Women Who Live in Coffee Shops and Other Stories by Stella Pope Duarte

Author:Stella Pope Duarte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arte Público Press
Published: 2010-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

IT TOOK THREE DAYS for Lyndon to convince Julian no harm had been done and the wrestling matches would continue over at his house. Lyndon set up some boards and borrowed a few mats from Coach Andre so he could construct his own wrestling ring. He set up the ring in the middle of the hard-packed dirt that made up their backyard. The property was bordered by a sagging chainlink fence and littered with old tires, a baby buggy, tools, a lawnmower that didn’t run, an old wheelbarrow with rusty wheels, empty milk cartons and what looked like a storage room leaning on its side.

Twice I heard Lyndon’s mother yell through the kitchen window, “Lyndon, you stop with all your mess!”

Her sister answered, “Shut up, Wanda! This whole fucking place is a mess!”

Then a squabble started between them, and I heard little kids crying. Pretty soon, Lizzy came out to ride on an old tire swing tied to a dead mulberry tree. Julian took one look at Lizzy, and his eyes teared up. He walked over to push her on the tire swing, and she giggled like any other little kid would, even though she stared hard at me when she could. I thought maybe Lizzy reminded Julian of the kids at the special school.

Within a few weeks, Julian had the whole back yard looking picture-perfect. His matching habits went into high gear as the back yard was a complete wreck, and there was enough for him to do for days on end. He was happy as he worked, whistling with Lizzy at his side, helping him. Spring days and warm afternoons with the smell of orange blossoms passed us by as the wrestling matches continued, and Julian got Lyndon’s back yard matched to perfection.

Wanda called Julian into the house one day, and I’ll never know for sure, but I think she wanted him to match up the whole house. Before long, Lizzy was running out of the house in perfectly matching outfits I knew Julian had bought for her. Her hair was combed neatly for the first time in her life, the blond hair shiny, sheen and smooth as gold. Her barrettes matched her socks. She still stuck her tongue out at me sometimes, but she did it with class, as if she was a princess and I was the kid who did her laundry. I told Julian to stop matching Lizzy up, because she wasn’t related to us, and he said he’d stop, but by now, he was obsessed. Little by little, Lizzy took the form of a swan-like, lithe figure—a real princess out of an English fairy tale. I absolutely hated her but pretended it didn’t matter. Julian is crazy. What does he know? Lyndon didn’t call Lizzy, “little tramp” anymore, and every boy in the neighborhood was after her.

Julian’s matching was driving me crazy. The whole house was in pairs, mirror images, look-alikes; all my underwear arranged by colors, tags down; my socks in lumpy matching bundles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.