Maritza Among the Moneytrees

(Note: I’ll be posting different stories at various times.  If you’re interested in reading this, don’t assume it will be available tomorrow.)

The lady I have on Thursdays, Karen, she one of those gum-sticking-on-the-side-of-the-garbage-can types. She don’t use no paper, just throw the gum right in, let Maritza deal with it, she think. Or don’t think nothing, more likely, somebody been cleaning up after her all her life, so she don’t have no place in her brain where she might consider what it’s like to have to scrape somebody’s chewed up gum off of the side of the can. I put a plastic bag in there, twice, but when I come back they gone. Friday’s lady, Skylar, she clean up before I get there, she make her own beds, she empty all the bathroom wastebaskets into the kitchen one, she considerate, she don’t want me to have to look at her tampax tubes. She married good, she got a nice man with a lot of money. Their house is fancier than Karen’s but Karen got more money, I just know that, don’t ask me how. I got feelings for things like that; I know things. Like I knew there was something wrong with my baby before anyone else did. I kept saying check her, but the doctor just say she fine. She not fine. Now she old enough to be running around people look at her, they look at me, like, what’d you do to that child. Or like, how sad. Or like, you got a lot of nerve having a baby like that in our country, to live off of our taxes. Go home, their eyes say. Home; they say, go to Connecticut, money grows on the trees. If I was home my Luli would have cousins and aunts to play with her and take care of her, but here I got to put her in a special place all day while I work, they pick her up in a bus full of other kids that also got something not right.
Karen – my Thursday lady – she leave me a lot of notes, even though she always there when I come. She won’t give me a key. “I prefer to be here,” she say. She put little pink post-it notes all over the place: “Dear Maritza, last week I noticed there were some smudges on the mirror, please see to that. Thank you, Mrs. Howlitz”. She always call herself Mrs. Howlitz. I never call her Mrs. Howlitz, I always call her Karen, I waiting for her to say call me Mrs. Howlitz, but she don’t, she just leave these notes, so I keep calling her Karen. She won’t pay me in cash, even though I asked, she say, “that’s not convenient for me, Maritza”, so she give me checks, and not even every week. Every month I get a check for the whole time, so I got to put it in the bank and wait for it to clear before I can use it, and it’s a problem for me because then the government know all about me, how much money I have and like that. But I don’t tell Karen it’s a problem for me ‘cause she don’t need to know my business, and she nice to me in a lot of ways. Last year I had a toothache so bad I was crying while I vacuumed, and she say, “What’s wrong Maritza?” I say, “Nothing, Karen.” But she say, “you don’t cry for nothing, but I don’t wish to pry.”
I say, “It’s just my teeth.” So she send me to her dentist and pay for him to fix it, it don’t hurt no more but he say I need a lot of work, but that’s not her problem, now at least I don’t cry when I’m at her house. And she give me a lot of clothes and things; she always cleaning her closet. She even gave me a fur coat, I couldn’t believe it. “Why you want to give this away?” I ask her, and she say, “I had many years with it, and you need a warm coat.” That was my first bad winter here, I thought my bones would break it was so cold, I put that coat on and it got silk inside it, shiny red silk, so beautiful. So I turn it inside out, I wear the fur next to my skin and the red outside. It feel so good, so warm and cozy, like sleeping with Javiar when he was still nice. It almost make me cry but I don’t let myself cry anymore, I got to be careful about that. The last time I let myself cry I got scared, it feel like my skin was coming apart and everything was falling out of me. So now I sing, like Mickey Mouse. “Lookie Luli, Mommy got a shiny red coat!” I sing and twirl for her, I think she like it, she look at me and bob her head around.
The red silk is so pretty, everything here so gray and ugly it make me feel good to show some color. Karen see me coming up her walk and she say, “What are you doing?” Like I was wearing my underwear outside my clothes.
“I like it like this”, I say, and she say, “Maritza, that is not a reversible coat.”
I say, “I like it like this.” And I think maybe she get mad and take it back. She look mad, she looking at me like I just broke every piece of her blue and white china, but she just stick her fingers in her eyes and lean into them like she trying to plug something in.
Karen got a lot of Tylenol and Advil in her medicine cabinet, she very tall and skinny. I always think she the type like in the old movies I watch on TV when I can’t sleep at night, the ones who lie around and cough. She always wearing turtlenecks, even in the summer, and in the winter like now she always got a cold. She always got a pot of tea on the stove and say to me the same thing every week, “There’s a fresh pot, Maritza, please help yourself.” I think she almost glad to see me because she never have any company, not like Skylar who got a lot of girlfriends running in and out of her house. Karen’s husband got a office upstairs that I am not supposed to go in. Sometimes he working at home, she say, and when he at the office he don’t like to have his desk disturbed. When I leave Karen’s house she say to me, “Drive safely, Maritza, there are lunatics out there.”

On the news they say a big storm blowing in from Canada, maybe we get a white Christmas. It kind of warm for a few days, then the wind start blowing so hard the branches come down off the trees, one of them just miss my car when I am driving home on Wednesday. Some powerlines come down and I don’t got no electricity, Luli is hungry, my stove don’t work, the microwave Karen gave me don’t work, the phone don’t work so I can’t call for pizza or nothing. For dinner I cut up some fruit for Luli, she love fruit, but she gag on a piece of apple and spit it out, then she won’t eat no more. I think she don’t feel so good, she got a peaked look about her and I hoping she just tired, because when Luli get sick she don’t do it half of the way. She so cranky when I put her to bed I bring the lamp back into her room and give her the jigsaw puzzle to calm her down. She like to play with the jigsaw puzzle, she take the pieces and throw them, then pick them all up and put them into little piles, then throw them again. But I make a mistake because all night long I am up and down, she smash the lamp and I got to sweep up the broken light bulb and try to keep her from cutting herself, she throw the puzzle all over the place and she growling and yelling and in a state. In the morning she got a fever and when the bus come I say no, she staying home with me today. The wind stop, but now the sky look like a dead squirrel, gray and squashed and fuzzy. I got to be at Karen’s and still I got no phone, so I wrap Luli up in old sweaters that I don’t care if she throw up on and put her in the car. She got a yellow sweater on top of a blue one and that make her mad, she want the blue one on the outside and she ripping the yellow sweater off of her and making noises that sound like the dog at the end of the hall when he locked up all day. I got to pull the car over and get out on the highway with the cars almost hitting me to fix her, then she happy and start singing her song again. “What you singing Luli?” I ask her, but she don’t pay no attention, she never pay no attention, I am like the insects in the night to her. She just sing, and rock, and sing, and rock, and sometime she have her fits.
I got to ring the bell three times before Karen come to the door. She got sunglasses on. She act like she surprised to see me so I say, “You not expecting me, Karen? It is Thursday.”
“What’s this?” She say, meaning Luli.
“This is my daughter”, I say, “I am very sorry, Karen, but she not feeling good today so I got to bring her with me.”
“I didn’t know you had a daughter” Karen say, “how old is she?”
“She almost four.” I say.

When Luli was a baby I thought if I held her all the time and talked a lot to her she be okay, she notice me and maybe smile like a normal baby. But she never do. She just sing and rock, and sometimes something make her so mad she break things and yell like crazy. Every year I make a birthday party for her, when she turn one she cute like any baby and Javier still nice, we blow little horns and sing Happy Birthday and feed her cake. When she turn two Javier getting mad because he see she not right, he still sing for her but right after he say he got to go out. I say, “Javier, where you got to go on Luli’s birthday?” And he say, “It not your business, this is a free country”, and he just leave.
When Luli turn three she starting to look funny, she drool all the time and pull her hair out so she got bald spots. Javier not home anymore. He still come sometimes, give me some money, but he don’t touch me. She gonna turn four in five days, December nineteen, and I don’t see Javier now for seven month. I don’t know where is he, I don’t hear nothing about him. I got a bag of balloons I going to blow up, and I going to make her a pineapple cake, she love pineapple.

“Four?” say Karen, looking at Luli like I have make a mistake.
“Yeah, she almost four”, I say, “but she don’t talk, she can watch TV if that is okay.” Luli love TV.
“Why doesn’t she talk?” Karen ask, and she kneel down in front of Luli and she say, “What’s the matter, Sweetie, don’t you want to have a little chat with me?”
And Luli look at Karen with a bad face on her, and she reach up and grab Karen’s sunglasses and throw them hard against the wall.
“Luli!” I yell, even though it don’t make no difference to her, and then I look at Karen and she got black and blue all around her eyes, she wincing like a dog who know he gonna get kicked.
I go and pick up Karen’s sunglasses, lucky thing they not broken. Luli sitting on the floor leaning up against the stairs, with her thumb in her mouth, rolling it around and knocking her head against the railing.
“I am very sorry, Karen”, I say, and give her her glasses, but she just sitting there like Luli, she got her fingers dug in her hair and she rocking like her, too. I think for a minute maybe she trying to make Luli laugh, and I say, “Luli got something wrong with her Karen, she not right in her brain.”
In Karen’s front hallway she got a big table, some heavy kind of wood with carved legs that’s a pain to clean. She keep a big bowl on that table with mail and keys and like that in it, and over the table she got a round mirror hanging on the wall. She got a vase with silk flowers, red poppies that look really real but get dusty. I see those poppies and for whatever reason I don’t know I am thinking maybe if I spray some Endust on them they won’t get so bad, when all of a sudden I almost jump out of my skin because I see a man in the mirror. But then I realize he actually there, standing on the stairs. I only met Karen’s husband one time before, he seem very nice, very good manners. He a very handsome man, he look like one of the men who read the news on TV, very distinguished with bushy hair black and white like a skunk. He talk in a soft voice.
“What have we here?” he say, and Karen jump up. She don’t look at him, she turn her head away.
“Hello, Gloria.” he say to me.
“This is Maritza,” Karen say, still not looking at him. “Gloria hasn’t worked for us for two years.”
“Welcome, Maritza,” he say, coming down the stairs and sticking out his hand to shake mine. When he come close to me I get a puff like wind in my face and a smell like cloves and orange peel. He slide his hand over mine; it give me a feeling like when I am cooking a chicken and pull up the skin to rub some olive oil underneath. I am still wearing my coat but I feel cold all over. Luli start to sing real loud, pulling her hair, yelling “da da dee, da da dum!” Karen’s husband smile at me real nice, he got teeth that don’t curve, just all straight across his mouth like a fence, and he say, “Child-care-challenged, are we?” He put his arm around Karen and they stand there looking like they gonna take a picture for a Christmas card. And all of a sudden I get that thing in my head, like someone changed the channel and there’s static and a little pop, and that’s when I know things. I see why Karen don’t go out, why she don’t pay me in cash, why she worry so much about smudges. One thing, Javier never hit me. He yell a lot, but he never ever hurt me. Karen’s husband rubbing his hand up and down her arm, she still not looking at him. She got a look on her face like Luli, like her eyes are made of glass. She just staring at nothing.
“What is wrong with that child?” say her husband. Luli chewing on her sleeve now, she bite a hole right through it and she pulling blue strings out of her mouth.
Karen say, in a little, quiet voice, “Mark.” Mr. Howlitz staring at me, at my coat, and he say, “I recognize that.”
“I gave it to her.” Karen say. And he say,
“Is she afraid of the anti-fur people?” And Karen say,
“Leave her alone.”
I say, “Listen, maybe I should take Luli home, I come back tomorrow.” Tomorrow I have Skylar but if I tell her I got a problem she be okay, I am not worried about Skylar.
“No”, Karen say, “you’re here, I prefer you stay and work. I will look after Luli.”
Mr. Howlitz wearing a jacket like in a Polo ad, he have his hand in the pocket, jingling something around like keys or something, and he still holding Karen, she leaning against him and he got his hand on her arm like he afraid she going to run.
“Run!” I want to say to her. Sometimes these things pop into my head. I feel like I want to throw my coat that used to be her coat around her and run outside where the air don’t smell like all the cleaning products I use. He wrapping his fingers so tight around her arm, she don’t seem even to notice.
“Luli”, I say, “You want to watch TV with Karen?” Luli slurp on her thumb. Mr. Howlitz laugh.
“Little Luli’s a lulu”, he say “What’s her chronological age?”
“She four next Monday.” I say, and right away I think “Stupid Maritza! He don’t need to know that!” The wind starting up again outside, the trees making a noise like marraccas.
“We must have a party.” say Karen, and Luli make a loud burp and spit up some blue thread.
“By all means”, say Mr. Howlitz, “perhaps we should rent some llamas.”

Skylar have twins, a boy and a girl, last month they turn five and she have a big party, a lot of kids, and ponies and bunny rabbits and a cake she pay over a hundred dollars for with two of everything on it. Her husband Chip dress up in a Sponge Bob costume and all the kids so excited, they jumping up and down and running after him. I told Luli that night, “We gonna have the best birthday party ever for you this year.” Four years old; big girl.
“It’s alright”, I say to Karen, “I gonna be working and Luli in school all day.”
“Wonderful investment of our tax dollars!” say Mr. Howlitz.
“Bring her with you on Thursday and we’ll celebrate then.” say Karen. “I insist.”
* * * * * * * *

That night I have some luck, I don’t feel like cooking so I go to the Chinese Cuban restaurant to get some rice and beans and Wonton soup to go, and I see my friend Ana there. Ana from Guatemala, we do each other favors sometimes; I got her a job as a nanny for one of the kids in Luli’s school. Ana very funny, she make me laugh doing imitations of the people she work for. They English people and she always say, “Ana love, don’t forget Colin’s mackintosh!”
“Hola, Ana” I say, and we give each other a big hug. “How is Reuban?” I ask her. Reuban her boyfriend.
“I had to do some downsizing” Ana say, “and Reuban didn’t make the cut.” Ana always making jokes like this, she think this country very funny. Like if you bump into her by accident she say, “I’m gonna sue!” She very beautiful, Ana, and she dress sexy, to show off her body. She always on my case to put on makeup and lose weight and dress better, but I am too tired. She don’t seem to ever lose energy. There is a bunch of guys in the restaurant and they looking at us and making comments. This happen every time I am with Ana, and it always make me nervous. Ana is a person you never know what she is going to do. She could go and sit in the guys lap or she could throw a glass of water in his face.
“Baby” this one guy say to her, why you don’t spread some of that around?”
“You got the night free?” she say to me. “want to have some fun?”
“You crazy, Ana?” I say. “You going to get in so much trouble some day.”
Ana walk over to the guys and stand there with her big breasts right level with their faces, smiling real nice. They looking like boys at a birthday party about to get the cake.
“Listen guys,” she say, “ You know who I am?”
The guys look at each other like, is she someone famous?
“Woo”, Ana say, “if you guys didn’t smell so bad and look so ugly I would give you my autograph.”
The guys all start to laugh; one of them reaches up like he going to pinch her nipple. I go quick outside to wait for my food, I don’t want to have nothing to do with this. In a minute Ana come out, she laughing and looking proud of herself.
“Dumb fucks.” she say. “Why don’t we eat together, honey-bunch?”
“I got to go home to Luli.” I say.
“Want some company?” she say, “I wouldn’t mind having a visit with Luli.”
So she come home with me and we all eat together, she make me laugh a lot and it feel good to have someone to talk to. She not working the next day so she offer to stay with Luli so I can go to work at Skylar’s. That night I get a good sleep, feeling like I am not so much alone.

At Skylar’s house I am emptying the dishwasher while she giving lunch to the twins, and we are chatting. I say to her, “I think my boss on Thursday get hit by her husband.”
“Why do you think that, Mari?” Skylar got short names for everybody, she call the twins Robbo and CeeCee, she call her husband Pokey. She got a gym in her house and she always working out, wearing little black stretch shorts. She very cute. I say, “last week she wearing sunglasses even though it very dark, and when she take them off she all black and blue.” I don’t tell her about Luli knocking them off, I always tell her Luli a good girl. Skylar start to laugh.
“It sounds like she had a little nip and tuck, Mari.” She say.
I say, “What?”
Skylar hold her fingers up against her face and push up the skin around her eyes.
“Eye job, Sweetie.” She say. But I don’t think so. I don’t say nothing. Robbo liked the face his Mommy made and he trying to imitate her. Skylar start making more faces at him, and CeeCee, who is like a little movie star, start making poses. So Skylar sashaying around bumping her hips out, and the twins getting wild. Skylar shout, “What’s her name?” and I tell her.
“I don’t know her.” Skylar say. I know she don’t know her, she live in a different town and Skylar about ten years younger than Karen and they about a million miles apart in all the ways that they are. Robbo start banging his spoon against his bowl. Skylar take it from him and stick it in her ear.
“What’s her husband do?” she ask me, just like she don’t got a spoon sticking out of her ear. The children laughing very loud. I say,
“His name is Mark, I don’t know what he do but I think they very rich.”
Skylar say, “Wait a minute, Mark Howlitz? I know that name. Someone just mentioned him, at dinner Saturday night..he’s some kind of venture capitalist or something. I think you’re right, Mari, he probably has more money than God.”
The phone ring just as she say “God”. Skylar’s phone always ringing, and I look at her to see if she want me to answer, but she reach for it just as Robbo dump his chicken noodle soup on CeeCee’s head and CeeCee start screaming and their little dog Bootsie start licking up the noodles. Skylar say “Oh God I’ll call you back” and slams the phone down, and she yelling “Don’t let Bootsie get the noodles, he’s allergic to wheat!” So we get very busy and that the end of our conversation.
* * * * * * * *
When I get home Ana very fed up, she say I must be a saint and why I don’t give it up and put Luli in a home. I tell her I going to cook dinner for us but she want to get out of there , so Luli and me home alone, and Luli very hot and coughing like she got shells in her lungs.
All weekend Luli sick, she throw up all day long on her birthday so I don’t even blow up the balloons or make a cake. On Tuesday I send her to school because I can’t take it no more but they send her home with a note say “This Child is ill, please take her to a physician.” I take her to the clinic and they give her some medicine and finally she sleep; finally I sleep. In the morning I scramble her a egg and she eat it, so I guess she all better. I was thinking maybe she die this time, and then what?
When I was a schoolgirl I won a ribbon for being a good student. They took me to Mrs. Bereford’s house and we had a tea party. Mrs. Bereford an American Lady, the richest lady on the Island, she got a big house and a beautiful garden, she a widow and always give a lot of money away, her name all over everything, the library, the park, the firehouse. She pay for the school to be built so they always making us write letters to her, she like a Saint to us. My mother and my aunts fuss all over me, they braiding my hair and sewing me a new dress to wear to her house. We sit on her veranda and drink tea from china cups so thin they feel like they made of paper. Mrs. Bereford say to me, “Maritza, I expect great things of you.”
The first time Luli get sick real bad I really think she gonna die, and Javier say to me “Don’t worry, honey, we have another baby.” But I don’t get pregnant again, and Javier start to change. And now Javier gone. When she was born I sent her picture to Mrs. Bereford and wrote her a letter, I tell her I not gonna let her down, but she never write back to me.
Wednesday when I go to bed the windows rattling from the wind and I think the roof cave in, but during the night the wind just stop and when I wake up Thursday the sky very blue with big white puffy clouds. “Look Luli!” I say, “look at the pretty sky!” It cold as ice and I put her in the down parka Skylar gave me that the twins grow out of, I feeling very happy that Luli better and she going back to school. I stand on the street and wave at her when the bus drive away. When I drive to Karen’s house the car making a lot of bad noises, and when I get to her house she got pink and white balloons on the mailbox. I am walking up her steps breathing clouds in the air it so cold and Karen throw open the door, she standing there in a little pointy cardboard hat, and she say, “where’s Luli? Where’s the birthday girl?”
Last week Luli make Mr. Howlitz very nervous, he make her wait for me in the mudroom, she get mad in there and make a mess. So I surprised Karen still in a party mood for Luli. She not wearing sunglasses anymore, she look a little better. Maybe I make a mistake about Mr. Howlitz, but I don’t think so. In Karen’s front hall she got more pink balloons, and a big sign hanging up say “Happy Birthday”. She grab my hand and pull me into the dining room, she got the table set for three people and a big pink birthday cake with “Happy Birthday Luli” written on it in blue icing. She got silver balloons in the shape of hearts that float up to the ceiling and got lots of curly ribbon coming down, and a pile of presents on the table. It look like a dream of a birthday party, and Karen look like a fairy godmother, so happy and excited.
“I forgot,” I say. “Oh Karen I am so sorry, I forgot.”
Karen look at me like she just hear the sky is polka-dotted. “You forgot?” she say, and then she sit down and like crumbled. Like someone stuck a pin in one of the balloons. I feel so bad for her, I say, “How if I go get her?”
Karen push up her sleeve to look at her watch, she do it automatic-like, I know she not thinking because on her arm is a whole lot of marks, like burns, and I know this is something she keep hidden, why she always wear long-sleeve shirts. These marks is ugly, some of them look infected.
I say to her, “I got a poultice for that.”
She looking at her arm now like she surprised to see it. “No.” she say, like she talking in her sleep. “No, you don’t.”
The air is real still in the room. I could see the dust floating and sparkling in the spears of sunlight coming in through the windows. The silver I polished last week is all lined up, glinting, on the sideboard that still smell like the lemon oil I rubbed into it. Karen look up at me, she look right into my eyes. She say, “I need help.”
“I know.” I say, “you got to leave him.”
She hang her head down and start to shake it back and forth. I see her dark roots and where the blonde starts.
“I will help you, Karen.” I say. “You tell me what to do and I will do it.”
Karen got a bowl full of wooden fruit on the table. It look very fake to me and I never see the point, but I notice a lot of people in Connecticut like things like that. She take a apple out of the bowl and hold it in her hand like she going to take a bite of it.
“He rubbed this in my eye last week.” She say.
“You can come and stay with me and Luli if you want”, I say, “but I think it better to make him leave.”
She holding the apple up against her mouth. “It’s his house.” she say into it. “Everything is his. My name is on nothing. We don’t even have a joint checking account.”
“What you going to do, Karen?” I say.
A helicopter come over the house, real loud, it sound like a bomb gonna drop or something. They always flying around here, looking at the traffic on the highway. It make the house shake a little; the balloons bounce around on the ceiling. Karen rolling the fake apple around in her hand, staring out the window with her eyes all like glass again.
“I had a daughter once.” She say.
I squeeze my eyes shut real hard so I don’t got to hear this. I don’t say nothing. “She died.” Karen say. “She didn’t live. Her name was Sophie.” Then she say, “She was damaged in the womb.”
“I am very sorry.” I say. I say, “what you going to do, Karen?
Karen say, “The holly trees are lovely, aren’t they?”
I look at the trees outside, with their shiny prickly leaves and red berries. Karen love her garden, in the summer she always out there in a big straw hat, on her knees in the dirt. “Very pretty.” I say.
“There was a stain on the wall.” she say. “Blood. I couldn’t get it out, blood is very hard to remove. He likes the house to be spotless. I was scrubbing it with a mixture of Clorox and Simple Green, but I couldn’t lift it off. It wouldn’t come off. I was very pregnant. He said it was unacceptable. He told me I must do better or I would have to be punished.”
Karen looking at me like she trying to read words on my face. I am standing there still in my coat with the shiny red silk that got a coffee stain on the sleeve now, and I am shivering like I am naked. She give me a big smile, her little white teeth look like a pearl necklace.
“He gave me that coat when Sophie died.” she say. “It was a consolation gift.” She pick up a pack of matches that are next to the birthday cake and lights one. I think she going to light the candles but she just hold it up and look at the flame. “We ordered two hundred and fifty matchbooks for our wedding.” she say. “See?” She hold it up for me to read the gold letters. Karen and Mark, 1978. “I have a drawer full of them.” She say. “No one took them home because no one cared to have a keepsake of our union. All our guests were business associates of his, people who would have kissed his bare ass if he told them to. His parents, if he ever had them, were dead. My father was long gone. Only my dear mother, who thinks – still thinks he hangs the moon, was there.”
The flame burn down to her finger and she don’t even move. Finally I can’t stand it no more and I grab the match away, it fall down on the Persian rug and I stomp on it.
“Go get Luli.” she say. “Quick. Drive fast. Bring her to her party before the ice cream melts.”

At Luli’s school they not happy with me. They want to know what the big event I got to disrupt her for. They say the children don’t like to have their routines upset. For about a second I think I just going to go home, let Karen find another cleaning person, I don’t want to go back to that house and Skylar find me another job, she always say she got friends always looking for someone good. But then I think about the big pink cake and all the presents and Karen sitting there waiting for us, so I tell a big lie. I say I forgot Luli got a doctor appointment. They always like that reason so they give her to me and I strap her into the bumper seat and we drive all the way back to Karen’s house. Luli not mad at all about having her routine upset, she happy in fact. She not sick at all anymore and she very quiet, looking out the window, rocking in her seat. When we get back to Karen’s all the lights on in her house, she all flushed like she got a fever, she try to hug Luli but Luli doing her Raggedy Ann doll thing and Karen don’t seem even to notice. She got loud music playing, Sesame Street songs I don’t know where she got but it a big mistake because Luli hate loud noise and she hate Sesame Street. One time she broke the TV set when Cookie Monster was on, she break it in pieces. Luli start to howl like “A Woo! A Woo!” And Karen dancing around the table singing “I’m proud, proud, proud to be a cow!”, she think Luli singing but I know we gonna be in trouble in a minute. Luli see the cake and she rush at it like a bull, she grab handfuls of it and start throwing it at the walls, big pink globs of whip cream on the red and tan velvet wallpaper, very bad. I yelling “Luli, NO!” But then Karen I think lose her mind, she start laughing and she dig into the cake too, she take big handfuls and throw them at the wall like Luli do, I can’t believe it, I yelling “where is the music from?” So I can find it and make it quiet, I never heard music in that house before and never saw a stereo, they got it hidden somewhere and now it seems to be coming from the walls. Luli take a big handful of cake and push it in her face, Karen do the same thing. Then the most unbelievable thing happen, Luli actually look at Karen, she actually smile at her! Karen don’t seem to think that a big deal but in Luli’s whole life she never once smile at me. Karen on her hands and knees swaying back and forth and singing “I’m proud to be a cow!” And then I can not believe it; Luli look at Karen and she say “Cow”.
Santa Maria and Holy Baby Jesus it like a miracle! I am holding a bunch of Happy Birthday napkins, I try to clean some of the mess off the wall, and I say, “Cow! Luli say Cow! Luli say Cow!” And all of a sudden it completely quiet, like someone turn off the sound. And that just what happen, because I look up and there is Mr. Howlitz standing in the doorway. He holding my coat up like it a dead animal, like it smell bad, and he got a frozen face in a smile like a clown. Karen sit down and pick up the matchbook again, this time she start to light the candles. Luli stuffing cake in her face.
“Well, well.” Mr. Howlitz say. “Let the games begin.”
Karen start singing, real soft, “happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..”
“Juanita” Mr. Howlitz say to me, “Let me help you with your coat. It is your coat now, I understand. Shall we consider it a severance bonus?”
I don’t know what he talking about but I know he want me to go. “I didn’t clean yet.” I say.
“Not to worry,” he say. “ My wife is perfectly capable of cleaning her own house, aren’t you, dear?”
Karen keep singing happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, and then all of a sudden Luli see the wooden apple on the table that Karen left there and she grab it and throw it right at Mr. Howlitz, and she yell “Cow!” It make a thunking noise when it hit his head, right over his eye, and he get a surprised look on his face, and I run and grab Luli and she struggling like a banshee, and Mr. Howlitz put his hand on his head and he got a big red lump popping out. Karen say to me, “Get out. Quick, out the back.” And I don’t want to leave her but I am scared for my life and Luli’s now so I start to run with her, I run through the swinging doors into the kitchen and out the mudroom into the driveway and Luli biting me and kicking me and I throw her in the car and drive out of that place so fast I don’t even think about where I am going, but for some reason I head to Skylar’s house. I think the car not gonna make it cause it shaking and make a lot of thumping noises, and Luli growling in the back seat, and I keep saying, “Cow, Luli say cow, Luli such a smart girl!” When I get to Skylar’s everybody standing around in the driveway and they loading up their Range Rover with skis and bags full of food and clothes. Skylar give me a big smile and come running to my car, she wearing a funny hat with antlers on it.
“Mari, did you forget?” she say to me. “We’re going to Vermont, you’re supposed to come on Monday!” Then she say, “what’s wrong?” In a much different voice.
My voice is shaking while I tell her what happened. “You got to help her, Skylar.” I say.
“Mari.” Skylar lean her elbows on the car window and put her face close to mine. “You are swimming in dangerous waters.” She say. Then she say, “Oh! This is the famous Luli!”
And the famous Luli make a big burp and a little throwup start to dribble down her chin. Skylar look upset at this. I never tell her how bad Luli is, I just say she got some problems.
“Is she sick?” Skylar ask me, and now I am crying, just how I don’t like to do, I can’t breathe and I shaking all over.
“Oh, honey.” Skylar say. Chip yell something at her from the car, and she yell back, “Coming, Sweetie!”
“Maritza.” She say to me. “I want you to go home and have a good long hot bath and a nice glass of wine. Will you do that for me?”
“Please.” I say to her. “Please call the police, get help for her. If that woman die it gonna be on our heads.”
Then Skylar straighten up and frown, she say, “I will call the police and tell them what you told me. Alright?”
“Thank you.” I say. “You a good person, Skylar, thank you.”
Skylar say she see me Monday, and I start to drive home, but before I know it I am driving back to Karen’s house, like it is someone else driving the car and I am just sitting there. Luli throw up all over herself now and the car grinding and jerking, I get off the highway and go past all the big houses and gates and shrubs until I am at Karen’s driveway. I stop the car and put my head on the steering wheel, I am thinking of home and the sun, how it would feel like the hand of God laying on my head, so warm and comforting, when there is a big thump on my window and I almost jump out of my skin. A policeman is standing there, and he making signs at me to open the window.
“Is there a problem?” he say to me.
But I am scared of policemen, so I move my head a little and pray to Jesus for him to go away.
“Do you know the people who live here?” he ask me.
“Yes.” I say.
“Are you the person who called in a complaint?”
I look at him. He got very big cheeks, they hanging down like old breasts. But his eyes are gray, and they looking at me in a way that make me trust him.
“I told my other boss to call you.” I say.
“You’re the cleaning woman?”
I nod my head yes.
“Why don’t you come with me.” He say, in a way like I don’t got a choice. Luli is sleeping, her face hanging into her shoulder where the vomit is drying and sticking to her hair. I follow the policeman to the front door.
We ring and ring the bell and after what seem like a hour Mr. Howlitz open the door. He all neat and polite and it look like he got a golf ball on his forehead.
“Yes?” he say. “Can I help you?”
The policeman say, “Excuse me, Sir, but we got a report of domestic abuse.”
Mr. Howlitz smile at him. “Really?” he say, like it’s a good one.
“Sweetheart!” He yell up the stairs. “Karen, Darling? Would you come down for a minute?”
Karen come down the stairs. She all cleaned up, all the frosting off of her face. She got on a new blouse, buttoned tight around her throat and wrists. She come and stand next to Mr. Howlitz, sort of lean into him.
“Yes, dear?” she say. “Is something wrong?”
“Does this woman work for you?” The policeman say.
Mr. Howlitz say, “Well look who’s here. Hello, Maritza.”
“Hello” I say, but I feeling very nervous.
“Sir”, say the policeman, “I am sorry to bother you, but this woman says there’s been violence here. Forgive me, M’am, but I have to ask, are you alright?”
Karen laugh. Her laugh sound like a little piece of glass falling on the marble floor in Skylar’s bathroom. She don’t look at me.
“Do I look alright?” she ask the policeman.
“Officer,” say Mr. Howlitz, in a voice like he telling him a secret, “this woman used to work for us, but we had a little…well, let’s say she disappointed us, but we decided not to press charges. Enough said?”
I am looking at Karen. I open my mouth to say something to her, but all of a sudden the helicopter back, it seem like it right on top of me, so loud you can’t hear nothing else, and the top of the trees shaking back and forth from the wind it make. All of us look up, we all standing there looking at the sky like God about to drop down, and then little flakes of snow begin to whirl around. I feel the policeman put his hand on my arm and start to pull me down the steps. When he touch me I remember for the first time that my coat still in Karen’s house, I think of all those presents for Luli that she will never get to open. I realize all of a sudden I am freezing cold, I think my head going to split open from the helicopter noise and the freezing air on my bare arms. From my car I hear Luli wake up and start to howl at the noise, and I jerk my arm away from the policeman and I yell “Karen!” But it too late, the door is shutting, I just see the white of her blouse as she disappear into the house.