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Quadroons and Octoroons.

Chapter II.

A few years passed, and Maria had been accepted to the University of Havana, one of the most prestigious universities in Latin-America. She was eight-teen years old at the time, and was headed towards a successful career as a doctor. She always got straight-A's, and it paid off. She went to the University of Havana-which had been her first choice.

Saturday was the same now for years. Tio (uncle) Juan would come over for dinner, and she would go to the little store, and buy food; always the same dish on Saturday nights: Ox-tail with black beans and rice, plantains, and an avocado salad. In fact, for as long as she could remember, this was the dinner of choice every Saturday night. Of course, going to the market and seeing this guy she liked wasn't easy for her. Three years in a roll now, and she still didn't mustard enough courage to find out anything about him-not even his name.

One Saturday, there was huge storm, but this didn't matter, it was business as usual in their household. If the weather go really bad, her tio (uncle) would just sleep over their house. He'd been widowed for about six-years now, and was dating someone, but it wasn't serious. It was sad though, his wife died suddenly; he found her dead on the kitchen floor, she was only twenty-four years old. It was about 4:00 PM in the afternoon, and her mother was about to start cooking when she realized she had no pork-lard. "Maria, can you go to the store and buy some?" she said. Even though a horrible storm was approaching, it was still a good hour or so before it would hit Havana, so she could go to the store and come back in about twenty-minutes. As she arrived to the store, the clerk was coming out. "Hello" he said. "Hi" she said. His name was Roberto De-Lauliel (French she thought to herself). "I've wanted to introduce myself to you for a long time" he said. "I'm glad you came today, we finally know each other's name." "Me too" Maria replied. The store was closed, but she managed to get a small package of pork-lard (that's how they sold them in those days), enough for her to make dinner. She thanked him and they parted friends

The dinner was more delicious than ever, maybe because her mother simmered the Ox-tail longer, or maybe because she meet Roberto. "Lola," Maria said. "I meet him, he's so wonderful, really. He likes me too, he told me he's been wanting to meet me for a long time, but he felt it was unprofessional during work hours, I'm glad I caught him when he was leaving, so he was off the clock." "What does he do?" Lola asked Maria. "He works at the store, that's all." "Maria." Lola said "you're headed for a big successful career as a doctor, and should be interested in more sucessful men, and besides; he's white and probably won't want to marry you, or even introduce you to his family. Get real girl!" Their grandmother use to say: "The sauce is more important than the fish." She meant this: looks don't matter if you don't have that special something, and unfortunately for Maria, this was a problem. She was attractive, but in a classy sort of way, and guys just weren't interested in that, they wanted 'girls with reputations' so they could have a one night stand and get it over with.

Years passed, and Maria became a sucessful doctor. Maria was twenty-five years old now, and headed for a successful career. Her mother passed away shortly after she received her degree, but Maria still kept the tradition every Saturday: Ox-tail, black beans and rice, plantains, and avocado salad....

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