My Hollywood by Mona Simpson

Author:Mona Simpson [Simpson, Mona]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780307593771
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

Lola

THIS IS WHY MY LIFE

In the kitchen of her employer, Lucy listens to hearts. Babysitters who six months ago doubted her degree unbutton their blouses, all because she is now one hundred a day. She handles her stethoscope like a clarinet. “Very expensive, Lola. More than two thousand pesos.” But I know the price of a stethoscope: we purchased one for Issa long ago.

“Heart murmur,” she tells Mai-ling, “You know you have that? You go where they have EKG. Do you get Kaiser?”

“No. I work seven days.”

The doorbell rings. Tarek, the bottom helper of my weekend employer, carries a pink box tied with string. The birthday cake. “I’ll put it in the fridge.” He is used to this house already. He follows me into a fight of hard whispers.

“Almost thirty-three already,” Ruth says.

“It is Luisita,” Mai-ling tells us. “She will not hear anyone but Tony.”

“There was a dentist, Lola,” Esperanza says. The boyfriend of Esperanza, he is not her boyfriend anymore. The divorce, he said, cost him too much. So he can stay rich, he went back to the ex-wife. “The dentist has condominium in Glendale. And hand-sum.”

“Tony is handsome too,” Lucy says.

Tarek looks to me.

“Yes, but Tony …” I cannot explain Tony to the bottom assistant of our employer. Tony honks his car outside and never comes in.

Ruth looks down. “The dentist, he is the brother of my cousin’s wife.”

“And before he saw Lucy and he likes!” Esperanza says.

“He has savings already.”

“Tony has been here long time.” I would finish And he has nothing if Lita was not here.

“Before he is immature, but the army really change him. Tarek,” Lucy says, “they think because Tony is in the U.S. nine years he should have money. Like that.”

Tarek studies her, up and down, the way a Filipino man would. She is dedicated, honest, brooding. Faithful to her private feeling, watching its value drop. He shakes his head. How much could Tony possibly make at whatever he does? How much do I save?

But Tony could. The U.S. government pays his rent and food. Like me, he works live-in! And I have saved a lot.

Tarek looks uneasy. He is only the bottom assistant, twenty-two years old. “China!” we hear from the living room, then a crash.

Tarek puts a hand on the shoulder of Lucy. “I’ll marry you, Luce.”

“You would marry me!” Her voice, it is often exclamation.

“But you are too young,” I say. “You should not marry for immigration.”

“Danny, he is saying too, ‘After I receive my green card, I can divorce Ruth and marry you.’ But I am waiting for a real, like that.”

“And you’ll get it too,” Tarek says. Relieved, probably.

“We need to find for my pupil a guy in his forties. Thirty-five minimum.”

Lucy taps the arm of Tarek. “You want I take your blood pressure?”

Esperanza and I get out our index cards. She paid for a lawyer and she was on the list to get a green card this year, but now the U.S. government added a test for English.

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.