"What?" She felt herself blushing. "What does he care?" And why does he want to know? Sudden fear tightened around her throat. My God, what's he planning to do?
"He says it's important. Are you a virgin?"
Kayla bit her lip, looking down at her bare feet, and decided that maybe truth was the best answer right now. I hope. "Well . . . yes."
Carlos said something in Spanish to Ramon, who stood up and replied angrily in the same language. For a moment, Kayla thought Ramon was about to punch Carlos. Then he sat back down again, his hands clenched into fists.
Carlos gave Kayla a stern look. "Listen to me, girl," he said in tones like ice. "I was talking with my grandmother. She said that in the legends, sex and magic are very closely linked. If you really are a virgin, we're going to make sure that you stay that way. I will make sure there are always two people with you, to protect you and your . . ."
Carlos looked away briefly, and Kayla thought she saw him flush slightly with embarrassment. "Jose is married, he would be good for this," Carlos continued, picking up the telephone receiver. He dialed the phone and spoke into it in Spanish. Every few seconds, his eyes flickered to Ramon, who was now seated stiffly on the couch, as far away from Kayla as he could be.
Damn, Kayla thought. Damn, damn, damn . . .
That evening, Kayla sat at the edge of a circle of chattering women in the living room of Roberta's apartment, feeling about as miserable as she could. No one seemed to speak anything but Spanish, and while she was learning to pick out a few words here and there, she didn't understand most of what was being said. She knew they were talking about one of the women's little baby, though, just by the way everyone kept pointing and gesturing at the kid. The baby was cute, a little round-faced kid with tufts of black hair who made all these funny cooing and giggling noises. She would've enjoyed playing with the kid, but the women had given her cold looks when she tried to get closer to the baby.
Ramon had left the apartment, a few minutes after that awful scene with Carlos. Carlos had waited until Jose and another equally silent young man had shown up, then left as well. Jose and the other guy had sat around reading the newspaper and talking between themselves in Spanish, while Kayla sat in the bedroom, slowly going stir-crazy. Then Roberta and all of these women had shown up, filling the apartment with loud conversation and the smell of spicy hot chocolate. At least that had been good . . . thinking about it, Kayla went to the kitchen to refill her mug with the rich chocolate drink. And Jose had left after a few minutes, probably figuring that Kayla would be safe, surrounded by all of those older women and one sullen-faced young man sitting near the front door.
In the kitchen, Roberta and another girl were talking in Spanish. Kayla slipped past them to ladle more chocolate into her mug. As she left the kitchen, she saw Roberta say something to the other girl, who laughed.
The hell with you, Kayla thought. She sat down in her chair and leaned against the window, looking out. She could see the mountains in the distance, dusted with a light cap of snow. In the street below, some kids were playing with a football, tossing it back and forth.
"Kayla?"
She looked up as Roberta sat down next to her. "What do you want?" she asked.
"I wanted to give these back to you." Her hand closed over Kayla's, dropping something into her palm. Kayla looked down to see her silver earrings lying in her hand. "I'm sorry I was so angry. I thought you were Carlos' new girl, and I was very jealous. He explained everything to me, and I wanted to say something to you, but then you were so sick . . ."
"Th-thanks." Kayla's fingers reached up to unfasten the safety pins in her ears and replaced them with the silver rings. "Thanks a lot."
"Why are you sitting here by yourself<W1%30><|><D%0>?" Roberta asked. "Don't you want to talk with anyone?"
Kayla shrugged. "I can't speak Spanish."
A quick smile brightened Roberta's face, and for the first time, Kayla understood why Carlos might find this girl attractive. "And they don't speak any English. Well, there's someone here that doesn't speak any language yet at all. . . ." She gestured for one of the women to give her the baby, which she placed in Kayla's arms. "Do you like babies? I saw you looking at her earlier. Her name is Juanita, and she's two months old."
Kayla gingerly held the baby in her arms. Juanita giggled and drooled on Kayla's shirt. "She's really cute," Kayla said, looking into the baby's large brown eyes. Those eyes looked back at her very solemnly, then her mouth curved into a big, toothless grin.
"She likes you," Roberta said, smiling.