Chapter 11

Camila’s turn:

It has been over a month since Dave Johnson paid two hundred dollars for me. I thought I was to be abused and turned into a child whore. I know the stories. I can find them on news in Spanish and I am also beginning to read English enough to find the same stories.

I am not Dave’s whore. I don’t know what I am supposed to be to Dave, but my Dave has two wives who have made me their sister. One of them, Carlita, came out of Guatemala, not carried off by men who want to sell young girls, but on her own feet, one of thousands who leave Guatemala for a better life in America.

I did not know that Americans could have two wives. Carlita explained this to me. She is married to Dave in the fashion that the government understands. Brindy is married to Dave also. There is no government registration. They are just married.

Brindy speaks Spanish. She learns from Carlita and from the class where she assists Carlita with people who speak Spanish but wish to learn English.

A week ago I joined that class. Before that, I did not wish to have my name on records in America. I was illegal. A nobody.

Dave fixed that. It cost him more than the two hundred dollars he paid for me the first time, but when the papers returned, we had a party. You must understand. Now I am in America legally, and I have a sister. I am officially sister of Carlita with a birth certificate and passport and student visa from Guatemala. All very legal, and they cost Dave money.

“Seven thousand American dollars!” I said when I found out.

“Camila, my sister...” This time Carlita smiled even more. “We have the money. We wanted YOU to be safe. Now you are safe. You are eighteen, a year younger than me on our birth certificates, and you have papers. You are a student.” She smiled. “It is only money. We could buy a small used car of recent years. Instead, we have Camila, soon to be college student.”

“I am NOT a student.”

“You will be, if you wish...”

“Mi hermana,” I said. “I do not know what to wish.”

“Then relax. You have a home here. I was the one who told Dave that you should be my sister. It looks good to those on the outside. That is how we now introduce you.”

And that is how I am introduced. I am learning English very fast. Carlita and Brindy help me much, but I am brave now and I go to the office and try to talk with my other new sisters, Haley and Deena with the pretty blonde hair.

“Blonde hair is very pretty,” I told Carlita. “Deena. I am jealous.”

“Why?”

“She is pretty, and many men will chase after her.”

“Yes. And she has told many men ‘no’. And blonde hair? Look at me. Who do I look like?”

“You look like me.”

“Am I loved?”

“Dave loves you. Brindy loves you.”

“I did not need blonde hair. Mila, what is in here...” She put a finger on my heart and on my head, “these are the things that made Dave and Brindy love me. I was a scared girl, but I saw goodness and kindness in Dave and made my mind and heart up that we belong together. Now we have Brindy. Is Brindy blonde?”

“No.”

“Is Brindy loved?”

“She is loved. I can look at Brindy in her day and know she is loved.”

“It is what YOU are inside that makes you loved, not the color of your hair. And you and I, we see Latinas who try to be blonde...”

I nodded. She is right about that look. It is not good. And I look at my sister, she of the black hair, like mine, and the dark eyes, like mine, and the little tetas, like mine.

It is good to have a sister that I can talk with about the thoughts in my head and in my heart.

It is good to have people who love me. I get hugs from everybody. My sisters hug me. At first I did not hug Dave, but one day, he was working in the yard of our house. He came in, took his shower by himself. I know many times he showers with Brindy and Carlita, but today he got out of the shower, dressed, came in, found me working on lessons, reading in English, my iPad (they got me an iPad. I knew of such things, but they were beyond dreams) by me to help translate.

He asked if everything was going well for me. I stood up, put my arms around him, told him that I was doing well and that I thank him for caring for me. He hugged me back, not the way I see him hug Brindy or Carlita. As a friend, maybe. Or a daughter.

Every night I go to sleep in my own room. They go to sleep in the big bedroom. I know they do as married people, as adults, do. I’m fourteen, or eighteen if you look at my papers. I feel fourteen, though. Knowing that they have each other, though, I feel lonely. Maybe envious.

This is a family. They say I am part of this family.

It is springtime in Louisiana. The weather changes rapidly. On this night I went to sleep as normal. I woke when lightning lit up my room. The thunder and the lightning are scary and I am in a room being scared and alone and I have family. I do not have to be scared.

I walk up the hall to their door. The house is dimly lit. Very quietly I open the door. There is that very big bed with three people in it.

Now there are four. In the low light I see that Brindy is nearest to me. I try not to wake her as I get into bed with my sister.

Brindy has no clothes on. If this is how they sleep ... Very carefully I remove my sleeping clothes. I get close to Brindy in the flashes of light and sound. I am very close to looking like Carlita. Maybe that is what she thinks when she puts her arm over me.

Now I am safe and I sleep.

I wake up gently. There is more light in the room and there are soft voices.

Brindy. “Baby, I have my arm around Mila.”

Dave. “Mila?”

“Yes. A very naked Mila.”

“When’d she get into bed?”

“I dunno. I guess last night in the thunderstorm.”

“Just sleeping?” Lita asked.

“Well, yeah...”

“Naked?”

“Completely, at least everything that’s cuddled against me.”

“I am awake,” I said.

“Why are you in bed with us?” Carlita asked me.

“I was scared by the bad weather.”

“But you took your clothes off,” Lita returned.

“I know. I saw everybody in the bed had no clothes. I thought it was necessary. My family is in this bed. I was with them. As they were, so was I.” Maybe I am a bad girl for the next part because I changed my voice to that of a frightened child. “Did I do wrong?” I let my voice waver as if on the edge of crying.

Brindy wrapped her arms around me. “No, Mila. It is just a surprise to wake up and find you.”

“My Dave,” I said, “you told me that I am family. I am Carlita’s official sister. Am I bad?”

“No, my Mila. Just as Brindy says. A surprise. You have been many surprises since you came into this family.”

I got out of bed. It is the first time I am naked in front of Dave. He looked, then turned aside.

“I shall go back to my room, then?”

Carlita looked at Dave. “No, we usually have a little time on Saturday morning where we stay in bed together.”

“Together. I will go. You want private time.”

“No,” Brindy said. “Get back in bed. Sometimes it’s just a morning cuddle. You like cuddles, I know.”

She held the covers up for me to get in. When I tried to get in between her and the edge of the bed, she moved, leaving me only room between her and Dave. The covers were up and I saw a very naked Dave.

It is the first time that I could LOOK at a naked man and as is proper, this naked man is good to me and loves me.

“It is okay, Dave?” I ask in my best English.

“Only if it is what you wish, my Mila,” he answered me softly.

“Only if I am your Mila and Carlita’s Mila and Brindy’s Mila.”

“You are our sister, Mila,” Lita said.

“You are more than sisters to each other and you are wives to Dave as well.”

“We are. You do not have to be the other things to be our sister. That is not the way of things in this family,” Carlita told me in Spanish. “You must know this. We love each other and we love Dave as mates. More than sisters. You are not forced into this.”

“You told me you were never forced, Lita,” I said.

She smiled. “If anybody was forced, it was poor Dave.”

I slid beside him. He does not look as if he suffered from being forced by Carlita. He is warm.

“Can I snuggle?” I ask him.

“You can snuggle, my Mila.”

I turned to face him. It is necessary for a snuggle to be good, for at least one person to face the other. I pushed up against him, felt warmth from him.

And love. I understand some of the love in this family. They accepted me in the kind of love that the sister preached in the church school when I was younger. I have felt the love of family, much strong in this house, as they gave me their time and their money and their attention.

Now I feel a different love. And Carlita reaches over and touches my hair, stroking, caressing it. It might be as one does a child, but at this time, with the heat of Dave’s body warming me, it is a different feeling. As there are many kinds of love, there are many kinds of caresses. This one is new to me and I like it very much.