Gen 1.18 An Argument and a hastily planned trip

The next afternoon Lupe got to the coffee shop nice and early. She sat at a variety of tables, trying to find the perfect one, but her restless energy got the best of her and she began to browse the Friends of Meadow Glen Library resale shelves. Florita was ten minutes late, as usual, and walked up to Lupe with big smiles and fake cheer exclaiming, "Lupecita, such a treat seeing you twice in a week!" she grasped Lupe's shoulders in a facsimile of a hug, bumping cheekbones with her while making a "mwah" sound. Lupe felt overwhelmed with the closeness, her baby name, and her mother's gardenia perfume. It was all the right words with none of sentiment. "Mother" she replied, acknowledging Florita. Years of anger and resentment were threatening to come boiling out.

Lupe took a deep breath to center herself, "Ash saw you and Shane arrive together, mother." she said coldly.

"Mija, he was just being nice! When you're in the room, I don't exist..." Lupe almost believed it, but she saw the way Florita looked away and gave a nervous laugh.

"Men who are 'being nice' don't touch women's hair they aren't with or help women out of their cars."

"What do you want me to say, Lupe? He's my boyfriend. He didn't want to tell you. Are you happy?" Florita said snappily.

"You're so lazy, you can't even find your own men! You have to go taking mine instead! I couldn't even have boys that were friends over or you'd come out in something slinky asking me to zip you or needing help with a jewelry clasp. I never wanted anything that you had. You killed Dad with that, you know? He worshipped you and worked so hard to keep you happy, but it was never enough. You had to steal my youth, my friends, my boyfriends! Did you ever sleep with Mike's friends too? Did Anna leave because of you? We're through, Florita. I'm not your retirement plan."

When she got home, Lupe still had a head full of steam. She sat down at the computer to do some work and spotted an ad on her homepage. It featured a pyramid and a palm tree with scantily clad people in gold lame costumes at card tables. It was for the new casino in Las Vegas, but it put Egypt into Lupe's mind. Florita would go to Vegas and stay at the Egyptian and come home talking about how elegant it was and how fun it was and how much money she'd won. Lupe would go to Egypt and see the actual pyramids. She would come home with carpets and pictures and a papyrus scroll to hang on the wall. She would do traveling right. She would meet locals and go on historical tours. She would do everything that Florita would find dull. She consulted her calendar and the school calendar and before she'd really processed it, she'd booked them a trip to Egypt.

Was she really going to do this? Did she really book a trip to get back at her mother? Did it matter? At dinner that night, she drummed up enthusiasm telling Hazel, Ash, and Damaris about it while trying not to feel bad she wasn't taking Damaris too. Both girls would do better for the breather, she thought. Throughout dinner her phone pulsed in her pocket.

After getting Ash to bed and giving Damaris a lift home, Lupe finally checked her phone. She had fifteen missed calls. Ten were from her mother. Three were from Shane. Two were from her brother. In looking over her texts she saw her mother had written her a book justifying her actions and turning it all around on Lupe. She had a few texts from Shane apologizing and informing her that this is not how he wanted things to go down. He also said that he understood if she didn't want to talk to him but not to keep Hazel from him. She almost wrote back, "What makes you think she'd want to see you after she knows you're with her grandmother?!" and then stopped herself. Mike's texts just said, "What's going on? Call me!!"

Lupe decided to start by calling Mike. He answered on the first ring, "What did you say to Mom!? She's over here and she's not making any sense! She's just wailing about how she can't do anything right with you and it's not her fault."

Mincing no words, Lupe began, "She's seeing Shane, she didn't tell me. She didn't tell anyone. She told him not to tell anyone! My mother and the father of my child! It's disgusting! You know how I found out? Ash saw them. My son saw his grandmother kissing his sister's father."

Mike gave a long-suffering sigh. "Were you seeing him, Lupe?"

Lupe was exasperated, "No, but that's besides the point! She always had to go and flaunt herself to my boyfriends and your friends, like their looking at her would make her young again or score points against me. She slept with the youth minister at church! Dad caught her with him! And he still forgave her. He blamed himself, that if he wasn't working so much she wouldn't sleep around. This isn't the first time she's done this, Mikey." She took a breath, surprised by the vitriol. It felt like lancing a boil.

There was a long pause and some wet breathing on the other side of the line. Finally, Mikey spoke, "I know, I remember. She was very inappropriate with our friends growing up. She... You remember Dave? My best friend? His mom refused to let him come over any more after seventh grade when she came to pick him up and Mom was wearing that pink robe with the feather trim."

While Mike was in a talking mood, Lupe asked, "What happened with Anna?"

"It was dumb. I was dumb. I didn't know that she was constantly in Anna's ear about how she wasn't good enough for me and calling her a 'sweet negrita' and playing dumb when Anna got upset about it. She'd say things to Maya when she was a baby about how mama was cafe and daddy was leche and she was cafe con leche, but that was ok because maybe she'd have a baby brother or sister who would be leche con cafe. I was away for work a lot and she'd get in my ear about Anna visiting friends and relatives and was I sure I could trust her. She tarred her with her own brush! I became convinced that she was cheating! I'd come home early or stay out late to try and catch her and drove her away. She was right to leave me; I wasn't abusive, but I was getting there."

"I'm sorry, Mikey." breathed Lupe. She hadn't counted on how their mother would deal with being second to someone else in her son's life. Lupe didn't know if Mike was seeing anyone currently, he seemed to be all in on work and raising Maya. Maybe once she was grown, he'd start looking again.

After they got off the phone, Lupe checked her voicemails. Her mother had left a range of them. There were a few where she was up on a high horse lecturing Lupe about how dare she treat her mother that way! She was just a poor widow woman trying to find her way in the world and now her daughter wanted to steal her happiness! There were a few in a towering rage about how ungrateful Lupe was for being angry with her for seeing Shane after Florita gave her life and raised her at great personal expense. And, of course, a few acting like nothing was wrong at all saying simply, "Hello Lupe, I just wanted to say 'Hi!' Call me when you get a chance!" All of these messages were mixed up together with no relation to each other, no cycle, just trying for a reaction. Lupe deleted them all and settled in at her computer researching travel tips for their upcoming vacation.

Author's note: Sorry about the delay in chapters. Things are a bit hectic around here IRL so bear with me. It's also getting harder to write as the kids get older I find I have divided loyalties between setting up the next generation and properly sending off the previous one.