by Ines Saint
“She pointed at my shoes, smiled, said something, and then I smiled, too. A monkey could have figured out what she was saying. But her grandfather did not ask you out, Ruby. He said he was lucky to be served water and snacks by two such beautiful women.”
“But he was looking at me when he said it.”
“Fine, Ruby, he was looking at you and asking you out. Go sit with him at lunch and plan your date with him in your perfect Spanish.” Rosa rolled her eyes.
“I will.”
Marissa scraped furiously, hoping she wouldn’t get dragged into their spat. After a while, they finally stopped bickering with each other because Ruby had started in on Johnny, who wouldn’t let her work because she wasn’t dressed for it. Her shirt had wide sleeves that couldn’t be pulled back. Johnny walked over to Marissa and whispered, “What’s gotten into her?”
Marissa nodded her head toward Manuel, the grandfather Ruby was talking about, and Johnny looked over just in time to catch Manuel and Ruby exchange flirtatious glances.
He and Marissa exchanged bewildered looks. It was strange to see Ruby flirting. “What’s going on between those two? Should I be worried?” Johnny leaned in, eyes twinkling, and a different kind of fluttering bloomed in her chest. Marissa quickly decided the fluttering was because she was so grateful for all he was doing, but she stepped away before answering, in case her excessive gratitude showed in her eyes and he got the wrong idea.
Before she could answer, Marty appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and stepped between the two of them. “We need your help unloading the paint,” he said to Johnny, and clasped his hand on his shoulder. “And, uh, when you get a chance, we should talk.”
Johnny nodded, but before Marty could lead him away, Abuela Rosa came up to Marissa to ask, “Where’s Brian? I thought he’d be here.”
Marissa tried not to sound as if she was speaking though gritted teeth. “I already told you, and you’ve heard me tell a few other people, too.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, querida. I keep thinking how nice it would have been for him to meet these wonderful kids, and then I wonder where he is because I forget you already told me. My memory’s not—”
“What it used to be.” Marty interrupted, glaring at their wide-eyed grandmother. “We know because you keep telling us, not because we’ve seen any real proof of it. I’ll be happy to remind you why your soon-to-be grandson-in-law isn’t here. See, he drove four long hours yesterday after work, just to be with Marissa, even though it was Marissa’s turn to go up to Cleveland to see him, and even though he knew he’d be losing the morning with her ’cause she’d be here.”
It wasn’t entirely the truth, but Marissa wasn’t about to correct him. “And he still has tons of work to do before he can move down here,” she added. “He has to transition his old clients while getting to know his new ones, and he’s taken on most of our house-hunting.”
Abuela Rosa quietly listened, looking bored and even yawning once.
Ruby came back then, looking like she was bursting with news. She took them all in with her bright eyes and promptly stood with Johnny and Abuela Rosa, as if she somehow understood the subtext of what was going on, even though her mind was clearly on something else. Marissa inwardly groaned. If Ruby was with Abuela Rosa, then she was really in for it. Where her grandmother was sharp and intelligent, Ruby had unrestrained zeal. Her best bet would be to stay away from them altogether.
“I was telling Javier’s grandmother that I read tarot cards, and she told me she reads cowrie shells! She left to fetch some, and she’s going to teach me how to read them,” Ruby declared when she had their attention. “Isn’t that wonderful news? You’ll all get your shells read!” She looked around, but nobody seemed to be buying that this was wonderful news.
“Cowrie shells!” Abuela Rosa looked especially angry, even stomping one red kitten heel into the ground. “That is Santeria, Ruby. You cannot play with those shells.”
“I wouldn’t be playing, and what the heck is Santeria?”
“It’s like voodoo, it’s very dark,” Rosa whispered, her eyes flitting around as if a spirit nearby could hear her.
Marty, Ruby, and Johnny all laughed while Rosa and Marissa remained serious. The lines were suddenly redrawn. Marty, Johnny, and Ruby were on one side, and Rosa and Marissa were on the other.
“Don’t tell me you believe in dark magic, Marissa,” Johnny teased.
“The world is full of things we don’t understand, Johnny. I’m just humble enough to admit I don’t know what I don’t know.”
Ruby turned on Johnny and Marty, her bright blue eyes blazing. “So you two were laughing because you don’t believe at all? I thought you were laughing because you knew darkness cannot exist where light lives.” She took Rosa’s arm and began leading her away. “Come, Rosa. Don’t worry. It’ll be fun and revealing, and nothing dark will reach you while I’m near. And the novelty might bring new people to the café.”
Rosa lifted one shoulder without looking back. “It might,” she conceded. “As long as you always say it is just a game. Always!” And the two women went off, arm in arm, Rosa’s earlier fear trumped by curiosity, and the idea of having something fun and new to do at the café.
They took a snack break soon after, and Marissa somehow ended up being the first victim of the cowrie shells. A few people gathered around Javier’s grandmother as she instructed Ruby on how to read Marissa’s future using the shells. The older woman only spoke Spanish and, to Ruby’s credit, she didn’t need translating. Rosa felt the need to add that it was all fun and games.
“From what I understand, the eight shells will fall in one of two ways, with the open sides up or down, and the way they land will give us the answers we need,” Ruby was saying, while looking at Abuela Rosa, who was nodding in an encouraging way, letting her know she’d understood. “We’re ready,” Ruby declared, eyes dancing. “Ask your question, Marissa.”
“Ask how many kids you will have,” one of her students prompted, with the others clapping yes in an excited manner.
Marissa gave them a look, but shrugged and complied. “Alright. How many kids will Brian and I have?” Marissa jiggled the shells in her palm as if they were dice before tossing them onto the table. The eight shells landed each with the closed side down.
Ruby looked at Javier’s grandmother with consternation. “I think that means none,” she said, signaling a zero with her fingers. The other lady agreed and shook her head at Marissa, saying, “No children Brian,” in her strong accent.
“That’s it!” Abuela Rosa turned to Marissa. “Ask how many children you’ll have, but don’t mention Brian.”
Marissa gave her a look, but everyone egged her on. “Fine. But it’s obvious the shells are top heavy,” she grumbled.
“Ask! Ask!” Veronica egged her on.
Marissa laughed. “Okay. How many kids will I have?” she asked, and threw the shells again. Four landed open side up and four landed open side down.
“Four children!” Ruby exclaimed. Something niggled at Marissa’s insides. She’d always wanted four kids.
“Four children?” Abuela Rosa’s eyes widened. She looked at Javier’s grandmother for confirmation. The woman offered a solemn nod, and her grandmother rounded on her. “How are you going to take care of four children in this day and age?”
Thankfully, someone whistled loud and clear before shouting, “Time’s up!” They all slowly got up and went back to work, the girls giggling as they looked from Marissa to her grandmother.
The second half of the morning went by just as quickly, but with a lot more sweating, and a few more arguments between the kids as the day got hotter.
A series of long and loud honks from a car on the street made them all look over. Sherry’s mint green Volkswagen Beetle convertible was filled to the brim with what looked like lunch, and everyone cheered. Holly and Sherry got out and began unloading.
Marissa looked at her watch. It was quarter to twelve. She’d be late. It was ti
me to leave. Oh, how she wanted to stay and chat with Holly and Sherry for a while, too. But Marissa said her good-byes and dragged her feet to her car.
Johnny watched Marissa go. It was obvious she didn’t want to leave, but he knew she was going house-hunting with Brian. As hungry as he was, the idea of Marissa and Brian taking another important step toward their future made his stomach feel queasy.
The more time he spent with Marissa, the deeper he fell for her. It was like a bottomless pit. The way she clucked at the kids like a mother hen, her nose crinkling in the most adorable way whenever she thought they were doing something dangerous, her laughter when she was proven wrong, and the way her eyes lit up when she accomplished something, all of it made Johnny want to be close to her.
But with her big brother behaving like a rooster, always on the lookout from his perch, crowing if Johnny so much as looked at Marissa for too long, he hadn’t been able to talk to Marissa either as a coworker or a friend that day. As if he’d called him with his thoughts, Marty came up to him just then. “You got a minute?” he asked.
Johnny nodded.
Marty took a deep breath and blew it out. “I’m sorry about what I said. About your home, when you were growing up. I, uh, got mad and crossed a line. All I was trying to say was—Marissa’s always been happy to go off and do her own thing and sort of disappear into the background, while Melinda and I get all the attention. But she’s having her moment now. Her career is going well, she’s got a great guy . . . I don’t want you to mess with that just because you think you know better.”
Johnny cleared his throat. “Hey, no worries. I’m sorry, too. It doesn’t matter that I thought I was doing my best not to rattle Marissa; it matters that I did.”
Marty shrugged. “Well, you should know better than to ever mess with your best friend’s little sister, and I should know better than to say anything about my best friend’s family.”
Johnny shot him an amused look. “So, we’re best friends now?” Everyone knew they were, but it wasn’t the sort of thing men said out loud, and it was time to get the conversation onto lighter ground.
Marty shrugged. “You gonna come to the tavern later?”
“Missed your BFF, have you?”
Marty punched his shoulder and left, and Johnny knew they’d be okay. He’d missed hanging out with his oldest friend, and he’d missed the tavern, which had become like another home. He vowed never to do anything to jeopardize their friendship again.
Johnny filled his plastic cup with water and grabbed a sandwich from the pile, knowing he needed to eat if he wanted to be at his most productive. He made his way to the one table everyone had gathered around. There were six rusted metal picnic tables they’d be scraping and painting that afternoon, but everyone was at that one table. He wondered what they were all up to.
When he arrived, Veronica shouted, “Mr. A’s turn!”
A few of the kids parted, and he saw Ruby and Javier’s grandmother sitting in front of some shells. He guessed these were the “dark shells” Rosa had been referring to earlier. Rosa’s eyes met Johnny’s, and he immediately noted that her fear over the shells was gone. The way she looked at him told him she had something up her sleeve. “My turn to do what?” he asked as he unwrapped his sandwich.
“Grandma Ruby is learning to read shells.” Holly’s eyes sparkled. Ruby was her grandmother, and though Ruby’s eyes were blue and Holly’s were green, both were unusually bright.
“He should ask how many children he will have,” Rosa said. Veronica and Ruby’s eyes widened and Veronica began clapping and saying, “Yes, yes, ask that,” with a little too much enthusiasm.
Johnny eyed them warily. “I’ll ask if you tell me why you want me to ask.”
Rosa shrugged. “All of Spinning Hills needs to know how many little Johnnys we’ll have running around.”
Holly laughed. “They do say forewarned is forearmed.”
Dan clamped a hand on Johnny’s shoulder. “Forearmed with what? There’s no arming yourself against the stuff this one has gotten himself into.”
“Are you guys going to let me ask, or are you going to keep saying things that will give the students and parents here the wrong impression of me?”
The kids laughed and cheered him on. Ruby palmed him the shells. He made a huge show of shaking and jiggling them. First in front of him, then next to his left ear, then next to his right, behind him, and then in front again, until everyone started yelling at him to get on with it, and even Sam thumped him on the back. “All right. All right. How many kids will I have?” he asked in a booming voice before tossing the shells onto the table. Four landed with the open side up, and four landed with the open side down.
Javier’s grandmother put her hands to her mouth and gasped. “Cuatro hijos!”
Ruby and Veronica shouted, “Sí!” and “Yes!” and others clapped with glee while others looked on, wondering what they were missing. Rosa looked torn. “Four children?” she repeated, looking at him in dismay.
Johnny slanted an amused look her way. “Since when do you believe in this? I’m sorry to disappoint Ruby and Veronica, but I think I can guarantee I won’t have four kids. I already have a few hundred here, plus five dogs—until I find them homes, that is,” he said, and winked at the kids.
“Exactly!” Rosa gave him an imploring look before turning to whisper something to Sherry.
“I don’t see the problem. Don’t you want four great-grandchildren to spoil?” Sherry asked.
Rosa immediately perked up. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
Johnny shook his head, trying to make sense of their latest riddle.
“What are you all talking about?” Holly asked, laughing.
“Nada,” Veronica said, before shooting the others a warning look.
“They had a bet going on, that’s all.” Sherry shrugged. “They bet that nobody would have more kids than Johnny.”
“No gambling with my students,” Johnny warned the three women, only half-kidding. He’d lost too many gumballs and candy to them growing up to doubt they really were placing bets.
Marissa called Brian to let him know she was running fifteen minutes behind schedule, but they’d ended up getting into an argument over it, and she was now running even further behind. She sighed, threw the phone onto the passenger’s seat, and pulled out of her parking space, shooting one final look at the group. They had all ended up at the same picnic table, and everyone was crowded around Johnny as he tossed the cowrie shells.
He always ended up being the center of attention somehow, but never in a selfish, obnoxious, or intimidating way. He was someone people enjoyed being around, period. The thing about Johnny was that he seemed to know exactly what it was like on the sidelines, even though he never seemed to be there himself.
Brian was used to the kind of attention that came with being in the limelight, and Marissa liked that about him. She liked supporting and applauding others. It gave her purpose. It was in her nature to nurture. It made her happy.
She got home, showered, and dressed in record time. By the time she met up with Brian, they were still only running fifteen minutes late, and he had calmed down and was happy to see her.
But by that evening, Marissa was starting to doubt her earlier thoughts about supporting and applauding others. She and Brian were on their way home after seeing nine houses, and they still had not been able to agree on what type of house they wanted, or even how much land they needed. Brian liked vanilla inside and out. Marissa liked color. She could compromise on either the inside or outside being vanilla, but not both. Brian wanted cookie cutter too badly to compromise.
Brian gripped the steering wheel tighter. “We need to find a home, Marissa. I’m moving down here in less than six weeks, I don’t want to waste any more money renting, and we’re too old to be living with our parents.”
Marissa hesitated. “Brian . . . we’ve looked at twenty-three houses in all, and we can’t agree on anything. I’m compromising
on hiring a wedding planner I don’t want, or even think I need, and I’m willing to compromise on some things when it comes to the house, but you’re not meeting me in the middle on anything. You say you are, but you’re not. Can’t you see that?”
Brian glanced her way. “Look, I didn’t want to say anything, but you had to know Huffy’s wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for our engagement party. But Marty’s a good friend and I know he’s being generous, so I’ll do it. I also agreed to a smaller wedding and living in the Dayton region, even though I’d be much closer to work in Cincinnati.”
Stunned, Marissa turned in her seat to look at him. “You’re the one who said Springboro was a good midpoint between both our jobs, and I don’t see why you can’t be happy about having a free, cozy, fun venue for our engagement party. I didn’t even expect or want an engagement party!”
“I chose Springboro because you only looked for a job in Dayton when you could just have easily looked for the same position in a similar school in Cincinnati. And I am happy about our engagement party—I’m just saying we can’t always get what we want. You’re leaving for an entire month almost as soon as we move in, even though we’ve barely spent time together lately as it is. Do you think I wanted that?”
Marissa stared at him. “You know why I want to work in Dayton. We discussed that a long time ago, when we first started dating. And I said yes to Ecuador only a month after we’d started dating and you barely blinked. You said you understood. The fact that you bring it up at all tells me you obviously didn’t.”
“I did. I do.” He sighed and reached for her hand, but Marissa had it bunched up into a fist and couldn’t seem to unclench it. “You’re right,” he said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. But you’re usually so easy to please, and now suddenly you’re fighting me at every turn. I’m just trying to show you I do consider you, and I do think of you, too.”
Marissa knew she was generally easy to please, but something about him saying it out loud that way troubled her. There were givers and takers, and she was very much a giver, easy to please because she enjoyed seeing the people she loved happy. And it had won her many good friends . . . and a few hurtful users. The users showed their true colors when she had to say no to something, or she had to put her foot down, but she had no problem walking away from them when they showed her what they really were like.