Stardust

Chapter 25

CHOLLO was still draped in the chair like a dead snake. The shadow of the bulky Mexican was still motionless outside the door. I was in the other chair, sitting in it backwards with my forearms folded over the back. It had grown dark outside the office and del Rio hadn’t turned on a light, so we all sat in the aftermath of sunset as del Rio talked.

“She was already starting to get a little attention,” del Rio said. “She had that face, and the body… eighteen years old, maybe. The face says I’m an angel, and the body says, The hell I am. We were at a fund raiser for barrio kids.” Del Rio paused to laugh softly. “Nobody there ever been to the barrio, except me. I was the most important barrio graduate they could find… and I was a crook.” He laughed again. “It was a fashion show, and the models were supposed to be well-known actresses and TV people, but mostly they were kids like Jill. She tagged on to me. She didn’t have much class, she didn’t know how to act, but she had a quality.” He shrugged. “I’m very loyal to my wife. I love her. I admire her. She’s not part of my business, she’s got nothing to do with that world. She lives in another one. I live there sometimes too. But in the business world I snack now and then… still do. It’s got nothing to do with her. Nothing to do with her world. You understand?”

I shrugged.

“Don’t matter if you understand or not,” he said. “Jill was just another snack. Except for that quality.” He paused again and thought about the quality. I waited.

“We were together maybe a year. Always careful, never embarrass my wife, but when she had the kid she started to turn the screw a little.”

Again he paused and thought about things. Again I waited.

“I’m not a good man to pressure; but this came close to the other world, if you follow me, and there was the kid. Whatever else she was, Jill was my kid’s mother. I couldn’t just have her clipped. So I supported the kid, and I went to see her when I could. It didn’t take long to see where it was headed. You’ve seen Jill’s old lady.”

I nodded.

“I got lawyers, I talked with my wife. I said there was a girl, daughter of one of my people. I said her father died, her mother didn’t want her. I said I wanted to adopt her. My wife is very proud. It was always a loss to her that she couldn’t have kids…” He spread his hands.

I nodded.

“We raised her careful. She went to school with the nuns. Goes to school now in Geneva. She plays the piano, speaks French perfect. Maybe you saw her when you came up the drive. Riding a white horse. Can ride like a jockey.”

I nodded.

“I bought her that white horse for her sixteenth birthday. From school she writes it letters. Her mother reads them to the horse.”

Del Rio looked at me hard for a moment. I made no comment.

“She’s home for Christmas,” he said.

I nodded. To my left Chollo got up and squatted before the fireplace on the left wall. He fiddled with it for a moment while del Rio and I watched. Then a gas flame appeared. Chollo put a couple of dry, barkless logs on top of the grate and stood and went back to his chair. The blue gas flame began to move among the logs, turning orange where it hit them and caught.

“So I told Jill,” del Rio said, “I take care of the kid. The kid is mine. She is no longer yours. She belongs to me and to my wife. My wife is her mother now. I said if she ever caused me trouble, if she ever hurt my daughter or my wife, if she ever spoke of this… ”

Del Rio held his right hand out, with the first two fingers apart like the blades of a scissors, and closed them. Nobody said anything. The flame had caught the bone-dry wood and made bright heatless orange movements in the Mexican tile fireplace. A California fire. All light, no heat.

“Jill never really had any luck,” del Rio said. He was sitting back in his chair now, his hands locked behind his head, staring into the fire. “Sounds funny to say about her. She’s a big star, big TV star. But she’s never really caught a break… except me.”

Del Rio paused again. I could hear him breathing softly through his nose.

“I got her started. She came from nowhere. Mother’s a drunk. Old man left when she was a kid. Had a baby, had to give it up. She never knew what she was, then she got to be a star and everybody started treating her like she was a princess, you know… the fucking emperor’s daughter… so she thought she was.”

“She knows she isn’t,” I said.

Del Rio shifted his eyes to me thoughtfully. “Maybe,” he said. “Maybe she does.”

“Makes it worse,” I said.

Del Rio nodded slowly with the right side of his face lit by the fire and the left side in darkness. “Si,” he said.