Page 5 of Under His Sheets
I’d called her after my appointment at the embassy, which went relatively smoothly, and told her everything…the band squabbles, the theft, the decision to break up—okay, not everything. I didn’t tell her about my tryst. Not that I hadn’tshared my boy troubles with her in the past, and I’d been there for her when she first split up with her ex-husband two years prior, so we understood each other. But that experience wasn’t one I was ready to share with anyone yet.
The clerk at the embassy said that as long as I was employed, I could stay, and honestly I wasn’t done with Spain. My mystery man had made me think twice about leaving on a bad note. I loved it here, and if I was going to start a new life, why not do it in this exciting place?
“So I’ve got a little time to find a job, and I was wondering, I know you spent some time here with Mr. Segura?—”
“You know what I’m going to say,” she’d started. I did know.
“That I should finally put my teaching credential to use.” I’d earned my music degree at UC Berkeley, which she’d encouraged me to pursue, and managed to do my student teaching while getting the first of my three bands together. I knew at that time I wasn’treadyready to be in the classroom. I wanted to give a music career a shot. She’d understood, though she told me she hoped I would find my way back to teaching eventually. Claimed I was a natural.Okay, Mrs. Galvan.
“Yes, and there are so many ways you could do that in Spain. There are programs to teach English, international schools, au pair… Wait, I’ve got a number here…I met this woman at the vineyard, they were having an event, a fundraiser, and Felip’s cousin Fermín introduced us. She’s the principal of an American international school in Castelldefels. I could reach out…”
“That would be great.” I’d try anything at this point. I wasn’t normally the kind of person to wallow, and I’d done it for two weeks at that point.
“Great! Let me give her a call, and you know, there’s always the winery? It’s physical labor, but you’ve never shied from that.”
“No, ma’am. I’m seriously willing to do anything at this point. I just want to work and put all this shit behind me.”
“Ma’am,” she snorted. “Awesome. Let me call her and I’ll let you know what she says! In the meantime, get that resume going and I’ll dust off the letter of recommendation I wrote for you before you became a rock star.” She laughed, and it cheered me even more. It was nice knowing that someone had faith in me when my band hadn’t. When the label hadn’t. When my family hadn’t. Good ole Mrs. Galván, soon-to-be Segura. She’d found her second chance at happiness in Spain. Maybe so could I.
She called me back the next day and said her contact was thrilled to meet with me, and the arrangements were made in a blur. I took the bus out to Castelldefels, aced the interview, had a tour of the music department, which had been without a teacher since the beginning of the year, much to the chagrin of the parents, and I was offered the job on the spot. Seeing as it was November, they needed time to rearrange student schedules and to give them time to sign up.
Felip’s cousin Fermín had an empty apartment in one of his complexes between the beach and the school, and I moved in with my scarce belongings that had survived the theft.
I was going to be teaching all grade levels, both vocal and instrumental music. I had a week between getting hired and getting myself reacquainted with the wind and brass instruments, as well as how the heck to teach little ones what had been ingrained in my brain from an early age. Piano at five, guitar at ten, voice at twelve, clarinet and sax from twelve to eighteen…eventually settling on guitar and keyboards for my pursuit of rock stardom. I’d been lucky I had such a varied background. It meant teaching should come easy.
Right.
Kids.
No problem.
I’d channel Mrs. Galván and hope for the best.
Throughout this time of pep talks from her, settling the band’s affairs with our manager, Cherish, having my apartment in LA packed up and put into storage from afar, which Cherish oversaw, thank goodness…I’d thought abouthimevery spare moment.
I’d woken up at some point early that next morning and he’d been gone. Unsure how to handle all the awkward morning-after stuff since I hadn’t really done this before, especially not in a foreign country, I’d left him a note, my number, and thanked him with a goofy, spontaneous poem:
You found me in the darkness
And gave me shelter
You met me in the darkness
And brought me peace
You left me in the darkness
But this night gave me hope
And when I leave your darkness
With a smile upon my face
I will not fear the darkness
Only wonder of his name
It was a bit much, but I hadn’t been inspired to write much in the past year. Now, I was inspired to do all sorts of things.
