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“I didn’t talk about doing that, did I, bitch? Now do as your father tells you. Get dressed and get on with your chores. If you disrespect or disobey him again, I will take this to the next level. With great pleasure.”
Marisela looks at me as though I am going to defend her, but she is sadly mistaken. She turns back to Allegra and balls her fists at her sides. Allegra takes a fistful of her hair and drags her head back, hard and fast.
She leans in toward Marisela and whispers to her. The color drains from Marisela’s face, and Allegra hauls her to the bottom of the stairway.
“Move your little boy ass in its little boy pants and get fooking dressed. If you are not out of the house in fifteen minutes, I’ll kick that little boy ass all the way to the fooking highway.”
Marisela storms up the stairs, and Allegra makes a point of looking at her watch. She walks into the kitchen, stands beside me and kisses the top of my head.
“I will take her out to the back pasture sometime and show her the hole I have dug there. Well, Chips dug, but she doesn’t need to know that part. Coffee?” She sees the cup in the sink, scoops it up and throws it in the trash. Getting us both a fresh coffee, she sits at the table and is waiting for something to happen.
The front door slams, and Allegra checks her watch. “Twelve minutes. Better than I expected. If it had been me, I would have stood at the door until fourteen minutes and fifty-nine seconds. But that is just me. I will stay close to the house for the next few days. She will not take this lying down, I’m sure. Eat or drink nothing she prepares for you, and don’t ever turn your back on her. I think whatever she has in mind, she will try to do it sooner than later.”
“I wish, Allegra, I could prove you wrong about my daughter, but I don’t believe I can. I think she is back to do me harm and take what she can get from the ranch. I am only glad her momma isn’t here to see this.” I close my eyes tightly to stop the tears, but I can feel one track down my cheek. A gentle hand wipes it away, and when I open my eyes, I’m alone in my grief.
I go out to the barn and stables for the rest of the morning and see Marisela mucking out stalls and laying fresh straw in each. I’d like to say she works slowly and methodically, but the best way to describe it would be slowly and lazily. I know she sees me watching, but she makes no attempt at eye contact or to show any recognition.
Watching Allegra work the horses in the corral is a totally different ball game. That is watching someone take pleasure in what they do. She talks to the horse all the time and keeps petting and stroking it. I notice she takes far more care of Estrella’s horse than any other. I watch Allegra for an hour before thinking coffee is the order of the day.
In the kitchen, I wash out the old coffee from the pot, get rid of all the old dregs, and set fresh water to boil. I set two cups out but then decide to include a cup for Marisela. As I walk to the front door to call the two of them in, I hear a noise from upstairs. It sounds like a floorboard creaking, and after all these years I know that the only floorboards that creak inside the house are in my bedroom.
Walking quietly up the stairs, I hear drawers sliding open and closed. My closet doors whine because the hinges need oiling again. Something I keep meaning to do and then forgetting. Pushing my bedroom door open slowly, I see Marisela, her back to me, at my closet. There are several shelves on one side, and this is where I keep my memories of my beloved wife. Estrella’s jewelry box is among them.
Estrella didn’t have much jewelry, but what she did have was of good quality. I never bought her anything that you would call costume jewelry. If it was good enough for Estrella to wear on those rare occasions she wore anything, I always ensured it was the best. Her engagement and wedding rings are in the safe in my study. I don’t know why I didn’t have them buried with her, perhaps because she wasn’t wearing them the day she passed away. She always took them off when baking, and she had baked that day. Everything else was in the locked drawer of my desk, and had been there since the day Marisela arrived.
“Anything of value is kept at the bank. You’ll find nothing here that will slip into your thieving pockets.” She turns but doesn’t show any emotion at being caught.
“Momma’s jewelry is mine. It belongs to me now, and I want it. You can take me to the bank tomorrow and get it for me.” The coldness in her tone is terrible to listen to.
“I’ll do no such thing. Nothing in this house or at the bank belongs to you. If you’d stayed and worked for it, all this would have already been yours, but you want an easy life where everything is handed to you. Life is seldom like that, and not for folks like us.” She walks towards me, leaving the empty jewelry box open and the closet doors too. I refuse to move as she approaches and tell her to leave the room as she found it.
“Cold and empty, you mean?” She grins and goes to push by me.
I may be old, but I’m not that frail yet. She stops when she realizes I am not going to move. Her hand flashes to slap my face but I catch her wrist and squeeze. Her face distorts into one of pain immediately, and when I let her wrist go, it turns to shock.
“You hurt me! You’ve never put a hand on me before,” she whines while rubbing her wrist.
“No, and maybe that was my first mistake when you started down this selfish path. Now put my room straight and then get back to work. Your day is far from over, and you’ve now given me more to think about.” She spins around, marches to the closet, and does something I never saw coming. She drops the jewelry box and stamps on it.
“Pack your shit. Take what you want from your room, and you need to be gone before the evening meal. I don’t care where you go, who with or how far, but you’d best be gone by then.” I turn and walk toward the stairs. Halfway there, Allegra’s warning rings in my ears. ‘Don’t ever turn your back on her.’
I turn and see Marisela stalking toward me. Seeing me turn, she walks into her room instead, slamming the door. I was going to have a nasty fall on the stairs I realize, and I finally see Marisela warts and all.
Only a few minutes later, Marisela is downstairs and telling me that she is not leaving. She came for her inheritance and won’t leave without it. She begins demanding that I open the safe and give her all the cash that’s in there, along with the deeds to the ranch and everything on it.
That’s when I make the mistake of telling her I have sold the ranch and it no longer belongs to me. She doesn’t believe me at first, knowing that I would rather die on the ranch than sell it. Her momma is buried here, after all.
Seeing how much this has shocked her and knowing that she will never gain from the ranch, I smirk at her. “You are not in my will. When I die, I die penniless deliberately so that you get nothing. The will leaves no clause for you to contest. What you have now is all you’ll ever have from me or your momma.”
I see her body tense, and she lunges at the nearest thing she can grab, a small ornament. She throws it on the floor and grabs another. She begins screaming insults at me and smashing anything she can get her hands on.
I stand and watch her, and because I make no move to stop her, she screams louder. It is like the banshee wail of a dying witch. Amidst all this, her eyes turn on me and I see the cold, calculating look she gives me. She moves faster than I give her credit for, barrels into me, her hands clawing at my face then grabbing my throat before I get to stop her. She knocked the wind out of me and now, sitting on my chest, I find it hard to get my breath, her fingers restricting what little air I can get to my lungs. Everything begins to fade, and I think I’m finally going to be with Estrella.
Air. Oxygen. My mind begins to clear, and I move away from the light. Estrella wasn’t waiting for me, so it’s clearly not my time.
I hear the front door bang open against the frame and hear screaming fading away. I open my eyes and manage to sit up, still gasping. Looking out the door, I see Allegra dragging Marisela by the hair across the yard toward the ranch road.
They stop in the middle of the yard, and Allegra allows Marisela to get to her feet. As soon as she does, Marisela launches herself at Allegra. I can’t see what she does, but Marisela stops dead in her tracks, her head wobbles twice, as though absorbing punches and then she topples over backward, slamming into the ground. If she wasn’t unconscious before she hit the ground, I’d say she is now.
