21. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLIVIA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLIVIA
Alfonso showed up in the morning with a bouquet of red roses for Olivia.
It was a Thursday. He announced that they were having a birthday party on Saturday.
He made it a point to invite his two best friends and against Isela’s wishes, he called the middle school to relay the message to Olivia’s teachers, who would pass the news of the celebration to her classmates.
Saturday came and an invasion of pre-teens was imminent.
The house would fill with earnest conversations of glorious awkwardness and budding philosophies on life.
The theme was wear your favorite colors.
Monochrome or colorful. Either worked. Alfonso decorated the living room with glittering red and black balloons.
He filled the kitchen with streamers, more balloons, confetti, and cupcakes, all in rainbow theme.
Olivia walked through the colorful kitchen giggling and humming as she caressed the party decor.
She happily snuck a strawberry cupcake behind her back and ate it when Alfonso was needed outside.
Her attempts to help decorate were deflected at every turn, Alfonso shooed her away to get ready for her big day.
Isela stood around, watching them with a blatant scowl on her face.
She shuffled and shook the wrapped gifts set aside for Olivia.
She paced around and dragged her feet inside of her bright pink slippers throughout the house and stopped in the kitchen.
She unlocked one of her cabinets and brought out a pack of cigarettes along with some chocolate chip cookies and a tiny bottle of vodka.
She locked herself in her room and turned on one of her records.
As the newly anointed party dad, Alfonso brought a speaker system for outside.
He supplied a karaoke machine. He bought Olivia a sporty red dress, long shorts to wear underneath, red tights, and new red sneakers.
He also bought her a bundle of multicolored shoelaces with little designs on them.
Birds. Roses. Smiley faces. He bought her all kinds of earrings even though Olivia’s ears weren’t pierced.
He promised to take her to the eye doctor to update her glasses.
He gave her binoculars with purple gemstones ornamented along the barrels and a tiny flip phone with a red casing.
He asked her about school. He asked her about the books she was reading.
This is what Olivia remembers about that day.
He apologized to her for being gone for so long.
He apologized over and over and told her that he was sorry for any secrets he kept from her.
Olivia asked him what he meant, but he said nothing more.
Olivia was nervous at the thought of having people over.
First, this was never allowed until Alfonso decided it could happen.
Second, Isela would be there like a tumor.
The house would meet all her classmates.
The trees would hold in the secrets of what kids say when they think no one is listening.
She jumped up and down with glee while she was getting ready in the bathroom.
She snuck on clear mascara and a bit of clear gloss.
She felt radiant. Yvette straightened Olivia’s hair and she applied some clear nail polish on Olivia’s fingers and toes. Olivia was buzzing.
The ground trembled. Olivia wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but she decided not to mention it to anyone at the party.
Her friends came over in pink and yellow and purple and black.
They laughed and cackled. They danced. They played games.
They complimented each other and took photos with their digital cameras.
Olivia was the center of attention, and she didn’t mind at all.
She felt a warmth in her chest. She wanted to stay in these moments forever.
Isela came out once to stand at the front door.
She wore all black except for her pink slippers.
Her eyes stayed on Olivia until Olivia turned around to look at her.
Then, she watched Alfonso who was laughing and drinking.
She walked back into the house, grabbed a corner of Olivia’s birthday cake with her bare hands and walked into The Inflorescence.
When it was time to sing happy birthday, Isela was nowhere to be found.
The party guests speculated about the missing corner of the cake.
Olivia laughed and explained that deer have walked into the house on their own and eaten things inside.
The group sang happy birthday, Olivia beaming, and as they shouted with joy toward the end of the song, Isela charged out of The Inflorescence.
As Olivia blew out her birthday candles, Isela gripped the back of Olivia’s head by her hair and shoved her entire face into the cake.
She quickly pulled Olivia's head back up and then smashed her face in again. Olivia’s nostrils filled with frosting, her brow and the bridge of her nose slamming against her glasses.
Isela continued pushing Olivia’s head into the cake with both of her hands as though she were trying to smother Olivia.
Gasps and confusion filled the kitchen. Alfonso and Rebecca struggled to pull Isela away.
Isela shoved Alfonso and took her bare hands which were filthy with mud and stuck them into the rest of the birthday cake and roared with laughter.
Isela ran toward her room and slammed the door behind her.
Yvette and Rebecca cleaned Olivia’s face with napkins.
Olivia coughed out the cake, her entire body shaken.
Alfonso ushered the now silenced guests out of the house and apologized as he asked them to please go home.
Olivia couldn’t bring herself to cry. She froze.
Her body felt like it could explode. She was humiliated in front of her friends.
She wanted to shriek. She saw stars and her stomach churned.
She thanked Yvette and Rebecca and then bolted into The Inflorescence.
The Mother was inside. She waved slowly at Olivia and gave her a thorny grin.
Olivia threw her glasses off. She rubbed the rest of the cake off her face and hair with ferns she pulled recklessly out of the room’s floor.
She felt like a wild animal. She launched herself at The Mother, she punched her over and over as hard as she could and she screamed into her face.
Why? Why? Why was I born if you didn't want me?
Red faced and drenched in sweet sweat, she punched a hole through The Mother’s head which crushed into itself like a pumpkin. Olivia laughed as she felt the warmth she was pounding into. She screamed at The Mother again. She shook her by the shoulders.
Why are you like this? I didn't choose this life. I didn't choose to be born.
She ripped out the fungus growing all over The Mother’s body. She bit her neck and her arms. The Mother tasted bitter and had the consistency of a mushroom.
Why won’t you just die? You want me dead so badly. Why don't you just die instead?
While The Mother curled into the fetal position on the earth of the room, Olivia stomped her chest and her belly which gushed out a glittering slimy substance that smelled sweet and earthy.
Olivia slipped on the slime. She picked herself up and spit in The Mother’s smithereens of a face.
She smashed more pieces of The Mother, who was now unrecognizable.
She stood over The Mother, surveying her destruction, and bawled.
A slow eruption from within her as a harsh hysteric inhale and then the release.
She couldn’t hold it in any longer. She screamed in an agony that felt like it was embedded into her DNA.
I’m so sorry, mommy. I am so sorry.
She gathered The Mother’s remains and piled them into the center of the room. She lied next to the remains and watched as they formed into a gelatinous orb. She patted the orb gently and then prayed to Saint Michael.
Please protect the creatures of this room. Protect them as though they were your own.
She cried into the ground until her exhaustion took over. Olivia fell asleep for a few minutes of silence. She woke up to the violence of her real mother screaming and cursing her on the other side of the door.