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CHAPTER 17 Pt. 1

 

"Lucy mum said that you gotta get up for church!"

I pretended I did not hear my brother shouting at me on the other side of my bedroom door and tried to get back to sleep.

"Luciana wake up!"

Grunting grumpily I sat up on my bed wondering in my sleepy state the last time we had gone to church but came up blank. Let's just say, it had been a very long time. I reached out to take my phone from my bedside table and saw that I had a new text message:

FROM: Buttbag

Someone told me that you've been a naughty girl this year and we all know Santa only gives presents to good girls, but luckily for you I got something that would make you scream from joy when you see it. *wink*wink* Merry Christmas, Luciana.

A stupid grin surfaced on my lips as I felt heat growing from the pit of my belly, ignoring the easy effect that the simple text message from him had on me, I quickly cooked up a reply.

TO: Buttbag

Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. Henriquez. I suggest you try to be less perverted in this coming new year.

I must have read the message over twenty times before I fully convinced myself that it was good enough for me to send. I did not want to encourage his little game, or seem desperate by replying one second after he had texted me. Yep, Luciana was going to play it cool.

"Luciana, if you don't come out in five seconds I'm gonna tell mum. One...two...three-"

"I'm here. Happy?" I said after flying out out my bed to reluctantly open the door to my room.

Bobby unexpectedly attacked me into a waist-hug, beaming up at me with a radiant smile on his chocolate coloured face that instantly made me forget my earlier irritation with him. "Merry Christmas, Lucy!"

Releasing myself from his surprisingly strong hold I realised that he was all suited up in his Sunday Best; his short afro was nicely kept, he wore a white suit, pressed white shirt and a black tie and on his feet shiny black shoes. Just when I was about to ask my brother why he was already dressed my dad came up the stairs and I went to attack him into a hug.

 

"Merry Christmas, daddy," my voice sounded muffled since my mouth was pressed against his shoulder.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Esther. I wonder what's got you so happy", he chuckled as he returned my hug.

Well it definitely did not have anything to do with the text that I got from a certain Spanish hombre. Nope, definitely wasn't it.

"It's Christmas, of course I'm going to be happy," I explained hoping my dad won't try to analyse me any further.

 

"You sure didn't seem to be in the Christmas spirit over the last few days."

"Well, it has finally caught up to me," I replied and before he could say anything I continued, "I'm just going to have my bath now."

 

I quickly excused myself and made my way into the bathroom with a small smile on my face. Fine I'll admit it, it was because of Mr. Henriquez.

Twenty minutes later and with a towel wrapped around me I padded back into my room to get dressed. To my surprise, on my bed lay a deep purple dress that just went below the knee with a yellow silk belt around the waist line, beside the dress was a yellow church hat. Looking at the floor were a pair of gorgeous yellow heels that made me gasp at how high they actually were. I didn't want to make a fool of myself like those girls I

saw sometimes at the mall who walked around as if they got a limp when really they just did not know how to walk in heels.

My number one suspect to who could have delivered the goods was Santa but I had to remind myself that Santa Claus is a myth. It took me a minute to see that there was a folded card on top of the dress.

Dear Luciana,

I know you might think of me as the Wicked Witch from the West,

But I'm your mother and all I want for you is the very best,

It is obvious we both have some stuff to get off our chest,

But for now, hurry up and get dressed.

Merry Christmas Luciana.

I smiled at my mum's attempt at writing a poem, it was real cute. My dad was having big effects on her but I dreaded to think on how our conversation was going to go - my mother wasn't exactly the World's Best Listener.

The text alert tone of my phone interrupted my thoughts. I tried so hard not to look happy about reading a message from Angelo but damn it, I had a goofy smile spread on my face.

FROM: Buttbag

Don't pretend that you do not enjoy my perverted ways and what's with the formalities Miss. Carter?

TO: Buttbag

You would like to think that and I'm just being polite, something you should practise. Anyways, I got to get ready for church. Hope you have a great Christmas.

After replying, I wasted no time getting ready. Looking at my reflection in the mirror I tried to convince myself that I looked beautiful, key word 'tried' but that didn't work out. The word sounded too foreign to be associated with me. Not wanting my low self esteem to already dampen my mood for the day I settled with the fact that at least I was wearing

something new. With that in mind, I grabbed my bag and exited out my room to meet my already ready family downstairs.

"Jerome I told you to bring out the chicken to defrost. Now what are we supposed to eat when we come back from church?"

"Baby I told you I forgot. I'm sure it'll be defrosted by the time we come back."

"No, it's not, it takes at least twelve hours for it to - Oh my, Jay look at your daughter!"

At first, I thought I scared my mother with my appearance as her eyes widened so big in a millisecond, it was almost comical. My dad's head whipped around just as I got down the last step of the stairs.

 

I was starting to feel rather uneasy as my parents continued to watch me like they'd made a very fascinating discovery and I definitely did not like being centre of attention.

"Thank you mum for the dress."

"That's okay...you look good", answered my mum, slowly snapping back to reality.

"So what church are we going to?" I asked partly to take the attention completely away from me.

"It's a Pentecostal church not too far away from here. The taxi should be here any minute now but first your daddy and I want to talk to you and Bobby."

As if Bobby knew that he was being called upon he waltzed into the kitchen and then when he saw me his eyes widened too as my mum did as if I was a ghost or something.

"Lucy, you look really pretty!"

"Thank you, Bobby."

Compliments always had a way of making me feel uncomfortable but when my brother said it, it just made me smile.

"Money's tight right now especially so what we're asking from both of you, especially you Bobby, is patience just until your father finds work."

I wasn't all that too interested in getting any gifts for Christmas, more so at the thought of Angelo's family tradition. Satisfied with our response, my mother focused with the main task at hand, which was the frozen raw chicken placed on top of the kitchen counter.

"Jay what exactly do you expect us to eat since you forgot to defrost the chicken?"

As far back as I remembered from our previous Christmas's we always used chicken instead of turkey for our Christmas dinner, but it seemed that we wouldn't be having chicken either.

"We could just eat out, it's not a big deal Maya," replied my dad and I could tell he was

desperately trying to resolve the matter quickly before it escalated.

Luckily we heard the sound of a car horn, cutting off whatever my mum was about to say.

After the church service which I thoroughly enjoyed; all of us decided we were definitely going to permanently fellowship there. My mother having thought better of my dad's suggestion to go to a restaurant, decided we should go to a Chinese buffet restaurant down town. We were all sat in comfortable silence in the taxi until my mother's phone began to ring.

"Hey Sara, Merry Christmas to you too."

Truth be told, I never even knew my mum had friends so I was even more curious. To be honest I think the three of us were surprised as we listened on trying to make out my mother's conversation with new interest.

"Yeaah, just remember to apply the aloe vera....you're welcome, no problem....I'm just with my family now we're going to a restaurant...no, I couldn't do that...you're being too kind...you've thanked me enough...but I don't want to impose...okay, are you sure?...text me the address and I'll tell the taxi...okay we'll be there soon, thank you bye."

After dropping the phone call, my mother told the taxi driver that she was changing the

destination. The taxi driver looked rather annoyed as he inserted the address into the navigator, before doing a U-turn. I was more than sure he was going to over-charge my mum's indecisiveness and because it was Christmas it would be double the price.

"Honey where exactly are we going?" asked my dad who was just as confused as me.

"We're going to Sara's house," she said looking at her reflection on her compact mirror, "she's a patient I treated at the hospital yesterday and she invited us to join her family for Christmas dinner."

One thing I knew for sure about my mum was that she did not warm up to people so easily especially to someone that she had only known for less than a day.

"Maya please tell me you aren't being serious, we're going to a stranger's house, intruding in their family home to disrupt their Christmas and eating their food like we're some sort of homeless family," argued my dad in a highly annoyed tone.

"Sara and I are not strangers I got to know the woman okay. She willingly invited us into her home, so I do not see what the real problem here is," retorted my mum already getting hot-headed with my dad's disapproval of her actions.

I definitely did understand where my dad was coming from and I suspected his male pride was being wounded, not being able to provide for his family like he should and after all my dad would've preferred if we were all alone together after so much time spent apart. My dad was about to say something back but then changed his mind after

seeing the downcast expression on Bobby's face.

At last the taxi driver came to a stop in front of a three-story mansion and we all

gawked in awe at the gated building standing before us.

"Ma'am you're fee is $45," announced the taxi driver managing to quickly snap

my mum out of her reverie when she heard how much she was being charged.

"What?! It didn't even take ten minutes for you to drive up to this place!"

"Well you changed your destination and that burns gas."

My dad quickly sensing that my mum would be ready to put up another argument with the taxi driver, he intervened, "Baby, just give the man his money."

My mum reluctantly took out her purse and reluctantly handed the taxi driver a few notes whilst muttering to herself of the nerve of the driver cheating her out of her hard-earned money.

It wasn't until we got out of the taxi, that I felt real cold. My teeth chattered and goosebumps formed on the exposed parts of my skin. It wasn't snowing yet, but with the seemingly Antarctic weather I could tell it would soon enough.

Four of us walked towards the black gates and my mum took out her phone to call her friend to inform her of our arrival. She had a brief word with her and within

seconds the gates slowly opened granting us permission to enter the premises.

A wave of apprehension flowed through me as we walked up marble steps that my eyes instantly became fixated on having never seen one in real life. Inside now in what was the foyer, I was already deafened by the sound of loud Latin music playing and a lot of women walking around with crying babies, yelling in Spanish and the men doing their men stuff joking in their native language. The Christmas spirit was definitely buzzing in this place but my mother was wrong to have called it a Christmas 'dinner', it was beyond that.

"Maya it is so good to see you and your family!"

And as the story goes I eventually looked away from the furry of activity to see Sara hugging my mother. As in Sara Henriquez. As in Angelo's mother. I had to blink a couple times to make sure my imagination was not playing up with me.

As if she sensed someone's gaze on her she turned into my direction and looked pleasantly surprised to see me. "Chica how lovely it is to see you!"

 












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Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.