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“No, he was not driving a van. He was working.”
“Working?” I say louder now. “What does he do? How old is he?”
“He’s only twenty-two,” she yell-whispers. “He sells vitamins and stuff.”
José and I look at her, jaws practically on the ground.
“He sells vitamins?” José asks, his voice slightly cracking in laughter and what seems like anger. “He’s a drug dealer? Isa, are you kidding me?”
“He’s not a drug dealer! He sells medicinal vitamins, he told me all about it. He’s a business owner.”
“Oh dulce niña ingenua,” I say, covering my face with my hands. Oh you sweet naive girl. “That guy is a drug dealer, and you brought him to Abuela’s house.”
“Ana, he’s not a drug dealer.” Her face is red in embarrassment and anger.
“Maybe it’s not the hard stuff, but he is for sure packing the Mary Jane. I mean his name is Blaze, for crying out loud,” José cackles.
“It’s Flame,” Isa argues.
“Cause that’s better,” he scoffs.
“Did Mom put you up to this?” Isa says, her eyes getting watery and her face still red. “I know Mom doesn’t like him. She was so rude to him when I introduced them.”
“You’re lucky Papa isn’t here,” I say instead, ignoring her question. “Or Tío Pascal. They would not have let him through the front door.”
“You two are being so mean, and judgmental and prejudiced. Oh what because he has tattoos and black hair so he’s a drug dealer. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Isa, he has the word ‘sex’ tattooed on his neck and ‘you’re mom’ on his knuckles. It’s not even the right ‘your’,” José says.
“He does not,” I say incredulously with a laugh.
“He does! And a literal naked girl on his forearm. I saw nipples,” José says seriously, but with dark amusement laced underneath.
“It’s how he expresses himself,” Isa cries.
“Oh look at that, he just put Abuela’s candle stick in his back pocket,” José says, his eyes looking over Isa and towards the people in the living room. Sure enough Flame is trying to stuff a silver candle stick in his back pocket, with another one in his other hand.
“This is some kind of misunderstanding,” Isa says, scrambling away and running towards Flame.
“That was the most bizarre conversation I’ve ever had,” I say with a groan.
“Really? That doesn’t even make my top ten,” he replies. I shake my head laughing. We look over to where Isa is obviously arguing with this guy and he’s slowly putting the candle sticks back on the chinero. His face looks as passive and sleepy as it did when I spoke to him just before.
“He is high out of his mind,” I mumble.
“Yeah, I’m kind of jealous about that,” José admits. I laugh.
“How’s school? You’re so close to the end,” I say with a smile.
“Thank God. It can’t come soon enough.” He sighs. Just then, Isa comes back over to us.
“He broke up with me, I hope you’re happy,” she cries and runs up the stairs just to our right.
I sigh. Looking over to the living room I see Flame start trying to take the candle sticks again and I nudge José over to deal with him.
I love when the family gets together.
THIRTY
