Country people Page #2

• Horror
• Short story
• Fiction

								


 Their grandparents, Jose and Josefina Gutierrez, born in Ciudad Juárez, wanted better opportunities, so they settled for Houston Texas, where they had their son, Julio. The son wanted to be taken seriously so he became Jack and nobody would bother to learn how to say his last name correctly, so he shortened it to Gale. Soon at 18 he met and married Nina Castillo who, from the advice of her husband and detested by her, gave her children nicknames. Lunette's full name is Lupita Rosetta Gutierrez, but white folks get scared of names that long, so she's just Lunette. When Ricki was born, he was Ricardo Jose, but this was shortened. Most people that they know don't even remember them ever having these names. The reason being that their daddy told them from a young age, “I know our real names and surnames, but it’s easier to just go with your nicknames—easier to adapt.” 

 And that’s what the Gales did. Lunette was still in her thoughts when she heard Ricki say in not-quite-forgotten Spanish, “We are getting darker by the minute.”

 She just laughed and answered back. “Who thought we could get any darker?” And that made them laugh. They were, apparently, dark like two pennies, their teachers would tell them, but their mama told them that they had beautiful brown skin like their parents and that anyone who said anything different was just jealous. Then she would mention the actress Dolores del Rio who her mama, ever since she saw her in Las Abandonedas in the theater with Lunette, said that she was way better than that Clara Bow. Lunette didn’t have the heart to tell her mama that Dolores del Rio was lighter than the both of them.

 When they opened the door to their home, they saw their mama painting with her watercolors. Their pop was trying to find a song on the radio saying, “Maldita cosa!”

 One thing about their daddy, even though it was their mama who told them about the Spanish language, was that it was their pops who showed them swear words. Their mama saw them and instantly stopped her water painting to outstretch her arms for them to hug them. “My children! I thought the dust was going to eat you all up, and I would no longer have children!” 
 She hugged them tighter when their daddy said, “I hoped that god answered my prayers and gave me faster children.”

 That made their mama let go of them and say to her husband, “Oh, for god's sake, Jack! Can't you stop thinking about your breakfast for one second and appreciate the fact that your children are back?”

 He was still busy looking for a radio station as he was saying, “Aren't I doing that just by looking at them? They were covered in dust and were hungry, but they knew their pop was the first one to have a plate, so when he finally picked up the song he wanted, he told Lunette to come closer so he could  look at the eggs.

 “You tired out the poor dog,” he told them as he was looking into the basket, and Ricki and her mama were getting the plates out. He saw that Lady was in the corner asleep.

 “Yes, I'm sorry," said Lunette. “She saw a dead bird and so we got stuck. She still didn't want to say the true reason they took too long.”

 Fortunately, her Daddy took in what she said, saying, “That dog.” After the children ate their bland eggs, their mom helped them clean up. When she undid Lunette's braid and brushed her hair, she kept telling her, “Such beautiful dark hair.”

 “Like yours,” Lunette replied. This made her ma show her tooth-gap smile.

 It always shocked Lunette how similar her mama and Ricki looked: same green eyes and funny dimples. She just had her daddy's angry face.

 After her ma fixed her braid she said, “You know, your daddy does care. He just doesn't show it.” 
 Lunette just nodded her head. Then she told her mama, “I wish we could grow like we used to and not have to worry about buying enough food.”

 Her mama just laughed saying, “You sound just like your daddy when you say things like that. You know we are in a drought right now, so his job is all we got.”

 Lunette just sighed.

 Lunette and her brother were watching The Voice of Firestone in their small living room. They were singing the song that they were playing but their pop interrupted them by saying, “Ricki, since it's summer, you're coming with me to work so that you can learn something.”

 Ricki reluctantly got up from the carpet, and looking at her daddy, Lunette said, “And what about me?”

 He answered. “You're going to help your mama with the errands.”

 She saw that her mama was outside painting landscapes and groaned. “But Daddy, that's so boring!” complained Lunette. Her daddy didn't have any of this though.

 “Young lady, you better stop acting like that! Your ma works hard, and she would like some help, so I expect you to mind her. Am I clear?” 

 Lunette got up from the floor to turn off the TV as she said, “Yes, sir…”

 Her daddy nodded his head, and as the man and the boy left, Ricki gave her an apologetic look. She took it, and when they left, she sighed and whistled to Lady, and off they went to do a duty. Her mama still had paint on her hands as she was scrubbing Ricki's pants.

 Lunette asked her, “Did you used to do this with grandmother Castillo?”

 Her ma smiled as she replied, “Oh, yes, and she hated it. Would always say that if men washed their clothes, they would have made something by now.” That made both her mom and Lunette laugh, and her ma continued. “Then, of course, I met Mister I- love-your-paintings, and then I got married. Then I understood what my mama meant.”

 Her mom laughed, but it was not full, and she stayed quiet, getting soap on her daddy shirt. When her mama found an old dress of Lunette’s, she cooed saying, “Oh, your grandmother Josefina gave this to you when you were five.” It was a traditional Mexican dress, white with the colors of the rainbow—the last thing that her grandmother gave her. Lunette can still feel the ribbon in her hair as she danced. Her brown skin glowed lustrously, and she remembers feeling like a beautiful parrot who was going to fly. What brought her out of the memory was her mama saying, “Aw, my little Patito!”

 Then she put it on the clothes hanger blowing in the wind as she told her, “You're now my young lady.”

 Lunette just smiled, looking at her dress bittersweetly. Then Lady barked the same way she had in the morning. Her mama asked, “Lunette, what's wrong with little Lady?”

 But Lunette already knew she had seen the hare's ears again, and she knew without a doubt that it was real as its voice came to her again except more clearly. “You need to help me, you need to help me, you need to help me NOW!”

 And that made her close her eyes, just trying to make it stop but when she did, she saw that she was in the dark woods. Then she saw a man and a woman. The man looked like her Daddy. They looked crazy as they were talking to the Hare—not in English but in Spanish—as the man pleaded with the hare saying, “Help us spirit! My wife and I just want to live happily. We just need to know where!”

								Rate this book:0.0 / 0 votes