North Wind
Chapter Four
I stopped about fifty meters back from the tower so I could watch Jerry direct his helpers on the roof. He’d rigged a block and tackle from one of the larger windows on the top floor and was using it to haul the boxes, instrument packages, antennae, and dishes one by one to the top. I stood up when the cold in the ground started creeping into my ass.
“That’s the longest I’ve seen you sittin in one place since I met you.”
It was Maritza. She had two lawn chairs in one hand, and cooler in the other. She didn’t look the same as she had yesterday, or any other day I’d seen her for that matter. She had on a pair of jeans and a thick turtleneck sweater. As thick as it was there was no hiding her figure underneath.
Whatcha got there Maritza?”
“I didn’t think there was much chance you’d had anything to eat since we talked last so I made you some breakfast.” She set down the cooler and took out a thermos and a towel. Onto the towel she set out what looked like burritos wrapped in foil, and two coffee cups.
“D’you bring coffee too?”
“I cannot start my morning without it,” she said without looking up.
“Me neither. I really do appreciate all this work Maritza and you’re right, I’m starved.”
“You’ll have to thank my helper when you get a chance.”
“Your helper?”
“My daughter Marissa.”
“I didn’t know you had a daughter, I’d love to meet her.”
“I hope you like bacon and eggs.”
“I do thanks. Where’d you get the eggs and the pig?”
“There’s lots of both all over this country. All you have to do is find them and give them someplace to live.”
“Where’s that?” I asked; unwrapping a burrito.
“When you get done eating, I’ll take you over there. I’ve got one house for the pigs and one for the chickens. They stink very badly, but it’s the easiest way to have food to eat that doesn’t come from a can.”
“Maritza, I thought you were an engineer.”
“I am, but I learned many things as a girl in my country.”
“Including how to make the perfect tortilla.”
“Thank you.”
“When did Jerry say he’d be through?”
“He said he’d be done tomorrow at the latest. Jessie is already working on the cabling.”
“Shit.”
“What is wrong?”
“Tina said she didn’t want to live or work in the tower, that she wanted the cabling run to one of the bungalows.”
“She did did she?”
All I could do was nod.
“All the houses are spoken for. I can’t imagine anyone will just say, “Please just take my house.”
“She’s seems used to people doin for her what she asks.”
“So your intention is to keep doing for her?”
“It might be best for everybody concerned.”
“How so?”
“I don’t think she’s gonna be too happy to be here.”
“Then why doesn’t she leave?”
“Because the only other place she can go is to her family. There she will be forced to do what they want her to do. She may also be staying because of something I said.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her if she went south she’d probably have to life in some kind of refugee camp; that the living conditions wouldn’t be very good.”
“You are probably correct.”
“Anyway what she said was that she wanted her own place, and her own observation tower next to it.”
“She wants us to build her her own tower?” Maritza said, “you’re kidding.”
“No, nothing so involved. Just a structure she can use to make observations above the trees.”
“Wouldn’t it be better just to put all that equipment on her tower?”
“I don’t think so. We can throw up what she needs without too much trouble.”
“We?”
“We, all of us here.”
“As soon as it comes out what you want to do, I’m not sure you’ll find too many volunteers.”
“Then I guess I better get to work.”
“I will help you. The two of us can build her a two room house. By the time we get done it will be too cold to worry about her tower this year.”
“What about a pole structure?”
“Using what?”
“Telephone poles.”
“You’re thinking about just building her house in the top of a tower.”
“It’d kill two birds with one stone.”
“I never liked that saying.”
“Sorry.”
“I believe it could be done quickly but we would need much help.”
“We have twenty two people total.”
“Twenty two adults, yes.”
“Could a half dozen finish out the interior framing in the tower, and running the cables to this thing we’re building?”
“I should think so. Two at least would have to be sent to find the extra cables needed.”
I ate for a while and then had to ask the question that had been nagging at the back of my mind since last night. I couldn’t just ask it straight out, I didn’t have the courage, so I beat around the bush.
“Maritza, why would you want to help me with this? This isn’t your problem.”
She cut right through my fear and got to the point. “Because what Tina said last night was true, I am attracted to you and I’ve been wanting to get to know you better. Now, the best way for me to do that is to work with you.”
When I didn’t say anything, she continued, “I could tell from what you had said over the past few weeks that Tina did not feel anything for you, and that you were not willing to admit that to yourself. After last night I could tell that you didn’t have any real feelings for her either.”
I had no idea what to say.
“You’re surprised that I am speaking this way with you. You should not be. There’s no time anymore for the stupid games that men and women used to play with each other. I want to have a man in my life, and I want Marissa to have a father.”
Maritza, I don’t know what to say.” It was a stupid thing to say. What I should have said is “You’re scaring the shit out of me with what you’re saying.”
“Say you want to work with me.”
“I do.” All of a sudden work wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do with her.
“Good. I will go talk to Jerry and Jennifer about the needed changes in the cabling before they get too far along with what they’re doing. Why don’t you go get your truck and then come pick me up so we can scout out the material we need for this new house we’re building?”
“Tina won’t have any way to get out of the house.”
“Tina doesn’t want to get out of that house unless it’s to move into her own place. The sooner you go get that truck the sooner we can get her house built.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Maritza started cleaning up so I started helping. She grabbed my hand, looked me straight in the eye and said, “Go I’ll take care of this. If you get going now, you’ll be back with the truck in time for me to go with you, okay?” There was a kind of tenderness in her voice that hadn’t been there a moment before. “Okay?” she said again.
I looked into her eyes then and saw the same feeling I’d heard in her voice. I realized she was still holding my hand, or I was holding hers maybe.
“Maritza…”
“Don’t say anything more now; we’ll have plenty of time to talk this afternoon. Go, Jack.”
“Okay,” I said. Letting go of her hand. When I’d walked a few steps off I looked over my shoulder and saw that Maritza was looking at me. I’d have given much then to know what was on her mind.
__
I met Tina about halfway back to the house, driving in the opposite direction. When she stopped I walked over to the driver’s side window.
“I didn’t expect to see you out,” I said.
“I knew I’d better come over and make sure the equipment was being installed right. Where’re you going?”
“I had to come back to get the truck.”
“Where’re you goin?”
“I need to scout out the materials for your house.”
“You already have a plan?”
“I talked about it with some people and we came to the conclusion that the only way to build you your own house and an observation tower before it gets too cold is to built your house as a tower.”
“Your kidding.”
“You don’t like the idea?”
“I’ll have to climb three flights of stairs every time I want to go in and out or didn’t that little glitch cross your architect’s mind.”
“So you can live without the tower until next year?”
She looked back out the windshield and blew out a long breath.
“I can lick that problem for you. I think.”
“How you gonna do that?”
“I’ll build your house on a hill.”
“There are no hills.”
“I’ll make one.”
“Sure. You do what you have to do. Jump in the back.”
“What?”
“You’re going back, right? Jump in the back, we’ll be there in a minute.”
To keep from pissing her off, I didn’t say what I wanted to. I jumped over the tailgate into the bed. Tina parked the truck and headed in the front door of the tower without looking back. Maritza came out the front door about five minutes later.
“That took less time than I thought it would.”
“What’s that?”
“I didn’t think she’d get over here till this afternoon.”
“I didn’t think she leave the house at all.”
“I knew she’d be over here today. Whatever else she is, she’s a woman.”
“You were up there when she got here.”
“She walked right past me with the same look she gave me last night. She then climbed right up on the roof and started asking questions.”
“She say anything to you?”
Maritza just smiled. Maritza headed for the truck and I followed right behind her. I knew Maritza and Tina would have it out someday and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be around to see it or not. It only took a couple hours to find all the materials we needed. When we left the site I headed directly to the phone company’s depot. There were all the telephone poles we could ever use and, luckily enough, there were just the sort of long timbers we’d need to build the structure of the house.
“That was too easy,” Maritza said sitting on top of a pile of thirty foot long redwood six by fifteen inch timbers.
“Too easy how?”
“Easy to find, hard to get them where they need to be.”
“Maybe not.”
“You have a plan?”
“Have you seen any horses in your chicken and pig trips?”
She smiled. “A few, why?”
“I’ve been thinking that even though we can use trucks or tractors to drag the poles and timbers back to the site it would be best to drag them around the site by horse one at a time.”
She smiled even wider. “I like that idea, but maybe for next year, do you think. It’s already the middle of July. I doubt we have even a month left to work in before it starts snowing too much again.”
“You must really hate this weather compared to Cuba.”
“How did you know that’s where I’m from?”
“I asked Jennifer a couple days ago.”
Again the smile. She walked back to the truck and got in the passenger side. “We need to get back so I can get everyone arranged to begin moving these materials.”
On the ride back I asked, “Maritza, Tina had a complaint about the idea of putting the house on the tower.”
“That’s not too surprising. She didn’t want to climb up and down three of four flights of stairs every time she goes in and out?”
“Exactly.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her that I’d build the thing on a hill. A hill I’d make.”
“She’s willing to settle for that?”
“She never did say exactly, but I did let her know that she could have the house this year but not both the house and the tower.”
“I’m interested in what she has to say about that when we get back.”
“What do you think, is there a better way to get both done this year?”
“To be honest I really don’t care if both get done this year. At the very least we could build some sort of exterior staircase up to the roof of the tower we already have if she’s so concerned about having independent access to long range observation.”
“The north wall doesn’t even have any windows on it. It’d be easier to build some sort of platform up next to the instrumentation. She’d get what she wants at least in the short term, and long term it’d make service access to the instrumentation easier.”
Maritza pulled the car to the curb. “So what you’re saying is that we no longer need telephone poles and timbers?”
I turned to face her. “Maritza, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.’
“Would you and Marissa be interested in moving in with me?”
“Well, I guess that serves me right with all my talk of not wasting time with stupid games.”
“She looked at me seriously for a few moments and asked, “Have you ever lived with children?”
“I had a wife and two sons who were killed a year or so ago when my house was broken into.”
“I am very sorry Jack I didn’t know, I am so sorry.”
“It’s okay. I just wanted you to know that I have been a dad. I’m sorry if I’m getting ahead of things.”
She reached out a hand and held the side of my face. “Why don’t we do this, let’s let Tina move into the tower, it just makes more sense, and it’ll be ready in only a week or so. Why don’t you build you what you would like to live in? By the time we are finished with the construction we’ll have had a while to talk and get to know each other better, and maybe, if you’re lucky, Marissa will have cooked for you a few times.”
“Does she know who I am? I don’t recall ever seeing her.”
“Unlike her mother, she does hate the cold very much. And yes, she does know who you are. I have talked to her about you many times. You are a topic of conversation for most people here day to day. That is as it should be.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you are the leader of this place. You decided to build the tower and when the rest of us arrived you had the ability to get a few individuals all moving in the same direction.”
“I’ve always thought that everyone stayed because they just wanted to have something to do.”
“That was part of it for some.”
“What was it for you?”
“Curiosity about what you were doing, and having a settled place for Marissa. Before long I realized I wanted to get to know you better. I liked what I saw in you.”
What she had said embarrassed me and I realized I was looking out the windshield when she’d finished speaking. I looked back at her and said, “Maritza, you might be the most intimidating woman I have ever met.”
She chuckled and said, “Me?”
“You are very beautiful, very smart and you have a strength I have rarely seen in a woman or a man.”
It was her turn to look out the window.
“Thank you Jack. It is very kind of you to say.” She wiped at her eyes as she continued to look out the windshield. “What will you do then?”
“I would like to live in a tall structure, tall enough to see out over the trees.”
“Then, that is what you should build, you have already worked out how to build it, why don’t you?”
“There’s those stairs to worry about.”
“Build a hill.”
“I’ll get started on it tomorrow.”
“And I’ll get started on the materials tomorrow.”
“Maritza, would it be okay if I kissed you?”
She didn’t say anything for a second which worried me. I was about to start the truck when she reached over, grabbed the front of my shirt and kissed me. It only lasted a second but she got close enough that I could smell her hair as it fell around her face. She licked her lips and said, “Thank you, Jack.”
“Why would you thank me?”
“Because you were gentleman enough to ask my permission. Gentlemen have become very rare.”
“Not as rare as femininity, I think.”
She nodded looking at me, shook her hand in the direction of the wind shield. “We need to get back. I’m anxious to get started.”
“Me too, I’ll start on the drawings tonight and pushing up some dirt tomorrow.”
“Leave the area for the poles till we get them in the ground.”
“Will do. Get one of the fellas to drive back one of the auger trucks if they can get one started. It’ll make short work of putting the poles in the ground.”
“Will do,” she said imitating me. She waved out the windshield again.
I started the truck and eased it away from the curb. Maritza looked tired as she got out of the truck and walked into the tower.
Tina came out of the same door Maritza had gone through a minute earlier and walked right up to me.
“I asked your girlfriend what was going on and she said I should come and talk to you. So I’ll ask you, what’s going on?”
I expected her to be angry but she didn’t seem upset. There was very little emotion in her voice. I’d have been happier if there had been.
“I’ve been working on how to get you what you need to do your work and I keep coming up with the same answer.”
“Which is?”
“That you should live here in the tower with your stuff. That’s why we’re all here, that’s why you’re here.”
She looked over her shoulder and then back and said, “So where you gonna live?”
“I think I’m gonna build me a very tall house about fifty meters that way,” I said indicating a barren area past the last bungalow near Texas Avenue.”
“On a hill?”
“On a hill.”
“What do I need to do?”
“Is Frank inside?”
“The tall black man?”
“Yea, you need to go up and tell him where you want your walls to be. Which floor do you want to live on?”
“The penthouse of course.”
“The penthouse… Okay, tell Frank where you want your rooms to be, and tell Jennifer where you want the cabling to go on the floor below so your equipment and the electrical connections can be installed.”
“How long will it take?”
“I’ve got half a dozen people working on it, maybe two weeks to move in, three to four to get everything up and running that’ll run.”
“It’ll be snowing again by then.”
“The weather drives the scheduling on just about everything these days.”
She looked back from the building and said, “So you’re moving out?”
“Yea, I’ve got the things I need over here for now. I need to be here to work on my house anyway. Not going back and forth will save me an hour or two a day. We’re really running out of time to get everything done.”
Tina didn’t say anything as she walked over to the truck and drove off.
__
Two weeks later everybody had a house to live in, everybody except me. All I’d accomplished was getting the poles in the ground and attaching all the major timbers. Trouble was the project had evolved in my mind from a single story, four sided nine hundred square foot box to a two story octagonal twenty four hundred square foot house. Maritza seemed to take great pleasure in reminding me daily how many days we had left to work before she, despite her loyalty to the cause would have to quit for the season. She also had an annoying habit of also reminding me that this structure would be lucky to last twenty years. Every time I told her I’d have sons to build me a new one at that time she just laughed and shook her head.
The completion of construction on the project had two main benefits for me. First it freed up eight additional people, seven of whom were willing to help me out (Tina was busy with her “work”). Six of those seven were framers, exactly what I needed help with at the time. The second benefit was the freeing up of equipment; generators, compressors and nail guns specifically. Everyone seemed to feel an urgency as the weather quickly cooled and frost in the morning was followed by light snow. The day we had the first real snow fall, Jennifer, Maritza, and I were completing the shingling of the roof, a 12/12 octagonal roof that had Frank and I scratching our heads for a full two days trying to figure out how to frame it. I’m honestly not sure if we accomplished exactly that pitch, but it was darn close. I know this because we had to rig up a rope harness from the roof peak to keep up from sliding off the edge.
I remember standing on the second floor looking at the snow falling that first afternoon the building was completely dried in.
“I really wasn’t sure that you’d be able to do it,” Maritza said handing me a cup of tea. I watched the steam rise from the cup in the cold air.
“Oh ye of little faith,” I said laughing.
“No one has more faith in you than I do,” she said seriously. “I just didn’t think it was humanly possible. What’s left?”
“I think we ought to use just his top floor for now and use the downstairs to store all the materials we need to finish out the space. First thing I need…”
“We?”
I nodded to her and continued, “We need to do is to get this space insulated and walled up, get some woodstoves installed in here, and get some walls up.”
“Is that necessary?”
“What?”
“Walling off such a small space seems like a shame.”
“Whether or not it needs to be done has a lot to do with you.”
I expected Maritza to turn from where she was looking out the window. She didn’t but she said, “I’d really like that Jack, if it’s something you still want to do.”
“What about Marissa?”
“She really likes you a lot. I think you made a big impression when you told her you liked her cooking so much.”
“I really do, there’s nothing she makes that I don’t love to eat.”
She finally turned around and said, “It’s why you worked so hard to get this place done isn’t it?”
I nodded and said, “I have loved working and talking and eating and complaining and cussin with you these last few weeks. I’ve never wanted to work so hard in my life. You being right here next to me the whole way, I don’t know, I just, I loved it. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve been even close to happy. It’s my turn to thank you.” I took two steps toward her and gathered her into my arms and just held her. The top of her head just about reached my chin. She leaned her head back and kissed me. There was a hunger in her kiss that told me that she must have been feeling the same as I had. When she pulled away from me I looked into those eyes of hers. She was looking at me like no woman had ever had before. I knew at that moment that love could be seen as well as felt.
“Maybe we better build a couple bedrooms. Marissa is going to want her privacy,” I said running my fingers through her thick blue black hair.
“Her mother does too.”
_____
It was another four weeks before the house was about as ready as it was going to get to be lived in. It was cold enough by the beginning of September for me to see my breath in the morning, inside. I’d lived alone in the house for those four weeks. Not only did living inside the house as I built it save me time for the commute, it also motivated me to get my ass outta bed every morning to get warmed up. Maritza came every day to help and even though carpentry wasn’t something she much enjoyed she worked as hard as I did. Marissa came over too; twice a day to bring breakfast and linner. Linner was a meal we ate at about 2:30 or 3:00 everyday and it was her idea. Because the days had begun to get much shorter, I usually didn’t get up till about six or seven and was through by five or six. There never was any time to eat three meals while we were working. Now that we were finished with all the coarse work there was a lot more time, time to eat, and more importantly time that needed to be filled with talking and just being together. It was very different and it started with Marissa.
“How much more is there to do before you’re finished Jack?” Marissa asked.
“Well Marissa, there’s done and then there’s done.”
“Huh?” Marissa said. She did not resemble her mother other than in how she dressed and kept her hair. At fourteen years old she was at least six inches taller than her mom, maybe more.
“Finished to move into is when all the insulation is in, the plumbing such as it is is in, the walls and floors are in, and the stoves are installed.”
The greatest resemblance between Marissa and her mother was the analytical intelligence they shared.
“So you still have to do all the finish carpentry work?”
I couldn’t help surprise showing on my face.
“What? I can read. The door on the library is wide open. I get the books I need and bring them back to the house.”
I turned to Maritza and raised my eyebrows.
“She’s very independent.”
“Do I get a vote in how my room looks?”
“You can have your room any way you want. If you like, I’ll even teach you to do it yourself if you want.”
“I think I know, theoretically, how to do trim, and I know I can paint. I don’t know where I can get curtains.”
“I can show you how to sew your own if you like,” Maritza said with a big smile. Marissa nodded, got up without a word and headed straight for her room. I was about to say something to Maritza when Marissa stuck her head out her door.
“Can we go looking for material tomorrow?”
“Sure, I could use a day off. How ‘bout you mom?”
The look on Maritza’s face was something I never will forget. It was obvious that she tried twice to say something but both times she burst out with the widest smile I’d ever seen.
“I think that means she’ll come with us.”
“Of course. Although you two don’t really seem to need my help.”
“Oh, mom,” Marissa said disappearing back into her room.
“Well look at the two of you,” Maritza said.
“Whaddya mean?”
“She wants you to like her so much; she’ll do just about anything.”
“She doesn’t have to worry about that. I couldn’t like her any more if I tried. She’s amazing; gets it from her mom as far as I can tell.”
“Jack.”
“Maritza.”
“Hey, you said my name like a Cuban!”
“I asked Marissa and she helped me. She’s also been helping me learn a little Spanish here and there.”
“Her Spanish is horrible. I tried to teach her when she was little, but she said none of her friends spoke Spanish she didn’t need to either.”
“So she was born here in the states?”
“Right here in town.”
“You never have said anything about her dad.”
Looking away out the window she said, “She’s never had a dad. The man who…, he was just…”
“It’s okay Maritza; it’s none of my business.”
“No. I came here to attend high school and had only been here for a few months. I was very lonely. I thought I was protected but I found out I was pregnant a few weeks later. He was just a man, a night I didn’t have to be lonely. Marissa has paid the price for what I did. She has never had a father, and I thought it best not to bring men in and out of our home while she was still a child.”
“So you haven’t…”
“Been with a man for fourteen years? No. I believed it was best for Marissa.”
“Believed?”
“The world is not now what it was Jack, and as you have seen Marissa is a very independent young woman. Unfortunately she no longer has the luxury of time she once had to grow up gradually.”
“Have you talked to her about us?”
“Of course. You are the first man we’ve both met that she actually encouraged me to pursue.”
I thought as hard as I could to find something to say that would change the subject. All of a sudden I was feeling a great deal of pressure.
“Should we move your things over here tomorrow?”
“All we’ll be bringing over is our clothes and some personal items. The furniture will stay in the bungalow. Jennifer and her partner were going to build a place of their own until I told them if they could hang on for another month they could have our place.”
“You told them about us?”
“Jack everybody already knew about us. Everybody except you maybe.” The smile returned to face just a little then. She was trying to smile but I could see it was an effort she was making for me.
I took her into my arms and held her as close to me as I could. She drew her arms in front of her and buried her head in my chest. I stroked the back of her head with my hand until she pulled back.
“We have to get furniture, tomorrow.”
“Yes ma’am we will.”
“Do you understand what I am saying Jack?”
“I think so.”
“I’m glad you do. I have a few things of mine and Marissa’s I need to get from our apartment, and I want to look through some furniture stores to see if there’s anything left there.”
“When will we have time to get Marissa’s material? She seemed very anxious to get started.”
“She’ll be thinking differently after she sleeps on the floor tonight.”
“If she does she won’t admit it, I’ll bet.”
Nodding I said. “Does she want new furniture or does she want what she had before?”
Really smiling she replied, “Jack you do have a great deal to learn about fourteen year old girls. They want everything new, every day.”
“Really, Marissa seems awfully mature for her age.”
“Much of what you’re seeing she’s putting on for your benefit. When she gets more comfortable around you, the real Marissa will come out, trust me.”
“I do Maritza, I do.”
“I know.”
___
Marissa wasn’t the only one who wanted a real bed the next morning, her mother and I did as well. We never did get to the lumber store but we did a great job of gathering up the furniture we needed. Jennifer and April were kind enough to move the pieces up into the house every time we brought something back. Between new things and old we had all the furniture we needed two days later. Jennifer and April were happy to have their own place and none of us were sleeping, or sitting on the floor anymore.
That first night we had all had a bed to sleep in I spent half the night finding things to put together or set up.
“Jack, are you finished yet?”
“I don’t know Maritza there’s so much I need to do.” I knew what she was going to say next.
“Jack, you can finish that stuff tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said heading for the bedroom. I got about two steps into the bedroom when I saw her brushing her hair in front of her vanity mirror. She had it all pulled over her left shoulder brushing it slowly from top to bottom. I walked up behind her and asked, “May I?”
She looked over her shoulder, smiled, and handed me the brush. “Certainly.” She sat down on the bench, flipped her hair over her shoulder and put her hands in her lap.
I began brushing her hair against her robe for a just a minute before she said, “Gather it in your left hand and brush down.”
“Okay. I gathered her hair in my hand and was amazed at how it filled my hand. I brushed and brushed watching the lamp light reflecting off the highlights, highlights that shimmers with every stroke. I must have gone on too long because she reached around and grabbed her hair from my hand.
“What is this thing you have for my hair?” she said holding it again over her left shoulder this time in both hands.
“I love your hair.”
“Why? It’s just hair.”
“You have the most beautiful hair I have ever seen.”
“Why thank you sir.” She reached up and stroked my face. Why don’t you grow your beard?”
“Most women don’t like them very much.”
“I am not most women.”
“You certainly are not.” I said it a little more strongly than I probably should have. I couldn’t help it. Maritza was just about everything I’d ever wanted in a woman. Every time I learned something new about her, I discovered another reason to respect and desire her.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sometimes a man doesn’t know what he wants until he sees it for the first time. The first time I saw you I remember watching you for the longest time.”
“The first time you saw me I was roofing with Jennifer, I was filthy.”
“How is it that a woman always knows when a man sees her but a man never knows when a woman is looking at him?”
Maritza walked over to the bed and hopped up, sitting on the edge of the mattress. “Me madre always said that it was always this way with men and women.”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but even though I have never met a woman like you, I am attracted and distracted by everything about you.”
“Such as?” she said. I loved her accent. I swear when she wants to have her way she does that on purpose.”
“You accent really gets to me.”
“What accent?”
“Okay. You really want me to do this?”
She nodded, smiled and batted her eyelashes at me.
“You see, it’s your smile,” which, of course made her smile even more. “It’s that amazing hair of yours, did you know that you braid is as thick as my wrist at least?”
Again the smile, this time she looked down at the floor. “Anything else?”
“You’re really gonna make me say this out loud?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Maritza the first time I really saw you you were wearing a thick white sweater.”
“Very good, most men wouldn’t have remembered. Why is this important to you?”
“I remember thinking to myself that there weren’t many women in the world whose figure could still look hot through all those clothes.”
“Really?”
Raising my hand I said, “I swear.”
“So you like my figure?”
“What I’ve seen of it, definitely.”
She smiled that smile of hers again and opened her robe. “Oh my,” was all I could say. She was wearing a white bra and matching panties, very lacy, very feminine. Her skin was very dark, all over.
“You like?”
“Oh my,” I said again in a whisper.
“Why don’t you come over here?”
I did. She must have known I was afraid, women always do. She took my hand and pulled me into the bed with her. I might have been the boss of the construction, but the bed belonged to her. I thought I loved her before she took me to her bed, in the morning I had to love her.
Rarely did I sleep until the sun came up, and even more rarely still this time of year. I didn’t wake up until Marissa knocked on the door.
“Let me get that,” she said throwing the covers aside and hopping down to the floor. She walked slowly over to where she’d thrown her robe. I was hypnotized by her nakedness. I didn’t understand it totally but I was amazed that she was the same dark color all over. Some parts darker than others, but dark, mysterious, sensuous, full of passion. She was the first woman in my experience who didn’t make love silently. She reacted to me making love, demanding satisfaction, my equal in strength and physicality. I’d made love to her once and I wanted to make love to her again, immediately, right now. I’d heard that there were couples that wanted, desired each other for years and decades, but I never believed it possible. Now I did. I was sure. I wanted her, looking at her. She could see that I wanted her.
“Cover that thing up,” she said pointing to it with an evil smile.
“Sorry,” I said involuntarily looking at it.
Maritza walked over to the door and opened it just enough to talk to her daughter.
“Now is a horrible time Marissa,”
“I’m sorry Mom, the sun’s up I thought Jack would be wanting his breakfast.”
“Marissa, can you wait until I tell you when would be a good time?”
“Oh mom, did you finally?”
“Marissa….”
“Oh mom, I’m so glad.”
“Marissa…”
“Okay mom. I’m going. Just let me know when I can help okay?”
“I will.”
“Okay.”
Maritza came back into the room and grabbed her robe. I patted the mattress next to me and she dropped the robe, walked slowly to the bed and climbed back into the bed.
“I need you to build me steps.”
“I would build you anything you need. I would do anything for you.”
“Really?”
“Do you have any idea the effect you have on me?”
“Of course.”
“Why does this not surprise me?”
“Because we were meant to be together.”
“You think so?”
“I have never felt like I feel when I’m with you.”
“Thank God.”
“Thank God?”
“I was afraid that it was just me.”
“We could not feel this way if it was just me or just you.”
She reached out and took me in her hand. I reacted. I reached out and felt the weight of her breast in my hand. She leaned her head back and moaned deep in her throat before she pulled the covers over us.
I must’ve fallen asleep after because the next thing I remember is Marissa shaking my shoulder telling me to wake up.
“What time is it?”
“About two,” she said with an odd little smile I hadn’t seen before.
“In the afternoon?”
“Yes sir,” Again the smile.
“I need to get my butt outta this bed,” I said pulling up the covers and swinging my legs toward the floor. A half second too late I remembered I was naked. By the time I got back under the covers Marissa was standing next to the bed with my robe in her hand. She dropped it on the bed and said, “I made some stew for lunch. I’ll get you a bowl.”
“Thanks,” was all I could say to her back as she walked out of the room.
She waved a hand over her shoulder on her way out the door but didn’t say anything.
I was about half dressed when Maritza came into the room.
“Jack, I know you’re not used to having us living with you yet, but you have to be careful.”
“I’m sorry Maritza, I wasn’t thinking.”
“That’s what I’m saying. That thing of yours just about scared Marissa to death, the poor child has never seen such a thing before. She was mortified.”
“I don’t know what to say…..”
The serious look evaporated from her face as she said, “The best thing you can do is not to say anything. Just go in there and eat she’s been slaving over that stove ever since she woke up. She really does love you. She’ll be devastated if she thinks you’re angry with her.”
“I’m not. Why would I be? It wasn’t her fault.”
“She doesn’t know that. She’s just at that age where sex is a mystery to her that she both wants to know more about and is frightened of.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Several times. When she has questions she comes to me to ask. And before you ask, yes I have talked to her about you and me.”
“When she stuck her head in the door this morning?”
“She was very happy. I told her to go back to her room. As usual she paid me no attention. She started fires in the wood stoves and got to work in the kitchen.”
“She is a remarkable young woman. She gets it from her mom.”
“Thank you. She is the very best thing that has ever happened in my life.”
I nodded thinking that Maritza might be the very best thing that had happened to me in my life. The thought immediately made me feel guilty. There was a time in my life when Ann and the boys had made me feel that way.
“You are thinking of the family you lost,” she said putting her arm around my waist.
I could only nod.
“Our lives happen the way they are supposed to. God always brings us what we need.”
“I can’t believe that there was any reason for Ann and the boys to be killed so senselessly.”
“I am sorry that you had to go through such pain.”
“I have to believe that you are right. Things, good and terrible do happen the way they do for reasons that we can’t know. I do know that, for me, finding you is an amazing blessing that I had no right to ever expect.”
Maritza’s eyes filled with tears. “Jack, I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just having you and Marissa here, that we can be a family…”
“This is what I have wanted for many years.”
“Are you two ever gonna eat?” Marissa yelled from the kitchen.
“We better go.”
“Never before have I looked forward to going to bed at night as much as I am right at this moment.”
Maritza walked over to the dresser and got one of my aggie sweatshirts and threw it to me. I was pulling it over my head as she was dragging me out the door.
“You’ll just have to wait, you promised to take Marissa out to get everything she needs to fix her room the way she wants it, and you promised to teach her how to do the things she can’t do for herself.”
I let out a huge breath and said, “The women in my family are very high maintenance.”
“The women in your family are worth it.”
“Indeed they are, Maritza. Indeed they are.”
“That’s the longest I’ve seen you sittin in one place since I met you.”
It was Maritza. She had two lawn chairs in one hand, and cooler in the other. She didn’t look the same as she had yesterday, or any other day I’d seen her for that matter. She had on a pair of jeans and a thick turtleneck sweater. As thick as it was there was no hiding her figure underneath.
Whatcha got there Maritza?”
“I didn’t think there was much chance you’d had anything to eat since we talked last so I made you some breakfast.” She set down the cooler and took out a thermos and a towel. Onto the towel she set out what looked like burritos wrapped in foil, and two coffee cups.
“D’you bring coffee too?”
“I cannot start my morning without it,” she said without looking up.
“Me neither. I really do appreciate all this work Maritza and you’re right, I’m starved.”
“You’ll have to thank my helper when you get a chance.”
“Your helper?”
“My daughter Marissa.”
“I didn’t know you had a daughter, I’d love to meet her.”
“I hope you like bacon and eggs.”
“I do thanks. Where’d you get the eggs and the pig?”
“There’s lots of both all over this country. All you have to do is find them and give them someplace to live.”
“Where’s that?” I asked; unwrapping a burrito.
“When you get done eating, I’ll take you over there. I’ve got one house for the pigs and one for the chickens. They stink very badly, but it’s the easiest way to have food to eat that doesn’t come from a can.”
“Maritza, I thought you were an engineer.”
“I am, but I learned many things as a girl in my country.”
“Including how to make the perfect tortilla.”
“Thank you.”
“When did Jerry say he’d be through?”
“He said he’d be done tomorrow at the latest. Jessie is already working on the cabling.”
“Shit.”
“What is wrong?”
“Tina said she didn’t want to live or work in the tower, that she wanted the cabling run to one of the bungalows.”
“She did did she?”
All I could do was nod.
“All the houses are spoken for. I can’t imagine anyone will just say, “Please just take my house.”
“She’s seems used to people doin for her what she asks.”
“So your intention is to keep doing for her?”
“It might be best for everybody concerned.”
“How so?”
“I don’t think she’s gonna be too happy to be here.”
“Then why doesn’t she leave?”
“Because the only other place she can go is to her family. There she will be forced to do what they want her to do. She may also be staying because of something I said.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her if she went south she’d probably have to life in some kind of refugee camp; that the living conditions wouldn’t be very good.”
“You are probably correct.”
“Anyway what she said was that she wanted her own place, and her own observation tower next to it.”
“She wants us to build her her own tower?” Maritza said, “you’re kidding.”
“No, nothing so involved. Just a structure she can use to make observations above the trees.”
“Wouldn’t it be better just to put all that equipment on her tower?”
“I don’t think so. We can throw up what she needs without too much trouble.”
“We?”
“We, all of us here.”
“As soon as it comes out what you want to do, I’m not sure you’ll find too many volunteers.”
“Then I guess I better get to work.”
“I will help you. The two of us can build her a two room house. By the time we get done it will be too cold to worry about her tower this year.”
“What about a pole structure?”
“Using what?”
“Telephone poles.”
“You’re thinking about just building her house in the top of a tower.”
“It’d kill two birds with one stone.”
“I never liked that saying.”
“Sorry.”
“I believe it could be done quickly but we would need much help.”
“We have twenty two people total.”
“Twenty two adults, yes.”
“Could a half dozen finish out the interior framing in the tower, and running the cables to this thing we’re building?”
“I should think so. Two at least would have to be sent to find the extra cables needed.”
I ate for a while and then had to ask the question that had been nagging at the back of my mind since last night. I couldn’t just ask it straight out, I didn’t have the courage, so I beat around the bush.
“Maritza, why would you want to help me with this? This isn’t your problem.”
She cut right through my fear and got to the point. “Because what Tina said last night was true, I am attracted to you and I’ve been wanting to get to know you better. Now, the best way for me to do that is to work with you.”
When I didn’t say anything, she continued, “I could tell from what you had said over the past few weeks that Tina did not feel anything for you, and that you were not willing to admit that to yourself. After last night I could tell that you didn’t have any real feelings for her either.”
I had no idea what to say.
“You’re surprised that I am speaking this way with you. You should not be. There’s no time anymore for the stupid games that men and women used to play with each other. I want to have a man in my life, and I want Marissa to have a father.”
Maritza, I don’t know what to say.” It was a stupid thing to say. What I should have said is “You’re scaring the shit out of me with what you’re saying.”
“Say you want to work with me.”
“I do.” All of a sudden work wasn’t the only thing I wanted to do with her.
“Good. I will go talk to Jerry and Jennifer about the needed changes in the cabling before they get too far along with what they’re doing. Why don’t you go get your truck and then come pick me up so we can scout out the material we need for this new house we’re building?”
“Tina won’t have any way to get out of the house.”
“Tina doesn’t want to get out of that house unless it’s to move into her own place. The sooner you go get that truck the sooner we can get her house built.”
“Yes ma’am.”
Maritza started cleaning up so I started helping. She grabbed my hand, looked me straight in the eye and said, “Go I’ll take care of this. If you get going now, you’ll be back with the truck in time for me to go with you, okay?” There was a kind of tenderness in her voice that hadn’t been there a moment before. “Okay?” she said again.
I looked into her eyes then and saw the same feeling I’d heard in her voice. I realized she was still holding my hand, or I was holding hers maybe.
“Maritza…”
“Don’t say anything more now; we’ll have plenty of time to talk this afternoon. Go, Jack.”
“Okay,” I said. Letting go of her hand. When I’d walked a few steps off I looked over my shoulder and saw that Maritza was looking at me. I’d have given much then to know what was on her mind.
__
I met Tina about halfway back to the house, driving in the opposite direction. When she stopped I walked over to the driver’s side window.
“I didn’t expect to see you out,” I said.
“I knew I’d better come over and make sure the equipment was being installed right. Where’re you going?”
“I had to come back to get the truck.”
“Where’re you goin?”
“I need to scout out the materials for your house.”
“You already have a plan?”
“I talked about it with some people and we came to the conclusion that the only way to build you your own house and an observation tower before it gets too cold is to built your house as a tower.”
“Your kidding.”
“You don’t like the idea?”
“I’ll have to climb three flights of stairs every time I want to go in and out or didn’t that little glitch cross your architect’s mind.”
“So you can live without the tower until next year?”
She looked back out the windshield and blew out a long breath.
“I can lick that problem for you. I think.”
“How you gonna do that?”
“I’ll build your house on a hill.”
“There are no hills.”
“I’ll make one.”
“Sure. You do what you have to do. Jump in the back.”
“What?”
“You’re going back, right? Jump in the back, we’ll be there in a minute.”
To keep from pissing her off, I didn’t say what I wanted to. I jumped over the tailgate into the bed. Tina parked the truck and headed in the front door of the tower without looking back. Maritza came out the front door about five minutes later.
“That took less time than I thought it would.”
“What’s that?”
“I didn’t think she’d get over here till this afternoon.”
“I didn’t think she leave the house at all.”
“I knew she’d be over here today. Whatever else she is, she’s a woman.”
“You were up there when she got here.”
“She walked right past me with the same look she gave me last night. She then climbed right up on the roof and started asking questions.”
“She say anything to you?”
Maritza just smiled. Maritza headed for the truck and I followed right behind her. I knew Maritza and Tina would have it out someday and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be around to see it or not. It only took a couple hours to find all the materials we needed. When we left the site I headed directly to the phone company’s depot. There were all the telephone poles we could ever use and, luckily enough, there were just the sort of long timbers we’d need to build the structure of the house.
“That was too easy,” Maritza said sitting on top of a pile of thirty foot long redwood six by fifteen inch timbers.
“Too easy how?”
“Easy to find, hard to get them where they need to be.”
“Maybe not.”
“You have a plan?”
“Have you seen any horses in your chicken and pig trips?”
She smiled. “A few, why?”
“I’ve been thinking that even though we can use trucks or tractors to drag the poles and timbers back to the site it would be best to drag them around the site by horse one at a time.”
She smiled even wider. “I like that idea, but maybe for next year, do you think. It’s already the middle of July. I doubt we have even a month left to work in before it starts snowing too much again.”
“You must really hate this weather compared to Cuba.”
“How did you know that’s where I’m from?”
“I asked Jennifer a couple days ago.”
Again the smile. She walked back to the truck and got in the passenger side. “We need to get back so I can get everyone arranged to begin moving these materials.”
On the ride back I asked, “Maritza, Tina had a complaint about the idea of putting the house on the tower.”
“That’s not too surprising. She didn’t want to climb up and down three of four flights of stairs every time she goes in and out?”
“Exactly.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her that I’d build the thing on a hill. A hill I’d make.”
“She’s willing to settle for that?”
“She never did say exactly, but I did let her know that she could have the house this year but not both the house and the tower.”
“I’m interested in what she has to say about that when we get back.”
“What do you think, is there a better way to get both done this year?”
“To be honest I really don’t care if both get done this year. At the very least we could build some sort of exterior staircase up to the roof of the tower we already have if she’s so concerned about having independent access to long range observation.”
“The north wall doesn’t even have any windows on it. It’d be easier to build some sort of platform up next to the instrumentation. She’d get what she wants at least in the short term, and long term it’d make service access to the instrumentation easier.”
Maritza pulled the car to the curb. “So what you’re saying is that we no longer need telephone poles and timbers?”
I turned to face her. “Maritza, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.’
“Would you and Marissa be interested in moving in with me?”
“Well, I guess that serves me right with all my talk of not wasting time with stupid games.”
“She looked at me seriously for a few moments and asked, “Have you ever lived with children?”
“I had a wife and two sons who were killed a year or so ago when my house was broken into.”
“I am very sorry Jack I didn’t know, I am so sorry.”
“It’s okay. I just wanted you to know that I have been a dad. I’m sorry if I’m getting ahead of things.”
She reached out a hand and held the side of my face. “Why don’t we do this, let’s let Tina move into the tower, it just makes more sense, and it’ll be ready in only a week or so. Why don’t you build you what you would like to live in? By the time we are finished with the construction we’ll have had a while to talk and get to know each other better, and maybe, if you’re lucky, Marissa will have cooked for you a few times.”
“Does she know who I am? I don’t recall ever seeing her.”
“Unlike her mother, she does hate the cold very much. And yes, she does know who you are. I have talked to her about you many times. You are a topic of conversation for most people here day to day. That is as it should be.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you are the leader of this place. You decided to build the tower and when the rest of us arrived you had the ability to get a few individuals all moving in the same direction.”
“I’ve always thought that everyone stayed because they just wanted to have something to do.”
“That was part of it for some.”
“What was it for you?”
“Curiosity about what you were doing, and having a settled place for Marissa. Before long I realized I wanted to get to know you better. I liked what I saw in you.”
What she had said embarrassed me and I realized I was looking out the windshield when she’d finished speaking. I looked back at her and said, “Maritza, you might be the most intimidating woman I have ever met.”
She chuckled and said, “Me?”
“You are very beautiful, very smart and you have a strength I have rarely seen in a woman or a man.”
It was her turn to look out the window.
“Thank you Jack. It is very kind of you to say.” She wiped at her eyes as she continued to look out the windshield. “What will you do then?”
“I would like to live in a tall structure, tall enough to see out over the trees.”
“Then, that is what you should build, you have already worked out how to build it, why don’t you?”
“There’s those stairs to worry about.”
“Build a hill.”
“I’ll get started on it tomorrow.”
“And I’ll get started on the materials tomorrow.”
“Maritza, would it be okay if I kissed you?”
She didn’t say anything for a second which worried me. I was about to start the truck when she reached over, grabbed the front of my shirt and kissed me. It only lasted a second but she got close enough that I could smell her hair as it fell around her face. She licked her lips and said, “Thank you, Jack.”
“Why would you thank me?”
“Because you were gentleman enough to ask my permission. Gentlemen have become very rare.”
“Not as rare as femininity, I think.”
She nodded looking at me, shook her hand in the direction of the wind shield. “We need to get back. I’m anxious to get started.”
“Me too, I’ll start on the drawings tonight and pushing up some dirt tomorrow.”
“Leave the area for the poles till we get them in the ground.”
“Will do. Get one of the fellas to drive back one of the auger trucks if they can get one started. It’ll make short work of putting the poles in the ground.”
“Will do,” she said imitating me. She waved out the windshield again.
I started the truck and eased it away from the curb. Maritza looked tired as she got out of the truck and walked into the tower.
Tina came out of the same door Maritza had gone through a minute earlier and walked right up to me.
“I asked your girlfriend what was going on and she said I should come and talk to you. So I’ll ask you, what’s going on?”
I expected her to be angry but she didn’t seem upset. There was very little emotion in her voice. I’d have been happier if there had been.
“I’ve been working on how to get you what you need to do your work and I keep coming up with the same answer.”
“Which is?”
“That you should live here in the tower with your stuff. That’s why we’re all here, that’s why you’re here.”
She looked over her shoulder and then back and said, “So where you gonna live?”
“I think I’m gonna build me a very tall house about fifty meters that way,” I said indicating a barren area past the last bungalow near Texas Avenue.”
“On a hill?”
“On a hill.”
“What do I need to do?”
“Is Frank inside?”
“The tall black man?”
“Yea, you need to go up and tell him where you want your walls to be. Which floor do you want to live on?”
“The penthouse of course.”
“The penthouse… Okay, tell Frank where you want your rooms to be, and tell Jennifer where you want the cabling to go on the floor below so your equipment and the electrical connections can be installed.”
“How long will it take?”
“I’ve got half a dozen people working on it, maybe two weeks to move in, three to four to get everything up and running that’ll run.”
“It’ll be snowing again by then.”
“The weather drives the scheduling on just about everything these days.”
She looked back from the building and said, “So you’re moving out?”
“Yea, I’ve got the things I need over here for now. I need to be here to work on my house anyway. Not going back and forth will save me an hour or two a day. We’re really running out of time to get everything done.”
Tina didn’t say anything as she walked over to the truck and drove off.
__
Two weeks later everybody had a house to live in, everybody except me. All I’d accomplished was getting the poles in the ground and attaching all the major timbers. Trouble was the project had evolved in my mind from a single story, four sided nine hundred square foot box to a two story octagonal twenty four hundred square foot house. Maritza seemed to take great pleasure in reminding me daily how many days we had left to work before she, despite her loyalty to the cause would have to quit for the season. She also had an annoying habit of also reminding me that this structure would be lucky to last twenty years. Every time I told her I’d have sons to build me a new one at that time she just laughed and shook her head.
The completion of construction on the project had two main benefits for me. First it freed up eight additional people, seven of whom were willing to help me out (Tina was busy with her “work”). Six of those seven were framers, exactly what I needed help with at the time. The second benefit was the freeing up of equipment; generators, compressors and nail guns specifically. Everyone seemed to feel an urgency as the weather quickly cooled and frost in the morning was followed by light snow. The day we had the first real snow fall, Jennifer, Maritza, and I were completing the shingling of the roof, a 12/12 octagonal roof that had Frank and I scratching our heads for a full two days trying to figure out how to frame it. I’m honestly not sure if we accomplished exactly that pitch, but it was darn close. I know this because we had to rig up a rope harness from the roof peak to keep up from sliding off the edge.
I remember standing on the second floor looking at the snow falling that first afternoon the building was completely dried in.
“I really wasn’t sure that you’d be able to do it,” Maritza said handing me a cup of tea. I watched the steam rise from the cup in the cold air.
“Oh ye of little faith,” I said laughing.
“No one has more faith in you than I do,” she said seriously. “I just didn’t think it was humanly possible. What’s left?”
“I think we ought to use just his top floor for now and use the downstairs to store all the materials we need to finish out the space. First thing I need…”
“We?”
I nodded to her and continued, “We need to do is to get this space insulated and walled up, get some woodstoves installed in here, and get some walls up.”
“Is that necessary?”
“What?”
“Walling off such a small space seems like a shame.”
“Whether or not it needs to be done has a lot to do with you.”
I expected Maritza to turn from where she was looking out the window. She didn’t but she said, “I’d really like that Jack, if it’s something you still want to do.”
“What about Marissa?”
“She really likes you a lot. I think you made a big impression when you told her you liked her cooking so much.”
“I really do, there’s nothing she makes that I don’t love to eat.”
She finally turned around and said, “It’s why you worked so hard to get this place done isn’t it?”
I nodded and said, “I have loved working and talking and eating and complaining and cussin with you these last few weeks. I’ve never wanted to work so hard in my life. You being right here next to me the whole way, I don’t know, I just, I loved it. It’s the first time in a long time I’ve been even close to happy. It’s my turn to thank you.” I took two steps toward her and gathered her into my arms and just held her. The top of her head just about reached my chin. She leaned her head back and kissed me. There was a hunger in her kiss that told me that she must have been feeling the same as I had. When she pulled away from me I looked into those eyes of hers. She was looking at me like no woman had ever had before. I knew at that moment that love could be seen as well as felt.
“Maybe we better build a couple bedrooms. Marissa is going to want her privacy,” I said running my fingers through her thick blue black hair.
“Her mother does too.”
_____
It was another four weeks before the house was about as ready as it was going to get to be lived in. It was cold enough by the beginning of September for me to see my breath in the morning, inside. I’d lived alone in the house for those four weeks. Not only did living inside the house as I built it save me time for the commute, it also motivated me to get my ass outta bed every morning to get warmed up. Maritza came every day to help and even though carpentry wasn’t something she much enjoyed she worked as hard as I did. Marissa came over too; twice a day to bring breakfast and linner. Linner was a meal we ate at about 2:30 or 3:00 everyday and it was her idea. Because the days had begun to get much shorter, I usually didn’t get up till about six or seven and was through by five or six. There never was any time to eat three meals while we were working. Now that we were finished with all the coarse work there was a lot more time, time to eat, and more importantly time that needed to be filled with talking and just being together. It was very different and it started with Marissa.
“How much more is there to do before you’re finished Jack?” Marissa asked.
“Well Marissa, there’s done and then there’s done.”
“Huh?” Marissa said. She did not resemble her mother other than in how she dressed and kept her hair. At fourteen years old she was at least six inches taller than her mom, maybe more.
“Finished to move into is when all the insulation is in, the plumbing such as it is is in, the walls and floors are in, and the stoves are installed.”
The greatest resemblance between Marissa and her mother was the analytical intelligence they shared.
“So you still have to do all the finish carpentry work?”
I couldn’t help surprise showing on my face.
“What? I can read. The door on the library is wide open. I get the books I need and bring them back to the house.”
I turned to Maritza and raised my eyebrows.
“She’s very independent.”
“Do I get a vote in how my room looks?”
“You can have your room any way you want. If you like, I’ll even teach you to do it yourself if you want.”
“I think I know, theoretically, how to do trim, and I know I can paint. I don’t know where I can get curtains.”
“I can show you how to sew your own if you like,” Maritza said with a big smile. Marissa nodded, got up without a word and headed straight for her room. I was about to say something to Maritza when Marissa stuck her head out her door.
“Can we go looking for material tomorrow?”
“Sure, I could use a day off. How ‘bout you mom?”
The look on Maritza’s face was something I never will forget. It was obvious that she tried twice to say something but both times she burst out with the widest smile I’d ever seen.
“I think that means she’ll come with us.”
“Of course. Although you two don’t really seem to need my help.”
“Oh, mom,” Marissa said disappearing back into her room.
“Well look at the two of you,” Maritza said.
“Whaddya mean?”
“She wants you to like her so much; she’ll do just about anything.”
“She doesn’t have to worry about that. I couldn’t like her any more if I tried. She’s amazing; gets it from her mom as far as I can tell.”
“Jack.”
“Maritza.”
“Hey, you said my name like a Cuban!”
“I asked Marissa and she helped me. She’s also been helping me learn a little Spanish here and there.”
“Her Spanish is horrible. I tried to teach her when she was little, but she said none of her friends spoke Spanish she didn’t need to either.”
“So she was born here in the states?”
“Right here in town.”
“You never have said anything about her dad.”
Looking away out the window she said, “She’s never had a dad. The man who…, he was just…”
“It’s okay Maritza; it’s none of my business.”
“No. I came here to attend high school and had only been here for a few months. I was very lonely. I thought I was protected but I found out I was pregnant a few weeks later. He was just a man, a night I didn’t have to be lonely. Marissa has paid the price for what I did. She has never had a father, and I thought it best not to bring men in and out of our home while she was still a child.”
“So you haven’t…”
“Been with a man for fourteen years? No. I believed it was best for Marissa.”
“Believed?”
“The world is not now what it was Jack, and as you have seen Marissa is a very independent young woman. Unfortunately she no longer has the luxury of time she once had to grow up gradually.”
“Have you talked to her about us?”
“Of course. You are the first man we’ve both met that she actually encouraged me to pursue.”
I thought as hard as I could to find something to say that would change the subject. All of a sudden I was feeling a great deal of pressure.
“Should we move your things over here tomorrow?”
“All we’ll be bringing over is our clothes and some personal items. The furniture will stay in the bungalow. Jennifer and her partner were going to build a place of their own until I told them if they could hang on for another month they could have our place.”
“You told them about us?”
“Jack everybody already knew about us. Everybody except you maybe.” The smile returned to face just a little then. She was trying to smile but I could see it was an effort she was making for me.
I took her into my arms and held her as close to me as I could. She drew her arms in front of her and buried her head in my chest. I stroked the back of her head with my hand until she pulled back.
“We have to get furniture, tomorrow.”
“Yes ma’am we will.”
“Do you understand what I am saying Jack?”
“I think so.”
“I’m glad you do. I have a few things of mine and Marissa’s I need to get from our apartment, and I want to look through some furniture stores to see if there’s anything left there.”
“When will we have time to get Marissa’s material? She seemed very anxious to get started.”
“She’ll be thinking differently after she sleeps on the floor tonight.”
“If she does she won’t admit it, I’ll bet.”
Nodding I said. “Does she want new furniture or does she want what she had before?”
Really smiling she replied, “Jack you do have a great deal to learn about fourteen year old girls. They want everything new, every day.”
“Really, Marissa seems awfully mature for her age.”
“Much of what you’re seeing she’s putting on for your benefit. When she gets more comfortable around you, the real Marissa will come out, trust me.”
“I do Maritza, I do.”
“I know.”
___
Marissa wasn’t the only one who wanted a real bed the next morning, her mother and I did as well. We never did get to the lumber store but we did a great job of gathering up the furniture we needed. Jennifer and April were kind enough to move the pieces up into the house every time we brought something back. Between new things and old we had all the furniture we needed two days later. Jennifer and April were happy to have their own place and none of us were sleeping, or sitting on the floor anymore.
That first night we had all had a bed to sleep in I spent half the night finding things to put together or set up.
“Jack, are you finished yet?”
“I don’t know Maritza there’s so much I need to do.” I knew what she was going to say next.
“Jack, you can finish that stuff tomorrow.”
“Okay,” I said heading for the bedroom. I got about two steps into the bedroom when I saw her brushing her hair in front of her vanity mirror. She had it all pulled over her left shoulder brushing it slowly from top to bottom. I walked up behind her and asked, “May I?”
She looked over her shoulder, smiled, and handed me the brush. “Certainly.” She sat down on the bench, flipped her hair over her shoulder and put her hands in her lap.
I began brushing her hair against her robe for a just a minute before she said, “Gather it in your left hand and brush down.”
“Okay. I gathered her hair in my hand and was amazed at how it filled my hand. I brushed and brushed watching the lamp light reflecting off the highlights, highlights that shimmers with every stroke. I must have gone on too long because she reached around and grabbed her hair from my hand.
“What is this thing you have for my hair?” she said holding it again over her left shoulder this time in both hands.
“I love your hair.”
“Why? It’s just hair.”
“You have the most beautiful hair I have ever seen.”
“Why thank you sir.” She reached up and stroked my face. Why don’t you grow your beard?”
“Most women don’t like them very much.”
“I am not most women.”
“You certainly are not.” I said it a little more strongly than I probably should have. I couldn’t help it. Maritza was just about everything I’d ever wanted in a woman. Every time I learned something new about her, I discovered another reason to respect and desire her.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sometimes a man doesn’t know what he wants until he sees it for the first time. The first time I saw you I remember watching you for the longest time.”
“The first time you saw me I was roofing with Jennifer, I was filthy.”
“How is it that a woman always knows when a man sees her but a man never knows when a woman is looking at him?”
Maritza walked over to the bed and hopped up, sitting on the edge of the mattress. “Me madre always said that it was always this way with men and women.”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but even though I have never met a woman like you, I am attracted and distracted by everything about you.”
“Such as?” she said. I loved her accent. I swear when she wants to have her way she does that on purpose.”
“You accent really gets to me.”
“What accent?”
“Okay. You really want me to do this?”
She nodded, smiled and batted her eyelashes at me.
“You see, it’s your smile,” which, of course made her smile even more. “It’s that amazing hair of yours, did you know that you braid is as thick as my wrist at least?”
Again the smile, this time she looked down at the floor. “Anything else?”
“You’re really gonna make me say this out loud?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Maritza the first time I really saw you you were wearing a thick white sweater.”
“Very good, most men wouldn’t have remembered. Why is this important to you?”
“I remember thinking to myself that there weren’t many women in the world whose figure could still look hot through all those clothes.”
“Really?”
Raising my hand I said, “I swear.”
“So you like my figure?”
“What I’ve seen of it, definitely.”
She smiled that smile of hers again and opened her robe. “Oh my,” was all I could say. She was wearing a white bra and matching panties, very lacy, very feminine. Her skin was very dark, all over.
“You like?”
“Oh my,” I said again in a whisper.
“Why don’t you come over here?”
I did. She must have known I was afraid, women always do. She took my hand and pulled me into the bed with her. I might have been the boss of the construction, but the bed belonged to her. I thought I loved her before she took me to her bed, in the morning I had to love her.
Rarely did I sleep until the sun came up, and even more rarely still this time of year. I didn’t wake up until Marissa knocked on the door.
“Let me get that,” she said throwing the covers aside and hopping down to the floor. She walked slowly over to where she’d thrown her robe. I was hypnotized by her nakedness. I didn’t understand it totally but I was amazed that she was the same dark color all over. Some parts darker than others, but dark, mysterious, sensuous, full of passion. She was the first woman in my experience who didn’t make love silently. She reacted to me making love, demanding satisfaction, my equal in strength and physicality. I’d made love to her once and I wanted to make love to her again, immediately, right now. I’d heard that there were couples that wanted, desired each other for years and decades, but I never believed it possible. Now I did. I was sure. I wanted her, looking at her. She could see that I wanted her.
“Cover that thing up,” she said pointing to it with an evil smile.
“Sorry,” I said involuntarily looking at it.
Maritza walked over to the door and opened it just enough to talk to her daughter.
“Now is a horrible time Marissa,”
“I’m sorry Mom, the sun’s up I thought Jack would be wanting his breakfast.”
“Marissa, can you wait until I tell you when would be a good time?”
“Oh mom, did you finally?”
“Marissa….”
“Oh mom, I’m so glad.”
“Marissa…”
“Okay mom. I’m going. Just let me know when I can help okay?”
“I will.”
“Okay.”
Maritza came back into the room and grabbed her robe. I patted the mattress next to me and she dropped the robe, walked slowly to the bed and climbed back into the bed.
“I need you to build me steps.”
“I would build you anything you need. I would do anything for you.”
“Really?”
“Do you have any idea the effect you have on me?”
“Of course.”
“Why does this not surprise me?”
“Because we were meant to be together.”
“You think so?”
“I have never felt like I feel when I’m with you.”
“Thank God.”
“Thank God?”
“I was afraid that it was just me.”
“We could not feel this way if it was just me or just you.”
She reached out and took me in her hand. I reacted. I reached out and felt the weight of her breast in my hand. She leaned her head back and moaned deep in her throat before she pulled the covers over us.
I must’ve fallen asleep after because the next thing I remember is Marissa shaking my shoulder telling me to wake up.
“What time is it?”
“About two,” she said with an odd little smile I hadn’t seen before.
“In the afternoon?”
“Yes sir,” Again the smile.
“I need to get my butt outta this bed,” I said pulling up the covers and swinging my legs toward the floor. A half second too late I remembered I was naked. By the time I got back under the covers Marissa was standing next to the bed with my robe in her hand. She dropped it on the bed and said, “I made some stew for lunch. I’ll get you a bowl.”
“Thanks,” was all I could say to her back as she walked out of the room.
She waved a hand over her shoulder on her way out the door but didn’t say anything.
I was about half dressed when Maritza came into the room.
“Jack, I know you’re not used to having us living with you yet, but you have to be careful.”
“I’m sorry Maritza, I wasn’t thinking.”
“That’s what I’m saying. That thing of yours just about scared Marissa to death, the poor child has never seen such a thing before. She was mortified.”
“I don’t know what to say…..”
The serious look evaporated from her face as she said, “The best thing you can do is not to say anything. Just go in there and eat she’s been slaving over that stove ever since she woke up. She really does love you. She’ll be devastated if she thinks you’re angry with her.”
“I’m not. Why would I be? It wasn’t her fault.”
“She doesn’t know that. She’s just at that age where sex is a mystery to her that she both wants to know more about and is frightened of.”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Several times. When she has questions she comes to me to ask. And before you ask, yes I have talked to her about you and me.”
“When she stuck her head in the door this morning?”
“She was very happy. I told her to go back to her room. As usual she paid me no attention. She started fires in the wood stoves and got to work in the kitchen.”
“She is a remarkable young woman. She gets it from her mom.”
“Thank you. She is the very best thing that has ever happened in my life.”
I nodded thinking that Maritza might be the very best thing that had happened to me in my life. The thought immediately made me feel guilty. There was a time in my life when Ann and the boys had made me feel that way.
“You are thinking of the family you lost,” she said putting her arm around my waist.
I could only nod.
“Our lives happen the way they are supposed to. God always brings us what we need.”
“I can’t believe that there was any reason for Ann and the boys to be killed so senselessly.”
“I am sorry that you had to go through such pain.”
“I have to believe that you are right. Things, good and terrible do happen the way they do for reasons that we can’t know. I do know that, for me, finding you is an amazing blessing that I had no right to ever expect.”
Maritza’s eyes filled with tears. “Jack, I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Just having you and Marissa here, that we can be a family…”
“This is what I have wanted for many years.”
“Are you two ever gonna eat?” Marissa yelled from the kitchen.
“We better go.”
“Never before have I looked forward to going to bed at night as much as I am right at this moment.”
Maritza walked over to the dresser and got one of my aggie sweatshirts and threw it to me. I was pulling it over my head as she was dragging me out the door.
“You’ll just have to wait, you promised to take Marissa out to get everything she needs to fix her room the way she wants it, and you promised to teach her how to do the things she can’t do for herself.”
I let out a huge breath and said, “The women in my family are very high maintenance.”
“The women in your family are worth it.”
“Indeed they are, Maritza. Indeed they are.”
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