I stood and stared at her. As much as Mom and Dad raved about my beauty, they overlooked Catalina. She was the whole package - smart, witty, empathetic, and gorgeous. No doubt she’d break tons of hearts after high school.
I shook my head. “I shouldn’t share this, but I’m stressed as hell. We don’t need shells when I bought Doritos on BOGO today.”
2
Too Many Zeros Here
Savannah
AfterCatalinahelpedmewash the dishes, I sent my best friend Alanis a text message.
Call me when you get a chance… and have more than a couple minutes to chat.
To say Alanis was busy was like saying Florida was hot in the summertime. It didn’t cover the extent of her hectic schedule. Three kids all under five, her husband, Michael, who adored her, and a side gig to help pay for trips to Orlando or wherever she and Michael wanted to take their littles. She was living the dream… some days she’d tell you it was a nightmare, but it was her dream nevertheless.
She called twenty minutes later, and I gave her a quick rundown of my situation.
“Let me get this straight… your mom owed someone thirty thousand dollars?” Alanis asked.
I swallowed hard. “Thirty-five.”
The way she sighed over the phone, I could picture her shaking her head. “Your mom’s funeral was five weeks ago. Surely, this asshole doesn’t expect you to pay him.”
I wiped my hand down my face. “He sure does. And he doesn’t care what I have to do to get the money.”
“That’s illegal, Savannah. Report his ass.”
“There’s the problem. I told him I’d call the cops, and he threatened to take it out on Catalina. Then he followed her when she got out of school today.”
Alanis gasped. “How does he even know about her? Is she okay?”
“She knew someone was following her, but she’s all right. This asshole definitely knows more than he should.”
“Yeah. God, I don’t know what to say. If this were like three hundred dollars, I could probably help you, but there are way too many zeros here.”
“You’re telling me,” I muttered.
She inhaled sharply. “I could put together a GoFundMe for you. Then a cop might see it and step in to help. That way you didn’t ‘report’ him… you were just trying to get him the money.”
“Yeah… I don’t know, Alanis.”
“Just don’t do anything crazy like audition to be a stripper or something.”
Now I gasped. “What? I would never—”
“Good, I’m just saying the stupid shit your parents told you for so long is wrong. You are more than just your looks, Savannah.”
“You’re right,” I whispered, to hide my lack of conviction.
“Now that you’re Catalina’s legal guardian, it’ll be tricky, but you can still get an associate’s degree or work toward a different goal.”
The only thing Mom did right was protect my sister from Dad. The day after my eighteenth birthday, Mom went to a lawyer and made me Catalina’s guardian in the event of Mom’s death. She’d already set it up so that I’d get the house without it going through probate.
“Nothing’s gonna happen to me, but this will put my mind at ease,” Mom had said.
Maybe she knew six years ago that her ticker was bad. I doubted it though because she never shied away from cheese, red meat, or fried food. Hell, bacon-wrapped, cheese-filled fried jalapeño poppers were her comfort food. Just thinking about her poppers brought tears to my eyes.
This ache in my soul would never go away.
