***it's a little rough****
Miss Angel
She was an enigma and a part of her liked it. The other girls in the cosmetic department couldn’t stop chatting the day Sofia Madigan was seen getting out of Sevérine Duval’s car not once but twice in one week.
The girl’s who worked in Angeline’s considered themselves exclusive and the cosmetic department was considered the top of the line and no one just walked in with no experience, except Sofia Madagin.
While Sofia did her work the other girls whispered about her and the small lisp she was trying to get rid of, or how she always wore such sensible shoes. One day Sofia was approached by Missy, the leader of the pact, and asked if she really knew Sevérine. When she said they went to high school together the rest of the girls wanted to be her best friends.
After work however she lived a quiet and almost non-existent life. She left for work at 8 am, had lunch in the break room and picked up dinner from the food court then she would take the number 9 bus downtown to her basement 1 bedroom condo Angeline had bought for her.
It came fully furnished with a shabby chic touch totaling 65,000 dollars not counting the wrought iron bed. She’d watch Jeopardy! and glance over the college applications and convince herself that she was set for the rest of her life and didn’t need school
+++
“I mean I didn’t even see it coming”, said Sevérine with a smile, “I mean No one did, I wish you were there”
Sofia nodded while she listened to Sevérine rehash the tale of Angeline’s surprise wedding while they were on vacation. Of course they was; Sevérine, Holli and Ben.
“He is the captain and Angeline had dinner and danced with
him during first night it was soooo romantic”,
Sevérine continued, “He proposed to her when we docked in
“What is this husband #9?”
“Maybe? I lost track, but this one is special”
Sofia liked having company but she wondered if Angeline was hiding her from her fans and business people.
“I can’t wait to meet him”
“You will love him; he is so foreign and adorable!”
They chatted a bit more, apparently Paige was designing clothes with Angeline’s help and Brad, her old friend, was in the military now.
Sevérine ended the night, she was modeling for the new Angeline’s ads and wanted to wake up on time. Sofia always admired the grace in which Sevérine handled the beauty and power that was given to her.
Once Sevérine was gone Sofia locked the front door and the back door that lead to the dumpsters. She would wake up later that night and be sure they were locked all while thinking about the gun underneath her bed.
As far as she was concerned Allen was coming after her and she was going to kill him. She wanted him to suffer and from what she had seen on the news about Petal Brooks corrupt legal system she wasn’t going to let justice do it for her.
When she had finally fallen asleep she was dreaming about nail polish and blush when there was a thump from the back door. At first she thought she imagined but it continued.
“Maybe it’s a stray cat”, she said to herself, “Just a hungry stray cat”
She walked to the back door, pausing to pick up a knife, just in case. She carefully removed the locks even in the dark they were so familiar to her.
She opened the door and saw a man with his back to her kicking the dumpster a trail of smoke disappearing into the air.
It could be him of course it could be anyone.
“I know you’re there”, he said.
And he was most certainly not Allen, he sounded young and had a foreign accent
He turned around but the shadows covered most of his face but his body seemed relaxed and not at all frightened by the knife she was holding.
“Shit”, he said reacting to the knife.
“What are you doing ?”, she asked
He pointed to the pile of trash bags by the door.
“I lost my cross”, he explained touching his neck, “I wash dishes at Cups & Saucers. . .you’re Cesar salad and diet coke”
He was referring to her twice a weekly dinner order.
“It’s 3 am”, she explained as if he didn’t know, “I thought--”
“I know what you thought”, he said looking at her knife, “well,
I have a bus to catch”
“Did you find it ?”, she wanted to know if he was coming back
“Uh, no but it was just one of those things”
“I can call you a cab”, she offered realizing the bus stopped running hours ago
“I don’t think a cab goes to my part of town”, he confessed he had moved several inches closer to her.
“You live across the bridge?”
He rolled his eyes
“You live across the bridge”, he said with a laugh, “it’s a joke?”
There were in reality two Petal Brooks one however was
skimmed across in the history books and only those real citizens knew and
didn’t talk about the bridge. In the 1930s during The Great Depression the part
of town across the bridge was farmland and when hard times came it was turned
into a city for the homeless.
When the 40’s hit that part of town was never seemed to recover. In the 60 and 70’s they put up trailers and low income housing to make the place look nicer.
By the times the 80’s hit the homeless across town was at an all time high while the rest of Petal Brook was blooming. That’s when the put up a wall to improve the view, out of sight out of mind.
In the 90’s they built a few schools and opened restaurants that was when Angeline had arrived and she even put a Angeline’s Outlet within walking distance of the residential areas
Sofia had been there once because that was were the children’s home Angeline supported was and where she assumed Holli and Ben had lived once. Angeline had told her it was always a nicer place when she visited.
“Wait here”, she said getting her cell phone
“Wait, Miss”, he followed her, “I can’t really afford a cab”
“Don’t worry I got it, I honestly just want to make sure you leave”
He started to roll his eyes but the settled on a picture on her refrigerator. It was taken the day she had come home from the hospital, she was squished in between Angeline and Sevérine she was happy.
“Wow, you must be loaded”, he told her
She ignored the comment, telling the cabbie to rush.
“I have a gun in here somewhere so don’t think about robbing me”
He sat on the couch and removed his hat running his hand over a perfectly bald heard. He was wearing a grey shirt two sizes to big with the word “Cup & Sau” fading on it. The large neckline showed line of dark red marks along his neck. They looked familiar to her.
“You have cancer?”, she asked
“You a doctor?”
“I’ve just spent a lot of time in hospitals”
“I swear, it’s not contagious”
She wondered if he had ever been at the hospital when she was, if maybe they had passed by each other in the halls, of course they had their own hospitals over there, didn’t they ?
“Does a dishwashers salary pay for all yout treatment ?”, she asked
“No, I do other things to barley make ends meet”
If he really wanted to rob her, she might have let him. It didn’t seem quite fair that Angeline paid and given her everything when she really didn’t need to anymore. She imagined the same thought was going through his head. Headlights blinked through the windows
“I think your cabs here”, she said knowing she was seconds away from going on with her life.
“Thanks. . .”
“Sofia”
“Tomas”
+++
“I just want to try one more sample” insisted the woman who had already sampled foundation, eye shadow and two mascaras.
“It’s just we want to save some for the other customers”, explained Sofia with one eye on the clock as she removed the lipstick samples from the woman’s grasp.
“Honestly” the customer huffed, “You know I thought they
only hired pretty girls to work in Angeline’s”
The woman spritzed some samples perfume and clicked he heels toward what Sofia assumed was a cheap date.
“Missy, I’m off”, she yelled taking off her name tag and “ask me how to make you Angeline-Beautiful “badge
Ever since her late night visitor she found herself eating lunch by the docks and wondering about the people who lived behind the wall. Or if there should even be a wall.
Sofia decided to stop by Petal Brook’s best kept secret for lunch for a change. It was a chain of connivance stores that was known for its odd look alike to 7-11, it was called Chips. And they were famous for their fully stocked Wall O’ Chips.
She decided to go for sun roasted tomatoes and garlic crisps and an large diet coke.
“No salads today?” asked the cashier
“Tomas?”
She looked up from her expensive and messy purse to a familiar set of grey eyes
“I didn’t know you worked here, I’m glad you got home safely ?”, she said looking for a bill smaller than a 50
“Yeah, thanks for that”
“No problem”
“Excuse me”, he said waving over a co-worker to take over and walked out the back door
A peppy blonde girl rushed over sucking on a lollipop.
“It’s not you”, the girl said and then changed subjects, “Ohhh, cute purse !”
+++
Sofia went outside to see where Tomas had disappeared off to. He was sitting out back his face in his hands.
“Are you okay”, she picked his jacket up from the floor, “What? Can you not count or something. ?”
“Not funny”, he said trying to cover his bruised and swollen arms
“I once had this friend”, she said, “and she was sick.. .
.like you. But she had a bone marrow transplant from her mom and now she’s a
rockett in
“I do actually. My father but he doesn’t do anything for free and he keeps threatening to deport me and my mother.”
“My mother and I”, she corrected.
“Sofia”, he started, “I have to tell you something that might make you hate me”
“I don’t think that’s possible”, she only hated Allen
“I did something to you Sofia, I hurt you”
“I don’t remember”, she said. Allen had bought friends, once but they were older and scarier, weren’t they
“A year ago I think. I was really high I’d lost my job and”, he took his jacket and put it back on as if to make himself appear less scary, “I was on the bus and you were there, you sounded a bit different but you couldn’t see the map or some shit and I flicked you off, do you remember ?”
She didn’t move
“Yes”
“It was so scary when you fell, your eyes, and then you hit the floor. . .hard and I ran cause if the cops caught me messed up I would have gone to jail. . .I thought you died. I didn’t recognize you until I saw you up close the other day. I don’t want you to hate me”
“I don’t hate you, Tomas, I don’t know if it’s really your fault”
Tomas wasn’t listening but seemed to have nodded off, like Paige in history class. She tapped him but he felt very warm.
“I think you have a fever, you should go to the hospital”
“No, it’ll pass. I can barley afford to get a band-aid from them”
“I’ll pay for it”
“A cab is one thing Sofia but-”
“Listen, Angeline has the money just-“
“I don’t want that woman’s charity”, he nearly spit the words
She wanted to protest when she realized where she was talking to a man she barley knew, but he was hurting and wasn’t she when Angeline met her.
“I’ll call my mother to take me home . . . you should go”, he said
She really didn’t have to be told twice.
+++
Later that night she learned that he had never called his
mother. She went to Cups & Saucers to get a Cesar Salad for dinner and found
a silver cross and
The cross had TOMAS inscribed on the back. She took it home
to clean it and while listening to her messages she received a urgent call from
“Hello, Sofia. This is Dr. LaRue. We got a patient in the ER this afternoon who was asking for you. . . A young man. I was on call and had your number if you want to come down.”
There was probably more on the machine but she had already ran after the bus.
She didn’t expect the air to feel thinner when she entered the hospital. She hated it. The lights the floor it all terrified her. Sofia had an irrational fear of the hospital she didn’t know how she made it to the ER.
LaRue spotted her at once and gave her a warm hug
“It’s been so long, dear.” she led Sofia to her office, “I don’t know how you mixed yourself up with this young man, but all I’m going to say is be careful.”
“I understand, do you know what’s wrong with him?”
“He needs a transplant or to start coming to chemo, that’s all I can say. He’s in room 23 I’m sure you know where that is”
She did she even knew how long it would take her to get there. He was in a room with 8 other patients. A woman with thick curly hair in all colors was sleeping in a chair. She was wearing a slinky black top and jeans that showed a bedazzled thong.
“Tomas”, she said trying not to wake who she assumed was his mother
He was awake and motioned for her to come closer.
“It’s okay Sofia she took a bottle of---well never mind”
“Why did you call me?”
“I need you to do something for me. My father has offered to do the transplant but afterwards that bastards going to call immigration on me”
“Immigration?”
"My mother and i aren't exaclty here legally. . .I don’t want to leave”
“I can’t pay off the legal system you know”
“I know”, he said reaching over to take a cold medicine bottle from sleeping mother, “but they say if I have someone to support, I can stay.”
He reached for her hand and pulled her closer, spotting the cross around her neck.
“Are you asking me to marry you?”
+++
“Angeline is going to kill you, I’m going to kill you”, said Sevérine closing her office door.
“You had to be there the whole situation. . “
“That’s average for those people, it’s probably some scam, and
oh Sofia you
are so naive”
Sofia crossed and uncrossed her legs a few times waiting for the lecture to continue. But she felt right about what she had done and hated the reason why she did it.
He just wanted to keep his family together.
She could understand that.
Angeline did not take the news well either, but by the time they got to the hospital Tomas and Rose Alexander were gone and so was a shelf of Oxycontin.
Angeline didn’t trust Sofia
after that and stopped paying for the condo and ordered her to move back home. In
less than a week she lost her job, her cards and her freedom. Angeline sent her
to nursing school at
Surprisingly she thrived in school and worked to get her independence back. A small part of her wondered about Tomas Alexander and what fate had in store for them.