Remarkable

"Lina!" my mother yelled up the stairs as I rummaged through the trunk she had stashed the remains of my wardrobe in when I had moved out the previous summer. These were the clothes that for one reason or another didn't make the cut for my tiny apartment and the one chest of drawers that my grandmother had given me, but seemingly Mama and I both couldn't work up the nerve to throw them out. I was extremely thankful for this as I had forgotten one of my nicest button down shirts, which was what I was searching for. "Huh?" I mumbled over my shoulder, still unsuccessful in my search. "Is this it?" she said, now standing a few feet behind me, slightly out of breath after her ascent to the second level of the house. I whipped my head around, awkwardly perching on my knees and twisting my waist as far as I could to the right, several blouses clutched in each hand. Sure enough, she was holding up a perfectly pressed robin's egg blue button down shirt with tiny white polka dots all over it. It was on a silky, puffy hanger dangling from her pale short pointer finger. I smiled and breathed an enormous sigh of relief at the sight of it. "Yes!" I said exasperatedly as I shuffled to my feet and made my way across the guest room, which had been my room for 22 years prior to my entrance into the "real world". So far from what I had learned about that world, it was dog eat dog. Most women were out for themselves and most men were out for a piece of tail. I had recently walked out on my first "big girl job" after the CEO of the company had called me into his office and made a blatant and insulting pass at me. After insuring him that I would be reaching out to his wife to let her know what a pig he was, I was told that I would never make it in the reporting business in this town. And after several denied job applications and a few goodwill interviews, I discovered that he had been correct. Danny Johnson was a news and reporting legend in Bellevue, and by extension, Sarpy County as a whole. So, I had decided to branch out from my dream career, of which I had received a Bachelor's Degree from UN in order to pursue. This was my first job interview in a different field of work. I was applying for an Office Administrator position so that I could pay rent and try to save enough money to get out of this godforsaken state once and for all. Since childhood, I had dreamed of becoming a journalist and traveling around the country. Mama discouraged that ambition because she didn't want me to leave Nebraska, and she didn't want me to take on the world by myself. It worried her enough that I was still single after 4 years of college and nearly a year out. I just didn't have the patience for a relationship, not to mention that of all the men that had showed interest in me so far, none of them seemed up to par. I had set high expectations for the man I wanted to be with in my mind. How was it my fault that I was unwilling to settle? "You already ironed it for me?" I asked her incredulously. She let out a short bark of laughter. "Actually, I ironed it for myself a few weeks ago. I was going to wear it on my date, but it's too tight. The buttons looked like they were about to burst off the shirt." I laughed animatedly as I took the shirt from her and gave her a side hug. My mother was about 5 feet tall with light brown hair that had been cut into a pixie style. She couldn't stand it touching the back of her neck anymore. Daddy hated her hair short, so after he passed away she made a point to leave it long for quite a while. After several years, though, she decided there were better ways to honor his memory. It had been that short ever since. Mama had greenish blue eyes that changed based on her mood and what she was wearing. She referred to them as cat eyes. She had a fairly athletic build but had gotten a little soft around the edges over the last few years. I was her only child, but Daddy had been married once before they met and he had 2 boys with his ex-wife. I grew up seeing my step brothers every other weekend until Daddy died when I was 13. After that, their mother moved them out of state and we lost touch. I reconnected with the one closest to my age, Daniel, a few years ago when he moved back to Nebraska and I saw him and his kids from time to time. Joseph and I had never really gotten along that well. "So when are you going to introduce me to Paul? You two have been on several dates now." I said as I walked out of the room towards the staircase, Mama following right behind me. "Soon." she said evasively. I was proud of her for finally dating again, but I knew she would have to have some very strong feelings for any man before she let them meet me, even though I was a grown woman. Mama had always been extremely protective of me, which I used to be annoyed by but was now very thankful for. I had been basically all she had since Daddy died. It was very hard on her to learn how to live without him and still have to raise a teenage girl all by herself. She was the strongest person I knew. I arrived at my job interview the next day 15 minutes early. My 7th grade English teacher had a sign hanging above her whiteboard that said "Early is on time. On time is late." For some reason, that phrase stuck with me, and from the time I had started driving I tried my best to arrive early anywhere I went. I parked my old Ford Escape right in front of the building and stared at the dark tinted glass door, which read "Jansen & Dayton Law Firm" and had their hours of operation listed below in white letters, wondering if I was making the right move. It's only a job interview, I thought to myself. If you don't like it or don't feel like it's right after a week or two, you can always find a different place to work. I made a good argument. Maybe I'd be a good edition to a law firm, even if I was just a glorified secretary. At 10:55 I decided I couldn't wait any longer and got out of the car. I had paired the shirt with a white pencil skirt and a pair of low white block heels. I had chosen to loosely curl my hair for a natural, wavy look because in my opinion it looked best that way. I had inherited my tan skin, black hair and deep brown eyes from my dad's side of the family. His dad, Carlos, was born and raised in Acre, Brazil. He moved to the United States at the age of 20 to pursue a career in acting. He wound up in Santa Barbara, where he met my grandma Rosie at a small theater where she was performing that week. Carlos and Rosie had two boys and two girls. Daddy, whose name was Nicolas, was the youngest. Everyone called him Nico. We went to visit Rosie and Carlos once when I was about 7, but Carlos had been very sick for a long time. I held his hand and sang to him, but didn't get any kind of response. Rosie was thrilled to meet her granddaughter for the first time, but our visit had been overall very sad. Daddy loved his Papa and hated seeing him that way. He had always pictured him as his real life hero. Papa Carlos had been a firefighter in Santa Barbara since before Daddy was born, and Daddy followed right along in his footsteps after he graduated high school. He and Mama had actually grown up right down the street from each other, but they didn't begin dating until after Mama graduated college and Daddy had divorced Cindy. He was 9 years older than her, so they didn't have anything to do with each other as children. When Mama and Daddy got married, they decided to move away from California and find a quiet place to settle down. I can't even remember the story of how they ended up in Bellevue, but I know it had something to do with Daddy's friend Tank.