Chapter 20
Manny was finally alone with Flora and the music from the party had faded in the distance as they walked along the dark street. Though he’d spent the last three weeks planning what he would say when he found her again, he fumbled for words. He’d wanted to warn her about the dangers of American cities and have an open conversation about the challenges she faced in America. But he hadn’t expected Celia to play a part in this scenario. Now all he could think about were Celia’s injuries and the way she’d refused to look at him. Had her husband been lurking nearby, or was there some other reason she didn’t want to see Manny?
It wasn’t the topic he’d expected to discuss with Flora, but he had to know. “How much time have you spent with Celia?”
“Not much.” She spoke without her usual sass. “I only ran into her last week. She’s staying with Vicki's family.”
“Do you know what happened to her?” His muscles tightened just thinking about how different she’d looked.
“You mean her face? I didn’t ask, and it never came up. We mostly talked about the old days. She asked me how we got here, so I told her about that and how I met my boyfriend.”
There it was again, the boyfriend. Unlike the American boys she’d met at the resort, this boy probably wasn’t going away anytime soon. Manny would have to get to know him . . . and his family. All he could hope was that Flora had made a better choice than Celia had. “Stay away from Celia’s husband if you ever see him.”
Her steps slowed as they reached the intersection of two streets. “Okay?”
“Is he living there in that house with Celia?”
“I don’t think so. Celia’s sharing a room with Vicki, but he can’t be too far away. She is pregnant, after all.” She spoke in English instead of their usual creole.
Manny stopped, staring at Flora. He hadn’t even noticed Celia was pregnant. “How pregnant?”
Flora laughed. “By now, you should know how a woman gets pregnant, Manny. Don’t tell me I need to teach my big brother how babies are made.”
“You misunderstood me, Flora,” Manny said, staying serious and slipping back into Creole. “I meant how many months pregnant is she?”
“I didn’t ask, but she’s not that big. You can definitely tell though. Her belly sticks out.”
André had gotten her pregnant and then abused her. A beast like that didn’t deserve a baby. Ever since he’d seen Celia, Manny had been holding tension in his jaw, his arms, and his midsection. Every muscle stood ready to beat André the minute he saw him. “We’ve got to help her, especially if André’s still around.”
“You can’t get mixed up with a married woman,” Flora said, sounding more like his mother than he’d ever noticed before.
She kept walking as Manny looked around for something to punch. Finding nothing, he picked a stick off the ground and broke it in two. “You and Mom could talk to her, find out if we can do anything to help.”
“Manny, she told you herself she was safe. You’ve got to get over her. It’s been five years since you left Fogo. Everything’s different now.”
His mom had said almost the same thing a couple years ago after he’d visited Fogo that last time and found Celia married. He’d been dejected for weeks, spending all his free time alone in his corner of the bedroom and second-guessing everything he’d done with his life since entering the university. But he wasn’t about to go into that kind of funk again.
This time was different. It wasn’t about romance, though the ache of her rejection still raged beneath the surface. This time Celia needed him as a friend.
Flora did have a point about getting over her, though. Perhaps Celia never had felt the same way about him as he did about her. After he left for the university, she might have finally realized the discrepancy between the two of them. She was a beautiful woman, desired by all the single men of the island, while he was simply Manny, a skinny guy who wore glasses and spent too much time reading books. Perhaps, she hadn’t really wanted him, and the destruction of their village provided a convenient excuse to part ways.
Surely, if she’d wanted to stay in touch with him, she would have found a way. He certainly would have. He broke the stick again. He would have tried a dozen times to get back in touch with her and never stopped.
The light in Mom’s bedroom was still on when they arrived home. She called out. “Manny, is that you?”
Beside him, Flora remained quiet. “Yes,” he called, smiling at Flora. “I brought Flora too.”
“What? Flora’s here?” She came running across the room, tackling Flora with a hug. “I’m so relieved you’re back.” Her bloodshot eyes and frazzled hair bore testimony to many sleepless nights. “Where have you been? We’ve looked everywhere.” Her voice cracked with exhaustion.
“I’ve been staying with friends,” Flora said while still engulfed in Mom’s arms. “You shouldn’t have worried so much. I was fine.”
“Let me look at you. See what I think about you taking care of yourself.” Mom pulled away and held Flora at arm’s length, shaking her head. “You look hungry.” She moved toward the stove and began warming a cup of milk.
“Manny saw his old girlfriend, Celia,” Flora said, sitting down at their small kitchen table. “She’s staying with one of my friends.” Manny suspected Flora was trying to deflect all the attention from herself, but his mother took the bait.
Her eyes opened wide. “Celia? She’s here?”
“You should see her,” Flora said, “She’s missing a tooth, and she’s all beaten up. She looks terrible.”
Mom looked at Manny with questions in her eyes, not quite believing what she heard.
He nodded. “It’s true. That husband of hers is no good. It’s just like I told you when I got back from Fogo two years ago.”
“Oh, my poor heart.” Mom wiped her hands over her face. “Well, there’s not much we can do about that. Poor girl! She made her decision.” She heaved a sigh. “You better go get your pajamas on, Flora. There’s school in the morning.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday, Mama,” Flora said. “Besides, I’m not planning to go to school any more anyway.”
Their mother simply wrapped an arm around her. “I know it’s hard, dear, but this is what’s best for you. And you’ve got friends there. They’ve come by the apartment, asking after you.”
“They have?”
“Two girls and one boy came by just the other day, asking if you’d been sick. You’re a smart girl, Flora, and you’re gonna be a real success here in America.” She wagged a finger for emphasis.
Mom took her into the bedroom and shut the door. Their words became a murmur as Manny washed his face and changed out of his work clothes. He heard enough pieces of the conversation to learn that Flora had been living not just with her boyfriend, but with his family.
After the milk on the stove began to steam, he poured it into a mug and knocked on the bedroom door. Flora was complaining that her boyfriend’s parents had made them sleep in separate bedrooms. When his mother answered, he handed her the mug and she exhaled deeply, trying not to look too relieved in front of Flora. “I’d like to meet your boyfriend and his family.”
As his mother closed the door, Manny saw Flora rolling her eyes. “Oh, please no, Mama. I don’t want warm milk. Nobody drinks that in America.”
“Not everything about America is better,” his mother said.
He lay down on the sofa to sleep, his mind going back to Celia.
He punched his pillow five times, but it did nothing to relieve his tension. What was the use of helping her? It wouldn’t do any good to get himself beaten up by André. Remembering the way she’d avoided looking at him, he doubted that even if André weren’t in the picture, it would do him any good. She didn’t seem to want his friendship, much less his love. He’d spent the last five years pining after Celia, and what good had it done him? She wouldn’t even look at him. He’d been fighting a losing battle. It was time to spend his love elsewhere, to get over Celia once and for all.
It was time he loved a woman who would love him back. Della was a much better choice for him. He could walk over to her apartment any time he wanted, and she would greet him with a smile.
∞∞∞
Manny woke early, thinking of Celia, and since he couldn’t go back to sleep, he headed over to Della’s house to tell her the good news about Flora. Della and her mother lived only a block away, in a larger apartment with enough space to run a daycare. Della answered the door while holding a baby. Even on a Saturday morning, she was busy working. Seeing her with a baby reminded him that she would make a good mother. Both smart and tender, she was also going to school in business. He found himself smiling at her, liking what he saw.
“Hi, Manny. What’s up?”
Isobella sat at their kitchen table stringing O-shaped dry cereal on yarn with the other children, but they all jumped up and ran to Manny once they noticed him standing at the door. They had gotten used to playing with him during the month he’d lived there when his family first arrived in America.
“I found Flora,” Manny said while a little girl pulled on his arm.
Della grinned, and it seemed like he had never seen her look so attractive. She lifted the baby up onto her shoulder to pat his back. “Oh, I’m so glad. They found Flora, Mama,” she called to Isobella.
Isobella clapped her hands. “Finally. Joana must be so happy.”
“Can you be my horse?” the little girl asked, still pulling on his arm. The children liked him to crawl around on the floor with one or two of them riding on his back.
“Just one ride each,” he told the children, secretly glad for a reason to stick around. There were five of them—four girls and a boy, plus the baby. A couple of the girls wore princess dresses. Though he’d never celebrated Halloween in Cape Verde, the convenience store had been stocking Halloween products for the last few weeks, and if he understood correctly, the holiday was about a week away.
He got down to the floor and let the girl climb on his back. “I came to thank you for your idea of looking at the drug houses,” he told Della as she stood watching. “Flora wasn’t at any of those places, but I found her at a party while I was walking home.” He couldn’t get the thought of that party out of his head, especially not the image of Celia’s battered face. He’d told himself there wasn’t anything he could do—she wouldn’t accept his help. But there had to be something he could do as her friend.
“Is she okay?” Della asked.
At first, with his lack of sleep, he thought Della was asking about Celia, but he quickly realized she meant Flora. “She’s fine,” he said, circling the room with the child on his back. “I convinced her to come home for the night, and I think she’s happy to be back. Mom’s been spoiling her quite a bit, in between lectures. She’s making her a nice breakfast for when she wakes up.”
After he gave rides to all the other children, Della and Isobella shooed them back to the table to complete their cereal project. Once they all got seated around the kitchen table again, she resumed their conversation. “What time was it when you found her?”
“A little after midnight.”
Isobella sighed and shook her head.
“You must be exhausted,” Della said. “You should go back home and sleep.”
He groaned. “I can’t sleep.” He wasn’t sure whether he should admit to Della that he had seen the woman he’d once loved, but it had been his goal to be as honest with Della as he had once been with Celia. He might as well tell her. “I ran into an old friend last night at the party where I found Flora. I think she’s been abused by her husband.” He couldn’t add any details with the children there. “She looked horrible. I’m worried about her.”
Della raised her eyebrows. “Sounds like you should be.”
He strung a few O’s of cereal for the boy sitting next to him. “Flora says she’s also pregnant.”
“So, she’s still with her husband?” Isobella asked.
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t talk to me.”
Della leaned forward. “Do you suppose she’d talk to me? Maybe I know her. What’s her name?” She’d said exactly what he’d wanted her to say, but the tightness of her smile made him suspect she might not have wanted to say it.
While he considered whether to answer, Isobella spoke. “Might as well tell us, Manny. We’re going to find out one way or the other.”
He was desperate, though. “Celia Montrond.”
“Wasn’t she your old girlfriend?” Della asked, tying a string of cereal into a necklace for one of the little girls. “Your mother told me about her.”
Isobella raised her eyebrows. “Yes, she did.” Her voice deepened, hinting that she knew the whole story.
He could only imagine what his mom had told them, but it was sure to have included a detailed description of his disappointment after he found out Celia had married André. Perhaps something about how he had stayed in his room for days, refusing to come out for his favorite meal of fried potatoes and fish. “It’s been years since the last time I saw her,” he said, trying to convince himself, along with Della and Isobella, that his feelings for Celia had faded.
Della tied off the rest of the necklaces and began wiping the crumbs off the table. “Didn’t she marry that soccer player all the girls liked? I remember him. What was his name?”
Manny spoke through his teeth. “André.” He couldn’t stand the name.
“I remember him too,” Isobella said, pressing her lips together and nodding. “Mmm. Mmm. He was cute.”
Della slapped her mother playfully on the side of the shoulder. “Mama! He beat her.”
“That’s what I suspect.” Manny spoke with a serious tone, unwilling to joke about something that worried him so much. “She wouldn’t speak to me about it.”
“Do you have an address for her?” Della asked. “Mama and I could go visit her later this week. We’re always looking for a little extra help around here, especially since my midterms are coming up soon.”
The idea hit him with a wave of relief. “Would you?” He couldn’t be happy until he knew Celia was safe from André, and maybe a job would be just the thing for her. “I have the feeling she needs all the help she can get.”
He gave them directions to the house where Celia was staying, and they promised to go by there in a few days. Della was a brave woman who wanted to help everyone. Helpful, brave, smart, tender, and an attractive smile. She was just like his mom had been telling him all these months.