California Dreamin

24

1980

He had no idea of what was happening in El Paso during his absence. Ms. Ayala becoming Ms.Carter; getting pregnant, moving to Los Angeles.
Moving to Los Angeles.

He came back for his family, hoping to see Nina as well after a year, hoping she would forgive him eventually.
So when he arrived in El Paso, the first thing he did was knock at the door of the Ayala's house, expecting the 40 year old woman who often looked after him as a kid, to greet him with her usual warm smile, who actually hid lots of tears and sadness.

Instead, an old lady opened the door to look at him with her eyes almost closed, probably trying to recognize him.
Richard was speechless. He tried to remember if that woman could be any relative of Nina's but if she had been a relative, she would've recognized him.

He cleared his voice before speaking.
"Excuse me, I was looking for Ms. Ayala."
He sounded uncertain, something the old lady found adorable.

Given the confusion on her face, Richard repeated. This time he spoke slower and louder, thinking the woman could suffer from hearing problems.
"Ms. Ayala? The woman who lives here?"

The old lady eyes popped up open, like she finally understood him.
"Oh young boy, that woman doesn't live here anymore. She got married to a white rich man and left town with her beautiful daughter."
The woman spoke with her cracky voice with a pity tone, like she felt sorry to disappoint the curly haired kid who was no longer a kid.

With confusion in his head, he just went home to his family, impatient to ask Ruth for explanations, even though he already had them thanks to that lady.

Even though he was a mix of sadness, confusion and disappointment, as soon as he saw his sister everything disappeared. Joy washed all over him as he put his arms around Ruth's body, slightly lifting her up.

"Oh my little brother, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." She said with her enthusiastic smile, caressing the boy's cheeks.

He then greeted the rest of his family before sitting down at the table to have lunch with them.
Finally all together.

He struggled to find the right time to ask about Nina, as everytime there was a brief moment of silence, he would feel a knot in his throat, forbidding him to say anything.

But he was getting more and more tense and Ruth could see it. Nobody knew him better than her, not even their mother.

"Everyone!" Ruth caught all of her family's attention. "Can you be quiet for a minute? Richy, what's the problem?" She asked with concern in her voice.

Suddenly, everyone was looking at him and he felt like he just had to speak up in that case.
"So..."
In that moment, he was kind of hating Ruth, as he was forced to talk, in a way.
He sighed.

"Where are the Ayalas?"
His mother looked at him with a raised eyebrow, her heart dropping as she was missing her dearest friend.

Ruth exchanged glances with her husband before deciding to answer him.

"Well, many things happened when you left, Ms. Ayala simply met another man and they got married." She shrugged her shoulders.

Richard tensed up again.
"So they just left?!" He fought the urge to raise his voice and kick whatever was around him.

Ruth stood up.
"Was she supposed to just stay here and wait for you after you abandoned her?" She shouted.
Richard knew too damn well who she was referring to.
Well, everyone knew.

It only took one knock on the table by Mr. Ramirez for the order to be restored.
Ruth sat down and remained quiet.
On the other hand, Richard was nervous, his leg jumping up and down under the table.
He was already impatient to go back to Los Angeles, swearing he would search for her in every corner of the city once he had the chance.