Chapter 11
Ursula closed the door. “I know I shouldn’t do this,” she said as she opened envelope and pulled the letter out,” but I don’t want to come to find out that this is another Jan using strange means to communicate with my son and literally bewitch him.” She read the letter silently as Clay went down the stairs to know who had come to see him. Clay was stunned to see his mother read a letter that was written for him.
DEAR CLAYTON,
WE’VE ALWAYS LOVED EACH OTHER, NOT LIKE A MAN LOVES A WOMAN, BUT LIKE A FRIEND LOVES A FRIEND… AT LEAST YOU SAW ME AS A FRIEND AND LOVED ME AS ONE, BUT IN REALITY, I’VE ALWAYS BEEN DESPERATELY IN LOVE WITH YOU.
Clay stood beside his mother to read the letter with her and Dr. Kress did the same thing. He now understood that his mother was trying to protect him from another Jan.
I NEVER DARED TO TELL YOU BECAUSE OF JAN, NOT ONLY BECAUSE SHE WAS YOUR GIRLFRIEND AND YOUR LOVER, BUT BECAUSE YOU LOVED HER VERY MUCH, MORE THAN YOU LOVED YOUR LIFE. YOU LOVED HER LIKE YOU NEVER LOVED AND WILL NEVER LOVE ME. NONETHELESS I NOW HAVE THE GUTS TO EXPRESS HOW I FEEL BECAUSE JAN IS NO LONGER WITH US, AND SHE WON’T BE ABLE TO TAKE REPRISAL AGAINST ME FOR LOVING YOU. I DON’T WANT YOU TO BE WITH ME. I REALIZE NOW THAT, THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE, AND IT’S TOO LATE FOR US. I JUST WANT YOU TO BE WITH A WOMAN WHO LOVES YOU AS MUCH AS I DO AND THAT DR. AND MRS. KRESS WILL ACCEPT AND LOVE. THEY WOULD LOVE FOR US TO BE TOGETHER, BUT LIKE I SAID, IT’S TOO LATE BECAUSE YOU’LL NEVER LOVED ME LIKE YOU LOVED THAT DEMON.
LOVE ALWAYS,
ANNA CHRISTINA MENDOZA.
“Anna Christina’s in love with you?” said Ursula, smiling, “and she never told us. She never showed it in any way. She would always treat you like a brother.”
“Anna Christina’s the woman that I’ve always wanted for you, Clay,” said Dr. Kress. “I’ve got to go to work now.” Ursula and Clay made way for Dr. Kress to leave and he did.
As soon as Dr. Kress walked out the door, Ursula said, “Go on and call Anna Christina, before it is really too late.”
“Mom…”
“Don’t keep the love of your life away from you. I have known she was the true love of your life since I first met her, but I know that most of us don’t unite our lives to our one true love. Not everyone is blessed to marry their true love, like I was.”
Clay smiled and said, “It feels great to hear you say that, Mom.”
“It’s the truth. Go on and call her.”
“You don’t mind that she’s Latina?”
“Of course I don't. Who cares about race? You know we don’t. All that your father and I want is for you to be happy, and if Jan, a Caucasian like us, if she couldn’t make you happy, and all she did was to bring you pain and suffering and turn you against us, your parents who adore you, and a Latina is offering you true love, go for it.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Clay went upstairs to call the woman that his mother swore was the love of his life. Clay had vanilla-white skin and silky ebony hair, but he had bright-green eyes and he was a true Caucasian. There wasn’t one Latino or African-American in his family tree. He had black hair because his great-great-grandfather was Turkish and he had ebony hair, but he also had bright-green eyes. Amazingly, Clay looked exactly like him. That’s why Clay was the treasure of the family and everyone who would dare to touch him would be in serious trouble with the Kress family, so serious that people would lose their jobs and other things they loved if they messed with the Kress’ only child… Clay wouldn’t be the only child for long.
Ursula went to the kitchen to give the cook a list of what she wanted for breakfast and how she wanted it done, like she did every morning. Suddenly, she became dizzy and nauseated. She was leaning to the walls as she went to the kitchen.
The Kress maid, Sonya went to see if Ursula needed anything. “Mrs. Kress are you ok?” she asked, concerned.
“I feel nauseated and I can’t see where I’m going.”
“Do you want me to call Dr. Dobson?”
“Yes, please. This might be a sign of the beginning of a stroke. This isn’t normal at my age. I am forty-two.”
“You want me to walk you to your room? I’ll take your breakfast to your room if you want.”
“In the condition that I am, I don’t think I can eat breakfast.”
They walked the hallway to the stairwell together, and then went up the stairs together, Sonya holding Ursula’s hand. “You can eat your breakfast later,” Sonya insisted. Sonya suspected that Ursula was pregnant and she wanted the best for this new baby, who was the Kress’ second child in their twenty-two years of marriage, and Ursula was at an age where women usually had high-risk pregnancies.
“Yes, you’re right,” said Ursula as they walked the hallway to her bedroom. “I wouldn’t want you to waste all that food when millions and millions of people are starving to death all over the world.”
“You’ve got a great heart, Mrs. Kress,” said Sonya as she and Ursula went into Ursula’s bedroom.
Clay hadn’t called Anna Christina yet because he was solving a problem with one of his best friends over the phone. This young man was the second possible father of Jan’s unborn baby, and they were arguing. As heated as things got, Clay didn’t want to scream because he’d noticed that his mother wasn’t feeling well and he didn’t want her to worry.
Thirty minutes later, Dr. Dobson arrived at the Kress mansion. He got caught up in the morning traffic and because of Ursula’s age, he was also worried that she might have symptoms of a heart attack or a stroke and stomach problems, altogether. He also considered the possibility of her being pregnant, but at her age it was very unlikely because she hadn’t had children in such a long time, since Clay was born almost twenty-one years before. He went upstairs to Ursula’s room and entered. “How are you doing, Ursula?”
“I’m worried that I have serious stomach problems, doctor,” said Ursula, saddened.
“I am worried that you might have stomach problems, too, but I brought a pregnancy test just in case,” he said and showed her the pregnancy test. “Can you get up?”
“I couldn’t get up when I got on the bed, but I think now I can,” she said and got up. She pressed the button calling Sonya for help.
“Sit on the bed,” said Dr. Dobson and helped her sit on the bed. “You’re still dizzy.”
“Oh, unfortunately you’re right.”
Just two minutes later, Sonya arrived at Ursula’s room. “Yes, Mrs. Kress,” she said.
“Bring a plastic cup and take me to the bathroom for me to do the number one,” said Ursula. “I’m going to take a pregnancy test.”
“I am fully-equipped for the test,” said Dr. Dobson, smiling. “I brought the cup with me from my clinic,” and handed it to Sonya. “I brought it from my clinic.”
While Dr. Dobson waited in the hallway of the second story of the house, Sonya took Ursula to the bathroom and helped her put her pants and panties down. Then, Ursula sat on the toilet and held her urine in until Sonya would have the chance to put some gloves on. Sonya retrieved the box of gloves from the upper drawer of the cabinet of the bathroom sink, opened the box, and retrieved two green gloves. Then, she put them on as quickly as she could, took the urine cup in her hand and placed it in between Ursula’s legs. Ursula started urinating inside the cup. Ursula filled the cup with her bright-yellow urine and the urine that was left, she let it go to the toilet bowl.
“Wow,” said Sonya, holding the cup in her hands with the urine hot as soup, “with all due respect, Mrs. Kress, you urinate a lot!”
“Yes, I do,” said Ursula, laughing. “I only urinate like three times a day, but when I do, it’s always a lot.”
They laughed as Ursula got up. Sonya placed the urine on the cabinet of the sink and helped Ursula pull her pants back up. “That’s great,” said Sonya, and took the cup of urine in her hands once more.
They couldn’t stop laughing as they got out of the bathroom. “Dr. Dobson,” said Sonya, “you can come in now!”
Dr. Dobson went back in. While Sonya held the cup of urine in her hand, Dr. Dobson unpackaged the pregnancy test and inserted it in the urine. Then, he waited five minutes and read the results. “Congratulations, Ursula,” he said, smiling, “you’re pregnant with your second child after almost twenty-two years.”
Ursula was so excited and ecstatic that she hugged Sonya for the first time since Sonya had been working in the Kress mansion. The ladies let out a loud scream of joy. Then, Ursula asked, “Is that the reason for my symptoms?”
“I’m happy to say that it is,” said Dr. Kress, laughing with joy. “There is nothing wrong with you. You are perfectly healthy.”
Ursula hugged Dr. Kress, too and then said, “I love you guys. Sonya, bring me my breakfast. I want everything: pancakes, ham, eggs, sausage and toast, cereal… a little bit of everything.”
“Yes, Mrs. Kress,” said Sonya and walked out of the room.
Dr. Dobson left in a matter of minutes and Ursula called Dr. Kress at work. Dr. Kress had just finished attending to one of his patients. Suddenly, his phone rang. He answered the call immediately. “Dr. Clifford Kress, how may I help you?”
“My love, it’s me.”
“How are you doing, sweetheart?” said Dr. Kress, smiling. He loved his wife so much that a simple call from her would make him extremely happy.
“I’m pregnant.”
Dr. Kress gasped and got up from his chair. “What?”
“I’m four months pregnant. That’s the reason for my weight-gain, my constant vomiting, my dizziness, fainting…”
“I really thought that there was something wrong with you.”
“No,” she said, “there’s nothing wrong! On the contrary, I’m wonderful. We’ve received a blessing from God.”
“You got that right. We have to celebrate this! I’m going to have a surprise for you by tonight, ok?”
“Ok, my love.”
“Tell Clay that I love him.”
“I will.” She hung up.
Meanwhile, Clay was still arguing with who was now his archenemy in his room. “Look, whether the baby was yours or mine, it doesn’t matter because the baby and the mother are dead! Neither one of us has any responsibility with that child or that woman. They’re gone, so let’s not be enemies over something that doesn’t exist anymore, please!”
“I loved Jan!” said Philemon, crying.
“I loved her, too!”
“You may have adored her before she died, but you don’t love her one bit now. I can see it in your voice tone and your attitude towards her. You act like she means nothing to you and she should mean nothing to me because she’s dead, and we should continue to be friends like we had never even met her.”
“You want to know why?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“You want to know why?”
“Yes, I do want to know why!”
“I hate her because she’s made a fool of me all this time!”
“Son of a bitch, what are you talking about?”
“She literally cast spells on all the men she was sleeping with, including you! That’s why we could never see the truth! She was a prostitute and she was a very promiscuous woman! She would sleep with several clients at the same time, and she would sleep with several men at the same time, for free!”
“Clayton…!”
“Who knows? Maybe she was sleeping with 100 or 150 men at the same time! She was the definition of the word whore! She was a very nasty woman! Did I say nasty? More like gross! She was repulsive! There are no words to describe her! She was beyond revolting and beyond evil!”
“How dare you talk about the love of my life like that? I’m going to kill you!”
“You’re angry because you can’t see the truth! You’re not like me!”
“You’re goddamn right I’m not like you!”
“Hey, don’t dare disrespect God, or I will punch your face in, you disgraced bastard!” screamed Clay.
Ursula heard that as she was walking the hallway to go back downstairs. Then, she called on him. “Clayton…”
Clay just hung up, walked to his bedroom door, opened it, walked out of the room, closed the door behind him and met his mom on the hallway. “Mom…”
They walked downstairs together, as Ursula decided to eat breakfast with her son in the family dining room. “Who were you arguing with and threatening to punch their face in?” Ursula asked.
“That was Phil.”
“Phil? What’s happening between you and him?”
“He’s madly in love with Jan even though she’s dead and when I tell him the truth about her, he insults me. He says that he hates me.”
“I never thought Phil would treat you like that. Don’t waste your time on him. Let him love and venerate a dead whore,” she said as they arrived to the dining room together. “You’re going to have much-better friends, you’ll see.”
“What’s worse is that Anna Christina introduced us, and he must be talking to her right now on the phone and telling her his version of what happened. I’ve lost my future wife because I’m sure that after this, she won’t want anything to do with me again.”
Suddenly, the phone rang. It was Anna Christina calling. She wanted to talk to Clay. Minutes later, Sarah, one of the maids, gave the phone to Clay as Sonya served two different breakfasts to Ursula and Clay, the breakfast that Ursula had asked for earlier and Clay’s favorite breakfast… unlimited chocolate-chunk pancakes.
“Hello.”
“Clay…”
“Anna Christina, let me explain…”
“You have nothing to explain,” She said, “I’ve heard it all.”
“No, but let me…”
“All you have to know is this. I don’t want anything to do with Phil.”
“Huh?”
“Ok, so this is what he did,” explained Anna Christina as she ate her hamburger with fries, for breakfast. Yes, she had awkward customs, but that’s why so many people loved her so much, because she was different and she didn’t care what other people thought about her weird habits. To her, anything could be breakfast, anything could be lunch, and anything could be dinner, as long as it was food. “He just called me and he told me what happened, but he described to me this insensitive, heartless Clay that I don’t know, in other words, not the Clay that I fell in love with, and I said to him, ‘You know what? Fuck you!’ and I hung up on him. I don’t want him to call me, email me, or write me again.”
“When you read all the information that my dad got about Jan, you’ll see just what kind of a fool he is.”
Clay and Ursula ate breakfast together, and two hours later, Anna Christina visited Clay at his house and read the entire file that had Jan’s criminal record on it. She was stunned. They were in the living room because Clay would never have sex in his parents’ house. He knew how religious and strict his parents were, and although they never agreed to him having a sexual relationship with Jan, they accepted it because they knew that Jan was an evil woman who had cast a spell on their young son, and that if they said anything about what Clay and Jan were doing, Clay would turn on them, and they would rather have their son doing the wrong thing than losing him forever. Clay had been to church all his life and eventually, a miracle would happen to break Jan’s evil web around Clay and he would come back to God and he would not sin deliberately again.
“Phil turned on us for this whore?” said Anna Christina.
“Yep!” said Clay, shedding tears, and started crying, “And you have no idea how much that hurts,” and cried in Anna Christina’s shoulder bitterly, like a broken child.
“Don’t worry,” she said, “I have friends that are much, much better than that, friends who would never turn on me or betray me for anything in the world, friends that really love me,” as she hugged him, “and I will introduce you to them. I didn’t do that before because even though I didn’t know Jan was an evil person, somehow I knew that Jan wouldn’t want you to hang out with them.”
“Now I know that’s right.”
“Jan was the queen of evil, according to these papers,” said Anna Christina with the file in her hand. “She would’ve never allowed you to hang out with good people. You know, I don’t go to church every single day, like your parents do because I’ve got to take care of my ten-year-old sister because my parents died, but my friends do go to church every single day, and they’re good people. My friends are either married or single and have never had a partner, you know, stuff like that. They don’t have any criminal charges in their permanent records, their permanent records are completely clean… they don’t even have marks in their driver’s licenses or tickets issued. They respect their parents and they do good things for people. I get my spirit food everyday, though, because they come over to my house and pray and study the Bible with me every single night, sometimes before church and sometimes after church because they all work from six to two and then they come over for us to study the Bible together and then they go to church.”
“So you go to church at home, basically.”
“Yes, you can say that,” she said, smiling and then laughed. “We’re not perfect by any means but we know the obvious. We don’t steal, we don’t smoke, we don’t drink, we don’t fornicate, we don’t covet, we don’t say God’s name in vain, we don’t…”
He interrupted her. “Wait,” he said, “did you just say we don’t fornicate?”
“My friends that are married, they do have sex, but my friends that are single, they don’t. Why is that so surprising?”
“Are you saying that you’re a virgin or you’re just celibate?”
“I am both.”
He yelled. “What?”
“Why is that so astounding, Clayton Jonah?” she said, smiling innocently.
“You're twenty years old and you're a virgin? Is that even possible nowadays?"
Ursula was passing by with some freshly-baked cookies for them that she was bringing to them personally just to sit down and converse with Anna Christina for a little while, and she gasped. The tray of cookies almost fell from her hands, but by instinct, she managed to hang on to them and keep them from falling.
“I’m not the only one,” she said, smiling, “am I?”
“No,” said Ursula as she placed the cookies on the coffee table. “You are not the only one. I am glad to hear that you’ve never fornicated.” She sat down beside her son on the big sofa. “How can you do it?”
“Well…”
“Yes,” said Clay interrupting her. “Where do you get that strength?”
“I get it from the Lord. I mean I can’t deny that I have impure thoughts everyday, I mean everybody does. I just don’t realize those horrible dreams. I read my Bible and it cleanses my spirit so it keeps me from doing evil.”
“Do people at school criticize you?” asked Ursula out of curiosity.
“Oh, yes, they call me names… I’ve even had some of them spit on my face. They can’t stand the fact that I live a holy life. It’s like I’m abnormal to them or even evil.”
“What do you do when they spit on you?” asked Clay.
“I don’t clean off the spit and I report the person to the dean of students. When I do that, they get expelled.”
“Expelled?” asked Clay, astonished.
“Yes. Spitting on someone’s face is a crime. Didn’t you know that?” said Anna Christina.
Surprised, he said, “No!”
“Well, two people have done it and gotten expelled, and other people have heard about that so they haven’t even approached me, but they hate me with a passion. I take their hate and make some plant fertilizer with it.”
Ursula and Clay laughed.
Anna Christina took a cookie and started eating it. “You can’t pay any mind to what people do to you. That’s how rancor and hate build up and your heart gets poisoned. I forgive the person as soon as he or she does me wrong, it doesn’t matter what it is they do. I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to forgive.”
“This girl is not normal,” whispered Ursula in Clay’s ear, “but I like her awkwardness.”
Clay smiled and whispered in Ursula’s ear, “Me, too.”
Anna Christina ate another cookie in a matter of minutes. “Do you guys want me to invite some of my friends here? I have a lot of them it’s a group of thirty or forty people.”
“Are you hungry?” asked Clay.
“A little,” said Anna Christina, blushing.
“Did you bring Adrianna over?”
“Yes, but she said she was ok in the car,” said Anna Christina. “I left the car on so that she could listen to music and keep warm. She’s in her laptop, on the Internet, you know? She’s having fun on message boards. It’s what she likes to do.”
“Why don’t you bring her in?” asked Ursula.
“I’ve never brought her with me before. I’ve always left her with the babysitter, but now she says she wants to go with me everywhere I go when she’s not in school. The babysitter must’ve offended her somehow. She said she didn’t want to bother you guys, since she’s ten and she’s a little hyper. She’s afraid she might break something and get in trouble with you, you know?”
“That’s nonsense,” said Clay and got up. “I’m going to go get her,” and walked to the front door, opened it, got out and closed the door.
“You sure you don’t mind, Mom?”
“Oh, that’s sweet, you called me Mom!”
“Of course I did. We’ve known each other since Clay and I was three years old. Our mothers were best friends. You’re like a second mom to me.”
They hugged.
Suddenly, Clay and Adrianna went in. Adrianna was carrying her laptop with both hands, pressed against her waist.
“Hi, Mom,” said Adrianna to Ursula, blushing, and a little saddened.
Ursula’s heart melted like butter when she heard Adrianna calling her Mom and she started crying tears of joy. “You girls are wonderful,” she said and hugged Adrianna. “Anna Christina,” she said looking in Anna Christina’s eyes, “what would you like for lunch?”
“Just a turkey sandwich,” said Anna Christina, blushing.
“I want the same thing Anna Christina wants."
“What would you like as a side dish?”
Clay smiled.
“I would like a ranch salad with baby carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, red cabbage and tomato,” said Anna Christina, “and ranch dressing, obviously.”
“I would like the same thing as my sister,” said Adrianna.
“Are you sure?” asked Ursula.
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“You don’t have to eat the same things your sister does, you know? Here, you have a world of choices. You can eat an Italian dish the same way you can eat a Mexican dish. You can eat any dish, any side, and drink anything.”
“I eat and drink the exact same breakfasts, lunches and dinners that my sister eats at home,” replied Adrianna very respectfully and with her head down and her hands behind her waist.
“Well, you’re not in your house. You’re in the Kress mansion,” said Ursula. “Here, you can indulge.”
Adrianna lifted her head. “Are you sure, Mom?”
“Of course, if you can call me Mom, you can eat and drink anything you want.”
Adrianna, Anna Christina, Ursula and Clay hugged once again and then went to the kitchen together. When they got to the kitchen, Anna Christina hadn’t changed her mind about having a turkey sandwich with a ranch salad and Coke to drink. However, Adrianna decided at the last minute to have a plate of Fettuccine Alfredo for a main course, garlic breadsticks with marinara sauce, and a chocolate milkshake to drink.
As they went back to the living room, Ursula got a little more personal with the girls. “So,” said Ursula, “where do you work, Anna Christina?”
“I work a full-time job while Adrianna is in school.”
“How much money do you make?”
“I make around $2,000 a month.”
“Where do you work?”
“I work as a secretary in an attorney’s office from seven o’clock in the morning to three o’clock in the afternoon.”
“Do you have to pay mortgage?”
They sat on the living room once again. “No. Fortunately my house is paid off.”
“However, you do pay your bills.”
“With all due respect, may I ask why you’re a