Tío nodded. “So I will,” he said and walked away.
Barely avoiding being run over by the ever-present bicycles, I made it back to the dorms and then up the stairs to Kelsey’s room.
“Guess what, Kelsey? I’m staying. I’m staying for the whole term.”
I had it all figured out. Even if my parents did not agree to my staying longer, they would have to wait until the next full moon to send their orders for Tío Ramiro. After that, I’d still have another four weeks before the door would open again.
Kelsey looked at me, her pale blue eyes showing no surprise. “I know,” she said. Bending over, she placed the dress she had been folding in a duffel bag. “Dad just told me.”
“Your dad? But I was just with him. He couldn’t possibly . . .”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Really, Andrea! What planet are you from? Dad called me. Called me, you get it? As in ‘on the phone.’You know that magic thing you talk into?”
“Of course!” I said and smiled to hide my confusion. But all of a sudden I didn’t feel like smiling. For a moment, I had felt so sure this was my world, my real world, and now I was an outsider again. Would I ever fit in here? “I know what a phone is,” I said, the words bitter in my mouth.
Kelsey laughed. “Sometimes I wonder,” she said.
Before I knew it, I was laughing, too.
“Well, anyway,” Kelsey continued after we had calmed down, “Dad said you were staying and that he was leaving, and he asked me to take care of you. And that is exactly what I’m doing.” At her last words, she waved at all the clothes piled on her bed.
“You’re giving me your clothes?”
My cousin dropped the shirt she was holding and shrugged. “Andrea, please! Stop trying to be funny and listen. We’re going on a trip. You’ve been in California for a month and all you’ve seen is this boring, depressing college town. What idea of this country are you going to take home?”
“I have been to the missions, too.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. “My point exactly. Come on! Go to your room and start packing. I am going to show you what California is really about.”
“But I like it here . . .”
“Oh, brother. You like it here. I can’t imagine what your country is like if you like it here, and really, I wouldn’t care to find out either. As for you, if you think this is so great, wait until you see San Francisco and Berkeley and Monterey!”
Kelsey was packing her shoes now. Whether I wanted to go or not didn’t seem to matter to her. Still I insisted. “I cannot go, Kelsey. What about my classes? And the play? And what about Richard?”
“The play. Well, I guess not being Juliet is an advantage after all. I think they can manage without me for a couple of days. As for Richard, he and I are history.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “You fought again?”
“You make it sound like we fight all the time, which is so totally untrue. Oh well, who cares? This time it’s for real. And I need a break. So I’m taking a week off. And you should, too. Come on, Andrea, we’ll have fun.”
“But . . .”
“Oh, I see. It’s because of John you want to stay. Right, cousin?”
“It is not.”
“Then why are you turning red?”
“I’m not. I mean, I was just running to come speak with you. That’s why.”
“Is that so? Well then, prove it. Say you’re coming.”
I did. And that very afternoon, I found myself in Kelsey’s red convertible, speeding along the brown rolling hills of northern California. By early evening, we had reached San Francisco and any reservation I could have had about the trip disappeared. San Francisco was a dream come true—if I could ever have dreamed of such a marvelous place.
For the next two days, we explored the city. We crossed the bay and watched the sunset from the Golden Gate Bridge. I could not hold back my awe as we watched the blaze of color, nor my panic when Kelsey drove down the steep hills of the city as if she had forgotten that cars had brakes.
Then we continued up the coast, stopping wherever we wanted and wherever the steep cliffs allowed. We ate the most incredible food in colorful restaurants, which soon seemed as familiar to me as the Great Hall of my parents’ castle. At night we watched TV, mainly shows about doctors and hospitals. I didn’t have to ask to know that my cousin, for all her talk, was not done with Richard, who I knew was studying to be a physician. But I also knew better than to tease her, as I didn’t want her to tease me back about John.
By Friday, Kelsey and Richard had made up. I was deeply relieved, tired of watching the road speed by me too fast as they argued over the phone.
By mutual agreement, we started back. We arrived in Davis on Sunday just in time to watch the basketball game. It was the perfect ending to the perfect vacation.
During the following weeks, John taught me how to read history in stones and broken pottery, and I taught him how to fence. And every other week, I went with Kelsey to the gym and watched John’s team play basketball. And day by day, the moon grew until it was full again, and Tío returned.
“You can stay,” he told me as we sat in the small café where we had agreed to meet through Kelsey.
I almost fainted with relief. “You convinced them? You convinced my parents to let me study here? I mean, thank you! Thank you so much.”
Tío shrugged my thanks away. “Actually, you should thank your sister Rosa.”
I stared blankly at him. “Rosa?”
“Yes, Rosa. After you left, your sister got engaged to Don Julián de Alvar, the king of Suavia. And your father is so enraged at her choice, I don’t think he was really listening when I asked him to let you stay. So he said yes. I hope he gets over his anger soon. Your father’s kingdom and Suavia have been enemies long enough. I hope this marriage will end their bloody feud. And I hope your father has enough sense to see it this way.”
Like Father, I was only half listening. All I could think was that I was staying.
When prompted, Tío told me about Margarida and Ama Bernarda who had sent their love, and about Flecha, my golden mare. And thinking of them made me feel homesick and even a little angry with my parents for having dismissed me so easily, as if they were only too happy to get rid of me. But I didn’t dwell on my hurt feelings for long. Regardless of their reasons, for once their wishes agreed with mine. And I was more than willing to leave it at that.
Between attending lectures in the mornings and parties on the weekends, between basketball games and fencing classes, the term came to an end, and suddenly the day of the performance was upon us.
As I was not needed backstage, I sat with Richard and John among the audience, and for the first time ever, I saw the play in real time. I was enthralled. It was one thing to see the actors dressed in jeans and sweaters delivering lines out of context while Dan interrupted them constantly with sharp remarks. It was another to see the story develop before my eyes, played by actors dressed in bright fancy costumes that made them look like gods. Even the swords I knew to be fake, as I had used them myself often enough, seemed fashioned from brushed steel as they flashed on the stage.
Kelsey, her blonde hair held back in a low ponytail, her long legs dressed in boots up to her knees, was magnificent. And seeing her thrust and parry, first with words and then with sword, I believed she was fighting for her life. And when she died, stabbed through the heart, I hurt with her.
But despite the beautifully staged fights and the realisticlooking blood on Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s fake wounds, the play still belonged to the two lovers, even if Juliet, as played by Lindsay with eager helplessness, reminded me of my sister Rosa, especially during the balcony scene.