Mindy Lee Sunrise

Chapter 1

Mindy Lee lost her virginity at fourteen years old. She was curious, excited and super in love with a blue-eyed sixteen-year-old soccer player named Carlos, from Cuba. Carlos was strong and tall and had a smile that went right through Mindy. He smelled like the Fuji apples his mom used to buy. Mindy loved to kiss Carlos, peeling from his lips the juicy fruit. Never without a song, Carlos loved to dance and sing along to Elvis Crespo, softly whispering seduction in Mindy's ears. Her big silver hoops always distracted him.

Mindy's son Milo was born at seven pounds and six ounces at Valley Presbyterian, on the corner of Vanowen and Sepulveda. Two days shy of her fifteenth birthday, Mindy Lee knew more about baby formula than chemistry formulas. When their son was born, Carlos quickly lost interest and even though his parents forced them to get married.

Mindy's own mother had a few choice words about her unexpected pregnancy. They were short, harsh and cut Mindy into a hundred million pieces each time she spoke to her. Mei Lee banished her daughter from being seen, especially at family gatherings. She was suddenly sick or being tutored or studying for a college exam she would never take. Teenage pregnancies were unheard of, even among the poor Chinese immigrant families and her mother did not want to invite any more shame by making her daughter's sins public. Mindy finished high school at night at LA Valley's GED program and began looking for a job.

The only woman that would hire her was Molly McCammon, a busty woman with thin brown hair who was still battling the loss of her fifteen-year-old daughter to Ewing Sarcoma. Each day, Molly would work until she dropped, frying away and allowing the grease to splatter onto her skin without a wince. She wore the same clothes she wore when her daughter was alive, pale floral prints that wrapped over her big belly like a curtain. Molly McCammon sweat like a boxer. Mindy found solace in the sweatbox of a restaurant and spent the next ten years working alongside the woman day in and day out, opening the windows serving mediocre American fare.

By the time Milo was ten, Mindy's parents were no longer ashamed. Milo was strong and handsome and athletic, just like his father. A Chinese-Cuban baby boy was the perfect mixture of dedication and spice. He'd make a great soap actor! Milo was adventurous, kind, and unafraid to shake his hips at his father's family parties - which were many. He was the diamond in the rough life of so many and Mindy constantly asked herself how God could love her so much to have given her that baby.

Mindy's parents often came over Mindy's condo in Woodland Hills to enjoy time with their athletic grandson. Mindy was constantly on the phone, coercing her ex-husband to come over and spend time with him. Yes, they got married as soon as Mindy turned seventeen and the marriage lasted only a year before their arguing became, well, quite frankly, inconvenient. Carlos didn't have time to argue with a passionate waitress. He was on the fast track to USC business school and didn't need the headache. But when Mindy's coercion became convincing enough, he drove over the hill into the valley in his F-150 suit and tie and for a brief moment, Mindy escaped the consequences of her passionate love affair at fourteen.