Rocky Start...

I got out of the car first and rushed to embrace the young women who were closer to my heart than my very sisters. (Who I also had not seen in six years, but they too would have their embrace in a moment.) We performed our secret three way handshake and laughed that we still remembered it but in a split second of eye widening shock they became as stiff and cold to me as if carved from the stone of the Siera Madres. I followed their gaze to the car where Maya had just climbed out of the back seat and turned to speak to them stricken but they were already heading for the house! My Sisters Alice and Jackie looked at me like I was MUD and turned on heel; which my mom saw and raced after them shouting "Girls, wait!".

I couldn't follow immediately because some of my old friends from school were waiting to talk to me, the other boys I had played soccer with when I was young. (Before my dad's stupidity and arrogance tore the family apart.) After greeting each of them by name and forcing a laugh at a few jokes I convinced them all to help Maya and me with the luggage.

We had brought a lot of stuff, Mom's minivan was PACKED.

Most of it was all my trophies and awards from school in Mexico. Five time Guadaljara young men's division chess champion. 3 time captain of my high school swim team, during which I led them to the state championship twice. State youth MMA champion senior year. The "Young Poet to Watch" award from the Guadalajara Poetry Association. I could go on like that for another page, but suffice it to say my entry in the yearbook at my high school was unanimously voted to have the distinction of "Most Likely To Win An Award": more as a note of irony over already having so many than for any other reason. Mom had cleared out the garage for me to put the stuff in till I could get my own place, but it still had to be carried inside.

Though the federals were going over my father's finances with a fine toothed comb I had been assured by his personal attorney that I didn't have to worry about being penniless. Though the insurance policies would not pay out due to the fact that I both had killed him and was also the beneficiary; he had bank accounts in just about every tax haven on Earth with somewhere in excess of 20,000,000 pesos in each of them. I was now a rich man. (If there was anything left after the Federals sorted out the snarled web of lies and corruption that was his finances: his will also left all of THAT too me as well.) I hoped that I could at least keep our Hacienda in Guadalajara, it had been my home for six years after all. (On second thought, maybe not, I didn't fancy my father's vengeful ghost returning to haunt me every year on Día de Muertos.)

We got everything into the garage and went inside, where mom and the girls had laid out my homecoming dinner. They had made a respectable attempt at a Mexican homecoming feast, and I was touched at the effort. There were proper hand made Tortillas, (Trust me, you can tell the difference.) shredded beef, the kind of salsa that they make in Guadalajara, (not that cheep bottled crap you gringos seem to think we like) Steamed corn, sticky-sweet-rice: it was almost like being home for a few minutes. The one problem was Angelica and Ellie's naked hostility to Maya, which I understood but had no polite way of explaining with so many people present. When we were kids the three of us had been inseparable and best friends, but it seemed that while I was in Mexico the sociological landscape north of the border had shifted under my feet. I had gone from the missing amigo to 'the-one-that-got-away'...

If they had just been looking at ME instead of what they supposed was their rival for my affections they would have realized that Maya and I were what the three of us used to be. We were friends to **** and beyond, but nothing more. Instead they were busy glaring daggers at someone who had done nothing to earn it...

By the third course I'd had enough. I suddenly pushed my chair back and stood picking up the big glass of orange juice I had been drinking and tapped my fork on it, making it ring.

"To friends, old and new," I said, "may they all soon find that by having one good freind in common they too can become friends."

For a half second there was silence, then Mark Von Wai, one of my old soccer buddies said "Cheers!" at which everyone began to clink cups and drink. I Caught Angelica's eyes looking at me confused and I mouthed 'Talk?' To which she nodded and tapped Ellie on the shoulder. Ellie turned and Angelica whispered in her ear, at which she looked over at me and nodded. The meal was fortunately only three courses long, so as things broke up the three of us headed for the back yard to hash things out...