Moonlight Sonata

Matthew's Ten Months

Ten months.

In ten months I experienced more emotions than I ever had in my twenty-four years on this planet. Everything from almost being forced to take over the company to my sweet angel falling pregnant with our child was just an abundance of feelings.

For six years mi mamá and my dad had been trying to get me to move down to Cuba with them. I loved my hometown and it's amazing how much improvement was made to the home I grew up in, but in all honesty, I wasn't into meetings, charts and all that business shit. I liked getting dirty, using my hands. In Cuba, my parents had a greenhouse built for me. We would travel far just so I could find different seeds to plant. It wasn't a passion designed for the impatient man but I could wait months for the perfect fruta o verdura.

Gardening was just the best. Besides, I work a million times better alone and it's been working for me and apparently for everyone else, until late May.

I was riding high on the whole "rich boy-player" lifestyle so when my sister dragged my hung-over ass out of bed and into work with her it kind of shut down my whole mood. Anyway, my sister was pissed and I wasn't sure why because I was tuning her out a bit but then I found out that I'd have to work the business for a while until she came back from a trip.

After she screamed my head off, I was released and met a gorgeous girl with dark brown skin and legs that went on for miles. Her name was fucking perfect, Chamomille... with two L's! I was hooked not only by her beauty but by her demeanor also. I've seen and got involved with plenty of girls out here. Rich girls, actresses, models and even waitresses but I had not been exposed to a woman quite like Cham.

I got her number, we texted all day and we talked about literally everything. There weren't any talks about celebrity gossip or of her drama from home but more along the lines of what was on our minds at any instance. Whatever random thought either of us had, the other picked up. It was just refreshing and easy.

That next day I was up and getting ready for mine and Chamomille's date when I got a phone call. My sister's plane had crashed on its way to Cuba and my heart sank low into my stomach.

I was called down to identify her body that morning and for the rest of the day I was numb for hours, just sitting in silence until I thought of a dumb-ass idea. I texted a few of my boys and word spread like wildfire that I was throwing a last-minute party.

It was like I blinked and my sister's house was flooded with a handful of familiar faces and a sea of strangers. What did I care though, I was sloshed about an hour into the rager. I was taking bottles directo a la cabeza and rounds of party girls would strip and I'd take shots off of them.

Just as I licked the salt off some chick's body, the music stopped. I lifted my head and there was mi té curativa, laying down the law. I wasn't into stopping the party on her account but then some cabrón disrespected her and that sobered me up a bit. The party was officially over then.

When the place was cleared it was my turn to get the business and I deserved it. I was sad yeah, but using my sister's death as an excuse to be a neglectful dickhead was unnecessary. If I was going to keep Chamomille in my life, like I really wanted to, I owed her an apology and an explanation and that was what I gave her. She met my mother and father that following day and they were sold on the same sweetness that I was.

The day of Celia's funeral, I was feeling a little detached. Someone that I've lived with for the most important years of my life was gone. She worked her ass off just to die before she turned forty. I'm sure she wanted a family. I remember her taking me everywhere she went. I grew up in Cuba and when she moved out here, she took me with her. She was twenty-five taking care of an eleven year old and I wasn't the easiest child to discipline but she did a damn good job. No one took my mother's place, but she was one hell of a substitute.