Audrey Hepburn's Pearls: Part I

Chapter 75.3: 1995, Ruiz

Chapter 75.3: 1995, Ruiz

It felt weird coming into the city again with all of its noise and cars. It was unwelcome. As Miss Cha Cha dealt with the afternoon traffic, I sat with the side of my head against the cold glass of the passenger window. It had begun to rain, April showers, and I sighed as cars whooshed past. How could it only be April? It seemed so long ago that Ambrose and I had happily been dancing on New Year's Eve, me in his arms, him singing a Selena song.

Miss Cha Cha had started talking to me and I hadn't heard her at first. Her sentence ended with "make-up?" and I turned to her. "Hm? I'm sorry," I said, confused and brought back to reality.

"Can you go into your house wearing make-up?" she asked, watching the car in front of her closely as it was bumper to bumper with us.

This shocked me. Oh right, I was wearing make-up. I'd completely forgotten. What would Mama have said if I'd gone back into the house wearing make-up? "Dios mio, Miss Cha Cha thank you," I fluttered, opening the glove box for something to remove my make-up, a tissue, a napkin, anything.

"Here, I have tissues in my purse," she gestured to it with her hand.

"Can I go into your purse?" I was unsure. It wasn't polite to go in somebody's purse like that, especially Miss Cha Cha's who I respected so much.

"Yeah, its okay. I trust you. Its in the side pocket, in a packet. You know, those little tissue packets."

She said the word "packet" like "paquette". It made my heart warm.

Five minutes later, I had a small pile of tissues on my lap covered in red smeared lipstick and black eyeliner. I'd gotten off as much as I could, but there was still some stubborn smudges at the corners of my eyes and under them and my lips were stained with red pigment. There was no way I'd be able to get it off without soap and water, especially the red.

"When you get into your house, go straight to the bathroom," Miss Cha Cha warned me. 

"I will. I'll act like I'm looking at stuff if my Mama is in the kitchen."

"I don't want you to get caught." The fear in her eyes showed me she understood my anxiety about it, which filled me with a strange relief.

"I know."

She sighed, her hands gripping the wheel. I watched her, taking her in. It was so comfortable to be near her. So warm, this nice feeling being next to her again, like no harm could come to me. So different than what was waiting for me at home. It made a stuffyness in my stomach. I really didn't want to get out of the car, but in about fifteen minutes I would be. Miss Cha Cha would go back to her house.

With an even worse feeling in my gut, Georgina filled my head. Not only would Miss Cha Cha be going back to her house, Georgina was there, too. Gripping a tissue in my hand, unable to control myself, I realized I wished so bad to be going with her, seeing Georgina again. 

My heart was so heavy. I didn't want to go back to my Mama's house. I wanted to see Georgina, help Miss Cha Cha make her some lunch. I was finally ready to see her again, and it made me feel so overwhelmingly complete, still scared but that was okay. I'd seen Ambrose, still scared and it was okay, too. 

Fears had made me selfish. I'd been so selfish, afraid to see Georgina. Did she miss me? Did she think about me? I missed her so much. I wanted to see her smile. It was a little scary, of course, that she'd slur her speech. Maybe it was okay to be fearful of those changes, but she had to be the same person, right? She had to? 

I was still thinking about her when the car stopped. It jarred me, and I looked up. My stomach sinking, I saw we were outside my Mama's house. Everything in me wanted to tell Miss Cha Cha to keep going, wanting to tell her to go on to her house, but I couldn't do it.