How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water (27)

It’s better to not respond. Because sometimes if you open the door a little, the people move inside your apartment. You know what I mean?



* * *



La Vieja Caridad says I can make a good security guard. What do you think? And maybe I can be a guard in a school, because I’m so good to keep the children secure.

Like the other day. ángela and I were walking with Yadiresela on Broadway. ángela wants me to become a citizen because now the green card is like a tourist visa. We had many stops to make. The library. The photo studio to take a photo for my passport that expired many years ago. Before she leaves to Long Island she wants me to have all my papers organized.

Even if Mercury is in retrograde she received the loan she needed from the bank. But when she talks about Long Island she talks like she is going to la luna.

But OK, we were walking and this man I have never seen before was in front of the place for the hamburgers. You know the place—if you eat one, it’s OK, but if you eat two, you shit in your panties? Oh, you know it? You like it? Ay. Every time, I get a stomachache.

But anyway, lots of strange people pass through this neighborhood because you can go to the George Washington Bridge very easy and get in the highway. ángela and Yadiresela were walking and this man winked to Yadiresela and not to me. That was strange. Yadiresela is only ten years old. Una ni?a. The man was wearing a good suit of wool. His shoes were clean and fancy. His hands were manicured too. But I was suspicious.

Wow, you’ve grown, the man said to Yadiresela.

Do I know you? ángela asked the man.

Let’s go, I said, pulling ángela. I felt the cold feeling behind my neck.

But ángela, especially when I try to tell her what to do, does the opposite.

You look just like your father, the man said.

Any idiota could see that Yadiresela looks like her father, because of ángela she has nothing.

You know Hernán? You work in the hospital? she said, giving to the man all the information. All that education made her a real pendeja.

Oh, but of course. Everybody knows Hernán, he said.

Can I take a photo of you, to show to my wife? the man asked. She won’t believe how much time has passed.

But I saw that the strange man wasn’t wearing a ring. Why talk about a wife? That doesn’t smell bad to you?

I pulled ángela’s arm again.

Ay, Cara, what’s wrong with you? she said.

ángela and Yadiresela did a pose. Then another pose, like they were modeling for a magazine.

Look, I don’t care how nice this man looks. No man should have a photo of Yadiresela, except her father.

What are you? Nine, ten? What’s that, fifth grade?

He asked too many questions.

Sixth grade, ángela said. She’s very intelligent. And a good singer. She has a solo at St. Rose of Lima next Sunday!

Do you see what I mean? ángela with a spoon gave him every information.

Oh, I know that church, he said.

While they’re busy talking, I took out the camera that I keep in my purse for exactly this reason and I took a photo in case we need to make a Wanted poster.

After, I yelled to ángela. Why are you teaching Yadiresela to talk to strange men on the street?

He knows Hernán, she said.

We don’t know this, I said.

The next day, I went to Yadiresela’s school and waited outside for her to come out. ángela says it’s OK for Yadiresela to walk home from school alone. I watch the news every day and I know that many things happen to girls that have ten years of age. ángela thinks I am paranoica. She says we can’t live thinking the worst, we have to think the best will happen. And maybe this works for her, because everything ángela wants, she gets.

From the minute she arrived to New York, she said, I will be a professional. It took her seven years to finish the degree, but she finished con diploma. She said she wanted a good husband and two children and she now has Hernán. She said she wanted to buy a house and now she bought a house. She believes if you follow the plan, you can make everything happen. But I think you can work hard like me and have nothing. In this life you have to be lucky. I didn’t send Alicia the Psychic some money, but I made a big circle on the calendar, like she said.

So, anyways. I followed Yadiresela from school. I know it’s strange, but I didn’t want her to see me following. Fernando didn’t like it when I followed him. It created many problems with us. It humiliate him. But many things happen to boys too, so I did everything I could to keep Fernando secure. But it was not easy.

Imagine with Yadiresela. I am so connected to her. If something happened to her I would die. The day of the concert, I stood in the back of the church, close to the entrance, to listen to her sing. Oh, one day you should go listen to her. She is better than any of those singers on TV.

Anyway, I did not see the strange man, but it’s possible he saw me. He knows I took photos of him. So he has to be careful.

And you know what happened? That same week, on the news, I saw that a young girl in this neighborhood had disappeared with the age of twelve. And later I saw the posters in the streets.

WANTED: Information for MISSING PERSON. Penélope González Female Black Hispanic 12 years of age DOB 05/01/1997 / 5’4 tall, weighing 110 lbs, medium complexion, brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing black sweats, black hoodie, and sandals.