“You didn't use Close-up,” Allain observed.
“Probably he didn't even brush his teeth, yech!” I said dryly. Laughing and kidding one another, we walked through our home gate.
Averill ran to give me my cellphone, which was playing “You'll Be Safe Here” over and over again. I tucked the bottle under my arm and put the phone to my ear after glancing at the caller ID. It was a number not in my directory.
“Hello, this is Adriel. Who's calling, please?”
“Hello, Rye?”
I almost dropped both phone and bottle in surprise. Ian rescued the bottle and shook a finger at me. I ignored him.
“Bryan?!”
He chuckled that throaty chuckle.
“It's me, babe.”
“Hi! You called?”
“You preferred me not to? Anything happen over there in the past three days to change your mind about me?” he teased.
I laughed.
“No, no. I just didn't expect you to call this soon, that's all.”
“I missed you, you know…” he said in that wonderfully low and tender voice that never failed to melt a girl's heart.
“Oh, really?”
“Really. Like Shy, I loaded up, just in case.”
“Oh, Bryan…”
“It's for you, babe, so what's the problem?” he asked in a plaintive voice.
“Nothing. I'm touched!” I heard him chuckle. “So what's up? What are you doing?”
Over the next few minutes Bryan described what the gang had managed to do in the past few days since I had left. To hear him tell it, it seemed they had been more of a riot than usual.
“We're going to the beach tomorrow,” he ended. “Sure wish you could come, babe. Suppose you came up just for the day?”
“Sorry, Brye, no can do. Even if I wanted to, I don't think Mom and Dad would let me,” I said wistfully.
“Shucks. Even only just this once?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry, sweetie.”
“Tough luck,” he said. “Well? You're not bored to death down there yet?”
“I try like hell not to be,” I said softly. “Wish you and the others could come down here sometime.”
“Why not? We can take Connie's van.”
“Really? When?”
“Sorry, babe, I can't say for sure yet. Not now, anyway. We'll all talk it over first. We'll call you when we decide. Promise.”
“That's really and truly a promise, Brye?”
“It's really and truly a promise.”
“Lovelove!” Ian was calling from the kitchen.
“Ian's calling me,” I said. “I guess lunch is ready.”
I could hear the laughter in Bryan's voice.
“That's okay, babe. I think my phone's going battery low anyway. I'll just call you again sometime. Eat well.”
“Bye, Bryan.”
“Bye, babe. Love you.”
I ended the call and put the cellphone on the living room table then went into the kitchen. Mom was stirring something in a pot on the stove. I sniffed the air. Lunch was almost ready.
Ian was peeling potatoes.
“Hey pal, I think this is your job,” he said to me.
“Don't start something you can't finish,” I told him. I was more interested in Mom and Dad's conversation. Dad had been saying something about Uncle Freddie when I came in. I went and sat down near him and Mom, tuning in on what they were talking about.
“What was that about Uncle Freddie, Dad?” I inquired.
Dad shrugged.
“Nothing much. Just that I saw his ex-fiancée this morning. I drove to town for some supplies and she was in her garden with her daughter.” He shook his head. “It had always been a mystery to me why Freddie broke up with her, when he had always been tagging after her since we were little, she was that beautiful. I was only in college then, so I didn't know much about what happened here.” He shook his head.
“Why did they break up?” Ian had only just caught on to the fact that we were talking about Ciara's mother.
Dad and Mom exchanged glances. I could tell they didn't like the conversation, but since they knew we were already a few jumps ahead of them when they were our age, they were always honest with us.
“For one thing, people had always thought that Freddie shouldn't marry her. She was the most beautiful girl in the barrio, but she wasn't rich and she came from a broken home. So nobody wondered much when Freddie finally broke up with her and started seeing Linda Marquez instead. She wasn't as pretty, but she was better off than Mina and she came from a respectable family.”
I felt indignant. How snobbish could people be, even if they are related to you and had already been dead for seventeen years?
“I guess your father and I were the only ones who wondered, because we knew how much they loved each other. Then Mina immediately got married to her childhood best friend, Martin Flores,” Mom said. “They had a son almost at once, and after he was born, well--- people began speculating if the child really was Martin's. Some believed it was Freddie's son.”
This was a shock. Michael--- disagreeable, arrogant Michael--- my cousin? Yuck! I didn't like the idea one bit!
Uncle Freddie, so the story went, didn't marry Linda at once. Michael was almost a year old when Uncle Freddie announced his wedding. But on the morning of his wedding day, he was found dead on a settee on the verandah, presumably of bangungot (nightmares)- a common cause of death according to local belief. His best friend and future brother-in-law reported that Uncle Freddie had talked with Mina the evening before, and that she had told him the truth about her son's parentage, but Mina denied it all.
Dad shook his head. “When I saw her daughter, it was like seeing Mina all over again. She looked exactly the same way her mother did when she was younger, even down to the long straight hair!” he said.
Mom began to tease Dad about having a crush on Mina when he was younger, although Mina was about four years older than they were. We weren't listening anymore. Allain and I exchanged glances then looked at Ian meaningfully- Ian, who resembled Dad the most and therefore must resemble Uncle Freddie too. Ian glared at the two of us.
The moment was disrupted only when Averill came charging into the kitchen to demand his lunch. Conversation abruptly changed tack and the topic of Uncle Freddie and Mina was dismissed.
