mom said you’d always wanted to go whale-watching,” Victoria responded.
“I’ll say it’s okay! It’s better than okay,” Rafael exclaimed. “This is awesome! This is worth letting you drive!”
Victoria backhanded his arm gently while he grinned at her. They got out of the car and loaded down with the camera, binoculars, and jackets. It could be a lot chillier out on the open sea than it is on land. Especially in mid-January.
When it was time, they boarded the boat along with the other tourists who made up the group. Then the boat set out to cruise the waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. Standing at the rail, they saw a number of seals and sea lions right away. They had to go farther out before the first whale sighting occurred.
“Look! There’s one!” Rafael exclaimed.
He looked through his binoculars to get a closer view. The boat captain guided the boat over to the whale and pulled along side of it so that the passengers could just look down right at it. One huge eye looked back up at them, likely as curious about the humans as they were about the whale. Victoria was snapping photos like crazy, zooming in and then out, capturing details and the overall scene. She even managed to get a couple of Rafael looking down at the whale.
“Sure hope it doesn’t decide to rock our boat,” they overheard a nearby passenger say.
“I never thought of that,” Victoria said. “I hope not, too.”
The boat captain was talking over the loudspeaker, telling some grey whale facts. The first whale moved on and another one took its place alongside the boat. Victoria’s camera clicked away as more and more photos were recorded on the memory card. After that whale moved on, the boat started moving again, while everyone kept their eyes peeled to see what more ocean life they could spot.
“Up ahead of us on the port side, I’ve spotted a couple of Orcas,” the captain announced. “I’ll get as close to them as I can.”
Sure enough, in just a minute or two, several Orcas were swimming right beside the boat. The captain tried to follow the whales for a little bit. They were more active than the grey whales had been and were harder to focus the camera on. But, nonetheless, Victoria ended up with some great pictures of them.
A little later, dolphins were spotted, jumping and cavorting along in the water, seemingly as interested in watching the people as the people were in watching them. Some came alongside the boat close enough to reach out and pet them, which they seemed to enjoy. Now and then, Victoria would look at Rafael and just watch him for a little bit. He was having so much fun and looked so happy. Victoria was so thankful that Manuela had sug
gested this trip. She snapped several candid shots of him—watching the whales, petting a dolphin that came close, and just leaning on the railing looking out over the waters, his face glowing with joy.
The three and a half hour tour came to an end all too soon. It had been a good one, though, with seeing a number of whales, dolphins, sea lions, and a variety of birds, also. Victoria took his hand as they disembarked the boat.
“Did you enjoy that?” Victoria asked him, knowing full well the answer.
“Oh, boy, did I!” he raved. “I could do that every day.”
“Well, it’s not that far from home,” Victoria pointed out. “We could come over here anytime you want to. There are also boat cruises to the various islands that I think would be fun to do, too.”
“We will,” he averred. “What’s next?”
“Well, until about three-thirty, we can do whatever you want to do,” Victoria told him. “I don’t have any more plans until dinner. But it’s lunchtime now, in my opinion.”
“Mine, too,” he said. “Let’s find someplace to eat, and then see what else there is fun to do here.”
The restaurant they chose had a rack full of tourist brochures, so they chose a handful to look at while they waited for their meal to be served.
“There are enough cool things to see and do here to last us a week, and we only have about three hours,” Rafael said.
“I know. Good thing we live fairly close. Let’s take these home and come do these things one or two at a time.”
“Good idea.”
“So, what’s your choice for today?”
“It’s hard to choose, but I think I’d like to go see this San Buenaventura Mission, and then if there’s still time, go to the Olivas Adobe Historical Park. Maybe we can drive through China Alley, too.”
“Sounds good to me,” Victoria said.
They were through with their meal by one-thirty. They drove right through China Alley on their way to the mission. Founded in 1782 by Juanipero Serra, it was a beautiful place to wander through and admire. They spent an hour there, giving them no more than forty-five minutes to check out the Olivas Adobe Historical Park.
