“Yes, otherwise no one will believe you were ever in Aruba!”
17
Upon their return, the girls waved cheerfully at Harry as they drove through the gate. They placed the scooters back in the garage, still chatting up a storm when they came around the corner near the back of the bungalow. There, they stopped dead in their tracks. The kitchen door was wide open.
“Didn’t we lock that before we left?” Lilian asked just to be sure.
Dominique nodded. “Maybe it’s Leroy,” she suggested.
“After last night?” Lilian said, letting out an unintended giggle. “I don’t think so.”
Cautiously, Dominique looked to see if anyone was in the living room. When she didn’t see anyone, she quickly went into the kitchen.
At the cooking island a young woman with a ponytail and blue and white dress was busy cleaning the ceramic counter top.
“May I ask what you are doing here?” Dominique asked from the doorway.
The young woman looked up in surprise. She had an attractive face, with dark eyes and olive skin. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you,” she apologized. “I’m cleaning here.”
“Yes, I can see that.” Dominique entered the kitchen, with Lilian following close behind her. Everything looked spic and span. The dirty dishes, which they had left out, were all in the dishwasher, and the living room had obviously been cleaned.
“I still need to do the floor,” the young woman said apologetically. “I didn’t expect you to be back yet. Sorry for the inconvenience—I can come back later.”
“No, please continue—don’t mind us,” Dominique answered quickly. “My name is Dominique, and this is Lilian.”
The young woman smiled at them hesitantly. “Nice to meet you. My name is Angelina Maria. But everyone calls me Angie.”
“Do you work for WernComp?”
“I work for Bon Bini Beach,” Angie said shyly, holding a dish towel. “The resort has service contracts with the house owners, but not everyone makes use of my services.”
“How often do you come to clean here?” Lilian asked.
“Three times a week. But I’ve been told to only do my work when you’re not here, so that I’m not in your way.”
“You’re not in our way at all,” Dominique assured her again, walking into the living room. “As far as I’m concerned, you can come whenever you want.”
“Thank you.”
Lilian gave the young woman a friendly look. “Do you live here at the resort?”
Again she gave her a shy smile. “No, ma’am. But my son and I live nearby.”
“Oh, you have a son? How old is he?”
“Two and a half.”
“Do you have a picture?” Dominique asked, returning to the kitchen.
The young woman took a wrinkled picture from her dress pocket and handed it to Dominique. The picture showed a smiling little boy with a much lighter skin tone than his mother’s. Dominique looked at the picture and handed it to Lilian.
“What a cute kid,” she said.
“Thank you.”
Lilian looked at the young woman and then to the picture and back again. She hesitated, because she didn’t want to be rude by asking so many questions, but asked anyway. “May I ask how old you are Angie?”
“I turned nineteen last week.”
Clearly shocked, Lilian and Dominique exchanged a quick glance. “Then you are even younger than us!”
Angie looked at her expressionless, as if this wasn’t the first time she’d heard this.
“And you’re already a mother,” Lilian added.
Angie spun restlessly on her heels. “I have to get back to work,” she said after a short silence.
Lilian nodded. “Yes, of course. So sorry for keeping you.”
But Dominique was looking at Angie with raised eyebrows.
Then she calculated out loud: “So, your son is now two and half, and you turned nineteen last week. So, how old were you when you had him? Seventeen?”
“Almost,” Angie answered with an apologetic smile. “I had just turned sixteen when I became pregnant. I had already been working for a year by then. I would have liked to have finished school, but my parents couldn’t afford it.”
In silence, Lilian looked at Dominique and all the luxury surrounding them. She began to find the conversation a little uncomfortable. But Dominique’s curiosity wasn’t satisfied yet. “Are you still together with the father?” she inquired.
Angie hesitated for a moment. “No, Jimmy has never met his father.”
Dominique and Lilian stared at her silently.
“His father’s name is Sjoerd, a boy from a place called Leeuwarden, in uh, the north of Holland.”
“Friesland,” Lilian added.
“Yes, Friesland,” Angie said, wrinkling her forehead.
“So, he was here vacationing?” Dominique asked slowly.
Angie looked down at the floor. “Yes, we met each other in the city, on a Friday night. He is a few years older than me and was here with a couple of friends. He wanted to see me again Saturday, and we went to a beach party.” She smiled sadly. “We spent the night together on the beach and slept in the sand. We stayed together all day Sunday as well, but on Monday he had to return home.”
“Did you have contact with him afterward?” Dominique wanted to know.
“At first, yes, we texted a lot. But I would end up spending all my money on phone credit.”
Lilian leaned against the table and asked softly. “Did you tell him you were pregnant?”
Angie showed her automatic smile again. “Yes, once I was sure, I told him. He asked me if I wanted to have it removed. I said no. After that, I never heard from him again.”
“What an asshole!” Dominique said angrily. “So, he just dumped you?”
Angie nodded. “Suddenly his phone number was disconnected. My father was furious. He wanted to track down Sjoerd and force him to take responsibility and marry me, but I didn’t want that.”
“Why not?” Dominique persisted.
“Well, I don’t know.” Angie shrugged her shoulders. “If he doesn’t want me and my child, then I don’t want him either. You know what I mean?”
There was a long pause. Dominique and Lilian were obviously moved by her story.
Angie collected her cleaning products, looked around, and walked to the door. There, she turned around and smiled. “I’ll be back later. Have great day.”
They returned her greeting automatically.
“Good Lord,” Dominique mumbled, after the young woman had left.
“You can say that again,” Lilian agreed. “Shouldn’t we do something for her?”
“What can we do?” Dominique raised her eyebrows. “Take a trip to Leeuwarden and find this Sjoerd guy? I don’t think so—at most we can leave her a really big tip when we leave here.”
“You think that’s enough?”
Dominique stood up and stretched. “What do you want? Maybe that’s exactly why she told us such a sad story.”
“Oh my God, Do, you’re horrible!”
“I am, right?” Dominique grinned. “Shall we go swimming?”
18
The hot sun above Aruba had already started to make its descent when they dove into the swimming pool behind the house. After they swam for a while, they climbed up on the side of the pool, dried their hair, and sprawled out across their oversized beach towels.
“Wonderful,” Lilian said, while she felt the sun beat down on her skin.
“Do you want me to apply some sunscreen to your back?”
“If you don’t mind—yes, please.” Dominique pulled her bag in closer and pulled out a large tube of sunscreen. “But first I better dry up a little.”
Dominique was on her stomach, and Lilian was on her back. It was quiet. The only thing they could hear was the sound of the ocean and a few invisible crickets nearby.
“Imagine being in Angie’s shoes for a moment,” Lilian said after a while. “Then you’re totally trapped
in your situation.”
Dominique folded her arms under her chin and stared at her. “Don’t tell me that you’re going to whine about how privileged we are and how underprivileged and poor she is?”
“Well, that is basically what this boils down to,” Lilian said, a bit testy. “Some people are simply better off than others.”
“Right, yes, so if I had been born in India, my parents probably would have broken my legs and sent me off to beg for money in the streets,” Dominique answered, equally irritated. “I know about all of that by now. But I can’t help the fact that I am Dutch.”
“No, you’re just lucky because your father is a successful businessman.”
Dominique lifted herself up with one arm. “You really need to quit it. My father had to work very hard to get there. Your father could have done the same thing.”
Lilian’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, so what you’re saying is that my father didn’t work hard enough? Is that it?”
“No, of course not. But I remember a time when our parents made about the same amount of money. And look at the difference now!” Dominique gestured toward the house.
Lilian sat upright. “So you’re saying that your father has made it and mine hasn’t? May I point out that your parents are divorced and mine aren’t?”
Dominique sighed. “I knew you were going to bring that up. Look, my dad didn’t just work himself to death to achieve success, he also experienced difficult times. I’ve talked to him about this. He’s had to take a lot of business risks, but that is part of the game as an entrepreneur. He also took the risk that he would be so caught up in his work that it would destroy his relationship. Which is exactly what happened.”
“So, if my father had taken the same risks as yours, my parents would be divorced too?”
“Maybe they would. I don’t know.”
It stayed quiet for a while. Lilian thought for a moment. She really wanted to take this opportunity and finally discuss her own problems. But for some reason, the timing wasn’t right just yet. Instead she said, “After the divorce, you lived with your mother. But then you chose to go live with your father. To be honest, I never really understood why you made that choice.”
Dominique sighed. “That’s because I never really talked about it. I found it really difficult to. Obviously, I really hurt my mother’s feelings, and of course she still holds it against me now. I’m not sure if things will ever get back to normal between us.”
“So what happened then?” Lilian persisted.
“A lot happened, really.” Dominique turned on her side and grabbed the tube of sunscreen. “When my parents decided to get a divorce, I was devastated. I had to say who I wanted to live with in family court. And, I don’t know, it just seemed perfectly natural that I would go live with my mother. That’s how it was supposed to go.”
“And your parents’ divorce—was that because of Henri?”
Dominique sat up straight, twisted the lid off the tube, and began to apply sunscreen to her legs. She thought about Henri for a moment. That horrible night when the police showed up at their door to tell them there had been an accident. Her brother was dead, her father injured in the hospital, and the car was completely destroyed. Nothing was ever the same again after that night.
“Haven’t I told you this story before? My father had too much to drink that night,” she said softly. “He had been at some office party and had picked up Henri from hockey practice. Daddy couldn’t remember what happened afterward, but, according to the police, he had been speeding and took a risk in passing a car and crashed head on into the oncoming car. My mother never forgave him.”
Lilian looked at her, filled with compassion. She had experienced this dark period after Henri’s death up close, but her friend had never spoken about it in this way.
“Why have you never told me about this?”
Dominique shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I wanted to share it with people, but it always felt like I was betraying my father. He already felt such deep regret and sorrow. I don’t know how many I times I’ve heard him apologize to my mother! The year after Henri’s death, I heard him cry constantly, but my mother only pushed him away. She wanted nothing to do with him.”
On some level, Lilian understood why Do had never shared the intimate details of this story with her. After all, she’d kept things from Do as well. Especially things that were shameful or hurtful to others. “What about after the divorce?”
“She stayed angry at him; her lips would tighten, and she would have such an icy stare when she spoke about him. It scared me. I mean, he is still my father, and he didn’t cause the accident on purpose.”
She concentrated on applying sunscreen to her shoulders and arms for a while. “So, we would fight about that. Not just one time, but over and over again. She would scream at me, saying I was trying to make excuses for the fact that daddy had killed Henri. Which in turn would infuriate me; I couldn’t believe she could say something so horrible.”
Lilian grabbed her own sunscreen and began to apply it.
“And then she got this new boyfriend. Theo. That didn’t help matters.” Dominique continued. “What an asshole that guy is. Especially compared to daddy.”
“And your dad just buried himself in his work?”
“Yes, that actually began during the last year that Mom and I still lived with him. He would leave at the crack of dawn and wouldn’t return until late at night and even then he would still be on the phone until the wee hours. His company had always done well, but I think it was only after this that he really started to make a lot of money.”
Lilian took off her bikini top and began to apply sunscreen to her naked breasts. When she saw the look of surprise on Dominique’s face, she gestured around herself. “Nobody can see us here. I’m not comfortable going topless on the beach, but there’s no one here!”
Hesitating slightly, Dominique followed her lead. Meanwhile, she continued. “In the end, I only lived with her for about a year and half. I didn’t mind the period in Haarlem all that much, but when we moved to Alkmaar to move in with Theo, I hit my limit.”
Lilian nodded. “Yes, I remember. I was devastated when you moved so far away.” She turned around and held her hair up. “Can you put some on my back?”
Dominique did what was asked of her. “I was, too. I mean, everyone I knew lived in Haarlem and Bloemendaal, you know? I missed you terribly, and I did not like Alkmaar at all. I hated the school, Theo’s kids were horrible, and everything pretty much sucked. I couldn’t stand the way my mother acted when she was around Theo. Just her exaggerated laugh alone could send me over the edge!” She applied a thick layer of sunscreen to Lilian’s shoulder blades.
“And then the way she spoke about my father! I just couldn’t take it anymore. Especially when Theo asked me to call him ‘Dad.’ I called my father the same night and asked if I could come live with him. He said yes right away.”
“I’m sure your mother wasn’t very happy about that!”
“She was furious! She cried and screamed. ‘Now I’m going to lose another child to that bastard!’ I grabbed some clothes and my school stuff and left the rest behind.”
“You just left?”
“I didn’t want to stay another moment longer. I called my father outside and waited for him to pick me up from a takeout restaurant around the corner.” Dominique put the tube down and turned her back to Lilian.
While Lilian applied the lotion in a circular motion to Dominique’s back, she saw something move near the house. She looked up just in time to see Leroy jump behind the open garage door.
“Leroy,” she whispered. “He’s spying on us.” She pointed toward the garage.
Dominique jumped up instantly and raced to the garage.
“Leroy! Have you lost your mind?” she raged. “If you want to look at naked women, take a walk to the beach! We want privacy here!”
Shocked, Leroy came out from behind the garage door. He looked slightly confused
at the half-naked woman screaming at him. Behind her, Lilian covered up her breasts with a towel, but Dominique didn’t even bother.
“Now get the hell out of here!” Dominique screamed angrily. “If I ever catch you spying on us, I’m going to let my father know and then you can kiss that nice little job of yours good-bye!”
While he passed her, he took a final glance at her breasts. Then he increased his pace and disappeared into the house. A moment later, they heard his taxi start up.
“Unbelievable, right?” Dominique said, fuming. “The nerve! To come and spy on us while we’re at our own little house!”
Lilian put her bikini top back on. “I really don’t like the idea that this guy can show up here at any moment. He’s starting to creep me out.”
“I’m not afraid of him.” Dominique lay down next to her friend. “I’m serious, if he ever tries anything like that again I will make sure my father fires him!”
19
They decided to go eat in Oranjestad. Because they didn’t want to be confronted with Leroy anymore, they walked to the security gate and asked Harry to call a different taxi company.
The fat, sweaty man looked at them with inquiring eyes, but did what they asked. He took his tip casually, as if it was a given.
The taxi that came to pick them up was considerably newer than Leroy’s car. The driver was a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a dashing mustache. He introduced himself as Leandro and gallantly opened the car door for them.
Once he took his seat and started the engine, he asked them where they wanted to go.
“To the city center,” Dominique answered. “We’re looking for a fun restaurant. Not too expensive.”
He looked at them in his rearview mirror and smiled from ear to ear. “No problem. You leave it to Leandro.”
The man drove at the same crazy speed as Leroy had driven the day before on the bumpy road to Oranjestad. When they hit the outskirts, he didn’t take the usual route to the boulevard, but took them to a section of town farther inland.
They drove through a neighborhood where the shabby-looking houses were all close together and there were very few stores. Once in a while Leandro honked his piercing horn in order to clear playing children out of the street. He stopped the car on a crowded street, in front of what looked like a regular house. The doorway was covered by a beaded curtain, and on the sidewalk there were a few small tables that looked like garden furniture.
Bon Bini Beach: A Thriller Page 6
