Page 101 of In a Far-Off Land
Papa shook his hand solemnly. He knew who Max was to me, and why he’d come. I could see it in his face, in the way he held Max’s gaze. But the voices outside reminded me this was still Penny’s wedding day.
Max followed, seeing us both glance toward the guests. “Sir, if you don’t mind, I’ll go get cleaned up, and then I was hoping—” he swallowed hard, glancing at me and back at Papa—“I was hoping to ask you... both... a question.”
Papa said he was welcome to come back in the evening. Max gave me one last look and went out the way he had come. My stomach twinged and my doubt returned with a fury. A question. I knew the question he wanted to ask. Of course I did.
Problem was, I knew what I had to answer.
MAX
They must have thought I was crazy, those people in Odessa. They’d be right.
Crazy about Mina.
I wasn’t sure what I’d feel when I saw her. But then... the way she looked at me. The way she put her hand over her rounded middle. She loved our baby. Maybe she could learn to love me too. She could say what she wanted—and I figured she would after she caught her breath—but I wasn’t going anywhere.
It was time for a battle plan.
After a couple hours in Odessa, I had the lay of the land. A haircut and shave from Bill at the barbershop filled me in onMina—Minnie, that is—and her family. The little mercantile had a scant selection of shirts, but the saleslady got me set up and tutted about all the fuss with the wedding.
At the diner, I had a sandwich, coffee, and a short talk with a waitress named Ruby. She took my order and came back with my coffee and one less button done up on her too-tight blouse. I didn’t encourage her, but she was happy to tell me a thing or two. “Poor Mr. Zimmerman. Minnie was always a trial. And now she’s—” her voice dropped to a whisper—“in the family way.” She raised her penciled-in brows. “She should be ashamed.” I paid for my dinner, refusing both her offer of pie and something else after her shift. Ruby didn’t deserve the quarter I left for a tip, but I hope she used it on a better-fitting blouse.
Odessa wasn’t as different from Hollywood as I’d figured.
Feeling more like myself, I stood in front of a boarded-up building for a long time. The Odessa Picture House. Then I went back to Bill’s and asked if I could make a few calls on his telephone. One call was to thesociedades, where I had some luck and Oscar was there. I told him I’d found Mina and what I was going to do. He wished me luck, then recounted a few goings-on in thecolonia. I don’t know why, but I felt better after that, like I had somebody in my corner.
The sun was sinking along the western horizon by the time I’d finished my business. I took a deep breath and started the roadster. I’d paid a kid two bits to wash it while I was gone, and it shone like a new penny. I turned east and, with the sun blazing a trail of gold and crimson in my rearview mirror, headed back to the farm.
This time, heaven help me, I was going to do the right thing. And the right thing just happened to be what I wanted more than anything in the world.
MINA
I thought I’d got good at waiting, but I was wrong. I paced the length of the parlor as nervous as a girl watching for her first date.
The guests were gone. Penny and Robert, too, in a shower of rice and good wishes. Penny had hugged me hard when she left, and I know she wondered about Max. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of Papa,” I said.
She looked at me long and hard and pressed her hand on my cheek just like Mama used to. “I know you will.” That warmed my heart, to be honest.
Now it was me and Papa, who’d gone out to check the animals as if this were just another day on the farm. I heard the roadster and ran to the mirror to check my hair, then told myself it didn’t matter.Give me a chance, Mina,he’d said. There weren’t any more chances. I was home and I was going to do the right thing—for the right reasons—like I should have a long time ago. I would be strong and send Max on his way.
The knock on the door made me jump. Max looked good with his hair combed back and his jaw smooth. His suit was pressed and clean, shoes shined. He’d never fit in here in Odessa with the farmers and field hands. I’d always known that. Go home, Max. Please go home. I still talked to him in my head. I figured I always would.
“Hello.” He smiled when I stood in the doorway staring at him like a dumb Dora.
“Come in.” I moved aside, full of my unsaid words. “How are... how are Roman and Angel?” was all I could think of to say. And I really wanted to know.
He laid his fedora, which showed some wear, on the hall table. “Roman? Getting into trouble, no doubt.” He stepped close, close enough to lean down and kiss me. Don’t kiss me. Please don’tkiss me. “Father Ramirez is working on getting Angel into the seminary.”
“I’m glad,” I got out as I stepped away quick. “About Angel, that is.” The world needed people like Angel. Roman needed people like Angel. “And Lupita?”
Max wasn’t letting me off that easy. He closed the gap between us. “She was crowned queen of thefestivales,and the next day, she cut her hair.” He raised his hand and brushed a strand of hair from my face, pushing it behind my ear. My heart cartwheeled. “Oscar says it looks a lot like yours.”
I almost groaned. Oscar blamed me, no doubt. Sanchia, too. Even half the country away I was making trouble for them.
“I think there’s something going on with her and Oscar,” Max speculated.
“You think?” I laughed, the tension in my neck easing a bit. Men could be such slowpokes.
Papa came in, scuffing his boots on the rug in the kitchen and thudding into the hall. Max stepped back with a jerk, running his hands down his trousers. It hit me then. It wasn’t just me that was a mess. Max, who’d dined with the Barrymores and played pool with Fred Astaire, was nervous about talking to my father. It was too unbelievable.
