“What baby?”
“My neighbor at the end of the street.” Coral rinsed off the cutting board and handed it to Althea. “She has a little girl. Learning to walk. Keisha ran out and met her today.”
“That’s great, Keisha.”
“I asked her if I could babysit.”
“You’re too young to babysit.”
“That’s what she said. But she said I could play with her.”
Althea turned to Coral. “Keisha’s planning on you having a daughter.”
“Well, that might be a bit complicated.”
“Are you still dating that guy? From Japan?”
“Sort of. He’s only here a week or so a month.”
“Well, do you know what he’s doing those other three weeks?”
“You mean, do I think he has a wife and kids in Japan?” Rising on her tiptoes, Coral pulled down the cow pitcher that Keisha liked to use as a glass for milk. “No, I don’t. But he might date someone there. He said he wasn’t dating anyone in particular. I haven’t told him I wouldn’t go on other dates.”
“And do you?”
Coral shook her head. “Now you sound like Mama. No, I’m not dating anyone else. I like Koji.”
“Okay. Just be careful. This is Vegas. A lot of guys come here once a month.”
“I don’t think it’s like that.”
“And a lot of time can go by.”
“Now you really sound like Mama.”
Althea laughed and wrapped her arm around Coral’s shoulders. Keisha was there, so they didn’t talk about it anymore. Coral knew why her sister was concerned. You didn’t grow up in Vegas without knowing the possibilities. Still, Koji was important to her.
The day after Keisha had gone out to play with Malaya, there was a knock at the door.
It was Honorata.
“Hi. Do you want to come in?”
“I was wondering if you could help me?”
“Sure. Is something wrong? Is your daughter okay?”
“Oh yes. Thank you. She’s with my mother.”
Honorata didn’t seem to want to come in, so Coral stepped outside and sat on one of the chairs at the front door. Honorata took the other. She was nervous.
“Would you like a cup of coffee? I have some ready.”
“No. I just have a question. I want to change my daughter’s name. And I want to get a trust. I thought you could help.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“I think you have to go to a lawyer.”
“Yes. You grew up here. Do you know a lawyer?”
“Umm. Well, sure. A friend of mine’s a lawyer. He grew up here too. He probably does this sort of thing.”
“What’s his name?”
“He might be expensive. He works for a pretty big firm.”
“That’s good.”
Coral assumed that she meant the big firm.
“His name’s Darryl Marietti. And he works at Lionel Sawyer. I can contact him and tell him you’ll be calling.”
“Thank you.”
“Sure. I’ll do it today.” After a bit, Coral asked, “What are you naming your daughter?”
“Naming her? Oh. No, I keep her name. I’m changing her last name to Begtang. Mine’s Navarro.”
It didn’t seem right to pry, but Coral wondered if her neighbor would say why she was changing her daughter’s name. She didn’t.
“Keisha was thrilled to play with Malaya yesterday. She’s getting so big.”
Honorata smiled. “Yes. She’s almost walking. Eleven months.”
“That sounds early.”
“The doctor says she’s very bright.”
“Well, that’s great. It’s so nice that your mother’s here too.”
“Yes, now she’s here, I’m going to get a job. At the church over there. In the office. Four mornings a week.”
“That’ll be convenient.”
“Do you know I own three houses? On this street? I bought that one too.” Honorata pointed to the house next to her own.
“Wow. I noticed the sign was only up one day. Will your mother live in one?”
“My mother?” Honorata looked confused. “No. She live with me.” Then she thought for a moment. “Your mother? Does she want to rent house?”
“Mama? Uh, no. She has her own house.”
“Okay. Very convenient. To have your mother on the same street.”
Coral laughed. Ada would love this conversation.
“Yes. Very convenient. Listen, I’ll call Darryl. Let me know if it works out.”
Honorata never said anything about the name change, but Darryl mentioned it once.
“That woman you sent me? Your neighbor?”
“She’s a character, right?”
“She’s loaded.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Was she married? I’ve seen her mother. I don’t think she has any money.”
“She didn’t tell me where the money came from. Said she was never married. Just wanted to change her kid’s name. Freaked out when I told her we had to publish it in the paper. We had to put it in the LA Times too, because the baby was born there.”
“So, bad-dad story.”
“I guess. Or maybe she’s a sex worker.”
Coral choked. “She really doesn’t strike me as a sex worker.”
“Well, she got that money somewhere. And that kid. You never know, Coral. It’s not as if there’s a sex-worker type. She’s very good-looking.”
“Honorata?”
“Drop-dead. Did you even look at her?”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess she’s pretty. She’s so nervous when I talk with her, I didn’t really notice.”
“I’m a man. We notice.”
“Ohhh-kay. Well, so did she do it? Change her daughter’s name?”
“Yeah. She was pretty upset about the advertisement, but I showed her how someone would have to be looking pretty closely, and she made a big deal about it not being anywhere but here and LA. After that, it was just a verified petition in family court.”
“Did it go through?”
“Well, no dad showed up. The judge could have refused it, but that’s rare. Hers was fine. Kid is Malaya Begtang.”
Coral raised her glass.
“Daughter of a sex worker.”
“Or a drug smuggler.”
“Card cheat?”
“Romance novelist?”
Coral laughed out loud. Whenever she saw Honorata after that, hurrying in and out of the neighborhood, wearing her lace veil on Sunday mornings, she smiled.
22
Virginia asked Honorata what she thought of the priest’s sermon.
This was something of a ritual. Molly said they were like Monday morning quarterbacks, calling the shots after the game had already been played. This made no sense to Honorata, but Virginia tried to explain it.
“A lot of games are played on Sunday, and then everyone whose team loses tries to figure out what the coach should have done to win. It’s called Monday morning quarterbacking.”
This was not helpful to Honorata.
“It means that after the fact, people try to call the game differently.”
Honorata didn’t particularly care if she understood Molly’s reference or not, but she wanted to seem interested. Molly had been working there only a few months.
“Is the quarterback the one who guards the goal?”
“What?”
“I think that’s a very hard position. Because if he keeps the ball from going in, the game just goes on. And if he misses, everyone is upset. I wouldn’t like to be the quarterback.”
“I think that’s a goalie. Like soccer.”