Izquierda Hacia Fuera

(Left Out)

Katrina sat opened the red envelope as soon as she sat down on the couch. She read it aloud for Fernando to hear. Fernando listened quietly as her voice filled the room. After she read the letter, she brought it down on the table and smiled.

“He did it anyway,” she said. “He wrote her a letter.”

“How come?” Fernando asked her.

“I told him to when I sent him the pictures of the party last night. He really did it.” she rested her head on the backrest of the couch.

“Woah, that was fast. How did he write it and send it in less than 10 hours?” Fernando asked, sipping coffee from his cup.

“I don’t know. Magic, maybe.” She said and smiled. She was amazed at how he did it. But she was a little disappointed that it produced some bad effects on her children. She thought Eva would be happy.

“You know what, I think it’s time to repeat the past.” Fernando spoke so suddenly that Katrina’s heart jumped.

“Huh? The past? What do you mean?” she asked him.

“I think it’s time for a field trip.” He said to her and that made her smile.

“I know what you mean.” She said.

*        *        *

“Really? He said that?” Reynaldo said after hearing from Olivia what the letter from their real father said. They all sat on the floor of Olivia’s room, except for Eva, who was leaning on the wall.

“Come to think of it, he still cares for us.” Rubi said.

“Can we stop talking about that letter?” Eva asked. She sat in front of Olivia and took her hand.

“I’m sorry for what happened awhile ago. I didn’t mean for you to feel bad.”

“That’s okay. After all, you’re my twin.” Olivia gave her twin sister a hug.

Rubi smiled at the scene. Her hand felt something feathery and that was then she realized she was carrying Olivia’s gift from their father.

“I forgot to give this to you, Liv.” Rubi held out the dream catcher to her. Olivia looked at it.

“Hey, this is nice! I think I will hang this in my closet door.” She then stood up and went to her walk-in closet door and hanged the dream catcher on a nail on it. “it looks beautiful.”

“I think I’ll do that too. Only, I’ll hang it on my window.” Reynaldo said.

The four of them stopped when they heard three soft knocks on the door. Rubi volunteered to open it and the door revealed their father in a very happy expression.

“Field trip, anyone?” he asked, spreading his hands open.

“Yeah! We haven’t done that in two years!” Reynaldo exclaimed.

“Actually, it was two and a half, but… I’m in!” Eva said. Then a series of Me too’s followed.

Within 30 minutes, all of them were ready to go. They assembled at the grand front doors and waited for their mother. Their father told them about new things in the village and the four of them seemed interested.

“The café was renovated already to make it bigger. They now have new flavors of ice cream such as green apple, peanut butter, blueberry, and more. There are more shops and boutiques which you girls would like. Well, of course, there are shops for you, too, Reynaldo.”

After a while, their mother came, together with Margarita, their helper. Katrina was telling Margarita to walk faster when Ellis came floating and was shouting.

“Please, please, please, let me go with you.” The robot pleaded.

“Ellis, I would love to have you with us but there will be no one to guard the castle. I’m relying on you.” Katrina told the robot.

Olivia whispered something to Reynaldo and he approached their mother. He told her that he had the Castle Intruder Prevention and Elimination System activated all throughout the castle and the gates surrounding it. Also, Olivia changed her soldier-bot’s program to intruder elimination, so she need not worry about the castle’s safety.

It seems that their mother was convinced. So, they, Olivia, Eva, Reynaldo, Rubi, Katrina, Fernando, Margarita and Ellis, went to Fernando’s truck.

“I don’t feel like driving today, kids. Your father, here volunteered to drive.” Katrina said as the children plus Margarita and Ellis climbed the back of the truck. Katrina got in the passenger seat and within seconds, they were driving to the village.

They drove along the path that led to the castle grounds’ gate, passing the round cypresses at the side. When they reached the gate, it opened automatically and closed when they passed it. Reynaldo pressed something on a little remote he was carrying and they heard the clinking of the gate. They drove through a cemented road that was lined with trees at the side. They went down a steep slope and saw the houses of the village getting nearer. They passed barns and farms until they finally entered the considered “gate” of the village. Two stalls were standing at either side of the way and out of the window of the left stall peered out the head of an old man in his sixties who smiled at the driver of the truck.

“Back too soon, Fernando? And with company!” the old man exclaimed. “How do you do, ma’am Doloresa?”

“Never felt better, sir. Thank you!” Katrina replied.

Then the truck went on. They saw that nothing much has really changed in the village, except for what their father told about them awhile ago. More stores lined the streets now, and there were more people. The truck turned a curve the view ahead showed the yellow concrete roof of a wide two-storey building. At the top of the roof were the words (cold café) in red paint.  Fernando parked the truck in front of the café beside other cars. When the engine died down, the people in the truck went down and looked at the new façade of the café.

“It looks better now in yellow.” Rubi commented.

“No, it doesn’t. It looked better in blue.” Reynaldo disagreed.

All of them entered the café and at once, all eyes turned to them. Friends of Fernando greeted him in Spanish. Others smiled then whispered to his or her companions. A man approached them and smiled at Katrina.

“Long time no see, Katrina. How are you?”

The man was tall and a little healthy. He had a messy hair and a cheerful expression on his face. He reminded Katrina very well of Santa Claus.

“H-hi, Ildefonso! Yes, it’s been a while.” Katrina replied. They shook hands firmly and smiled at each other.

Ildefonso was a very rich person of another city in Spain. No one knows why he moved to this village when according to Ildefonso himself, he had a mansion in the city that he left and owned acres of land. He tells the people that he liked the ambience of the village better than his own mansion. The people of the village thought he was a convict. Katrina thought he was crazy.

“Hi, sir Ildefonso!” Olivia greeted him.

“Oh, Olivia! You’re here! I missed you! How’s your programming skills?”

“Um, no new robots lately. But I programmed our home’s security system.” She said proudly.

“The twins turned 18 yesterday. It’s sad you didn’t come. Olivia wanted you to be there.” Katrina told them.

“Yes, I’m very sorry, Olivia. I had a very important business to attend to. But, I will make up for it. I’ll treat you to ice cream!”

Katrina froze. What? Him? Treat us to ice cream? No way! Katrina put on a very sweet smile and said “Um, Ildefonso, if you don’t mind, our family wants to spend this special time together, so, I would have to say no to your offer.”

“Oh? Well, that’s too bad. Maybe next time, then.” He said.

“Yeah. Maybe next time.”

“Well,” Ildefonso said, putting his palms together. “How about if I treat you to bumper cars?”

*        *        *

Katrina watched her children eat. She couldn’t believe the fact that they haven’t visited the village for more than two years. It was really obvious that they missed it. I haven’ t seen them smile like this for a very long time now, she thought. Olivia and Eva’s happiness was different from last night when they were celebrating with their classmates and friends. Katrina thought about some of their friends in the village. Are they still here? She also missed her own friends. Why didn’t they all come to last night’s party? I invited half of the village!

“Katrina, you’re not touching your ice cream.” Fernando said to her beside her.

“Oh, I was just thinking of something.” She replied, gently scooping an amount of ice cream into her mouth.

Ellis was floating behind one edge of the table. She was humming something to herself since she wasn’t eating. “What do you people think about the ‘bumper cars’ idea?” she said, suddenly stopping her humming.

“Mom, Ildefonso is a great man. You shouldn’t think bad about him.” Olivia said.

“I never said anything bad about him and I never said that I hate him,” her mother replied. “What made you blurt that out?”

“You didn’t say it, Ma, but I can see it in your eyes and face.” Olivia looked at her mother seriously. “You don’t like him. You don’t even like the idea of the bumper cars. You even turned down his offer of ice cream!”

Eva held her arm and whispered to her “calm down, Liv. There’s no use to get angry.”

“I don’t know with you, but I’m continuing my friendship with him. You just don’t know him like I do! I’m going with him to the bumper cars!”

A short silence followed these words. Katrina sighed. Eva held her twin’s hand. Ellis stopped humming. Reynaldo started to say a word but Fernando talked first.

“Liv, if you want to go with him, there’s no problem with that. We would just go to the shops without you. That is, if anyone else wants to go with Olivia to the bumper cars?” Fernando asked them. When no one replied, Fernando continued on.

“No one? So all of us will go and do some shopping except for Olivia.” Fernando said, then continued eating his ice cream.

“Fine!” Olivia got up and walked away from their table. Her family watched her as she opened the café doors and walked out.

“I can’ t believe her!” Reynaldo muttered.

Katrina felt her blood boil. Everything was fine until that Ildefonso came up. She sighed and dug into her bowl of ice cream.