Luci had stayed with him for much longer than she should have. She had told herself that everything would be okay—that when the kids got a little bit older, Tony would go back to being the sweet, kind guy he’d been when they were dating. And besides, he only shouted at the kids—he never hit them. And he hardly ever hit Luci herself, just a black eye here and there and the occasional bruised wrist from where he grabbed her as he yelled in her face…
Thinking of her rationalization now made Luci angry with herself. It wasn’t until she’d walked into her kid’s playroom one day and had seen the twins huddled, crying, behind their big sister while Frannie tried desperately to hush them that she realized she wasn’t the only one being affected by Tony’s rages.
“Oh, Mommy!” Frannie’s face had relaxed from its fearful grimace as she saw her mother. “We thought it was Daddy coming,” she explained, as she soothed her little brothers. “And we were afraid he would be angry if we made any noise—so we were trying to be quiet little mices.”
It was a wake up call for Luci—at that moment, she made up her mind to leave. Even though Tony had a good job and they lived in a pretty house in Carrollwood—a nice, upper-class area of North Tampa—and even though she knew she’d have a hard time making it on her own with three kids, it wasn’t worth it. She didn’t want her daughter to grow up frightened and her sons to think it was okay for a husband to hit and shout.
That day she had packed up everything she could and moved to her mother’s place down in Ybor City—the historic part of Tampa. They lived there for a while, while Luci got a job and worked through the divorce.
In order to keep Tony from fighting for custody of the kids—which he threatened to do, even though she knew he didn’t really want them—she’d had to give up almost everything. The house was still in his name and she didn’t get a dime from their shared bank account. About all she got to keep were her children, their clothes and toys, and the family dog, Lady. Well that and the crappy late model Ford Fiesta, which was currently dead in the Paws and Purrs parking lot, she reminded herself.
As soon as she got on her feet, Luci had moved her little family out of her mom’s tiny one-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow and into a small, cheap, two-bedroom in her current apartment building. She’d been able to do that because Dr. Canody had been kind enough to give her a raise and the extra hours she’d asked for.
Though her mom had protested that Luci and the kids could stay with her as long as they wanted, there just wasn’t enough room and besides, she needed to be closer to her work. Also, her kids still got to see their abuelita almost every day, since it was her mom who picked them up after school and pre-school and kept them until Luci got off work at Paws and Purrs.
Tonight had been her late night and now it was later still, she thought with a sigh, looking out the dirty window of the bus as it lumbered along the cracked pavement towards her end of town. Sometimes she felt like she was living life on a tightrope—just barely keeping her balance above the sea of debt and poverty which was constantly lapping at her heels.
She made just enough at the clinic to pay her rent and utilities. As for food, she just barely qualified for assistance so she could keep herself and her kids fed. Her mom helped with childcare or Luci never could have made it—after school care cost a crazy amount, especially with three kids. She would have had to stay with Tony without her mom’s help.
But Luci’s mom was barely scraping by herself. She was undocumented so she didn’t dare to apply for any assistance. Instead, she worked at a fashionable Mexican restaurant in South Tampa where she made the handmade tortillas they were famous for. Every morning she got up at the crack of dawn and went to The Blue Mesa to work for a pittance because they were willing to pay her under the table and not ask questions.
Her mom got off work just in time to drive her rusted out Chrysler Cordoba to the kid’s school and pick them all up. Then, after her shift was over, Luci would come and get them. They usually ate dinner together and then she took the kids home, gave them a bath, read them a bedtime story, and put them to bed.
Then she got up the next day and did it all over again.
Only how am I going to do it without a car? Luci wondered worriedly. How am I going to get the kids to school tomorrow?