get ready to hit ignore on the call until the number catches my attention. Relief washes through me.
It’s my father’s sister. I’ve been trying to get in touch with her for months. From the way my grandmother told it, my aunt and father spent a lot of time around the business when my grandfather ran things.
Hopefully, she can help.
With a sigh, I answer. “Hello.”
“Cherone, what has happened?” she says in Spanish.
My anxiety shoots through the roof. My Spanish is terrible. Okay, wait. My father and aunt are Dominican. So, the Spanish I speak is totally foreign to her.
I hate going to DR. My dialogue is one of the first things that’s pointed out. So much so that I don’t speak to anyone while there.
They have come to think I’m rude and think I’m better than everyone, but it’s been my way to not feel completely embarrassed in front of everyone and my father.
“Roni, Aunt Grissel, you can call me Roni.”
“Ay, tell me what’s happened. Is it true? Your father is gone? What has happened to my brother?”
I swallow past the lump in my throat. For only a single moment, I’ve forgotten my loss and the pain. It’s like having alcohol tossed into an open wound as she brings up the stark reminder.
“He’s gone,” I murmur.
“Gone, what do you mean gone?” she asks before going into full Spanish as she freaks out. “How? Why?”
Tears slide down my cheeks. I don’t know how to say the words out loud. I still don’t believe them. Every time I have to say them, I swear I’ve stabbed myself with a sword—or at least it feels that way.
For my aunt, I fall on that sword once more. “He had a heart attack.”
“What? No, you can’t be serious. I was away. I’ve been traveling. I had no idea.
“Dios mío, Roni. You must be devastated. Cariño… I… I don’t know what to say. Eliam has always been so healthy. Mi hermano.” Our sobs mix as I release the pain, I’ve been feeling.
Three months and it’s still so fresh. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what to do. His business… what do I do with it?”
“Oh, cariño. This must be so overwhelming. Why don’t you come to Dominica? Come see your tía. We can figure this out together. I… can’t believe he’s gone. I missed telling my brother goodbye,” she says in broken English.
The idea isn’t so bad. I could use the chance to clear my head and find my footing. Maybe a short trip, miles away will help me sort all of this shit out.
“I think I would like that, tía.”
“Good. We are family. We need to stick together. You come to see me, and we will make everything right as a family. I should have come to visit more. I’m so sorry.”
My father has told me before that Aunt Grissel travels the world all the time. She has no husband or children I know of, and my father wasn’t the type of brother you dropped in to see all the time. My aunt spends most of her time in Europe. I wasn’t surprised that I wasn’t able to reach her right away.
“It’s fine. My father was a hard man. He didn’t make it easy for you to get close to him. I understand the distance,” I reply.
“My brother and I were once very close. So many things changed.”
There’s something about the tone of her voice that alerts me. I’m not sure what it is. Once she begins to rattle off plans for my visit, I push it to the back of my mind. I haven’t been around her enough to know her moods or tones, I could be reading too much into all of it.
At least now I have someone to go through this with. Most of all, I can put some distance between myself and Darius. I want to be ghost before the calls turn into more visits. Something I know is coming soon, now that I’m ignoring him.
John
I sit with my arms spread against the back of the couch, stewing in my own anger. The scene before me doesn’t register as my thoughts play last night over and over.
What the fuck did we even argue about?
One minute I was trying my best to spend time with Missy, still trying to get to know her on a new level. The next thing, she started a fight that I still don’t understand for the life of me. One thing led to another and