Golden Secrets

The sisters spent the rest of the day together. Alicia tried to give Clara extra attention. She brushed out her hair and complimented her on the clothes she picked out to wear. It was near sunset when Clara pulled herself together enough to get dressed. They fixed omelets with green chilies for a simple dinner.

“I think we are old enough to help ourselves to Papa’s brandy, don’t you?” Clara’s suggestion shocked Alicia, but she was going along with whatever her sister proposed.

“Here’s to the Ortega sisters who saved the rancho!” They toasted one another. What a bitter taste. That brandy was worse than medicine. Alicia let it dribble out of her mouth onto a napkin.

“Papa runs this place, sure.” Clara waved her arms as she spoke. “But why do we need a man?” They laughed even though they were uncertain of the future.

“What do you think will happen when Mama brings home Dolores’s baby?”

“Shhh, don’t say that!” Clara slurred her words. “Remember, it’s Mama’s baby. Papa said so, Padre Romo agrees, and we better go along.”

“I’ve never been around a baby. How was it when I was little?”

“We were just a few years apart,” Clara wagged her finger in the air. “But Mama and Papa were younger in those days.”

“I know nothing about babies, do you?” Alicia capped the brandy and put it back in the cupboard.

“Nina will do all that work. We won’t be expected to do that sort of thing.” Clara finished her omelet and searched for any remaining strawberries.

“I guess you are right. Women have help with their babies all the time, right?” Eventually Alicia would share the news about Nina leaving for Monterey. But not tonight, when she and Clara could laugh together and be sisters.

Alicia did not want to face the next morning. She stayed curled up close to the fireplace, clutching Mama’s shawl until she heard others waking in the house. It would be a day of goodbyes. Farewell to Tío Salvador who returned to Monterey, adiós to Nina who followed the path of the trapper, and goodbye to Nina’s brothers, Pedro and Flaco, sentenced to hard labor in Monterey.