CHAPTER 23
I see great things in baseball. It’s our game—the American game!
– paraphrased fromWith Walt Whitman in CamdenbyHorace L. Traubel
“Someone’s knocking. Were you expecting anyone to stop by?” Camdyn asked as she straightened up from where she’d been making out with Javi on his couch.
“Nope. Ignore them and they’ll go away,” he said as he tried to pull her back down onto his chest.
She swatted at him and laughed. “Stop. It might be your mother. Let’s see who it is.”
He groaned in protest but let her get up.
When Cam got to the door, she peeked through the peephole and her heart dropped. “It’s Lola, and she looks like she’s crying.” Camdyn hurriedly opened the door and Javi was up and by her side in a moment.
He immediately pulled Lola in and wrapped her in a protective hug. “Chiquita, what is wrong?”
Lola sniffled into his chest. “I need to speak with Cami. Privately.”
Javi looked over Lola’s head at Camdyn with concern. He didn’t know what to do, and she could tell he didn’t want to leave. Lola didn’t know it yet, but her cousin was protective and a fixer at heart.
Camdyn patted his back and gave him a sympathetic look. “It’s okay. Go next door and check on your mother. Lola and I will chat and then we’ll come over there.”
When Javi reluctantly released Lola, Camdyn reached for the girl’s hand and pulled her towards the couch, but Lola wouldn’t sit down.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” she asked.
“Tíatold me to come speak with you,” said Lola with a sigh.
“Okay. What about?” Camdyn couldn’t imagine what had the girl so upset.
Lola looked down and murmured, “La roja ha venido.”
It took a second, then Camdyn realized why Juana had sent Lola to her. Juana must have been past the point of needing feminine products, and had figured Camdyn might have some, only she didn’t. It wasn’t her time.
“I don’t have any feminine products here,” replied Camdyn.
“And I hurt,” whispered Lola, who looked like she was about to cry again.
Camdyn’s heart nearly broke for the girl. “Well, we can fix that now. I’ll find some medicine and I’ll send Javi to the store to get whatever else you need.”
“No!” exclaimed Lola. The girl looked horrified at the thought of Javier shopping for hygiene products.
“Listen to me, Lola. Soon you’ll be living with Javi. If you need something, he needs to know. Don’t be embarrassed. All women experience this, and he will have no problem getting you what you need or taking you to the store so you can choose products for yourself.”
“Are there no government rations here?” asked Lola.
Confused, Camdyn remarked, “Rations of what?”
“Intimate pads,” replied Lola.
So many cultural differences lay ahead of them. Camdyn was sure there would be many more that she and Javi were not anticipating. “Oh, well that’s very good that the government allotted you those, but no, there is no universal healthcare here for things like that. You’ll be added to Javi’s health insurance, but it doesn’t cover those things. We just buy them at the store, and there are lots of options, not just pads. I’m going to grab the medicine for you, but you need to eat something with it. Look around in Javi’s kitchen and see if you can find anything.”
Camdyn walked into the bathroom and opened Javi’s medicine cabinet. She found a bottle of ibuprofen and shook two pills out into her palm.
When she returned to the kitchen, she found Lola with a familiar, yellow rectangular brick. The girl looked up at her. “This is all that was in the cabinet.”
Camdyn tried to suppress a smile; her man liked his espresso ground coffee, but that wouldn’t do much to line Lola’s stomach. “Don’t open that. I’ve got the meds. Let’s go over to Juana’s. We’ll find something to eat, and then we’ll go shopping. We’ll get everything you need, and we’ll buy chocolate. Becausela rojacalls for lots of chocolate. Then we can come back here and watch a movie before Javi takes us to the baseball game tonight.”
