Part I: Survival of the Fittest
"That woman can't control me,"
-Crystal
Nancy Hope Rodriguez-Sabotcka
Without much thought Nancy Hope Rodriguez-Sabotcka leaned on
the off-white refrigerator feeling its cool bumpy skin against her own. The air was warm though not hot, not
yet. Yesterday was certainly that and
when she thought of dinner last night she laughed aloud to herself. The kitchen table had two possible leaf
extensions and was a large oak centerpiece to the room. It seated nine comfortably but thirteen
really could fit if need be. All had
been filled last night and she went clockwise in her head remembering each one. Starting with mom, then there was Steve, her
younger brother. Then Annie and Jacob
her cousins on her mom’s side, the children of Mitch who sat across from
them. Dad was next to Jacob she thought
and then there was Juan and Marcel.
George and Sara were definitely next to each other because they didn’t
stop touching one another for most of the night. George was her older brother and his fiancé
who was moving in next week was Sara.
Mitch sat next to them uncomfortably and Kasey, his wife, next to him. Diane, her mom’s friend, who made a surprised
but welcomed visit sat between her and her mom.
Nancy
hadn’t understood all the goings-on in the neighborhood that was mentioned last
night but she remembered a lot of the people they mentioned. It was easy enough to nod and smile to keep
the conversation going. She didn’t want
to talk anyway, she just wanted to hear what had happened in the four years she
had been away. Some of the news
surprised her. Leon Cantis from across
the way was opening his own Italian Ice shop.
He always seemed lazy but once he got a girlfriend everything changed,
Mom had said. Annie said he lost fifteen
pounds and bought a dog. Jacob said she
was plain wrong, “Leon lost fifty pounds, I saw Leon running. And the pooch wasn’t his, it was his
girlfriend’s”
“In either case,” Uncle Mitch interrupted, “Why didn’t you
lose any weight when you got hitched, George?”
Mitch turned to George who was tickling Sara’s ear opposite him with the
arm he had over her shoulder. He
immediately stopped and his face turned redder than Sara’s cool crimson
lipstick.
Nancy
stood up straight, allowing the fridge to recover from the lean and settle more
evenly. She picked a banana from the
large wooden bowl on the table. She
removed both leaves of the table that morning with help from George. She smiled again when she thought of George
blushing the night before. Something
else was also surprising to hear last night between the traded rumors and
gossip, this time including names she knew from her high school days: Crystal and Joshua Barnums were engaged. They had always fought giving Nancy worries
about her own understanding of love. But
their arguments seemed like a sign that they wouldn’t last.
Crystal and Nancy were popular in
high school and had butted heads freshmen year when they both had a crush on
Neil Blake. When he graduated that year
and broke both of their hearts they blamed each other at first. But when their anger and sorrow yielded to
common sense they agreed he had been a sleaze-bag all along. This new common enemy did little to forge a
friendship nor repair past offenses.
Even in track they were fierce rivals for the first week or so. After that it became clear that Crystal was a
much faster runner. She could run the
forty yard dash in 5.9 seconds which was near a whole second faster than
Nancy. She was also a few inches taller
than Nancy by the beginning of sophomore year tryouts. Nancy yielded the half mile and forty but
picked up the 3 and 5 mile relay.
Right
when the season was picking up in the middle of sophomore year Crystal tripped
during practice and tore something, somewhere in her leg. Nancy hadn’t cared at the time what the
injury was but knew that she had a chance in taking the varsity spot. Although Crystal and Nancy continued to be at
odds, there were other girls Crystal considered greater rivals. One of those girls was Stephanie Smeltz. Smelly was in track and was very good. The most disastrous thing to happen because
of Crystal’s injury was that Smelly was going to take her spot. So Nancy trained and Crystal helped her
secretly at first and then openly.
Crystal got fat during her recovery
and quit track junior year to date Barnums and smoke weed. They were in love at first Nancy thought,
never having been so herself. But she was
sure they would break up in a few months. Barnums and Crystal fought regularly as they spent
more time together. Nancy didn’t like
that and apparently neither did Crystal’s mom.
Before senior year Crystal was given an ultimatum by her parents, ”Drop
Josh or start back with track.”
“That woman can’t control me,”
Crystal told Nancy of her mom. But
regardless of Crystal's resistance she joined track again. She quit smoking, lost her virginity, and
went to sectionals to spite her mother. A
strange way to say “Screw you,” Nancy had thought.
It was nothing more than a hug and
good-bye for Crystal and Nancy after graduation. They each cried a little when
Nancy finally left for Spain and then again on the phone a week later. Months would soon separate phone calls
although sometimes they were supplemented
by e-mails. But in the last year of
school in Spain all phone calls had been replaced by e-mails. And on the last one, a few weeks past,
Crystal made no mention of the engagement.
Maybe it was meant to be a surprise.
The knock startled Nancy; it was
loud and brief. She didn’t move towards
the door but sat down at the kitchen table.
Footsteps indicated whoever it was had entered and was crossing the
dining room. Crystal stopped at the threshold of the kitchen when she saw
Nancy. Crystal's hair was wavy and black
with short flimsy bangs. She looked
taller than she was because her jeans had faded, bleached stretch marks. She certainly wasn’t lacking in jewelry except
for what Nancy immediately checked for.
The four bracelets clinked together and her jade necklace shifted when
she put her left hand on her hip. But
Nancy followed the hand to the second finger and saw no ring.
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