El Fib: Mij's Testament, #2

By Gail O. Dellslee

El Fib is the second book in the Mij's Testament trilogy. Jesse is born to a single mother in Los Angeles who claims he is the son of God. He takes pride in being different from other kids, until he finds out that he is different in another way: he is intersex. Once a popular leader of a gang, Jesse suddenly finds himself without friends. His mother often tells him that his destiny is to help people and save the world. But how can he do that when no one has faith in him, and he doesn't even have faith in himself?

• Language: English
• Publisher: GAIL O. DELLSLEE
• Release date: Feb 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9798201419301

Gail O. Dellslee

Gail O. Dellslee is a multi-racial author who grew up on the west coast of the United States. She started writing novels when she was 10 years old. Gail gets her inspiration from her cats and life experiences, and she enjoys incorporating real situations and people into her fiction.

Book preview

2:1 - Jenna Says

In the beginning, there is darkness.  Then Jenna's alarm goes off.  Her nightstand lamp turns on automatically, and the sound of crashing waves wake her right on time at 6:04 a.m.  School doesn't start until 9:00, but it takes Jenna a long time to get ready, and the school is a long drive away.  It was someone's bright idea to start school later in the morning, as if that would let teenagers get more of their much needed sleep.  But all it does is let them stay up later each night.  The night before last, Jenna stayed up until 2 a.m. studying Spanish vocabulary. 

She hops out of bed and pulls up her blinds, revealing the cloudless blue sky.  Blue is the color she wears today, since it is Wednesday.  She opens her small closet of handmade clothes and pulls out a pair: culottes the deep blue of the ocean and a tank top the cyan blue of the sky.  After she takes a shower, she puts them on and brushes and braids her dark chocolate hair.  Her bangs are dyed rainbow, matching her silver necklace; it has an ankh pendant with different colored gemstones down the center symbolizing the chakras.  Jenna doesn't know much about the chakras, but what she does know, she finds interesting.  It's the only necklace she owns, so she never takes it off.

Her clothes and hairstyle vary depending on what day of the week it is.  On Wednesdays, she wears blue clothes and her hair in a braid; on Thursdays, she wears lime green clothes and her hair in a ponytail; on Fridays, she wears bright orange clothes and her hair down with a bow in the back; on Saturdays, she wears neon violet clothes with rainbow ribbons in her hair; on Sundays, she wears electric yellow with a golden tiara around her forehead; on Mondays, she wears white clothes and her hair in a bun; and Tuesdays, she wears pinkish red clothes and her hair in pigtails. 

Jenna has been following her own invented pattern since she was five years old.  It was then that she started dressing herself because her mother, Anna, died and was no longer around to help her.  This was how Jenna chose to do it.  She knew at the time the days of the week in Spanish, because her father used to speak Spanish when he spoke to her mother.  But Jenna didn't learn until fifth grade that the Spanish days of the week were named after planets (except for sábado and domingo). 

The Sailor Scouts in one of Jenna's favorite Japanese animations, Sailor Moon, were also named after planets, and it just so happened that what Jenna wore each day corresponded perfectly with what each Sailor Scout wore.  For example, Wednesday in Spanish is miércoles, named after Mercury.  Sailor Mercury wears blue, just like Jenna wears blue every Wednesday!  She was ecstatic when she learned the correlation.  It was proof that she had psychic powers even at that young age.

Jenna puts on the finishing touch to her Wednesday look: blue eyeshadow.  Despite her colorful appearance, her bedroom décor is the opposite.  The walls are bare and white, and all of the furniture is cheap and ordinary.  The rest of the small three bedroom house is the same way.  There aren't even any framed family photos on the walls.  Her dad, Joaquín, doesn't like to waste his money on anything unnecessary.  Buying anything at all is avoided when he can get something just as good for free or make it by hand himself.  This house and most of its contents used to belong to Joaquín's father, including the Spanish guitar and the upright piano Jenna passes on her way to the kitchen.  Grandpa Melvino gave the house to Joaquín when he became an adult and showed interest in taking over the small family farm.

The house is in the El Gallinero part of northeast Los Angeles.  Similar to Lakeview Terrace below it, El Gallinero is a rural neighborhood.  Like Joaquín, most people in the area use their land for some type of small scale farming—just enough to feed themselves and some extra to store up or sell at the farmers' market.

Most of Jenna's food comes from her backyard, but one exception is cereal.  Jenna chooses Lucky Charms to eat this morning for breakfast; a person can never have too much luck, especially on a finals day!  Sitting down at the dinette table to eat, she has a view of the backyard from the window in front of her.  The backyard is divided in half by a gate.  The west side has the barn and grass for the sheep, while the east side is for growing their other food—things like strawberries, grapes, pomegranates, almonds, and pinto beans.

Jenna's father is out on the west side now, smoking a cigarette while he lets the sheep out of the barn to graze.  The family dog, an Australian Shepherd named Peridot, stands by his side.  Joaquín is a thin man with a dark mustache and a deep tan.  The sheep is the family's farm animal of choice because it is better than a cow or a chicken.  Sheep provide not only milk and meat, but also wool for clothing.  It is the perfect livestock animal.  The only downside is that sheep are not so easy to milk.  Luckily for Jenna, her father takes care of that, as well as most of the other farm tasks.  He has plenty of time for it, since it's his only job.  The other El Gallinero residents most likely only use their little farms as a hobby, but Joaquín has no interest in working a regular job where he has to report to a boss or put on a phony smile for 40 hours a week.

The milk in Jenna's cereal bowl came from her father's sheep.  It's creamier and tastier than cow milk, in her opinion.  It also beats cow milk when it comes to nutritional value.  Jenna knows, because she once did a research report on it for school, complete with an oral presentation to her class.  But this didn't make her classmates think of sheep milk with any less disgust.  It's funny how people can go their whole lives consuming cow meat and milk and think nothing of it, but react with such disdain about meat or milk from anything that isn't sold in a grocery store, without even giving it a try.

After Jenna finishes her cereal and puts the dish in the sink, she sticks her head and arm out the backdoor.

"Adiós, Papá!" she calls with a wave and a smile.

Joaquín waves back, but doesn't smile.  He rarely smiles since Anna died.

Jenna slips on her flat sandals and white backpack and heads out the front door.  Her car is parked in the driveway, since the garage door is not electric and therefore too much of a hassle to open and close.  The car is an old VW Beetle, and it used to belong to her father.  He gave it to Jenna for her 16th birthday.  In a rare display of generosity, he even spent a large sum of money to get it custom painted to look like a ladybug, much to her delight.  It is the only car they have.  Joaquín doesn't need a car of his own, since he never drives anywhere except to the farmers' market on Saturdays.

The other cars on the road are going to school too.  They honk behind Jenna to go faster, but she ignores them.  She is a responsible driver and always drives the speed limit.  The train of cars swerve and screech around her.  To block out their noise, she turns up the volume on her Madman Across the Water album, and sings the lyrics of Levon at the top of her lungs.

There is no need to rush because Jenna always gets to school on time as long as she wakes at 6:04 AM.  All of the cars that sped around her are now a foot in front of her, stopped at a red light.  She recognizes the car closest to hers—a Mustang with the license plate 2KNG920.  It belongs to John Fisher who lives across from her on Wheat Street.  His large yard is one that is not used for farming.  Instead, it is landscaped to be a private miniature golf course with small ponds and artificial waterfalls.

When Jenna enters her Lit II Honors class, she sees that her normal teacher isn't there; Ms. McKeon must have wanted an early start on her summer vacation.  Instead, an unfamiliar substitute teacher is at the front of the class, calling roll.  Like most subs who don't know any of the students yet, he calls the students by their full names.

Jennamarie Trinidad?

"Aquí," she answers brightly.

Some kids chuckle.  John Fisher is among them.

The sub's white, bimbo! the student behind Jenna hisses.  He doesn't know Spanish!

But the substitute didn't seem to fail in understanding.  He soon begins to read off the directions for the in-class essay they are to write.  The students were already told last week what they'd be writing on:  The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzsche.  Jenna writes:

God being dead has indeed lowered morality in most people, because most people only behave morally when there are rewards or punishments for their actions.  For some, the law isn't enough of a deterrent.  However, it is possible for people to still be moral without belief in a god.  I am an example of such.

She goes on to describe how her parents raised her to be moral, and how she still is.  Her mother used to read the Bible to her, but Jenna was so young at the time that the knowledge of it has almost entirely left her brain.  Jenna's father never speaks of God or religion.  He doesn't speak much of anything.  He does not make threats to force Jenna to obey him.  Jenna just obeys because that is the type of person she is.  As for God, Jenna only believes in what she sees, and so far, she hasn't seen God.  However, she is agnostic, not atheist, because she believes that it is possible that a god exists and she just hasn't seen him yet.  Regardless of his existence, Jenna is moral.

Creative Writing is Jenna's second and last class of the day.  It is one of the few classes of Jenna's that is not Honors or Advanced Placement.  She writes a short story about a generic man whose life epitomizes the 12 signs of the Greek zodiac.  Jenna herself was born under the Scorpio sun sign.  The personality description of Scorpio fits her perfectly, except for the lusty part.  Perhaps that part is overridden by her Aquarius moon sign—or more likely her Virgo rising sign.  She finishes her short story early, so she spends the rest of her class time pondering this while she waits for the bell to ring. 

Finals days are the best because students get to go home early.  Jenna is no slacker at her schoolwork, but she prefers to do other things, such as making clothes, listening to music, writing the sheet music of every song from the few albums she owns, and playing them on the piano or guitar.

At last, the bell rings, and Jenna is released from her last day of 10th grade.  As she walks to the parking lot with the rest of the herd, Simon Isaac comes up to her with his group of friends.  Unlike John Fisher who is popular because of his family's wealth, Simon is popular because of his good looks.  The only boy better looking than him is Mike Angelo, in a more delicate way.  Simon is also on some sports team.  Is it football or wrestling?  Jenna isn't sure.

Hey Jennamarie, Simon says.  Feeling blue today?

She hears that line almost every Wednesday.  It is so predictable and boring.  She looks up at the still cloudless sky and thinks more interesting thoughts:  do people on Mercury have blue skin?

Hey Jennamarie, Simon repeats louder.  How'd you do on your Spanish final?

Although her full first name is Jennamarie, no one calls her that except kids who want to make fun of her.  Another reason kids call her that is to differentiate between her and another Jenna in their grade (a more stylish Jenna).  Being one of the popular kids, it is Simon's unspoken duty to make fun of her, the girl who does what she wants no matter what her peers think.  If Simon says jump, everyone jumps.  Sometimes Jenna thinks that it would be nice to have that kind of power, but not if it means sacrificing her true self.

I think I did well on every other final except that one, Jenna says.

Really? Simon asks.  That's hard to believe with all that Spanglish you use.

The reason I use it is to help me remember it, she says.  I'm especially not too good at remembering how to conjugate all the irregular verbs.

They don't hear a single word she says over their laughter, and they're already walking away.

Hey, another guy says from behind.

It's José Perez, her boyfriend.  He is a Scorpio like Jenna, only he was born on a Sagittarius cusp.  They started dating since he asked her out in April.  He isn't very attractive—his face is littered with pimples—but should that be a reason to reject someone?  Everyone gets old and ugly eventually.  So Jenna told him, Why not? and kissed him.  It turned out to be convenient having a boyfriend who understood Spanish, so she could use Spanglish around him and he always understood her.  He himself is fluent in the language, but like most Hispanics in El Gallinero, he never uses it in public. 

There's a party on the 20th.  Wanna go with me?

It is a surprise that he is actually asking her to do something with him.  Despite being a couple, they never do anything together.  They don't even eat lunch at the same table.  Even Jenna, who never had a boyfriend before José, knows that that is strange behavior.  Why did he ask her out in April?  Did he just do it to play a trick on her?  It doesn't seem like it, because José never makes fun of her or laughs at her the way other boys do.  He also never pressures her for sex.  Even if he did, Jenna would refuse.  She is determined to stay a virgin until marriage.  It makes no sense to make a baby with someone who isn't even committed to her to help her take care of it.

No way, José.

Jenna watches disappointment fill his brown eyes.  She says that phrase to him so often as a joke that it surprises her that he seems to take her seriously this time.

Just kidding, she says, slapping his arm gently.  What are we celebrating?

He smiles with relief.  The end of school, of course.

"Oh, right.  ¿Dónde?"

It's at John Fisher's house.

"Oh, his casa is right across the street from mine.  I won't even have to drive!  What día?"

Next Wednesday.  7 p.m.

I'll have to ask. 

You may not want to tell your dad any details, in case he checks up on it.  John's parents aren't gonna be home, and there's gonna be drugs.  But even if you don't do any, it'll still be hella fun.  Anyway, I'll see ya there!

Jenna gets into her ladybug car and drives home at a leisurely pace as the other impatient teenagers honk and skid around her.  She isn't thinking of asking her father.  Joaquín never minds what she does with her time as long as she helps out on the farm and at the market once in a while.  (He pays her an allowance for it, but she would still help him even if he didn't.)  Who she intends to ask, or what rather, are her tarot cards.  Her father would probably not approve if he knew about her fortune telling, but he never enters her room, and Jenna never tells him about it. 

She has been doing tarot readings since her one and only friend Gabrielle helped her create her own deck last summer.  Jenna had no computer of her own at home and still doesn't, so she had to go to Gabrielle's house to find and print pictures for her cards.  They chose pictures from Sailor Moon and other Japanese animations they liked.  One of the others was The Vision of Escaflowne, the show that gave them the idea to create tarot cards in the first place.  Gabrielle edited each of the pictures to fit on the cards, and Jenna glued them to hot pink construction paper, leaving about a half inch of extra room at the bottom so she could label each card.  Then they got them laminated at Kinko's.  Gabrielle paid for it, since she had a lot more money than Jenna.  Gabrielle was a very kind and generous friend; she also used to give Jenna nail polish, make-up, hair dye, CDs and cassettes—all things Joaquín would never buy.

When the set of cards was complete, they told each other's fortunes with them.  It started out as just something fun to do.  However, after Jenna pulled the death card in Gabrielle's fortune and she died the same day, Jenna took the readings very seriously and started to consult them for every decision she made.  If the cards told her that it was a bad idea to date José, she would dump him in a heartbeat. 

Once Jenna gets in her room, she plays her Trans-Siberian Orchestra album on her boom box, turned down low.  She sits on the floor, takes her tarot card deck out of her backpack, and shuffles it.  Jenna breathes deeply and concentrates her mind on the question of the party.

"If I go to John Fisher's fiesta with José next miércoles, Jenna says softly, what will be the resulting experience?"

She knows of many different ways to lay out the tarot cards.  There is the Celtic Cross, the Five Card Spread, the Relationship Spread, the Ellipse Spread, the Mirror Spread, and the Mandala Spread.  But all of them waste time pulling cards to tell of one's past or present, when what Gabrielle and Jenna were always interested in were their futures.  So they used their own invented spread and called it the Future Spread.  The other spreads required pulling five to ten cards, but the Future Spread only required pulling three.

After Jenna feels that she has shuffled long enough, she closes her eyes and tosses the cards up into the air.  Keeping her eyes closed, she picks three cards and brings them close to her folded legs.  Then she opens her eyes to see what they are.  She turns over any card that is facing down but is careful to not rotate the card because it is important whether a card is upright or reversed.  Each card has a meaning—Jenna has them all memorized—and a reversed card usually has the opposite meaning of the upright card.

I will be . . . Jenna says.

She flips over the left card.  It is the Empress—Queen Serenity from Sailor Moon with the Moon Kingdom behind her.  Its meaning is action, development, accomplishment, evolution, and mother, sister, or wife.

There will be . . .

She flips over the middle card.  It is the Ace of Wands, featuring two-year-old Chibi-Chibi from Sailor Moon, holding a wand.  It means beginning, birth, inheritance, a new career, a new business venture, and a profitable journey.

Others will be . . .

The card on the right is already facing up.  It is the reverse Knight of Cups—Van Fanel from The Vision of Escaflowne in his battle armor with a heart around him.  The reverse meaning is fraud, idleness, trickery, sensuality, and a liar.

Overall, the prediction is positive.  Only the last card is negative.  But others teasing Jenna is a normal part of her everyday life, so that is nothing new.  It is certainly not a reason to avoid going to the party, when that party holds benefits like accomplishment and a profitable journey.

Jenna goes to her kitchen where their only telephone is attached to the wall and dials José's number.  It's picked up by one of his 11 brothers, of which José is the third born.

"José por favor," Jenna says.

The boy giggles.  Is this his girlfriend?

"Sí."

He giggles again.  "He's in el baño right now."

"Tell him Jenna can come to the fiesta."

Okay.

Jenna hangs up.  Now that she knows she will be going to the party, she gazes at the chipped paint on her nails and wonders what she should wear to her first date.  Her nails are each painted a different color.  Since Gabrielle isn't around anymore to buy her new polish, Jenna saves her allowance money by only painting her nails once a month.  She could save even more money if she doesn't buy nail polish at all—or eye shadow or hair dye.  But where is the fun in that?

She decides that she will use some of the cloth from the sheep to make a dress tie-dyed in every color of the rainbow.  At 16 years of age, Jenna is full grown.  If she doesn't get fatter, she might even be able to wear the same dress again at her wedding!  She gets started right away.

2:2 - Fiesta

Next Wednesday, Jenna comes to the dinette for dinner wearing her rainbow dress.  Gabrielle would be proud; it is very pretty and very skimpy.  Jenna made it sleeveless, with a low V-neck in the front, tight at the waist, and flaring out like a mini-skirt at the hips. 

Gabrielle liked to tempt her boyfriend Travis Teethan by wearing skimpy clothes while at the same time not allowing him any sex.  Her virginity was the only way she was like a Virgo, her sun sign.  In all other ways she was like a Libra, the sign she would have been born under if she wasn't born early by c-section.  Gabrielle used to call herself Sailor Libra, and Jenna called herself Sailor Scorpio. 

Jenna only made her dress skimpy to be sparing with the cloth.  She didn't want to use too much when most of it is meant for the customers at the farmers' market, either as sample clothes or custom orders.

Joaquín stares at Jenna's new attire as she sits across from him at their square table.

"I'm going to a fiesta tonight, Jenna says. I hope you don't mind me using some of the cloth."

It's fine, Joaquín says.  That dress looks good on you.  Very pretty.

"Gracias."

They eat their mutton, almonds, strawberries, and garden vegetables in silence.  The more tender lamb meat is another thing reserved for customers. 

Joaquín stopped using Spanish after Anna died.  It may annoy him that Jenna uses some Spanish mixed in with her English.  If so, he never says anything about it, so Jenna continues to use it.

It is this very spot where Anna died.  Jenna saw it happen shortly before she started kindergarten.  She remembers her earliest memory every time she sees the modest lamp hanging over the dinette table.

She was in bed but woke up when she heard her parents' raised voices.  Their words were all in Spanish, but at the time Jenna understood what they were saying.

Do you want a divorce then? Anna asked bitterly.

No! Joaquín said.  I only did it with her one time.  It won't happen again.

Yes it will.  You won't be able to resist her, now that you've tasted her.  I bet she's prettier than me, isn't she?  Younger?  Bigger breasts?  Cooks better than me?

Stop it!  Come to bed and let me show you that I still love you.

No. All you'll be thinking about is how she's so much better than me.  Just leave me alone.

Jenna heard her father's footsteps stomp to his bedroom across the hall.  She got out of bed and tiptoed to the dinette where she heard her mother crying.  Jenna peeked around the corner of the wall and saw Anna downing a bottle of wine.  Just as Jenna was about to go to her and comfort her, Anna shoved the table away from herself in anguish.  Jenna then felt too scared to do anything more than watch.  Anna went into the garage and came back with rope.  Then she phoned her twin sister Emma and told her what happened with Joaquín.  Anna used speakerphone so that she could push the table more as she talked to her.

Aarón cheats on me too, Aunt Emma said.  "But at the end of the day, he comes home to me."

I don't care about that, Anna sobbed, putting a chair under the lamp.  "So what if Joaquín comes home to my cooking and cleaning?  So I'm just a maid to him.  I'm not who he really wants, who he really loves.  I can't live a lie and pretend everything is okay while inside I worry that every time he leaves the house he'll see her."

So are you going to leave him?

No, Anna said, standing on top of the chair and tying a rope around the lamp.  He said he doesn't want a divorce.  We made a vow to each other to stay together till death do we part.  He is too good of a man to break that vow, but he can't help it if he got stuck married to a woman as ugly as me. 

You're not ugly! 

I'm a failure as a wife and as a woman, Anna said, tying the other end of the rope around her neck and knotting it.  But I still love Joaquín even if he doesn't love me.  So I will do what he wants but is too good to ask of me.  I will set him free.  In death, we will part.

She kicked the