#dulcita

Mama (3)

Estrella was going to go to bed after her phone call with her daughter, but her thoughts were too loud. So she tried to distract herself with another chapter of her book instead.

Dulcita fired off a battery of explicatives in solidarity – a thing she does when she senses Estrella is stressed ( likely mimicking things she’s heard her Mama say herself on certain occasions).

“ You tell ‘em, my sweet. “ Estrella said.

After turning over all the different reasons in her mind, Estrella could only arrive at one. She hopes it’s not that.

It better not be that.

Old-fashioned or not, Estella has no tolerance for people who have no respect for love.

She herself was raised by two incredible women who stayed together till their dying day; which just so happened to be the same day. Estrella believes with her whole heart that’s because neither wanted to live without the other. 

And soon her daughter is going to walk into a whole other world alone, facing judgment and possible rejection?

Not while she’s breathing.

The next morning, Estrella woke up early and made a list.

She’ll need a few things for the upcoming week.

She had a little talk with Dulcita about things and she agrees. Guess that settles it.

Unpacking (1)

Estrella’s been relaxing and decompressing since her spontaneous vacation. She and Mrs. Adeema I’ve been talking regularly; gossiping and talking about their girls.

It’s been a bit of a relief to see her let down her guard a bit, if she’s being honest.

Traveling was fun; she might not want to do it as much as her daughter does, but maybe it’s something she might wanna do a little more.

Over at the Duprees, Blair’s been existing on microwave snacks and scurrying back to his room so he can miss as much of his parents reunion as possible.

He’s been wearing his headphones a lot more lately too.

He’s used to the drill – so long as they don’t bring any more babies in this house he doesn’t mind.

He can relax – as far as they’re concerned, one is enough. In fact, they are counting the days until he graduates so they have the house all to themselves.

( They love their son - they just wanna walk around in their underwear whenever they want )

Mama (1)

The bags are packed, because Ifeoma doesn’t believe in waiting till the last minute.

Still, her mind is occupied elsewhere. Soon she’ll have to put on her big girl pants and look her mother and sister in the face.

Perhaps it was the grinding of the stationary bike for the last hour, or Marisol’s own concerns, but she decided to make a call. Simply put, she needed the support.

And, as usual, she picked up before the second ring even finished.

No big surprise – Marisol and her mother talk almost every day; and her mother knows her daughter well enough to know when something is wrong, even when she doesn’t say it outright.

Estrella Nunes had a thriving career as a recording artist until she got pregnant by her bandleader - she was replaced immediately ( though he claimed he tried to stop it ), and found herself rebuilding her life.

As for the bandleader? To absolutely no ones surprise, he married the new singer before baby Marisol had even drew her first breath.

Estrella was able to take care of them by writing songs for other artists, as well as collaborating on other albums. She’s highly respected and is still tapped frequently to write music for the younger generation.

She had the opportunity to move to Del Sol Valley so she could be at the pulse of the music world, but she and her bird Dulcita declined to stay in their little villa and be closer to her daughter.

Surprisingly, Estrella was never bitter about changing the direction of her career for motherhood. To her, her daughter was a gift, even if she was young and stupid by believing a serial philanderer who used his singers as his personal casting couch.

If she got Marisol, she got the better end of the deal.

-Panquecito.

-Dulcita.