It was one of those years that nothing was going right for me. My boyfriend, Travis left me for his sexy co-worker, my grandfather had died and my brother was given a three year prison sentence that past March. I sighed as I thought about what a mess my mother was and how I was going to make this Christmas work for her with no one else to help me out. I walked through my apartment to take one last look to make sure that I didn’t leave anything behind. Ordinarily I would have been fine with leaving him, or rather him leaving me, but after my grandfather died I offered to pay the entire funeral and burial costs, wiping out my entire savings, unaware that I would be laid off a month later.
I shook my head as I stared at the room. I wished that my grandfather would have decided to get life insurance. What was I talking about? I wished that he would have never died. My mother was devastated that she didn’t have my brother or my grandfather to spend Christmas with. To make matters worse, her twenty seven year old, childless daughter was moving back in with her. I didn’t want to move back to Chicago. I had grown accustomed to suburban life. I walked out of the apartment and slammed the door. I pulled my curly black hair into a ponytail and walked down the long hallway to the stairway, turning to take one last look at the door of the apartment. I quickly walked back to it and snatched the wreath off the front of the door. There was no way in hell that I was going to let Travis and his new girlfriend enjoy my handmade goods! I walked quickly back down the hallway, nearly bumping into my elderly neighbor in my fit of rage.
“Are you and Travis getting ready for the holidays?” My neighbor asked, glancing at the wreath in my hand while smiling intently.
Oh, how I wanted to strangle her. Why wasn’t she living in a nursing home? Her kids never came to visit her here, what was the purpose of her living in our expensive apartment complex? So that she could walk around and question the young people about their lives? I smiled at her, kicking myself mentally for having such horrid thoughts to such a sweet old woman.
“Mrs. Frederick.” I replied through gritted teeth. “Travis and I aren’t going to spend the holidays together this year.”
“Is he leaving for another business trip?” She asked, her head bobbing as she spoke.
I smiled at her and shook my head.
“Oh Mrs. Frederick.” I said sweetly. “It turns out he was never going on business trips.”
I regretted my words as I spoke them, but I had to tell someone.
“He had another girlfriend, so I decided to leave him.” I continued, trying not to look her directly in the eye. “Actually he left me and then told me I had a week to get out of his place, because he and his new girlfriend are moving in.”
Mrs. Frederick’s eyes widened. “Not that cute blonde girl he brought up here for Thanksgiving?”
I exhaled as I stared at her, and then marched down the hallway, practically flying down the stairs. I hadn’t known at Thanksgiving that he was cheating on me, but apparently everyone else in my building had. I knew how the old ladies talked about us while they played Bunco on Thursday nights. I had even joined in with them one day while Travis was in France. That past Thanksgiving I remembered going over to my mom’s house while he stayed at home. He didn’t want to go into the city because it was snowing heavily. He even told me that I should stay the night in order to be safe. Gosh, how stupid was I? I shook my head as I walked out of the building and to my car, feeling the cold air sting my face. I got in and started the car up, shivering as I waited for it to warm up. I glanced back at my boxes of things and started sobbing.
Travis and I had been together for eight years. We met in college. Everything we wanted in life was the same. We didn’t want to have kids until we were in our early thirties, our focus was on our careers and we both wanted to raise our families in the suburbs. We were almost there. This was actually one of the excuses that he gave me when he left me on December second, he said that he wanted something different. Of course he did, I thought to myself. Now that he was a successful businessman, he needed the blonde trophy wife to complete his dream. Susan was a materialistic, good for nothing tramp! I grit my teeth as I put my car into drive and began my journey to my mother’s house.
After driving for nearly two hours the snow began to fall harder. I let out a long sad sigh. I knew I would never find parking. Traffic was heavy, even though it was seven o’clock at night on a Friday. I knew I should have left earlier, but I was hoping that Travis would come back home and say goodbye to me. I was hoping that he would have changed his mind and begged me to stay. I felt like crashing into the car in front of me as I thought about him. I didn’t have anything to live for. No job, no money, and I had wasted the last eight years of my life on him. I sighed to myself and took out my cell phone, quickly dialing my mother’s number.
“Bendicion.” I said when my mother answered, looking for the button on the phone to put her on speaker.
My mother was talking but I couldn’t hear her as I pressed the button again and again. Was it frozen? I wondered.
“Listen Mommy.” I said, putting the phone to my ear. “Is there any parking by you?”
“Let me check.”
Just then I saw blue lights in my rearview mirror.
“Mommy, Mommy!” I exclaimed. “I’ll call you back.”
My heart beat heavily within my chest as I pulled to the side of the road and looked for my driver’s license, the police officer stopping behind me. I found my insurance card but no license as I looked through every compartment in the front of my car.
“Crap.” I said under my breath.
I knew that I had left the license in my purse, buried under all of the boxes in the backseat.
As the officer approached the car, I thought over what I was going to say. I didn’t even look at the officer as I rolled down the window.
“Look I was going to get my license plate sticker next month.” I blurted out. “I have a job interview on Monday and I’m praying that I get the job... lately nothing is going right for me... and I know my taillight is not helping the situation, but look at my gas tank, I barely have enough gas to get to my mother’s house.”
The officer stared at me, holding his ticket book in hand, with his pen frozen in midair.
“Man, that was a lot of talking to do all in one breath, wasn’t it?” The officer replied.
I stared at him, a blank expression on my face. He didn’t crack a smile.
“Listen, the reason that I pulled you over is that you were using your cellphone while driving, although it is helpful to know that you have some other things going on with your car.”
I let out a deep breath, I had really done myself in. I handed him my insurance card.
“Where’s your license?” Asked the officer.
I nervously smiled at him.
“Back there in my purse.” I said motioning to the back of the car.
The officer raised his eyebrows at me.
“Here, excuse me.” I said, slowly opening the car door.
The officer stepped back with a dumfounded look on his face.
“Sweetie, you can’t do that.” The officer said. “You can’t get out of the car when an officer pulls you over.”
“Wait, I’m just going to get my license.” I said as I opened back door.
The door suddenly closed and I looked up at the top corner of the car door where the officer’s gloved hand pressed against the closed door.
“Listen.” The officer said. “This insurance card says Travis Williamson. You do not look like a Travis to me.”
I sighed.
“We just broke up.” I replied. “I’m on the insurance also, my name just isn’t on the card.”
The officer didn’t appear to be sympathetic as he stared at me.
“God, why does this have to happen to me?” I cried out to the sky glancing at the police officer. “Are you going to arrest me?”
“No, but can you come sit in my car, while I call your information in?” He asked.
I nodded hesitantly and followed him to his car through the heavy snow, feeling thoroughly embarrassed as people passing in cars watched us. I felt my face blush as he opened the back door for me and closed it, locking me in.
“I feel like a criminal, you know.” I said, leaning forward on the cold plastic seat.
“What is your name?” The officer replied, smirking as he prepared to type my information into his computer.
“Yasmin,” I replied coldly.
The officer rolled his eyes as he looked back at me.
“Full name please.” He replied just as coldly.
I felt my cheeks heat up as I studied his eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Yasmin Vasquez.” I replied, watching him as he typed my information into his computer.
“Date of birth, December first 1987.” I said before he could ask me
He narrowed his eyes looking over his shoulder at me. He stared at me for a moment before turning back to his computer. With the final press of a button, my image came up on the screen.
“Is that you?” He asked.
I looked hideous. I didn’t know the Department of Motor Vehicles was taking my picture that day.
“I meant to retake that picture.” I grumbled.
The officer laughed out loud and I trembled as his laughter had taken me off guard.
“Hey are you by chance Xavier Vasquez’s little sister?” He asked.
I blushed, nodding my head slowly.
“Yes, that’s my brother.” I said reluctantly, not knowing how to proceed, based on the fact that my brother was incarcerated.
“I know Xavier,” The officer said. “We went to school together. It’s a shame that he got locked up.”
I felt my ears burning even hotter, certain they must be shooting flames by now.
“Can I go now?” I asked.
The officer narrowed his lips as he looked back at me.
“Look, I didn’t mean it like that.” The officer replied. “Xavier is a good guy. He just made some bad decisions.”
I nodded. It was apparent that both he and I knew what those bad decisions were.
“Listen, this isn’t something I want to talk about with someone that I don’t even know.” I said, folding my arms across my chest.
“You’re right.” The officer said. “I apologize.”
I pressed my lips together without saying a word.
“Do you want to go out sometime and maybe get to know each other?” The officer asked.
“You have a wedding ring on.” I replied. “I can’t help not noticing.”
The officer looked down at his hand and slowly reached into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet and opened it to a picture of him and his wife on their wedding day.
“This is me and Maggie, my wife.” He said holding it up against the wire-fenced window.
I smirked as I stared at him. He turned the page of pictures in his wallet and held it up for me to see it.
“This is her now.” He said as he held up a picture of a tombstone with the name Maggie Reyes-Colon written across it.
I sucked all my breath in, feeling as if my heart might collapse.
“I’ve had a rough year as well.” He said slowly. “She died right around this time of the year.”
He looked back at me.
“I’m sorry.” I replied softly.
I paused for a moment as I stared into his eyes. There was something about him that was different about him.
“How did she die?” I asked hesitantly.
“Cancer.” He replied, his voice trembling as he spoke. “The doctors were never able to get her into remission.”
Both of us sat quietly in the car for a while, not knowing what to say. His radio went off and he responded to the call. He very quietly got out of the car and opened the door for me to get out and I walked through the snow back to my car without knowing what to do. I turned back and watched as he did a U-turn and drove off before climbing back into my own car. My wheels spun in the snow as I drove off.