Starburst (16 page)

“Dad,
can I borrow your car?” she asked, and he looked surprised.

“Where
do you want to go?” he asked, sliding the dark framed glasses from his face.

“I
want to go see Maria, and put some fresh flowers on her resting place. Today is
four years since she passed.” Alley replied she was never able to say the word
grave, it sounded too scary, and it reminded her of her never coming back, so
she had decided that resting was a much better coping word.

“Alley
I can’t let you just take the car, not with the way you have been acting here
lately,” he replied, and then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Of course, she was
upset over Maria, that is why she slept in her bed and that was why she was so
sad.

“Can
Simon drive me?”

“How
about I take you, I gave Simon the day off to watch his grandson play
baseball.”

“When
can we go?” she wanted to know, wanting to go right that moment.

“Can
I have an hour?” he asked, looking at the work in front of him.

“Yeah
that will be fine. I’m going to take a shower.” Before she left she noticed
that the housekeeper was there, and when she passed her carrying a roll of
paper towels and some Windex, Alley stopped her.

“Es’
mi azul camiseta limpiar aún?” she asked, like she had spoken her language, her
entire life and her dad looked at her with an astonished look as he waited for
Juanita to answer.

She
never answered and disappeared to the laundry room and returned with a blue
t-shirt hanging on a hanger.

“Gracias,”
she said and smiled at her. It wasn’t her shirt at all, it was Trevas’s and she
felt the need to wear it.

“De
nada,” Juanita replied and returned the smile, continuing with her work.

Trevas
finally decided that he should answer Chase’s call and get back to work.

“Evans,”
he answered.

“I
thought you fell off the face of the earth.”

“No,
just been busy, what’s up?”

“Are
you done with the Fletcher girl?” he asked.

“Yeah
finished up last Friday,” he replied and then repeated Chase’s words in his
head
, Done with the Fletcher girl.

“Then
why the hell are you not answering your phone?”

“I
told you, I have been busy. I had to do an escort to and from New York and just
got back last night,” he lied.

“Anything
going on this week?” he asked and Trevas new that he had something for him and
dreaded the thought, but knew that he had to get back to work.

“Not
really, what do you have?”

“Lilly
Seri’s birthday party, it will be at the castle with a two hundred count guest
list. You can either work the gate or mingle inside, I need seven guys, and I
think there will be some others there from Ball Security as well.

“When
is it?”

“Friday
night.”

“Yeah,
sure I will be there,” he volunteered, at least it wasn’t a weeklong stay away,
he thought.

Fletcher
was ready and waiting on Alley to come down. She had taken a shower and then
packed the things that she wanted to take when her mom got there. She couldn’t
wait and hoped being out of this house would help with seeing Trevas
everywhere. She wondered if she would come and get her in the middle of the
night or if she would wait until morning.

“Ready?”
her dad asked as she descended the stairs wearing dark skinny jeans, Trevas’s
too big, t-shirt tied in a knot toward the side just below her hips and the
combat boots.

Once
they were in the car, Alley realized she had forgotten her escape route, and
her MP3 player was still lying on her bed.

It
was silent for a few minutes as her dad drove them toward Lennox Cemetery,
where Maria was resting, but it didn’t last long and she rolled her eyes
without him seeing, at him wanting to have a conversation.

“Where
did you learn to speak Spanish like that? I’m highly impressed.”

“Dad,
I was raised by a Spanish girl, and I took it in school since the sixth grade.”

“Can
you speak it fluently?”

“Yes…”
she said with a little sarcasm. “If I couldn’t after that many years I would
feel like a real idiot.”

“Is
that the only other language you can speak,” he asked.

“No,”
she replied with only that.

“Are
you going to tell me what other one you can speak?”

“Mandarin
and German,” she replied, with only that again.

“You
are pulling my leg, right?”

She
looked over to him, and he knew that she was not, and he felt enormously guilty
for not knowing this about her.

“Yeah
because I would joke about speaking a foreign language because it is
hysterical,” she said in her normal teenage attitude tone.

“Alex
May Fletcher, are you seriously telling me that you can speak four languages,
fluently?”

“Dad, I have spent
most of my life alone. I had to do something to keep from going crazy.”

“We did leave you
alone a lot, didn’t we?” he asked, feeling guilty.

“It’s okay, I had
Maria.”

“I can understand the
Spanish, but why the Mandarin and German?” he asked, curious about his daughter
for the first time in her life. He really thought she spent so much time in her
room listening to rap and surfing the internet. He had no idea.

“Mandarin is spoken in
several countries, not just china, and they speak German in Switzerland. I
always wanted to go there.”

“Wait, Mandarin is
Chinese?” he asked.

“Sort of, but a little
more complex.”

“Tell me something in
German, I’ve always loved to hear them talk,” he requested, and she actually
laughed a little.

“No,”
she retorted.

“Come
on, just tell me that I look nice today,” he teased with her.

Alley
looked at him briefly with half a grin, debating on whether to say it or not. “Sie
sehen heute gut,” she spit it out, and she didn’t even have to think about it.

Fletcher
laughed loudly. I love that Alley. You know Peanut Silks has some Chinese lines
in this movie, don’t you? It would be so easy for you.”

“Dad,
don’t start that again. I’m not going to be in a movie.”

“Will
you at least think about it?”

“No.”

Fletcher
took a deep breath and turned in between the two stoned angels that would take
them to where Maria was buried.

“Which
way do I go from here?” he asked, having no clue of which path to turn on in
the massive cemetery.

Alley
looked around to figure out where they were and where they needed to go. “Go
straight, until we get to the loop,” she explained.

Fletcher
drove to the center loop that looked like a spider with its legs sticking out
as the paths from its body.

“This
is good,” she said, and he stopped.

“Do
you want me to come?” he asked, and she gave him a frown.

“No,
I would rather go myself,” she said, getting out and taking the bouquet of
fresh Lillie’s from the back seat. Lillie’s were Marie’s favorite, and anytime
that they were out she had to stop and pick up a fresh bouquet. Alley knew the
street vendor very well and ever since she was a little girl he would pull a
single pink tulip from his cart and hand it to her. He always told her that
Tulips were for princesses. She wondered where the man was now and if he was
still selling fresh flowers from a cart in west LA.

Alley
walked where Fletcher could have driven but, he knew she didn’t want him to be
able to see her and he waited. He walked around the blacktop and called his
co-director.

“Hey
Fletch,” Lidia answered.

“You
are not going to believe what my daughter just did.”

“She
said yes to the movie,” Lidia exclaimed, excited.

“No,
but she really, really needs to do this. She just fluently spoke German to me.
She speaks four God damn languages Lidia, and she is a pro at it. Who would
have thought?”

“Why
the hell are you telling me this if she won’t do it?”

“I
don’t know, I guess I’m dumbfounded. We wouldn’t even have to get a voice to do
those parts.”

“Keep
working on her, she would blow this away.”

“Her
mom is picking her up late tonight or first thing in the morning. I will get
her on it.”

Fletcher
continued to talk to Lidia and Alley walked right to the tombstone, where she
found the stone with Maria’s picture and her name.

                                                 
‘Maria Quinn Sanchez’

                                                           
1975 -2008

“Hey
Maria,” she began. “I brought your favorite flowers,” she spoke and dusted the
top of the gray marble with her hand. She sat beside of the grave and pulled
her legs to her chest. “I miss you so much Maria. Things have really gotten
crazy around here. I need you more now than ever. I needed you to be here for
me when I fell in love, and hold my hand through it.”

Alley
placed her hand delicately in the middle of the gravesite, and couldn’t believe
how much she missed her. “I really don’t know about all of this heaven and
angel stuff, but if you are looking down on me, like you promised, then you
have seen Trevas. Maria he is the only thing that I want in this life, and he
doesn’t want me. I know my parents would never allow it, but I’m almost eighteen,
they can’t stop me, right?”

 She
spoke to Maria as if she was sitting in a chair right next to her. “Can you
believe that I’m almost eighteen? You would be proud Maria, well… I’m sure
there would be some things that you wouldn’t be proud about,” she added. “But I
did what you told me to do, and I didn’t get below an A for the past four
years. I have often thought about the advice that you used to give me, like doing
the best at this moment so that it will put me in the best place for the next
moment. I haven’t quite mastered it with people yet though,” she laughed.

“I
wished someone would have told me how much this was going to hurt. It’s truly
as bad as when I lost you, maybe even worse because I know he is still here and
won’t talk to me. If you were here, you wouldn’t go a day without talking to
me. I just don’t understand it Maria and I don’t know what to do.”

Alley
was in tears, and she sobbed talking to her friend like she was right there. Fletcher
wondered how much longer she would be and wondered what she could be doing for
forty-five minutes.

Alley
was back to her depressed, sobbing self and locked herself back in her room,
wishing that her mom would hurry up. Fletcher just shook his head in
frustration, and hoped that after this day of her mourning the loss of Maria,
she would get better.

Alley
tried to call Trevas again. He was sitting in his new favorite chair watching a
cooking show. He looked down and shook his head. He wanted to answer and tell
her to stop, but he didn’t because he couldn’t stand the thought of hurting her
any more than he already had.

He
waited for the message, and unlike the other times where he erased it before
listening to it; he didn’t, and could only close his eyes and take a deep
breath at the sound of her voice.

“Trevas
please talk to me. You don’t have to want me. I’m okay with that, I just need
to talk to you. Why won’t you just talk to me? I don’t understand Trevas.
Please call me back.”

Trevas
could tell that she had been crying, and he listened to it over and over and
over, tormenting himself with her hurting voice. It hurt him just as bad as it
was hurting her, and he deserved that. He deserved to feel every bit of what
she was feeling and more.

Alley
again let the exhaustion take over and she fell asleep, dressed and still in
her shoes, waiting for her mother. Her mom had talked to her dad, and when she
woke he told her that he would take her there when she was ready, and of course
she was ready right that second.

Peyton
was surprised to see how bad she looked as well, and could tell that she had
lost weight from her already too thin body. The dark circles were back, and her
hair was un-combed. She gave her a weak hug and carried her duffle bag up to
her room.

Her
room at her mom’s was bigger than the one at her dads, and she had a sitting
area with a leather loveseat and a big screen television. Her desktop computer
was also bigger than most, and her white Vincanta bedroom suit was trimmed in
shiny gold. She did have framed pictures on the walls there, but, not of teen
hotties or movie posters, but framed portraits of Ireland and Switzerland. The
walls were a deep burgundy, and the bedding and curtains were a green and gold
pattern. Her bathroom there was also a lot bigger, and un-like her bathroom at
her dad’s with only a shower, she had a jet stream tub, and she couldn’t wait
to get back in it.

“Damn
Fletcher, she looks like she’s been to hell and back,” Peyton told Fletcher
after she had left them.

“Yeah,
but I think I know what is up with her now,” he admitted.

“What?
Please fill me in,” she asked, curious at what could make her this way.

“I
think it’s Maria, she slept in her room the night before last, and I took her
to her gravesite yesterday where she spent almost an hour. Yesterday was four
years now that she passed.”

“I
don’t think so, I mean why now on the fourth year? She didn’t act this way last
year, did she?” she asked, doubting herself, and wondered if she was even home
then.

“I’m
not sure that I was home then,” he answered the same question that she had been
asking herself.

Alley
was sitting on the loveseat with her e-reader, thumbing thru something to read
when her mother joined her on the sofa.

“I’m
so glad you’re home.” She tried to put her arm around her but Alley pulled
away.

“Tell
me what’s bothering you Alley,” her mom pleaded, and Alley looked at her like
she was going to open up, and she almost, did but the logical part of her brain
stepped in and she didn’t. She tightened her lips and twisted her mouth to the
side instead.