for him. He still has his own place, but he’s rarely there. Life at my parent’s house is the easy street for him. Not for the rest of us, though, because now we have to live with him. Thank God for my job here on the Miller farm, so I have my own place. I’m not in the thick of it all the time like Nieves and Yesenia are.”
“Sooo…” Carla said hesitantly, not sure how to point out the obvious without being too blunt, “what does this have to do with him hating me because of my skin color?”
“Right. Like I said, I didn’t know that he hated all white women. I just thought he hated her. The woman who killed his family.”
Carla froze. She couldn’t breathe. Killed…?
“Not with an ax or something,” Christian said quickly. “She was driving. Not paying attention. She drifted into oncoming traffic and hit my aunt’s van head on. Tía Gabriela died instantly. My cousins lasted a few days but they hadn’t been buckled in. You know how it was in the 1980’s. Buckling up every time you got into a vehicle…it just wasn’t strict back then like it is now. They were thrown from the van. Even if they’d lived, they would’ve been vegetables. I was just a toddler when it happened. I don’t remember his wife, or his kids. Two boys. I’m sure we played together, but…”
He trailed off then, and Carla let him hold her and simply be for a moment. Even if he didn’t remember this, to lose two cousins and an aunt…
“I think that alone would’ve done my uncle in. But then, the county prosecutor decided not to go after the white woman. She was the wife of the bank president in town. My aunt and cousins were the relations of a poor Mexican family. The woman was sorry, and wasn’t that enough? It caused her a lot of trauma. Why, she had to go to therapy and everything!”
Carla snorted with horrified laughter. It wasn’t funny. Not funny in the slightest.
But the way he said it…
“My uncle has always ranted and raved about that woman. She destroyed his family. She ruined his life. I really thought he hated only her. I didn’t know…If there were signs that it spread beyond that to all white women in general, I missed it. When I was a kid, I called him The Snake – el Serpiente – in my mind. Quick to strike, and mean as a rattlesnake. I learned to stay out of his way early on. I’d always wondered if he was this mean his whole life, or if he’d changed because of the wreck and losing his family overnight. My father…” He sighed. “He always makes excuses for him. It doesn’t matter what he does or who he hurts, my papá will say that it isn’t Nicolás’ fault. Nicolás is the youngest of the family, and somehow, despite pushing 60, he still hasn’t grown up. He’s still the baby.”
Carla listened, worry growing inside of her as Christian spoke. No matter how sad his uncle’s story was – and it was heartbreaking – Carla couldn’t let him hurt her child. She would never allow that man around her children, no matter who he was related to.
“He can’t be around our kids,” Carla said softly, liking the sound of kids. As in, more than one. Would they have more children? God, she hoped so. She wanted a whole passel. “Our kids are going to be half-white. He’s going to hate them, isn’t he.” It was a statement, not a question, but still, Christian paused and then nodded, his nose rubbing against the back of her head with the movement.
“I wouldn’t have said yes before tonight. But now that I’ve seen him…I never thought he’d disown me. I’m the only son of his favorite brother. The few times in my life that he was nice to me, he told me that I looked like his younger son before the wreck. He says we have the same smile. It’s the only kind thing he’s ever said to me, but I still didn’t expect…Damn, I was stupid to agree to this party. Tonto. I don’t know why I believed my father when he promised that he’d make my uncle behave.”
“It was a nice party,” Carla said loyally. “Before…” She waved her hand in the air, encompassing the whole fight. “That,” she finished lamely. “Why are you talking about the Lone Ranger, though?”
“The what?” The bewilderment