Moon Tower- Scenes and Snippets

Strangers Part 2

Denise watched as her new neighbors pulled up behind a large moving truck into the big ranch style house across the street. She saw a young woman, maybe in her thirties, step out of a van, a baby bump visible underneath her shirt.

A young family, Denise thought. How sweet.

And then the young woman opened a car door and a line of kids and two dogs filed out. Four to be exact. Four children. Here Denise thought that this young woman was just starting her family, but it looked like that had happened years and years ago. And not a husband to be found, by the looks of it. Denise wondered how this woman with four children and a fifth on the way could possibly afford an expensive house in the Hollywood Hills as a single parent. Still, being the neighborly woman that she was, she walked across the street to greet the new family to the neighborhood.

"Ynez, grab your things out of the car please. Where are the twins- oh, hi." The young woman turned, supposedly looking for her children, but found Denise in front of her instead.

"I'm Denise. I live just there," Denise said after shaking the young woman's hand and pointing out her house. "I saw the moving truck pull up and thought I would introduce myself."

"Luz," the young woman smiled, but she looked a little frazzled. Perhaps I could set her up with one of the single father's at Melanie's school, Denise thought. The woman tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and rested a hand on her belly. "We moved from just outside LA. Not enough space at the old house unfortunately."

She laughed a little as she looked down at her baby bump, and Denise forced a laugh as well. Two kids were plenty for her. Just then, a whirlwind of curly brown hair came up and latched onto Luz's leg, followed by a tail-wagging dog. The little boy looked up at Denise and blinked, peering at her curiously.

"Let me introduce you to the rest of the family. Kiddos! ¡Ven acá!"

Another small blur came around the front of the car and jumped into Luz's arms. She had lighter hair than her mother and the little boy at Luz's feet, and her eyes were green as opposed to the deep brown the boy and Luz shared.

"These are my youngest, James and Robin, and these are our dogs Mabel and Sloan. Guys can we say hello?" Luz asked them as the second dog trotted over. They gave Denise small waves, and she waved back in return. If she had to guess, she would say they were about three years old.

Two girls walked out of the front door of the house and over to their mom. The oldest was tall and slim, with thick curly hair and warm brown skin, a little darker than Luz's. The younger one still looked like she had a little baby fat with her round cheeks, but she looked almost exactly like her mother. "This is Ynez, and this is Sofia. Ynez, Soph, this is Denise, our new neighbor."

Ynez and Sofia mumbled a quiet hello before asking if they could keep exploring the house some more. Luz waved them along and turned back to Denise. "Sorry about them. They're still not too happy about the move because we lived on the beach and this well... isn't quite the same, but this house is just..."

Luz still wasn't quite sure what to make of their new home. Like her older girls, she was partial to their house on the beach. She and Harry argued for weeks about moving, Harry trying to convince her that the house they bought when it was just the two of them wasn't big enough to comfortably fit everyone anymore, and Luz stubbornly telling him they could make it work. Harry was right of course, Luz knew that, but so many milestones happened in that house, and Luz wasn't ready to let it go.

When Luz admitted all this to Harry, he brought her in close and kissed the top of her head, deciding to let the topic drop for a while. A couple weeks later, Harry came to her with a PowerPoint presentation. Luz laughed at her husband's antics, but he shushed her and presented his proposal to her. Just like last time, Harry had found a house. A big one, with lots of windows and high up in the Hollywood Hills. The minute she saw the house and where it was located, Luz began to protest. It was huge and fancy and not at all like their current home. But Harry was ready for that, hence the presentation. Each slide was filled with information about the neighborhood, the hospital nearby with a great physical therapy practice, the park that was just a few minutes away, all with the promise that they could keep the house on the beach that they loved so much for weekend getaways or vacations. "And, think of how many more kids we can have with all this extra space," Harry finished, a collage of stock photos of babies on the final slide.