Falling For Henry Cavill

Ties

    I feared for my very own existence when I was told that Mount Nicole School was not renewing my contract for the next year. Being one of the very last teachers hired, they immediately let me go when funding for the arts got lowered, and they were forced to do away with one of the electives. Hired right out of college and studying that same summer  in the Central School of Speech and Drama in England, I knew nothing else. I taught theater for four years. I felt that getting a job performing would be hard, so I prepared to teach performing arts as well. Moving back home to Mexico was out of the question. Somehow this island had become my home and I felt as close to it, if not more, than to my own land of heritage. Slowly and gradually this place entwined it self to me. My ties to it were not only to the place itself, but its rich culture and past. Living there for the past five years, I had not taken any of its pleasures lightly. I learned all I could about the place on my free time. I learned that it was the only place in Britain that was occupied by German forces during WWII. I learned that the island's zoo preserved wild life and that it had many charitable events to preserve it. Throughout the course of five years, I did not live in the island as a tourist but as an islander who lived there not to just take pleasure in its culture, but to be part of it and be one of them. This I did quite easily.

As soon as I arrived, family was waiting for me with open arms and a place to live until I found a place of my own. By family I do not mean biological family, not even extended family, but church family. Family that I could not only count on but also trust and love just as much as they were biological. Belonging to a church that has ties to others outside of your sphere no matter what place in the world you go has its benefits. When I applied for this job via linked in, I was doing it for the purpose of gaining interview experience. Never in a million years did I dream that I would get hired. The experience was unnecessary as it turned out that they needed someone for the position ASAP. The unexpected fortune was that I had to move there quite suddenly and without much time to prepare. My parents, although a bit hesitant and stressed over the matter, asked our ecclesiastical church leader to ask the ecclesiastical leader of the nearest chapel of the area to find a family that could take me in for a while. It turned out that there was only one chapel that served the whole island of Jersey, and Bishop Key found a family with whom I could stay. Immediately, I was accepted and lived as a member of the family. The Allen family treated me like a daughter who lived in the pool house, ate with them, prayed with them, and went to church with them. Their kids, Emma-16 years old, Eve-14 years old, and Ethan- 13 years old were like my younger siblings with whom I played, took out and chauffeured around the island.

    I became their older sister, trusted friend, and confidant. We spent many evenings playing board games, talking, and grading papers as I tended to give more work than I could grade, a rookie error for the first year teacher. By the second year I began to look for a place of my own even though the kids were reluctant of it. And although I did feel like part of the family, I knew I had to do it. They would not let me go unless I promised to have them over often. Once I found a place, a house that had been stables at one in time but were now turned unto a house became my home. The beauty of it was the comfort and rustic feel there was to it. No one bothered anyone. The neighbors kept to themselves. I went to work, came back, ate, and entertained myself with either a good book or in front of the television watching a period drama or series, or murder mystery shows with Emma, Eva, and Ethan. When I was not entertaining them, I  entertained some people I went to church with on Fridays and Saturdays because I was the leader of the young single adult group. I made several friends within that group.

    John, Edward, Millie, and my best friend Maggie who lived with me were my friends. When Maggie and I met, we just clicked. We met and talked as though we had always known each other. She was something else. She was sassy, and did not like drama. She had  in common with me. Together we were a no nonsense team and we had fun because we laughed about the same things. I could always count on her and she on me. We would stay up talking for hours on end when we could and talked about things other people do not like to talk about. We spoke about gospel principles and dissect the purpose of things. John was goofy but fun. He was handsome and all the girls had a crush on him. Except Maggie, who flirted too much with him. He said what he meant, but was always respectful. I often contemplated what it would be like to date him, but not for long. Somehow it didn't seem like we would make a good fit, and neither he or I made a move even when we had plenty of opportunities to do so because we always ended up alone after activities at church or at the house when everyone was gone and Maggie was in bed. We just talked about random things.  Edward was a serious type of guy but very sweet. He was a computer software guy with dry humor which I sometimes found funny. Millie, who liked Edward, was into fashion and looked as though she had just walked out of a vogue magazine. Her sassy nature gave Maggie's and my Hispanic temper a run for our money. Millie's only mission in life was to get married with Edward. She tried to let him know it but was not obvious enough because Edward had no idea she was into him. He was too dense. I felt more at home with these people that I had known for only five years now than I did with my own back in Mexico where there was always some type of contention, even when we did not want it and tried to keep it low key.

   The fact of the matter was that although my parents were baptized into the church when I was but 3 years of age they had not converted wholeheartedly unto the lord. They were Sunday members at best which meant they went to church and that was it. Nothing like when they began attending. At first, they attended the activities and even got together with other families that went to church and had been members for a long time. My dad was an ecclesiastical leader for a while, but then, when life became too hectic, they became too dependent on the worldly ways to get through the trials and tribulations, so they went back and forth. Where I would gravitate to the lord for help, my parents did not. My older brother, Antonio, did not and neither did my two younger siblings. Anastasia and Amadis who were two years apart were beguiled in their teens by the frivolity of life that many teenagers fall into. The partying, drinking, and the disregard for reverent matters was their way of life, and so had Antonio. I couldn't understand. That came with time, after meeting him.

    Even though I had planned to live away from home and the drama they created, I had not anticipated to live so far away from home. I definitely did not anticipate to end up on an island off the coast of France where I would easily learn to know it's customs and fall in love with the very essence of it and its past, or that it would become such a part of me that I would be afraid to leave it. Although this island had become such a part of me, I still missed my family especially my mother whom I confided in and spoke so easily. She was the only one in my family whom I had a connection with. I knew her pain and she knew mine. We knew how to talk without fighting or arguing. There were times when we did, but we usually made up. I respected and loved her too much for being the mom I needed because I knew it was not always easy for her. And that life had not always been kind to her. We spoke regularly. She always asked how I was and then would ask if I had a boyfriend and that if I did that I needed to make sure that he loved me for me, and always reminded that I needed to present him to her as soon as I did. She always suggested that I try to get with John because she liked him- a lot. Sometimes she would just tell me all about the things that were happening with my siblings and how she hurt because of their bad decisions. I listened intently and offered words of comfort. She could never end our conversations without asking me when or if I was ever going back home. I could not utter words of assurance for that. I loved Jersey and I could not see myself leaving it, Maggie, or the Allen's. Our bond was strong. I always ended repeating the dates that I would be there for the summer. I usually stayed for a week because I couldn't bare being that long away from Jersey and its  beaches.