The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

Author:Claudia Guadalupe Martinez
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781935955160
Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press
Published: 2016-07-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

19

Ketchup

Even though my mom had gotten me those “cups,” we didn’t talk about any of those things at home—bodies, bras, or boys. We just avoided them, even when they were looking us straight in the face, waiting.

Take the first time I really paid attention to one of those commercials for lady products on TV. I imagined it was for something good. The women in the ad wore white robes and danced to flute music as if they hadn’t a worry in the world. We sat on the living room couch watching it, and I asked Silvia and my cousin Mary why the women seemed so happy. They looked at each other and laughed. It wasn’t a cruel laugh. It was uncomfortable like when someone tells a joke that’s not funny.

They laughed because they didn’t know what else to do. They didn’t explain to me what they were selling in the commercial. All they said was, “You don’t need to think about that yet.” So I never asked again. When I finally did find out, it was at school when we saw the video in PE class.

Not too long after that, I found Clark sitting in front of the bathroom sink with his dwarf back to the door. His skinny little head was inspecting something. The cabinet under the sink was wide open, and there was a blue cardboard box on the linoleum tile whose label I couldn’t make out.

I snuck up close enough to lean over him and peek. Like a good spy, I held my breath, and my feet almost floated above the ground as I tiptoed. He didn’t see or hear me.

There was a pile of pink on the floor. He held a soft pink plastic pouch in his hand. He unwrapped it, making all that noise that plastic makes. He brought it up to his nose. He looked it over and sniffed at it.

“Silvia!” I yelled to my sister, breaking him out of his spell. He gave me an angry look but didn’t stop what he was doing.

Silvia walked in, and her jaw dropped open as if that would make the words come out. I just shook my head from side to side. She looked at me as if asking why I hadn’t stopped him from making that huge mess in the first place.

“I just got here,” I said. She reached over him and snatched the blue box from him.

“Hey! That’s mine,” he screamed.

“It’s not yours!” she screamed back.

“Yes. I found them.”

“No. They’re not yours.”

“Well, are they yours?” he asked her mockingly.

The blood rushed to her face, and she took a deep breath. “They’re our abuelita’s diapers. Stop playing with them,” she hissed.

She returned a few unopened pink pouches to their place. She picked up the rest and chucked them into the trash can. She closed the box up and pushed it far back into the cabinet. She closed the cabinet door.

That’s when Amá walked in to see what all the yelling was about. Amá saw what Clark had in his hand.

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