The building was less bad than I remembered. The floors were shiny and smelled like Fabuloso, not stinky like before. No ice cream papers pushed into the corners. Maybe the super cleaned it? I knocked again on 4H. No one answered.
Of course, I waited. The trip was not cheap. Eventually, everybody has to come home. I waited more than one hour. I waited even if every bone in my body hurt from working all day in the factory with those machines—up and down, up and down. Clamp. Clamp. Clamp. Look at my leg. This is the price of all those years working with the machines. Look. Look! See the veins? Like mountains. I should’ve sued that factory for what they did to my legs. Back in the day, these legs stopped traffic. When I put on the dress and the heels, ?Ay, papá!
ángela says it’s the inflammation. That I have to stop eating the milk, the pasta, the bread, the sugar, and the pain will go away. This is why ángela looks like un palo. She does not eat. It’s a problem. The doctor said if I lose ten pounds, it will feel like one hundred pounds less for my knees. He told me I should exercise every day. But I don’t have time for that. What’s a little pain?
So yes, I waited a long time in the stairs of Fernando’s building. Every time I heard the elevator go to the fourth floor, my heart stopped. Una vieja thought I was going to rob her when I jumped up to help her with the door. But pobre vieja, her hair was like a nest on the back of her head. Why be alive if you don’t have somebody to brush your hair? Even the viejas locas in Hato Mayor have their people. In this way, New York is very difficult. In Hato Mayor, Fernando would never have left, because where would he go? When you need each other to survive, you forgive. That’s the way it is.
* * *
I was about to give up, but el flaco with the transparent shirt came out of the elevator. This time, he was wearing a furry coat and the hair was blue. Like he belonged in the future.
He dropped the bags he was carrying. The botella de olivas broke and made a big mess on the floor.
What’s wrong with you? he said.
Ay, I’m so sorry, I said and tried to help him.
It’s OK. Don’t worry, he said, and opened the door of the apartment.
Then he recognized me.
Wait a minute. You’re that lady that showed up last week?
I want to see Fernando, I said.
El flaco tried to close the door, but I’m strong. I pushed my body against it to keep it open. I put my foot in the way.
He’s not here, he said.
He pushed one way. I pushed the other.
I don’t believe you, I said.
Fernando doesn’t want to see you, he said.
But the world is going to finish! He has to see his mother one more time before we all die from the terroristas, I said. But then I thought maybe el flaco was saying the truth. I let go of the door. The fountain again. So much crying. So much mocos came out of my nose. I had to use the sleeve of my shirt, like a child.
Fine. Come in. I’ll get you a Kleenex, el flaco said. Can’t be crying out here. I don’t want you to make the building sad.
I took small steps. I knew I was inside Fernando’s house, even if I recognized nothing. In the sala there was no sofá, only big pillows in the floor around the table with the shape of an egg. Little lights around the windows. A radio in the corner.
El flaco cleaned the floor in the hallway and then went from one end of the room to the other like a bird trapped inside the apartment. He looked at me cry until I could breathe again.
All this was my grandmother’s, he said. She died on that chair and left the apartment and everything in it to me. I’ll make you café. OK?
In the apartment I saw a big photo of Walter Mercado. The photo remind me how every night, all of us, ángela, Fernando, Lulú, and I would wait to listen to Walter’s horoscopes.
To be different is a gift, it said under Walter’s face.
And what Walter says is siempre correct but to be raro like el flaco is not a gift—it’s a life of suffering. You understand what I say?
Of course you don’t. You are American. Anyway, I asked his name and when he said, Alexis … Ay, Dios mío, out of all the names he could say—do you know Alexis is the protector of all humanity?
The café came fast. Alexis moved in the kitchen like he had never been in it before. Three jars of adobos and no sugar in the cabinets.
I asked him, Do you know where my Fernando is?
Sorry, Mami, he said, I hope you can drink café like that.
I pointed to the photo of Walter Mercado. I am a Capricorn, I said.
My grandmother was a Capricorn!
She must have been a great woman. Capricorn is the best sign. We are loyal and we never give up, I said. You can tell that to Fernando.
Then I asked, What is your sign? And he said, I am a Pisces, like Walter.
Could you believe it? He is a Pisces. And everybody knows Pisces is full of corazón.
When I finished drinking the coffee, I asked if Fernando talked about me.
He misses your cooking, Alexis said.
Of course he does. I am the best cook in Washington Heights.
He laughed. And then I laughed—I tell you, I felt this relief in the chest.
Then Alexis looked to me very serious and said, Listen to me, if you come here again, Fernando will leave. I don’t want him to leave. Do you understand?
I took another sip because I didn’t understand—am I so terrible that he have to run away from me?
I don’t know why, maybe it was Walter Mercado that gave me the message, but I trusted what El flaco Alexis the Pisces was saying to me. So I told him I will stay away under one condition: if something happened to Fernando he must contact me immediately. I left him my address and phone number.
The next day, I put my electric bill in Fernando’s name and made the process to put his name on the lease of the apartment. If something happens to me, Dios no lo quiera, I can do this for him. I also ordered him delivery from his favorite Dominican restaurant: pernil with white rice and tostones with garlic on the side. The note said, Fernando, te quiero. Tu mamá.
He didn’t call to say thank you.
But at least then I knew he had something to eat, that he was not a homeless, and that he had the protection of a Pisces.
I know, I know. I talked a lot today, and not about the jobs. More yuca than mangoes. But I promise that I will go to the interview you made for me and do everything you say in these papers.
GENTRIFIED, RENT-STABILIZED BUILDING
Little Dominican Republic/Washington Heights
A block away from the train station
Low-performing school zip code
Neighborhood scout report: Most dangerous area to live in Website: www.rentinnyc.org
Email address: [email protected]
Date: October 2007
RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
OF TENANTS AND LANDLORDS
UNDER THE RENT STABILIZATION LAW
Previous Legal Regulated Rent: one-third below market.
Lease Start Date: Sometime in Fall 1982
Lease End Date: Sometime in Fall 2010
Lease Dated: Renewed every two years
Guidelines
Increases for Renewal
The owner is entitled to increase the rent when the lease is over, but only within the percentage set by law. That’s the benefit of being in a rent-stabilized building. It’s not like the owner can raise the rent three times more. If they try to, and they might, report them.
You have the right to choose between a one-year lease or a two-year lease. The percentage for a two-year lease is higher than the one-year lease. The advantage of a two-year lease is that your rent won’t go up again in one year. The disadvantage is if you move before the lease is over, you will lose your security deposit.
Appliances
Tenant agrees not to install, operate or place in the Apartment Unit any freezer, stove, cooking device, air-conditioning unit, clothes dryer, washing machine, nor any other major appliance not otherwise provided or authorized in writing by Landlord.
Succession Rights