Chapter 2

After show and tell, I took Maria out to breakfast. When we returned to the apartment, we entered under the watchful gaze of Mrs. Alvarez and Mr. Grossman, who were talking at the bottom of the steps. I nodded to them both but didn't say anything. Maria eyed them suspiciously and asked me about them when we closed the door of my apartment.

"They're harmless gossips. You know if you leave me now Mrs. Alvarez will redouble her efforts to marry me off to her ugly daughter who is also named Maria."

Maria pulled me close to her on the couch and said, "So I have to stay here with you to keep you safe from the ugly Maria. She must not have nice tits like mine."

I knew I was being set up but asked anyway, "What makes you think that?"

Maria gave me a big smiled and said, "Because if she had nice big tits like mine you wouldn't know what her face looked like. I bet you can't even tell me what color my eyes are, now can you?"

Without looking up I said, "Sure I can, they're a beautiful shade of brown, and you are definitely a gorgeous young lady."

Maria smiled again and said, "I'm not beautiful, I am fat and plain. If it wasn't for my nice big tits you would be running over to the other Maria and asking her to protect you from me."

I knew the teasing had gone far enough so I pulled her over closer and kissed her. The kiss seemed to feed a powerful hunger within her that wasn't as plain to see as her need for food or shelter. She was lonely and starved for love and the kiss uncovered that.

It also affected me in a surprising way. I thought my interest in Maria was purely sexual. I thought that I was strong and self-sufficient. That kiss showed me that I too was adrift and needed an anchor and purpose for my life that Maria had unconsciously provided. Before that kiss the most remarkable things about Maria to me were those lovely tits and her beautiful brown eyes, afterwards it was her giving of herself to me in that kiss.

When we finally came up for air, I asked her to tell me her story and she agreed that it was time.

Maria's Story

There is a village in Central Mexico called Hidalgo. Hidalgo is small, with less than 200 residents. It is not near any big city, river or railroad and there are no natural resources nearby. The land itself was once rich and provided bountiful crops but over a hundred years of farming had robbed the land of much of its ability to produce. Still, the over —worked soil was able to produce enough to feed the people and provide a small amount of surplus each year that was sold in the city. The peasant farmers there grow only one type of white corn, an ancient type that is used to make simple corn meal that is turned into tortillas, the staple food of the Mexican diet. For a long while Hidalgo has eked by, not getting any richer and over time growing slightly poorer. To live in Hidalgo was to accept that you will always be poor.

My father, Geronimo and my mother, Albertina, were from Hidalgo. When they married they decided that they wanted more than the small village could provide. They saw that most of Mexico was much like Hidalgo. My father was not educated but was good with his hands, he could build things. He decided to come to the United States to make a new life. The problem with immigrating to the United States was that there was a quota that restricted people from going north. I suppose if there was not a quota many of the people in Mexico would move to the United States. The quota only allowed a few poorer Mexicans to immigrate to the United States each year. It was funny but my father said that in order to immigrate to the United States you would have to be able to prove that you didn't need to. You had to have money, skills and a prospect for a job. So my father did what millions of other Mexicans did and came to this country illegally.

My parents first settled in Texas and my father worked as a laborer in the oil fields. That is where I was born. I am a U.S. citizen because I was born in this country. In a few years the price of oil dropped and the fields where my father worked stopped hiring. He decided to move on and we moved from place to place where he found work as he could. My father would always tell me that no matter how poor we were, we were better off here than in Mexico.

Eventually we moved here to Florida because after the hurricanes there was much work here that paid really well. My father worked as a roofer and we rented a small apartment and I went to school. Finally he got a steady job with a construction company and became a foreman. Everything was going well and then something happened. One of the other workers at the place my father worked found out he was not here legally. This other worker wanted my father's job and turned him in to INS. They picked him up at work and using our home address picked my mother up as well. They went through all kinds of hearings and finally were told they would have to leave the country and apply to come back in. My father's boss offered to sponsor my father and hopefully he will be admitted legally one day soon.

My father decided that since I was a citizen I would stay here and continue my education. I wasn't given any choice in the matter; it was my father's decision. My father left our apartment and some money in the care of a young couple who were friends of his with the understanding that they would look after me. The couple, Karl and Juanita, was planning to be married within the year and told my father that having the apartment would allow them to get married even sooner. They promised to look after me and act as my guardians. I guess living together wasn't the best thing for them because as soon as they moved in together they started fighting. After my family left they got into a really big fight and broke up. Karl ended up staying at the apartment and Juanita moved back in with her family. Karl said I could stay and things were okay for a while.

After Juanita left Karl realized that he had made a big mistake. At first he was crying and pleaded with her to come back. Then he started drinking and lost his job. About two weeks ago he started coming into my bedroom when I was sleeping and trying to get into bed with me. I screamed and told him to get out and he told me I would have to earn my place in his home by being his woman. I told him that it was my father's apartment and that my father had paid him well to take care of me but he only laughed at me. He said that my father was in Mexico and that no one would believe a girl and that even if they did they would only send me back to Mexico rather than let me continue to live with a single man.

I figured he was right, so I waited until he was drunk and took all of his money that I could find and all of my stuff that I could carry and left. I didn't have enough money to pay for a place to sleep and so I slept outside in the woods outside of town. I had to run from some dogs once and lost most of my stuff, including my extra clothes. I just ran out of money yesterday right before you found me."

At that point she looked up at me with her big brown eyes beginning to tear up as if telling the story brought back too many unpleasant memories. She was sobbing when she said, "If I have to sleep with someone to stay here and be safe, I'd rather do that than be alone outside again. I'm not a whore though."

"Honey, I know you aren't a whore and you don't have to sleep with me to stay here. Well you do have to sleep with me or sleep on the couch because there is only one bed but you don't have to have sex with me. Like I told you earlier, sex is only good if both people want it. You can stay here as long as you want and I hope you will feel safe and protected. I don't know if I can act as your guardian as far as school and things go, but I will find out and do what I can. I love you, Maria, even though you are so young..." and with that I kind of ran out of steam because I didn't really know what else to say.

"Sam, I know you don't think I'm a whore. I know you like to pretend to perv on my tits but I know it's not serious. Still, I'm hurting because my father left me with someone who didn't care about me and only wanted to use me. I need someone to hold me and love me and care for me. Sam, I think I'm ready for sex and I want it to be with you."

I replied, "Maria, we can wait if you want. We have time and I am in no hurry. I wasn't pretending at first, I was perving on your tits. I had a bad case of lust yesterday, but the funny thing is that somewhere along the way it turned into love."

Maria laughed and said, "I can't believe that now I have to convince you to fuck me. I want you Sam, my pussy is dripping wet. I always thought I would know when it was right and I do. Please Sam, take me back to bed and make me your woman. I love you too. Please?"

By that time I was already off the couch moving towards the bedroom, my fate sealed. Lovemaking with Maria was a warm and tender experience. She was wet and ready. At first I thought I would have to stop and run to the store for a condom, but she assured me she was protected. I found out later she had visited a clinic at the end of the school year when she had been contemplating losing her virginity to a student that she was dating.