Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban - Two Moon Princess

I laughed. “ Querido Tío , dear Uncle, as you must be the first to know, Mother has tried to teach me many things over the years without much success. But English, I assure you, was not one of them.”

Tío smiled. “All right. I believe you.” He stopped, and pointing to a big building looming four stories tall in front of us, he added, “Here we are. This is where Kelsey lives.”

Kelsey’s house was big—much bigger than my uncle’s. When I asked him whether my cousin lived there all by herself, Tío laughed. “No, of course not. Kelsey lives in one of the rooms. You’ll see. Now remember your story. You grew up in Spain where your mother is a doctor. You’ve come to live in the States for a month to practice your English. And do not forget, please, that you’re seventeen years old.”

“Yes, I know. I am seventeen because the months in your world are shorter—five or six days shorter than in ours. That means our year has fourteen of your months.”

Tío nodded. “You’ll do fine,” he said and, holding the glass door open, motioned me forward. We walked down a long hall flanked by many doors and up two flights of stairs onto another floor that was an exact replica of the one below. There he turned right and knocked on the second door to the left.

After a short wait, the door opened, and the girl I had seen at the beach appeared in the doorway. She was still angry—I could tell by the way her pale blue eyes were flashing, eyes the exact same color as my sister Rosa’s.

“Kelsey, this is your cousin Andrea,” my uncle said.

I extended my hand, as Tío had instructed me to do. Kelsey did not take it, but stared at me with contempt. I returned her stare without blinking. I had not come this far to be intimidated by a girl my own age. Finally Kelsey looked away. “Hi,” she said and, turning her back on us, moved inside.

I looked at my uncle. What kind of welcome was this? But Tío only shrugged his shoulders and signaled me to follow.

“Kelsey,” my uncle said once the door had closed behind us, “as I told you on the phone,Andrea will be staying at the dorms for the next month. I’ll bring her bags to her room while you get acquainted. Then I have to go. I would appreciate it if you would show her around the campus today.”

From the bed where she was sitting, the girl stared at us, her lips set in a thin line, and gave no answer. Tío Ramiro did not seem to have expected one, because with a nod in my direction, he started back to the door. Before I could say anything, he was gone.

As soon as Tío left, Kelsey stretched her long legs over the side of the bed and came over.

“Well, Andrea. It seems that we’re stuck with each other, so I guess it would be better if we try to make it work.” I nodded. “I don’t know why Dad never mentioned you or your family before,” she continued, “ and I couldn’t care less. I do think it was really rude of him not to tell me you were in the house when we arrived last Friday. But since I guess it was not your idea, I’m willing to give you a chance.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem. Now about the baby-sitting part. I have plans for today, and I’m not going to change them for you. You can come with me or be a good girl and visit the campus on your own.”

It was not a difficult decision. After Tío Ramiro came back with the key to my own room and we were sure he was gone, we left the dorms and walked across campus to the building with the word “gymnasium” written over the door. I followed Kelsey inside, keeping my questions to myself so I wouldn’t show my ignorance.

Soon after we had taken our seats high on the stairs that surrounded the central area, the game started. I watched as ten boys threw a ball to each other and, from time to time, into a hanging basket. I was starting to recognize the pattern of the game, when one of the players was replaced. I looked at the new player, and my heart started beating one hundred times faster. The boy was tall and lean with short brown hair, and his eyes were brown. I knew they were light brown, although I was too far to see them now. I knew that because he was the boy who had smiled at me the previous evening at the beach. The boy they had called John.

I remembered the blow of the ball to my back and the boy’s warm hand on mine, and the court became a blur. From then on, the game was not about following a ball anymore, but about following John. Although I clapped and screamed from time to time so Kelsey would not realize I had no clue of what was going on, I saw only John.

When the game was over, we waited outside the gym, talking with other girls until the players came through the back door of the building. I couldn’t tear my eyes from John. He was tall with the sinewy build of a warrior. I had already learned by then that most men in his world did not grow beards, but I still found his short hair and shaved face utterly fascinating.

With long strides, John came toward us, talking with another boy. His eyes were pale brown, as I remembered them, the color of the honey I used to steal from honeycombs back in my world to please my mother.

“Andrea! Hello!” Kelsey was shaking my arm. “Meet Richard and John.”

Instinctively I started a curtsy, but just as I bent, the other boy, Richard, took my hand and shook it firmly. “Hi,” he said. Without waiting for my answer, he moved toward Kelsey and kissed her. I was still staring at them, shocked by their public display of affection, when a deep voice spoke by my side.

“Hi, Andrea. Nice to meet you.”

I looked back at him and my mind froze. John was smiling at me with the same friendly smile I remembered from the first time I had seen him at the beach.

“Nice to meet you, too,” I mumbled, trying to keep my knees from shaking.

“Come on, you two. We are going to Al’s,” Kelsey called. Holding Richard’s hand, she walked away.

“So what’s your story?” John asked as we followed them.

“My story?”

“I mean, where are you from?”

“I . . . I’m from Spain.”

“Oh really?” John seemed pleased. “My grandparents came from Spain, too.”

“What do you study?” I asked hastily. I did not want him to start asking me questions about my supposed country. Questions, I was certain, I would not know how to answer.

“Archaeology,” he said. “And you?”

“English,” I told him, dutifully following Tio’s instructions. “I want to be an English teacher when I go back to Spain.”

John nodded, praised my English, and gave me a funny overview of what to expect in the following weeks and how to survive college life. Soon we reached the open patio where Kelsey and Richard were already waiting.

Soon the rest of the team joined us, and we all sat around a big table. Interrupting each other’s sentences, they discussed the game they had just won and the strategy for the next one while we shared some food called “nachos” and cold bubbly drinks.

By the time I said goodbye to Kelsey at the door of my room, we were already friends, and I was absolutely crazy about John. Of course, I knew only too well that John was not from my world and that my days in his world were numbered, but that could not stop me from dreaming.

Through the open window, the pale white moon of the new world was staring at me. Resting my elbows on the windowsill, I leaned forward, and as I watched it glowing majestically in the evening sky, a peaceful feeling overcame me. A feeling of belonging, as if I had finally found my place, the place I had been hunting for since before I was born.

The full moon was already waning, following the inexorable cycle of death and rebirth that would mark the end of my stay. Still, painfully beautiful, it smiled at me with its halfhidden face. Lost in its magic, I smiled back.