Chapter 4: “¿Estás durmiendo?”

When morning sunlight first hit Lucia’s face, she turned away without waking. She was deep into a dream. In her dream, it was her abuela, her grandmother, bending over her and looking very young and healthy.

“¿Estás durmiendo?”

“What? I don’t remember!” Lucia thought. Then the translation came to mind and overlaid the image of her grandmother, now speaking in English.

“Are you sleeping, Lucia?”

That’s when she woke up. And groaned.

“Ow! Shit! Fucking Back!” Lucia thought. “And no, Mi Abuela, I’m not sleeping. Not fucking enough.”

Well aware of the reasons, Lucia pushed herself up slowly to sit on the edge of her fancy bed.

They were right; this bed is so much better. But no, I was stubborn with Hector. My bed is fine, I said. Don’t spend the money, I said. There is no question that Hector would have bought a new one for me. He was sweet that way.

My back was significantly worsened by that old bed, and I am now paying the price for my cheapness. Now look at me. Some mornings, I can hardly walk. I feel suicidal if I run out of ibuprofen. At least most nights, I can fall asleep OK.

Not last night, though. Those two have NO IDEA how easily I can hear them sometimes. What a mess! I need someone to discuss this with, but it is extremely personal. I mean, I love my daughter, and Gabe is such a doll; he makes her so happy. Including, obviously, about 25 feet to my right. And I WANT them to be happy together. Like me and Hector are!

Were.

Lucia started to sniffle.

And, because I can hear them and because I haven’t had any dick in weeks and weeks (I’m afraid to count how many), I can’t resist masturbating right along with them. I mean, I guess I could put on headphones or go out in the yard. But I don’t WANT to hide. I hear them, and I want...

God forgive me; I want to walk in there and join them. I want his dick in me while Mia holds me and tells me it’s all OK; they both love me. On other occasions, I want to surprise Gabe by sucking his morning wood. Hector loved that!

Paradoxically, she was masturbating now, even with the tears still flowing.

Lucia took her hand out of her panties and looked for some clothes.

Staying in bed makes my back worse.

An hour and a half later, Mia began to stir.

What was I dreaming? Oh, yeah. Mm! Oh, he’s awake.

“You are so pretty when you’re sleeping, Mia.”

“You’ve told me that about once a week for the past seven years. Don’t make me multiply that number out. Let’s get dressed; I’m making breakfast. Go find out what Mama wants.”

He found that the other big bed was all neatly made, and her room was empty, so he went looking. He found her—well, he found her (nice-looking!) legs anyway, protruding from underneath his Cadillac in the garage.

“I can tell by the heaviness of your tread that it’s you, Gabe. Hand me the filter wrench; it’s that hoopy thing.”

“I KNOW what an oil filter wrench looks like,” he growled, sensing a challenge to his masculinity. “What I don’t know is what the hell you’re doing under my car. Lucia, you’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I thought we covered that last night. Out here, I found you had all the stuff already, except for the oil. So, I drove over to Gland Auto...”

“That’s GRAND Auto; their sign is broken.”

Gabe was now clutching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.

“Oh, that makes sense, I guess. I was hoping for a discount for my C-cups, but no such luck.”

“Bullshit,” he thought lasciviously. “She’s exactly like Mia; those are D-cups; I’d give her a BIG discount for those.”

“Anyway, I confirmed the type and amount of oil for your model, and I was under here to start draining.”

“Lucia, let me try again. WHY are you under my car to change my oil? Mia didn’t ask you to, and I know that I didn’t either, so why? No, on second thought, Mia wanted to know your breakfast request. Since you’re confusing me this morning, you’re picking waffles. Now that this is settled, I’ll get under there and unscrew the drain plug so the old oil can drip out while we eat.”