He got in gear and I sat back and took a deep breath, unable to free myself from the tension that had overtaken me. We left the city behind on a long, lonely highway, then soon exiting into a small town full of empty streets.
“I think this is it,” the taxi driver said.
Through the windshield, I saw a two-story house with a stairway outside and a white stone balustrade. On the corner by the beach, surrounded by a short wall, it was identical to the photos.
I paid and got out, and the taxi driver took my bags out of the trunk. I started hyperventilating as I threw my purse over my shoulder and dragged along the two suitcases.
“You want me to wait?” the man asked, sounding a little worried. I shook my head, and he took out his card and offered it to me. “This is my cell number, just in case.”
“Thanks.”
“No worries.” He got in his car and drove off.
I looked at the house again, saw the light in the windows, noticedshadows moving behind the curtains. I took a deep breath and pushed open the gate. My heart was pounding as I knocked on the door. Three times. Then waited. I could hear voices and music inside. A few steps. Then the door opened.
Her gray eyes stared straight into mine. She’d opened up with a joyful look on her face; now it turned surprised, tense, scared. She stood there holding the door, unable to move, as if I were a ghost, and she couldn’t grasp what I was doing there.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Who is it?” her husband asked from behind her.
When he saw me, he was just as shocked as she was. He looked me up and down, then his eyes settled on my suitcases. He rested a hand on my mother’s shoulders as though trying to give her courage.
“Hi, Alexis.”
“Maya…hey.”
I looked down at my feet. I certainly didn’t feel welcome. I don’t know what I was expecting, honestly. I didn’t care, though. I had gone there for one reason and one reason only, and I wasn’t going to turn back now. Not yet.
“I don’t have anywhere to go, Mom,” I told her. “And I need to stay a few days.”
Myriad emotions streamed through her eyes. Hesitation. Uncertainty. Fear.
I thought for a second she would shut the door in my face and leave me outside. And that suspicion made me clench my jaws and my fists. What the hell had I done to make her reject me this way for so long?
But then she surprised me, stepping aside and saying, “Come in.”
66
I followed them into the living room. My legs were heavy, and my shoulders ached from dragging around my bags.
“Where can I leave this stuff?”
“Let me take it upstairs to the guest room,” Alexis said.
My hands were shaking so much that I dropped my bag. Alexis grinned and picked it up. Then he vanished down the hall with all my things.
Mom and I stayed in the living room. You could have cut the tension between us with a knife. It felt hard to even breathe. Then a door opened and Guille ran in, wearing his pajamas with their dinosaur print. His mouth was covered in toothpaste. He stopped and stared up at me and I smiled at him. He had his father’s curly hair and dark skin, but the same eyes as my mother, maybe even more piercing than hers. They shone like two streetlamps.
“I know you,” he said.
“Do you now?” I asked.
“Yeah, your name’s Maya.”
“How do you know me if the last time I saw you, you were a baby?”
He smiled, revealing his tiny teeth. He was so handsome!
