CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER

ONE

S

ofia desperately needed a few minutes to recover after successfully escaping the family barbecue .

Blinded by the glare of the sun, she came around the corner of her father's ancient garden shed and ran her manicured fingers along the outside wall. Rough and bumpy. Flakes of blue paint threatened to come off at her touch. Though the sunlight was bright in her eyes, it did not reflect off the windows of the small building. It couldn't. Years of dust had built up on the glass, leaving them dull and unresponsive to the driving rays of the late spring afternoon.

The smell of freshly cut grass and newly watered flowerbeds pushing yellow and red tulips into the world filled her nose. The spicy scent of herbs growing nearby blended with smoke from her father's outdoor cooker on the patio. She took a deep breath in through her nose then blew it out through pursed lips. Again. Deep, calming breaths.

Normally composed, sometimes to a fault, she had suffered shortness of breath and sharp pains in her chest when well-meaning family members had cornered her by the cake table.

"Are you dating anyone, yet?" Her Tia Maria had asked.

Sofia always hated this question. She shook her head 'no', because she wasn't. She hadn't dated anybody for a long time.

"Now that you're

Dr.

Venegas will you take a look at this rash on my neck?" Tio Francisco joked.

She forced a smile. Everyone in her family knew that she wasn't a medical doctor, but her uncle would not stop with the jokes.

"When will you start working in your office?" Her wide-eyed seven-year old niece, Olivia, asked.

"Shh, Olivia," her mother, Sofia's sister-in-law, Shayna, said. "She doesn't have a job yet." Shayna gave Sofia an apologetic smile. "Although I'm sure she will very soon."

That's when Sofia had started having trouble breathing. Her lungs felt tight, like they were already full of air, forcing her to take shallow, panting breaths.

Henry, her oldest brother's boy, lifted a giant corner piece of her graduation cake from the nearby table and plopped it onto a gold paper plate. The cake was slathered in maroon frosting with gold sprinkles, the colors of the University of Denver where she had graduated with her doctorate earlier in the day.

Being 14, Henry was a little more straight to the point than the others. "How much money are you gonna make when you get a job, Tia?"

"Hey!" Her father pointed at the boy with his barbecue tongs from across the patio. "Don't be rude."

Esteban Venegas, Sofia's father, was a good four inches shorter than his grandson. This did not take anything away from his powerful patriarchal demeanor. He had worked in construction his entire life to take care of his wife and four children and had the build to show for it. Though he had just turned 65, he looked decades younger and he always commanded respect from his children and grandchildren.

Henry slumped a little and looked sheepishly at Sofia. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."

She tried to give her nephew a reassuring smile, but found it next to impossible, because she had started feeling tiny pricks of pain in her chest in addition to the shallow breathing. Was she about to have a heart attack smack dab in the middle of her graduation party?

Under the guise of getting some ice from inside, Sofia escaped her family's good-natured questions and ducked into her parent's house. She drifted to the quietest room, the formal dining room, which had a pair of French doors that looked out over the serene vegetable garden.

In the cool silence of the dining room she put her hand over the pains in her chest. She was too young to have a heart attack. This must be a panic attack. Years of hard work and the successful fulfillment of her own, and her parent's, dreams were now behind her forever. She was Dr. Sofia Venegas with a PhD in Computer Science from a prestigious private university. But she still didn't have a job.

What she did have was a void that she had always filled with academic pursuits. She also had a mountain of student loan debt and a sense of uncertainty about her future that had never before seemed so bleak.

That's when her eyes had fallen on the garden shed.

Sofia unlatched the rickety double doors of the shed and pulled them open with a squeak. The smell of potting soil, dried mud on old tools, and organic fertilizer washed over her. They took her back to all the times she and her friends had pretended this place was a house or a restaurant or a castle.

Walking across the uneven floor the rough wooden planks grabbed at her navy blue stiletto heels. She sat on her father's stool, careful to arrange her matching navy blue graduation dress so no dirt would get on it from the nearby potting table. There was no electricity in the garden shed, because it was almost exclusively used in daylight. That was okay. The meager sunshine that made it through the dirty windows matched her mood. Sofia sat in reminiscent silence, trying not to think about her future.

It wasn't like her to not have a plan. Since she was a young girl she had known she wanted to go to college. That dream had expanded into wanting to be called Dr. Venegas more than anything in the world. This morning that goal had been achieved. Now what?

Sofia suffered from perfectionism. Everything from the way she wore her long, black hair and chose the perfect eyeshadow to complement her green eyes, to her color coordinated outfits and the decor she chose for her apartment, to the way she budgeted her money and kept track of her schedule, all of it was meticulously planned. Even knowing that, she had not been prepared for the rollercoaster of her last semester at school. The coursework, the fear of what would come next, the colossal loan payments she faced, all caused her tremendous stress. Suffering through a panic attack in her father's garden shed she had to admit that while pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor, she had sort of turned into a total basket case.

Over the last year she had tried countless times to write letters of interest to possible employers, apply to open positions, network with colleagues, all to no avail. She always seemed to freeze up at the last moment, overcome with doubt and fear.

"Now what do I do?" she wondered out loud. The empty clay pots and gardening tools on the potting table did not respond.

She sighed.

"Knock, knock," a familiar voice sing-songed just outside the door.

Her cousin, Luna, poked her head around the door followed quickly by the unmistakable blonde head of their friend, Bridget, the owner of the voice.

"Anyone home?" Bridget continued her bright one-sided conversation.

Sofia cringed a little at being found hiding out in the garden shed. But if she was going to be discovered by anybody, these two were on her short list of preferred friends.

"Hi," Sofia smiled and tried to look composed. It didn't work.

Luna and Bridget stepped into the small, sagging building.

"What are you doing in here?" Luna asked, though Sofia was pretty sure she already knew the answer. She and Luna had hidden here to get away from family gatherings since they were little kids. In elementary school Bridget and their other friends, Angie, Tawnyetta, and Thomas, had joined them more often than not.

"This place hasn't changed one iota," Bridget exclaimed, picking up a dusty mason jar that held half used packets of vegetable seeds.

Sofia and Luna nodded in agreement. Luna pulled two more stools away from the wall and placed them on either side of Sofia before perching on one of them. She wore a flowing light blue dress with fluttery sleeves. The blue complimented her pale brown skin and darker brown hair. She cocked her head at her cousin, concern playing in her eyes.

"You okay?"

Sofia let out a loud sigh as her answer.

"Don't worry, we sent Angie to get drinks...and find Tawnyetta," Bridget told her as she carefully maneuvered her elegant sundress so she could position herself on the other stool and not get dirty. Bridget was a vision in a low cut, pale yellow linen dress. She had picked up a little bit of a tan while on vacation last month and wore it perfectly, as she wore everything.

Sofia smiled gratefully. She wasn't good at asking for help, but her best friends in the world always seemed to be there when she needed them most. As if on cue, Angie appeared in the open door holding two wine bottles. She wore a flower print cotton skirt that fell all the way to her ankles. A light green crocheted tank top went beautifully with it and helped show off her red curly tresses.

"Anyone thirsty?" Tawnyetta's slender frame came into view. The only married woman in the group, she had come back to Colorado from her new home in Scotland specifically to celebrate Sofia's graduation. Married life was treating her well. She looked healthy and happy, wrapped in a tangerine silk kimono style dress that showed off her athletic figure and short, spunky hairdo.

"Where's Mister?" Bridget asked. That was her nickname for the only guy friend in their group, Thomas.

"He's not here yet," Angie informed her. Bridget stuck her bottom lip out in a pout, annoyed at Thomas once again.

"Then he's gonna miss the toast!" Tawnyetta held up six empty wine glasses, three in each hand.

"We brought your Mom's homemade sangria," Angie told Sofia as she placed the two wine bottles on the table. They were still dripping from sitting in ice. A mixture of citrus and red wines, her mother made the deliciously potent sangria then poured it back into wine bottles to chill.

Sofia felt her cell phone vibrate inside her bra where she'd tucked it away before the graduation since she wouldn't have her purse. The other women's cell phones vibrated or rang in quick succession. They all fished their phones out from somewhere in their cleavage.

"Thomas," Luna said. She had been the first to retrieve her phone. "He just got here."

Bridget scoffed. She was always mildly irritated at Thomas when he wasn't exactly in tune with their social activities.

Sofia clicked her manicured nails quickly on the face of her phone and typed in 'garden shed'. He would know where to find them.

Minutes later Thomas arrived with a platter of her mother's tamales. "Your Mom gave me these for us," he explained.

"It's about time," Bridget complained at him.

Thomas wiggled his eyebrows up and down at her. "Hi, Bridge," he said with his most charming smile. He was still wearing the grey suit he'd worn to the graduation ceremony, minus the jacket.

"Where's Michael?" Thomas asked Tawnyetta. He had built up a friendship with her new husband, who happened to be the Lord of his very own castle in Scotland, when they had all met while on vacation there.

"He's learning about the Guatemalan heritage of Sofia's family from her Grandma," Tawnyetta answered with an amused smile.

Soon they were all sipping sangria and digging into the spicy steamed tamales with gusto. As Sofia chewed she looked around at her best friends, all dressed up and squeezed into the garden shed. They had made use of the various benches, barrels and wooden crates for seating and were eating and chatting with the kind of camaraderie that happens only after knowing one another since childhood.

Maybe it was the sangria, maybe it was the calming nature of the garden shed, or maybe it was being with her friends, Sofia didn't know why exactly, but she felt significantly more relaxed than she had earlier. Not totally anxiety free, but better.

"So," Thomas finished chewing and swallowing as he looked at each of them in turn. "Why are we here and not at the party?"

All eyes turned to Sofia whose pulse quickened again. She was in the middle of taking a drink and almost choked as she swallowed.

Luna took over for her. "Family," she said.

They all nodded knowingly and mumbled their condolences.

"But it's not just that, is it?" Angie asked in that half psychic way Angie sometimes possessed. Her deep brown, almost black, eyes watched Sofia with love.

Sofia shifted uncomfortably on her seat. No words came to her, just a hot lump at the back of her throat that threatened to turn into tears.

"Fifi, are you going to miss being in school?" Bridget guessed at the problem.

Sofia lifted one shoulder and let it drop as she shook her head. "Yes and no," she managed.

"I hope you're proud of yourself," Tawnyetta chimed in. "I know I'm proud of you." She looked at the others for support.

"Yeah, Sofia," Thomas said. "We're all proud of you!"

Luna reached over and threw her arm around her cousin's shoulders. "You're a doctor, girl! That's amazing!"

"I'm a doctor of nothing," Sofia blurted out.

There was a pause, then Thomas said, "I don't think they give those kind of doctorates out."

Sofia laughed, snorted more like it, and they all cracked up. Thomas stood and moved toward her, bending down to give her a sheepish smile and kiss her on top of her head.

Sofia wiped tears of sadness and laughter from her eyes and took a deep breath before admitting, "I don't have a job lined up. I haven't even looked for one...not really."

Her five best friends in the world looked at her, stunned.

"I tried to look for one. I sent out letters...well, some letters." She put her glass heavily down on the potting table. Rubbing her temples with the tips of her fingers she said, "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Her friends exchanged worried glances, but none of them had a great idea to throw in her direction. It helped that they were emotionally supporting her with sympathetic silence, but a great job prospect would also have been nice.

A soft knock on the side of the shed brought her out of her miserable reverie. Her mother, soft and round, peeked around the doorway. Her long, greying hair was swept into a stylish bun and a few loose tendrils of it fell sideways as her head stayed tilted to the side. She smiled at them.

"Hija," she said as she looked at Sofia warmly. "Everything okay?"

Sofia nodded assuredly. "Yes, Mama." Again her friends shared glances, but not so much that her mother could see.

Silvia Venegas stepped into the garden shed, effectively filling the only empty space in the center of the crowded little building. "You're all so grown up," she said, fluttering her hand at her throat as if to wave away any emotion that hovered there.

"Oh, Mama," Sofia went to her and gave her a hug. "We're just taking a break from the party. We'll be back out in a minute."

Her mother waved her hand again, but this time in the air as if shooing a pesky fly. "No, no, no, you have fun with your friends. You deserve it." She stood on her tiptoes and gave Sofia a kiss on the cheek. "But I forgot something," she said as she fished around in the wide pocket of her skirt.

"What is it?" Sofia asked.

Her mother pressed a thick envelope into Sofia's hand. For a moment Sofia was afraid it was money and started to refuse. There was no way she was taking any more money from her parents. She stopped short of speaking when she saw that this envelope had been stamped and mailed and was formally addressed to Miss Sofia Venegas. The return address was the official stationary of King's College in London, England.

"It came yesterday and I forgot to give it to you with all of the excitement." Her mother squeezed Sofia's hand. "It looks important."

As she stared at the envelope the heavy oppressive feeling that had wrapped around Sofia for months shifted into something else–a quivering sensation deep in the pit of her stomach, like when she was about to jump off of a diving board, or throw up.

"What's it for?" Luna asked.

"I don't know," Sofia answered.

"Open it," Bridget suggested. "Maybe it's good news."

Everything around her faded into a blurry background as Sofia slipped her nail under the back flap of the envelope. Her fingers trembled slightly as she pulled a fat packet of papers printed on expensive stationary from the envelope and opened them. A hushed silence hung in the air as she read through the first paragraph once, then twice, to be sure she had read it correctly.

"What is it?" Thomas finally asked for the group, who were all waiting impatiently for what appeared to be big news.

She looked up at them in disbelief. Gripping the letter tightly to make sure she didn't drop it or, worse, allow it to disappear into thin air, she answered, "It's a job offer."

As her friends erupted into congratulations around her, Sofia's nerves peaked again. The letter felt like more than just a job. It felt like a turning point. The problem was, Sofia didn't know what direction it would take her, and if it was the direction she really wanted.