Ophelia's Promise (First 4 Chapters of a Young Adult Novel)

Ophelia's Promise (Chapters 9-12)

~Nash~

Chapter 9  

James was still in the hospital. He had a rod put into his right leg, reconstructive surgery on his left eye-socket, his jaw was wired shut and his pelvis had to be reset.

They say he is going to be in the hospital for at least another three weeks. I won’t get to see him before I leave and to rub salt in the wound, tomorrow is my eighteenth birthday. Not the present I was hoping for.

One time I Googled who was born on June 16th. There had to be an important person born on my birthday, right? Nope, nada, there wasn’t one famous person who really made a huge difference in my world; unless you count a rapper called Tupac who was killed in a drive by shooting before I was born.

I wonder if anyone would notice if I stayed in my room, probably not. My parents were off taking care of their own things; work, shopping, signing my Juvie papers, who knew what they had planned today.

When I was younger they cared enough to hire a nanny, Maria Vasquez. Nice lady, if I could have understood a word she said. She would try hard to get me to speak Spanish, I would try harder to get her to talk in English, but I guess I was one of those people whose tongue didn’t connect to my ear and she was too set in her ways.

Maria took care of me as a baby up until I was about seven years old. Right after Ophelia was born; mom fired her for accidentally dropping a ruby ring into her pocket. I remember every day after school pressing my nose against the cold glass; challenging myself to fog up the front window as I waited for Maria to show up. My mom let me stand there for hours knowing full well she wasn’t coming back. Every night I cried myself to sleep thinking it was something I did that made her take the ring.

It wasn’t until last year that I found out Maria didn’t steal the ring. Mom couldn’t afford to pay her anymore, and it was easier to lie than to admit the truth to her snobby friends. I never saw Maria again. I found out she couldn’t get another job in our neighborhood because of my mom lies. Who’s going to trust a thief, right?

I pulled on my shoes; the routine of skating down to James’ house early in the morning snapped automatic in my head. Good thing I figured out nobody would be there before I ran down the stairs. James’ family decided to stay couple more days in VB with his uncle.

There was a light tap on my door.

“Come in,” I yelled as a sharp, breath stealing pain shot up through my side. I struggled to feed my black canvas belt through the loops on the waist of my favorite jeans. Nobody opened the door; obviously they didn’t hear me, I limped over and pulled my door open.

“I said come—” If I knew any better I would have guessed it was Ophelia, but I didn’t; it was my mother.

“Here,” she whispered as she handed me a blue and red envelope with black words spread in different fonts, “consider it an early birthday present.” Afraid to pass the threshold of my room, she never looked at me before she turned and hurried downstairs.

“Thanks,” I said through the doorway into the empty hall and vacant staircase. I knew what it was—an open ended ticket to the West Coast. What I didn’t know was the date we would be flying out—tomorrow, on my birthday. How convenient for them, wrapping my good-riddance with a practical twist for my eighteenth birthday. I wonder if she’ll bake me a cake; doubt it considering we fly out at eight in the morning. I’d better tell Ophelia their plan.

I tossed the tickets on my bed and shut the door. Maybe the date would change by the time I came back. Ophelia was sitting on her bed, her stuffed animals lined up at the foot. She was lecturing them about behaving while she was gone. Man, she had no idea.