It's Just Lola

by Dixiane Hallaj

  “I’ll get it.” Lola needed a minute. This was too much for her to take in all at once. She was surprised both that he was being so frank with her and that their opinions agreed so completely. Maybe the three husbands could manage as a team, but it would be a team dominated directly or indirectly by Victoria. She wondered once more about Victoria’s friendship with Jacoba.

  Lola nearly collided with Pilar, coming the other way with a tray holding the coffee and a snack. Pilar’s grin almost split her face in two.

  “I knew my little lamb would grow up to be special,” she said.

  “Pilar, you and Rosa must not say a word about this. Not a word—to anyone.”

  “What a waste of good gossip,” said Pilar with a chuckle.

  “Pilar, this isn’t a joke. Remember who is so angry she crushed the wine glass in her hand.”

  Pilar’s grin faded. “Yes, Señora,” she said gravely. “I’ll tell Rosa.”

  Lola returned to the library with the tray. “I think I’ve insured that stories of this evening’s conversation go no farther than Pilar and Rosa. No guarantees, of course.”

  “Of course,” said Enrique. He waited for her to pour the coffee before speaking. “Listen, Lola, I’m sorry it happened the way it did. I wanted to talk to you first, but I was sitting there drinking and thinking…” Enrique took a deep swallow of coffee and stared into his cup as though to find inspiration in its dark depths. “Ever since you first began to work in the distillery, I lamented that you weren’t a boy. You have a natural gift for the business end of our work.”

  “Papa, what makes you think that your youngest daughter, who is not very dynamic, and will never grow to full size, could possibly get the respect and loyalty of the men? Without that, I have nothing but an ability to keep books.”

  “You already have the respect and loyalty of the only man on this plantation who really counts.” Enrique smiled at his daughter and poured himself more coffee.

  Lola frowned. “Papa, I hope you live to be a hundred and Yousef grows to be a strong man under your tutelage, but consider the possibility that it won’t happen that way. I’m so proud to have earned your respect that I could burst, but the very meaning of the word ‘inherit’ means you won’t be here.”

  “Your answer shows that you know exactly what I’m doing. I intend to make your son my heir. We can train him together, but he’s still young and so many things can happen. You need to be ready to take over the reins.” Enrique chuckled. “And I meant you’ve earned the respect and loyalty of Juan, without whom this plantation would never have become what it is today.” Lola’s head was reeling, and she welcomed the long silence that followed.

  “Lola, what did you do when…when you were away?” It was Lola’s turn to take a deep swallow of coffee and stare into the cup for inspiration. Her father had been so open and candid with her tonight, how could she not respond in kind?

  “Juan claimed we were his cousins.” She smiled briefly. “He said that as descendants of Adam and Eve we were all cousins.” Her father’s answering smile pleased her. She tried to keep the tone light, and her mind became a small theater where she and Enriqueta acted out their parts. The words flowed from her mouth as the play became more and more real, and the audience faded into the darkness beyond the footlights. Tears flowed unheeded as she described the pain of walking for hours in shoes with paper-thin soles, searching for work. The tears dried as she told of the kindness of strangers who became friends. The taste of half-rotten vegetables mingled with the sweetness of a child’s kiss.

  Lola felt drained, as though the pain had left her body with the words. The library gradually began to reform around her. She stared at the dregs of the cold coffee.

  “So Mehmet came home and rescued a houseful of starving waifs by marrying you.”

  “No, by the time Mehmet came home we were doing much better. We had a clientele as dressmakers, and the doctor started paying me… Oh, I forgot to mention that I trained with the doctor who delivered Estela. I wanted to learn about midwifery, but I helped with everything—I even delivered a few babies.” Lola stopped talking.

  “And then?”

  “And then I married Mehmet and we lived happily ever after…almost.” Tears trickled down her cheeks

  “All right, child. We will speak further tomorrow.” Lola wiped her eyes and rose to leave. “When you write to Enriqueta this week, ask her to sew you a couple of those split skirts that women wear for riding astride—and tell her to make it a hand span above the ankles. It’s time you learned more about the fields, and I won’t have my heiress riding about in last year’s fashions.”

  After an instant, Lola burst into laughter. “Just when I think you can’t give me any greater surprises…” She couldn’t finish her sentence as laughter bubbled up again.

  “Newspapers tell of more than rising tensions in Europe, you know,” said her father as he waved her out of the room.

  “Papa,” Lola said softly with her hand on the doorknob, “thank you for the money for the doctor. I’m sure that wretched man would’ve made us give birth on a pile of straw like barnyard animals without it.” Her father acknowledged her words with a short nod. She understood—the conversation was closed.

  Lola stayed awake long after going to bed that night. She thought of her mother for the first time in years. She wondered if the man she had been talking with tonight was like the man who had brought her mother across an ocean in search of a better future.

  The next morning Juan was waiting for her when she went to her office.

  He closed the door behind them. “I’m going to the city today, and your father said you wanted to send a note to your sister.”

  “Today? He thinks the note deserves a special trip?” Lola was pleased to think that her father was impatient to ride the fields with her.

  “I have other errands as well.” Juan seemed agitated as he sat in his chair, crossing and recrossing his legs.

  “Is everything all right?” asked Lola as she wrote.

  “Fine. Could you give me directions to the house?”

  “You know you could have found us any time. We sewed for your cousin long after we left his house,” said Lola as she sketched a map.

  “I know that, and I think your father knew it as well. However, I had to be able to tell him that I didn’t know where you were—and I’ve never lied to him.” Juan smiled. “By the way, your father’s planning to get a sewing machine.”

  “Great! Enriqueta has the original receipt for one we bought from your cousin. It shows the amount as well as the address of the place he bought it.” Lola was thrilled. The children grew so fast it was hard to keep up with them. Every time she sat down to sew, she thought about how much faster she could do it with a sewing machine.

  The next few days passed slowly. She didn’t see Juan, but their paths did not always cross on a daily basis. Evening meals were subdued and Lola said little, trying to avoid reminding Jacoba of her presence. To Lola’s relief, her father seemed distracted and skipped their evening meetings. She spent time reading her father’s medical books. When he learned of her interest, he encouraged her to read anything that she liked. She was delighted to find that, in addition to his texts from medical school, her father had many newer volumes. She was also pleased to find a collection of books on veterinary medicine that she intended to tackle later.

  “May I come in?”

  “Of course.” Lola smiled at the sound of Juan’s voice.

  “I just got back this morning.” At Lola’s look of surprise he explained that he’d been enjoying a visit with his two older sons and had made arrangements for the younger ones to enroll in school the following year. The eldest would be finished this year and was planning to come back to work on the plantation—all good news in Lola’s eyes.

  “That was the pleasant part of the trip.” Juan removed his hat and sat down.

  “Has something happened to Enriqueta or Blanca?”

  “No, they’re fin
e and send their love.” He began turning the hat between his hands. “I disobeyed your father’s direct orders for the first time in my life.” His hat twisted faster.

  “In the city?” He nodded.

  “It’s hard to know where to begin. Before I went to town, your father sent for me, and I worried when I saw how angry he was.” After several false starts, the words tumbled out of Juan’s mouth. “You know he sent money for doctors and a little more to insure your good treatment. Later, by the time the babies should have been old enough to be left with a nursemaid, he gave me more money for you. I was to give my cousin the money so you wouldn’t know it came from your father. My cousin was to find you two a suitable place to live and pay six months’ rent. The rest should have been enough for you to live a simple life for several months. He wanted you to work for your living without being forced into…anything unsavory.”

  Six months? The enormity of it took Lola’s breath away, but she moved quickly from astonishment to anger. Anger at her father for waiting until too late, anger at Juan for believing his cousin, anger at Fate for letting it happen. The anger passed in a flash and was replaced by outrage. “That despicable man stole it?”

  “I’m afraid so. Oh, Señora Lola, you have no idea how much it pains me to tell you this. I’ll never forgive myself for letting that sorry excuse for a man have so much power over you. Your father told me you were reduced to eating rotting food that wasn’t fit to sell. Why didn’t you contact me? You know I would’ve made sure you had enough to eat. I can’t imagine how awful it must’ve been for you. I don’t expect you to forgive that.”

  “Juan, there’s nothing to forgive. He fed us well enough and he didn’t beat us. Because of him, we found out how much worse things could’ve been. Please, Juan, believe me when I say we appreciate what you did for us. Besides,” Lola smiled at Juan, “Enriqueta and I might never have learned to stand on our own feet if we knew we could always run for help when we got into a little trouble. Consider the topic closed.” She reached for a ledger.

  “Thank you, Señora, but there’s more.” Lola looked up. “When your father learned that you hadn’t received the money, he was enraged. Luckily, we’ve known each other long enough that he didn’t suspect me of the theft.” Juan’s hat was being punished. “Your father ordered me to get back the amount that man stole from you…and then I was to stuff his mouth with rotten vegetables until he choked to death.” Juan’s face was distorted with anguish.

  “He asked you to kill your own cousin?”

  “Señora, don’t judge your father too harshly. Try to imagine how you’d feel if it had been your children eating garbage. I couldn’t argue against his anger, but neither could I kill a man in cold blood. I took my sons with me, intending to give my cousin a good beating. His wife opened the door, dressed all fancy and trying to act as though she’d been born a lady, and she directed us to the factory behind the house.”

  “A factory?”

  “Señora, I was angry at his dishonesty and at what he did to you; I was angry at how he besmirched our family honor; I was even angry that I had to share so much of the story with my own sons because I needed to have them back me up with strength. However, all that anger was overshadowed by the disgust I felt when I entered the so-called factory. We opened the door and I nearly gagged from the smell. There were at least a dozen pathetic looking women bent over sewing machines. Señora, you can’t imagine what I saw on their faces.”

  “Yes, Juan, I can. I’ve seen women like that—desperate for money to feed their children. He didn’t treat us badly, compared to the others—but it was bad enough.”

  “I won’t burden you with the arguments I had with myself or my extreme suffering as I contemplated disobeying your father. In the end, I had him sign over the building and the sewing machines in satisfaction of the debt. He’ll continue to manage the factory, with improved conditions. My son will manage the finances and keep check on the state of the factory. Any attempt to cheat us or to mistreat his workers in the future will result in his imprisonment.”

  “That sounds fair,” Lola said.

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I disobeyed your father. I not only let that miserable wretch live, but I’m allowing him to continue to earn enough to live off his ill gotten gains.”

  “Won’t Papa know when you don’t bring him the money?”

  “I have a large family.” Juan gave a wry smile. “A family that is now officially smaller by one. We have disowned that miserable bastard, begging your pardon, Señora. I borrowed a little from each cousin. I told them it was to pay for school for my sons. I’ll repay them out of the money my eldest son collects from the factory.”

  “You thought of everything, Juan.”

  “Except for my guilt and my worry about telling your father.”

  “Juan, you once told me about committing a small sin to prevent a greater evil. This is one of those times. If you’d killed the man, you would certainly have given all the women who worked there a death sentence as well.” She willed him to believe her. “And you would have lost something more important—your immortal soul. The money was stolen from Enriqueta and from me, and we forgive you. You don’t have to lie to my father, just hand him the money and say the experience was too painful for you to talk about it.”

  “I’m forever in your debt,” said Juan as he rose and left the office.

  Lola was still staring at the door when Juan came back. “I almost forgot.” He handed her a letter and a small package.

  The letter was from Enriqueta. Lola smiled as she read the single line, “Tell Papa I love him.”

  The package was from James. Inside she found a book with a note, almost as short as Enriqueta’s letter. “I hope you enjoy this translation of Shakespeare.” Lola almost laughed because the letter sounded exactly like James—terse and awkward.

  After dinner that evening Lola found that Juan had also brought the requested sewing machine. To her surprise, Jacoba seemed pleased as well, and accepted Lola’s offer to show her how to use it.

  When Lola went to her room that evening, there was another package on her bed. Enriqueta had managed to sew two split skirts—exactly as she had asked. She tried one on. It felt strange. She looked in her mirror and the short skirt looked odd to her. She knew her father was right about the length because she, too, had noticed that hemlines had changed. Nevertheless, it felt strange to her, and it looked strange as well. Would she have the nerve to wear it? She laughed at herself. What kind of modern woman was she to feel anxious about appearing in fashionable clothes?

  The next morning Lola was awakened by a tap on her door. When she opened the door, she found a beautiful pair of riding boots with a note from her father asking her to join him for a morning ride. Lola felt much better about the length of the skirt when she was wearing riding boots, but she moved stiffly. It felt weird having skirt between her legs as she walked.

  Lola began riding with her father in the cool of the morning, being stuffed with facts about every aspect of the land, the crops, the men, and anything else her father thought she should know. After her ride, she returned to the house to wash off the smell of horse and change her clothes. She ate a meal upstairs with the children and read to them before they settled down for their siestas. Then she hurried to her office to deal with her bookkeeping duties. She spent any remaining spare time reading about medicine or agriculture, saving Shakespeare for bedtime reading.

  A week later Enrique was especially cheerful when he came to dinner. After they were served, he cleared his throat and everyone looked up expectantly. “It seems that Victoria has sunk her teeth into the rail project. She decided to host a party for all the neighbors as an opening for the Christmas season. I believe she’s going to invite Juana and Maria to come as well and to stay through Christmas.”

  “How lovely,” said Lola. Even though she was sincere in her desire to see Juana and Maria, she had difficulty not crying when she thought of Enriqueta—the
only sister to be excluded. Later that night she vented her anger in a letter to Enriqueta. “Who knows? Her children may be concert-ready by then, to hear her tell it.” Then she tore up the letter and wrote another one that described how Yousef was learning to recognize the letters as Estela was learning to write them.

  Preparing for the Christmas event was a welcome diversion. She traded sketches and ideas with Jacoba, startled to find the woman both intelligent and articulate, given a topic in which she had an interest. Lola began to consider her more of an enigma than a person to be avoided at all costs. Perhaps they could get along after all.

  Lola occasionally excused herself from evenings in the library, claiming she was tired and needed to spend more time with the children. She even suggested that her father start playing chess again, which clearly surprised him.

  The months passed in a haze of hard work and happiness. Lola loved riding with her father, and it delighted her when she was able to make useful suggestions. She appreciated her father’s agreement not to praise her in front of Jacoba, or discuss business at dinner.

  Time passed so quickly that Lola was pleasantly surprised when Rosa said James was back and would be joining them at dinner. She hadn’t really missed him, but she found herself looking forward to seeing him again. She listened with interest as he told Enrique of the work he had just finished. She asked a few questions and was puzzled when he addressed his answers to Enrique. After dinner the men rose and went to the library. Lola told herself that it was a good opportunity to write in the journal she used to note down the new information she was learning each day, but she could not get over a feeling that she had been rebuffed.

  The next afternoon a tap on the office door interrupted her work.