Delayed (4 page)

It was as if Olivia had disappeared and reappeared from thin air.
 

"I'm Olivia," Olivia said before Nick could introduce her.

Mimi raised her eyebrows. “Why are you here?”
 

While Nick often found it difficult to speak his mind to strangers, his little sister didn’t.
 

“Your brother is giving me a ride to where I need to go. We met on the airplane.”
 

Mimi scrunched up her nose. “That’s weird.”
 

Olivia bit the corner of her lip, right before letting out a half smile. “Yeah. It kind of is I guess.”
 

The two girls stared at each other, each one on either side of Nick. He waited for one of them to say something, but it seemed the conversation had been deemed, over.
 

“Let’s go inside,” he said. “You go ahead of us Mimi.”
 

He gave his sister a gentle push that sent her running at full speed toward the beach house. After a few seconds, she was gone, and it was just he and Olivia again.

“Your sister’s cute,” Olivia said.
 

“She is when she wants to be.”
 

The two of them continued the walk down the sandy path in silence. The door was already open, a swarm of people moved around inside the house. He took in a whiff of the air. It smelled of tortillas and boiling beans, and for a moment he expected his mom to walk out of the kitchen with a plate of his favorite dish in hand.
 

He could feel himself losing the grip he had regained. A mere thought of his mom couldn’t possibly be his undoing. Nick fisted his hand, taking in soft but rapid breaths. There had to be a bathroom somewhere. He couldn’t do this. Why did his mom want to put him through this?

“Nick?” Olivia called out. Her voice sounded distant. “Nick. Hey. You okay?”
 

Relatives began to gather around the two of them. Random women and men from his family planted kisses on his cheek and pats on his back. All their faces became part of a blur of life.
 

Someone was pulling him in another direction. Nick felt the tugging on his sleeve, but it took him a moment to register who was doing it.
 

Olivia pulled him up the stairs away from the crowd. The two of them ended up in the master bedroom, the one that overlooked the shoreline. Two huge windows let in sliced rays of sunlight.
 

“Nick. Are you okay?” Olivia asked. Somehow, she had sat him down on the edge of the bed.
 

He shook his head. “I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting that many people at once.”
 

Nick kept his eyes on his hands. He realized now that Olivia had her fingers interlaced through his. He kept breathing.
 

She tightened her fingers around his as she bent down in front of the bed.
 

“You’re not okay. We can stay up here if you want.”
 

Her skin felt warm and soft. It was the first time he had held hands with a stranger. Nick wanted to let go, but every part of him held on.

He finally glanced up at her. “Call your dad. Tell him you’re safe.”
 

“What?”
 

“Let’s each do the thing we don’t want to. You can stay up here and make the call. I’ll be downstairs.”
 

Olivia pulled her hands back. She stood up and began to pace the length of the room.
 

“Why are you trying to tell me what to do?”
 

Nick waved his hands in the air. “I’m not. It was a suggestion.” He stood as well. “Thank you for whatever this was. It helped me clear my head.”
 

She stopped pacing. “Does your dad know I was lying too?”
 

He shrugged. “I’ll see you after the ceremony.”
 

Olivia nodded once. She began to dig through the carry-on over her shoulder. Nick walked out of the room, and without another thought, he dove straight into the mass of people. Mimi found him. She led him out toward the group that had gathered in front of the shore. Father Juan Carlos was in the very front, their dad next to him.
 

His dad gave a short speech about how much his wife had loved life and how the beach house had seen some of their loveliest memories.

"Esperanza used to tell me she felt the freest when she was here, letting the waves crash against her. She never wanted to be buried anywhere. My wife wanted to be free, even in her afterlife. And so today, I've come to grant her last wish."

Nick felt himself breaking away again. He couldn’t comprehend how the woman that had raised him for fourteen years, his beautiful mother, was just a box of ashes now. They weren’t even going to have those soon. After today, every little part of her would be gone.
 

Mimi was crying a few feet from him. Their father’s mom, Abuela, comforted her. No one approached Nick, though. His dad moved the group closer to the shore, and he gave the ornate gold box, carrying his wife’s ashes, to Father Juan Carlos.
 

The priest put a hand on his dad’s shoulder and received it. Nick turned away. The beach house was only a few yards away from shore. He could run. No one would notice.
 

Father Juan Carlos opened the lid. Nick closed his eyes. He took two steps back. Mimi caught him. Her little eyes widened and she tilted her head.
 

Nick took a deep breath. His chest was tightening.
Hold it in. Hold it in for Mimi.
 

He couldn’t.
 

He took another step back. Someone took his hand into their own, freezing him in place.
 

“I called my dad, so now it’s your turn to do the thing you least want to do.”
 

Olivia kept her hand in his, her grip unrelenting.
 

Nick looked up at her, her brown ponytail swung away with the wind. She gave him a smile, lighting up her face with serenity.
 

He held on to her hand, never easing his grip. The ceremony ended after another ten minutes. She didn’t let go of his hand. Even as a line of relatives gave him comforting words and life advice, Olivia held on.
 

For the next hour, the two of them moved as one unit. All Nick could feel was the softness of her palm against his. He’d stopped trying to make his breathing patterned or to pretend that this girl wasn’t completely fazing him.
 

At some point, he found that they had reached the entrance to the beach house. Olivia pulled the door open. He noticed she had left her carry-on behind the door, which she promptly picked up as they walked outside.

There was a black Honda parked near the entrance. A man with a face that resembled a thousand deaths beckoned Olivia forward. He had the same brown hair that she did and was just as long and lanky.

Nick’s hand felt empty. She’d let go.
 

“You don’t have to give me a ride. That’s my dad,” she said, using her chin to point to the man who was watching her.
 

Nick moved his fingers around, realizing now how little feeling he had left in them. He didn’t think their time would end this way or this soon.
 

“Thanks for, well for…”

She held her hand up. “No need. Thanks for the ride.”
 

The two of them stood in silence. Nick could feel Olivia’s dad still watching them.
 

“I know we don't really know each other, but I’m going to say this anyways. Happy Birthday, Olivia.”

Her eyes darted right up to him. She held his gaze, and a soft smile spread over her face.

It was the first time he noticed she wore braces on her top row of teeth. They made her look younger for some reason.
 

Her dad honked the horn.
 

Olivia leaned in toward Nick. She pressed her lips to his cheek just for a second, but it was enough to make him feel like every limb in his body was made of rubber. She pulled back.
 

“Thank you.”
 

He wasn’t sure how he was still standing. Or why it was so impactful that he’d wished her a happy birthday. All he’d done was read the sticker on her bag.
 

Without another word, she turned and made her way down the sandy driveway. Nick wanted to reach his hand out and ask her to come back. The spot on his cheek felt like it was ablaze. He watched her get into the car, her dad began to yell at her, and then they were gone.

Nick waited a few minutes before walking back inside the house. He dragged his feet up the stairs to the master room not knowing why. The moment his foot touched the wood, he felt an object strike the bottom of his shoe.
 

He bent down to inspect it. As he moved his foot away, a tiny metal palm tree became exposed. A single ray of the setting sun reflected off its metal edges.

Nick picked up the keychain, dangling it in front of him as he took a seat on the edge of the bed. Olivia must have dropped it. For a moment, he felt something he hadn’t let himself feel in months: hope.
 

He hoped he might see her again, just once, so he could return the palm tree to her. Just once, so he could thank her for holding his hand through the day. To see her one more time, it was all he needed.
 

Nick let himself hope.
 

5

March 19, 2005

His palms were drenched in sweat. Nick gulped down some of the complementary water on the table. He watched as Rita glided from one edge of the stage to other, ready to take her position behind the podium.

Her black hair was pulled down into a thin braid that curved down her back. It blended into the dark blazer of their school’s uniform.
 

“From San Mateo’s debate team we have Ms. Rita Patel,” the announcer said. He took a step back to let the other school’s representative come to the podium. They were each going to present their side of the argument.
 

Nick felt nausea building up in his stomach. He didn't know why'd he chosen the debate team as his extracurricular. His dad had eased him into it, with a talk about how proud he'd be if one of his children were up there.

He was part of the freshmen two-person team, alongside Rita. For the current competition, they were covering the debate of whether or not to let a new Melo's Coffee, one of the biggest coffee house franchises in the country, build a new location in Glensford.

Nick and Rita were on the opposing side. She was going to take the first half and he the second, along with the closing arguments.
 

The debate went off. Rita began a game of back and forth with the fair-haired girl from the other school. Each of her points was met with an equal rebuttal from her opponent. It was like a game of Ping-Pong, which Nick also happened to stink at.
 

He turned his head to the audience in the school’s theater. There were at least two hundred people, the largest crowd to date. San Mateo didn’t really take debates as seriously as Irvin Prep. It felt like one of the football games back at his school, only indoors and with older onlookers on the sidelines.
 

Nick sighed as he averted his eyes in another direction. He gulped down water until his glass was empty. Rita made it through the first part of the debate, flawlessly. Which only made him more anxious when it came time for him to take the spot behind the podium.

“You’ll do great,” Rita said as the two of them passed each other on the stage. She gave him an encouraging nudge with her arm, before returning to their table.
 

“Representing San Mateo we now have Mr. Nicolas Rivero.”
 

Nick walked across. He had a faded view of everyone in the audience. A stage light was already burning through his retinas. He pressed his hands together on the podium. A bead of sweat clumped at his neck.
 

The announcer introduced the student from Irvin. Then it was time to begin.
 

“For the next portion of our debate we will be letting the opponents ask each other one question. Irvin will begin.”
 

Nick’s heart began to race. They hadn’t practiced this. It was a first level debate. The freshmen were always given questions by the announcer, not allowed to ask them. His breathing hastened.
 

The boy from Irvin gave him a twitchy smirk. He leaned into the microphone.
 

“Glensford has recently had a boom in the tourism industry. You argue that an opening of a new Melo's Coffee would divert business away from local shops when, in fact, the location proposed would be in the heart of a local shopping district. Couldn't you argue that it would boost revenues for local businesses instead of making them decline?”

Nick used his fingernail to scratch off a piece of splintering wood from the podium. He didn’t look up. The boy was right but only to an extent. Local businesses that catered to tourists would thrive, but most of them were not competition for Melo’s. The local coffee houses and bakeries would be the ones to suffer.
 

“You make a valid point,” Nick said. He took a breath. Rita gave him a nod from across the stage. “But…”
 

Somewhere, someone in the audience coughed. Another man yawned. His hands began to shake. His head began to throb.
 

“The tourism industry in Glensford…” Nick felt the droplets of sweat gathering on his brow, “it’s boomed because of local businesses.” He swallowed.
 

His opponent was giving him a bored look. “How so?”
 

"Glensford used to be a factory town. Tourists come to see those old factories and shops, not a new national franchise." Nick felt like his throat was closing up.

“That’s an opinion, not a fact,” his opponent muttered.
 

The boy from Irvin went off on his own tangent about the economic benefits Melo's Coffee had brought to Glensford. He argued that it had started as a local business decades before, and therefore was not another national franchise. Nick lost count of the number of statistics the boy used after he ran out of trembling fingers on which to count.