I watch him, anguished, as he talks. He calms down. I’m trying to get his attention and gesture with my hand. Before he hangs up, I hear him say, “Don’t move. We’re coming to get you right now.”
“What happened? Is Eric OK? Was it your mother?” I ask, my heart about to beat out of my chest.
He sits me on the bed. I’m about to cry.
“It’s OK. It wasn’t my mother.”
Relief. My baby’s fine. But suddenly fear strikes again. “Then who was it?”
“Your sister.”
My sister? My heart races again. “What happened? Is my father all right?”
Eric nods. “Everyone’s fine. C’mon, let’s get dressed. We’re going to pick up Raquel, who’s at Munich airport, waiting for us.”
“What?”
“C’mon, sweetheart,” he urges me.
Stunned, I quickly dress. At five past four in the morning and dressed for an evening out, we both show up at the airport. I’m nervous. What’s going on with my sister? Why is she at the airport?
Raquel is surprised to see us. “Are you coming from a party?”
Eric and I nod, and quickly bombard her with questions. “What happened? Are you OK? What are you doing here?”
She falls apart.
“Oh, Cuchu, I think I’ve messed up again.”
Not having a clue what’s going on, I look at her, then at Eric, who’s watching us. “Don’t scare me like this, Raquel.”
My sister nods.
“Are Papá and the girls all right?”
She nods again.
“Papá doesn’t know I’m here.”
“What about the girls?” Eric asks, worried.
“With their father. He’s taking them to Menorca for ten days.”
Suddenly, I understand. I lay a hand on her shoulder. “I can’t believe it.”
“What?” Eric asks.
Raquel looks at me. I look at her.
“Don’t tell me you’ve slept with Jesús, and you’re stuck again with . . . that imbecile.”
She starts crying, and I curse. I can’t believe it!
Is my sister not playing with a full deck?
Eric calms me down, and when Raquel finally stops crying, she clarifies.
“Well, no, Cuchu. I haven’t slept with Jesús, nor am I stuck with him. What kind of woman do you think I am?”
Now I’m lost, and, while I look at her for an explanation, she breaks down.
“I’m pregnant!”
Eric and I look at each other. Pregnant?
Raquel bellows in the middle of the Munich airport, and I don’t know what to do. I look to my crazy love for help.
“I can’t deal with more hormones, sweetheart. I really can’t!”
I laugh. Poor thing, I made him go through so much during my pregnancy. I help my sister to a chair.
“Let’s see, Raquel. If you didn’t slept with Jesús, whose baby is it?”
“Who do you think?”
I blink.
“What do I know? According to you, you haven’t been dating anyone.”
Tears stream down her face.
“It’s my wild little fling, c’mon.”
“Juan Alberto?” Eric asks.
“Yes.”
“What are you saying, Raquel?”
“Just that, Cuchufleta.”
“But hadn’t you broken up?” Eric asks.
My sister wipes her eyes.
“Yes, but we continued to see each other every time he came to Spain.”
“Well, you didn’t tell me,” I say.
“There was nothing to tell.”
“Fuck, well, considering there was nothing to tell, now you’re going to have to do a lot of talking with Papá, your daughters, and Juan Alberto,” I say.
Like a crazy woman, my sister gets up and screams in the middle of the airport. “I don’t have to tell him anything! Absolutely nothing!”
“Calm down; calm down,” Eric says.
“I don’t want to calm down!” she yells.
Eric looks at me. He wants to kill her.
“Consider the hormones,” I whisper his way.
“Fuck the hormones,” he protests.
I take Raquel by the hand. She’s trembling and freaked out.
“I don’t ever want to see that guy again in my whole fucking life! I refuse!”
People look at us, and airport police officers approach us. They ask what’s going on, and Eric, as best he can, explains there are family problems. They nod and leave.
My man and I glance at each other. We’re baffled. Our beautiful night has ended at the airport, with my sister crying, pregnant and hormonal.
Eric decides to take charge of the situation. “C’mon, let’s go home. You should rest,” he tells her.
The three of us walk to the car. My sister doesn’t have luggage or anything. On the way, she tells us she was in Madrid to bring the girls to their father and that Juan Alberto called her while she was asleep with Lucía. Luz picked up the phone and told her they were having dinner at her father’s house and that both her parents were there. When Raquel went to talk to him, he went crazy, and, like a hydra, she told him to go fuck himself.
When we get home, Sonia has just given my baby a bottle and is very surprised to see us. But with one look at my sister, and after a few words with her son, she decides just to listen and keep quiet.
Raquel and I go see my little one, who sleeps like an angel. He’s beautiful. My sister cries, and I help her settle into a guest room. I give her pajamas and make her lie down and join her. I don’t want to leave her alone.
“Are you any better?” I ask in the darkness of the room.
“No, I’m terrible. I’m sorry I’ve ruined your and Eric’s party.”
“That doesn’t matter, Raquel.”
She moans pitifully.
“I’ve already gotten my express divorce.”
“When did you find out?”
“The papers arrived two days ago. Legally, I’m a single woman again, Cuchu. And I . . . I . . .” She can’t go on because her tears are back.
What a hard time she’s having, my poor Raquel.
“What are you going to do?” I ask her once she calms down.
“With what?”
“With the baby. Are you going to tell Juan Alberto?”
“I thought about telling him when I told him about the divorce. I’d bought a ticket to Mexico, and I was going to surprise him, but now I don’t want to see him. That guy accused me of being a bad woman. He must have thought he was fucking a cheeseball, like his ex-wife.”
My sister’s way of speaking always cracks me up. But it’s no time to laugh. She’s crying again. I try to comfort her, but it’s hard. Suffering because of love while pregnant is crappy. It’s the worst of the worst, and when she falls asleep, I get up stealthily and go back to our room. Eric is playing with our little boy.
“How’d it go?” he asks.
“It sucks, poor thing,” I say.
“What should we do? Should we call Juan Alberto?”
I don’t know what to do. Getting mixed up in other people’s problems has never been my thing, and I decide against it. It’s Raquel’s problem, and she has to make the decisions. I hug Eric.
“I’m sorry this happened, honey,” I say. “It seems the world won’t leave us alone.”
He smiles.
“We had a great time; that’s what counts. We’ll do it again.”
The next morning, when my sister gets up, she still looks like hell. She has more dark circles under her eyes, if that’s even possible. Seeing her, Simona’s surprised, but when I tell her what happened, she feels for her.
Damned love!
Sonia takes Flyn home to get him out of the way, and Eric decides to escape from the hormones and locks himself in his office with the baby. He tells me not to worry, that he’ll take care of little Eric while I deal with my sister.
I haven’t seen Emerald Madness in da
ys. Simona’s taped it. We have three episodes pending, including the series finale. But before watching them, I take care of my sister and convince her to call our father and have some tea.
I hear her talking to Papá while she cries and tells him about the pregnancy. Raquel cries nonstop, and, when I can’t take it anymore, I take the phone from her.
“Papá, I don’t know what you said, but she can’t stop crying.”
I hear a snort on the other end of the line.
“Oh, sweetheart, there may only be two of you, but sometimes you seem like a hundred.” That makes me smile. “I told her not to worry about a thing. If there’s room for four, there’s room for five. My new grandchild will be welcome in this house. I just told her not to be anxious and that she should talk to Juan Alberto.”
Again, my father shows us what a good person he is. Though he knows my sister’s new baby will be the source of much gossip in Jerez, he supports her. He supports us, always.
After talking to him for a while and telling him not to worry about anything, that I’ll take care of Raquel, I send him a thousand kisses and hang up. I manage to get my sister back in her room after giving her another tea, and, when she falls asleep, I breathe a sigh of relief.
I leave the room to go to see my boys. Father and son are in the office. Eric is working on his computer, and my little boy is fast asleep. After giving each of them a kiss, I look for Simona, and, like two school girls, we settle into the living room to enjoy our favorite series.
Simona turns it on, and, ready with our Kleenex, we surrender to it.
My sister comes downstairs just as the last episode begins, and we pause it. If she watches this, she’ll never stop crying.
“Raquel, if you want, take a swim in the pool. Maybe that will relax you, honey,” I say.
But no, she knows what we’re doing and drops down on the couch.
“I want to see Emerald Madness with you,” she says.
Mother of God . . . I predict this will not go well. My pregnant sister, dismayed by the love of a Mexican, and Emerald Madness. Doesn’t look good. Doesn’t look good at all.
I try to convince her not to do it. I tell her the soap opera will remind her of her problems. But no. We wind up turning the show back on and leaving it in the hands of God.
The music makes her cry, and, when Mexico and the characters appear, it’s Niagara Falls. Simona and I try to calm her down, but she asks us to just let her watch the soap. Mother of God!
We finally focus, and Simona and I enjoy attending Esmeralda Mendoza and Luis Alfredo Quiñones’s wedding. At last!
They’re so cute. They gleam. They deserve their wonderful happiness. The mariachis play, and those of us who’ve suffered along with them on the road to true love believe we deserve it too. Esmeralda and Luis Alfredo swear eternal love gazing into each other’s eyes, and Simona and I cry. My sister wails. When their young son tells his dad, “I love you so much, Daddy,” we join my sister, and all three of us lose it.
When the show finally ends and the three of them gallop away on a horse heading toward the horizon, the box of Kleenex is empty, and we, like three fools, are spent from our shameless tears.
That night, Raquel goes to sleep right after dinner. She’s a tortured soul. I do the same. The whole ordeal is exhausting.
Eric and I go to our room, and, after giving the baby a bottle, he gifts us with a truce and falls asleep in his crib. We’re getting to know him, and we know this will only last about three hours.
Weary, I throw myself in bed and close my eyes. I need cuddling. But suddenly I hear a song at a very low volume.
“Will you dance with me?” Eric asks in a barely audible whisper.
I smile, get up, and hug him.
We dance in silence. Neither of us speaks; we just dance, listen to the song, and hold each other.
We kiss. I want him, he wants me, and we want to continue with what we were doing the night before. But Eric’s cell phone rings. I roll my eyes and protest furiously.
“Who could be calling now?”
He smiles. He understands my frustration. He kisses me and picks up. He talks to someone and quickly leaves the room. Without a clue as to what’s going on, I put on a robe, and, when I go downstairs, I see Eric opening the front door and notice the lights of an approaching car.
“Who’s that?”
But before I can answer, a taxi stops at our door, and I’m speechless when I see who emerges from it.
Mother of God, my sister’s going to lose it when she sees Juan Alberto here.
“I’m sorry, honey, but I thought it best that the guy who created this situation should have to deal with your sister’s hormones,” Eric says.
Instead of bothering me, that makes me laugh.
An unshaven Juan Alberto comes in.
“Where is that woman?”
But before Eric or I can answer, my sister is upon us.
“If you come anywhere near me, I swear I’m going to split your skull open.”
I turn around and see her in the middle of the hall, with a glass of water in her hands. I start to go to her, but my husband holds me back.
“Eric . . .”
“Don’t move, sweetheart,” he whispers, and I listen.
With his eyes fixed on Raquel and without fearing for his physical integrity, Juan Alberto goes right by us and straight up to my sister, though he doesn’t touch her.
“You’re going to kiss me and hug me right now.”
She throws the glass of water in his face.
Oh God, excellent start!
But instead of getting angry, Juan Alberto takes another step forward.
“Thanks, sabrosa. The water helps clear my head.”
Raquel raises her eyebrows. Oh . . . that’s bad . . . very bad . . .
“You can go right back where you came from,” she says.
Juan Alberto drops his bag.
“Why haven’t you taken my calls? I’ve been going crazy calling you, my queen. I’m sorry for what I said the last time we talked. I got entangled, like a moron, imagining all sorts of things, but I love you, beautiful. I love you, and I need to be by your side and for you to love me.”
Fuck . . . we’re right smack in the middle of Emerald Madness.
My sister collapses. She has no resistance to these beautiful and sweet words. She’s an inveterate romantic, and I know that what Juan Alberto is saying is shooting straight to her heart.
But I’m puzzled by her passivity.
“I know you’re pregnant, and that baby is mine. My child. Our child. And I’ll be forever grateful to my good friend Eric, who called to tell me. But why didn’t you tell me yourself, my queen?”
Raquel glares at Eric.
I understand her. At a time like this, I would do the same.
Eric shrugs.
“I’m sorry, sister-in-law, but someone had to tell the father.”
You can cut the tension with a knife. I don’t speak. My sister doesn’t speak.
“Tell me, beautiful,” whispers Juan Alberto. “Tell me what I like to hear so much from your sweet mouth.”
Raquel’s chin trembles again. I fear the worst. She might smash that glass on his head . . . But, suddenly, against all odds, she wrinkles her forehead.
She whispers something back to him.
Juan Alberto hugs her; she hugs him and they kiss.
I blink. What just happened here?
Holding me in his arms, Eric tells me to be quiet and takes me straight to our room. Without letting go, he plays the song we were dancing to again and looks at me.
“Now, sweetheart. Now they’ll finally let us.”
I grin. At last everything, absolutely everything, is fine. I kiss him.
“Mr. Zimmerman,” I say, “please undress.”
EPILOGUE
In the same efficient manner my sister got an express divorce, she organized an express wedding.
In August, the whole family gathers at Sweetheart Vi
lla to celebrate and party, not just for her wedding but also for little Eric’s christening. We decide to just do both events at once. To bring everyone together is no easy task, but we didn’t want anyone missing.
This time, we unite Mexico and Spain in a wedding and Germany and Spain in a baptism. My father’s friends laugh and say our family is like the UN.
Dexter and his mother sing rancheras, and my father, with Bicharrón, offer their bulerías. When the clan starts dancing rumbas, it’s chaos, and even the band conductor dances.
Wow, we sure know how to have a good time!
Raquel is madly happy. She deserves all of it. She’s a married woman once more, in love with a man who deserves her and who’s looking at the possibility of living in Spain. Specifically, in Madrid. Juan Alberto is organizing everything to transfer his work. For him, Raquel and the baby come first; there was never any doubt about that.
My father can barely handle so much joy. He’s proud of his children and his sons-in-law. According to him, Eric and Juan Alberto are two true men who put on their pants feet first; they’re responsible and judicious. There you have it!
You just have to take a look at his face to know he’s tremendously happy. We need our mom, but we know she enjoys our happiness from heaven and is as happy as we are.
Frida and Andrés, together with little Glen, come from Switzerland. They’re well and happy, and I laugh with Frida when she tells me they’ve already found people to play with in Switzerland.
Björn comes alone. But he’s only alone for about five minutes. My sister and my friends drool over the German dandy. They’ve all fallen under his influence, and he takes them all on. Björn is incredible!
Sonia shows up with her new plaything, a man much younger than her. It’s clear she wants to enjoy her life and love, and that nothing, not even her son’s occasional disapproving looks, will stop her. As she says, live and let live!
It’s taken a toll on him, but Eric finally understands.
You only live once!
Marta and her boyfriend, Arthur, enjoy the revelry. She dances until she’s exhausted, and together we shout “Azúcar!” a few times.
While Susto and Calamar run all over Sweetheart Villa, Simona and Norbert make everything possible.
Tell Me What You Want—Or Leave Me Page 33
