Chapter 29
It was Christmas morning at Theo’s house, and for once the whole family was home without any party guests. Vicki woke them up at first light to open presents around the tree. There were so many presents, including a crib for the new baby.
Now Yvonne and Vicki were frying fish in the kitchen while Theo tried to make an internet call on his new laptop. Celia wrapped herself in a blanket and looked out at the freezing rain from the front room. In all her life, she’d never felt so cold.
She had one more package to open, a small box from André that had arrived the night before. The note on top read with love from André. Call me. Then he’d written his phone number.
She had hoped that André had gone back to North Carolina, but from the way the box arrived on the doorstep, it was obvious that he was still in town. Tiago must have been right when he said he’d seen André at The Praia Club downtown. She shuddered, thinking of the pretty winter coat. For all she knew, André had given her that too. Maybe the gift would be something useful, something for the baby.
Reluctantly, she tore off the wrapping paper to find a small photo album. She knew already that there would be pictures of herself and André inside, pictures from happier times before things got so bad. He was still trying to get her back, and she couldn’t stand to think of it today. She tossed the album in the wastebasket.
It wasn’t like her to throw something useful away, but now that she was making money from her jewelry, she didn’t need to keep every little thing. It wouldn’t take long until she had enough to buy herself a ticket back to Cape Verde.
“What are you throwing away?” Theo spoke from the other side of the room. He was a typical Cape Verdean. Just like herself, he hated waste. He and Yvonne had saved every scrap of wrapping paper and ribbon from the packages this morning.
“André sent me a photo album. I couldn’t stand to look at it,” she said, opening up her English dictionary. She’d made her way to the letter S now.
Theo walked to the waste basket and pulled out the photo album. “Do you mind if I look? Yvonne might want to use the album.”
“Sure. Just throw away any pictures of André.”
He flipped through the pages, pulling out pictures one by one and dropping them into the trash. He must have thrown out at least twenty. Then he paused. “I think this is your mother.”
She stood to look at the picture. Sure enough, it was a picture of her mom, wearing a bright pink dress on the day of Celia’s wedding. Though the day itself no longer gave Celia happy memories, seeing her mother’s face flooded her with nostalgia for home. “I’ve never seen that picture.”
Theo held it out to her. “You want to keep it?”
“Yes.” She took the picture, holding it to her chest.
He flipped through another few pictures. “I can’t get the internet to work this morning. We’ll have to call your mama after it comes back up.” He stopped, holding up another picture. “Here’s one of Toon. You want that one?”
“Yes.” She took the picture and saw Toon sitting on the front step of his little house on Fogo Island.
“There’s only one more without André in it,” Theo said. “It’s just a picture of a restaurant here in Brockton.”
She took the photograph from his hand and was about to throw it away when she froze. Two small and blurry figures sat at a table in front of the restaurant. One was Della. Celia would recognize her blue coat anywhere, and who else would be holding her hand across the table than Manny?
According to Isobella, Manny was more in love with Della than he’d ever been before. Isobella made sure Celia knew about the special tote Manny had given Della, as well as the perfume he’d brought her on the last day of finals. “Don’t tell Della,” Isobella had whispered, “but I think he’s giving her a ring for Christmas.”
Celia dropped the picture in the wastebasket along with the others. André knew her better than she’d realized. There was nothing that would make her want to leave Brockton faster than seeing that picture.
“What’s the matter?” Theo asked, studying the expression on her face.
She didn’t want to worry Theo about all her problems, but she couldn’t keep them to herself. “André’s still trying to get to me.” She couldn’t allow it anymore. There had to be some way to get back at him. She’d started filling out papers for a protective order against him, but that would only protect her after he’d tried something.
Theo stroked the day-old whiskers on his chin. “The lawyer did say that he’d probably give you the most trouble right before the divorce became final. Maybe you should take Tiago up on that offer he made to drive you to work. I’d hate for you to be all alone when André comes along.” In other words, he wanted her to have a body guard.
She gritted her teeth. This was it, she decided. She wasn’t about to sit around waiting to see what kind of trouble André could cause during the next week before her divorce became final. “Tonight, when Tiago comes over, I’m going to ask you two for a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Getting André to sign the divorce papers.” She pulled the note with his phone number out of the waste basket. She could use that.