“Love Is A Beautiful Gift That Keeps On Giving, When Two People Coming Together”

On a warm sunny day, Davis and Anita, while holding hands, are coming from the college campus after completing their calculus exam at 2pm. Anita was getting ready to go meet her parents in a small town called San Bajas in the rural areas of Guadalajara—a peaceful town with fascinating nature full of green grass with the rows of farmers collecting crops. Red, green, pink, and purple farmhouses around the area. The town San Bajas is full of blazing heat of the weather of 89 degrees. Anita’s house is in spoiler with ruins with chicken, pigs, and cows walking around near the poultry boxes. Davis stops her and asks if she wants to come over to his parents’ mansion. Anita feels like the whole wide world is turning against her when Davis asks her about coming to his house. Anita starts to shake as ants are creeping through her skin and eating up her brown skin. Anita is aware of the fact that Davis’ mother disapproves of their relationship. Anita knows that Davis’ mother wants a woman that comes from a wealthy background, not middle class background. Davis stares at Anita’s doting beautiful almond black eyes shaped like a dove, kisses her, runs his hands over her beautiful curly black hair, and then asks her again. Davis says, “Darling, I want us to come together and meet my parents. O darling, will you come over to my house?” Anita looks at Davis with a slight smile on her face, then proceeds to put her head down with an uneasy facial expression; pacing her eyes left to right like a helpless silent puppy. 

Davis asks, “What’s wrong, my love, what’s troubling you?” 

Anita replies, “It’s your mother! Your mother doesn’t want us to be together. So I don’t think it would be a great idea for me to come over.” 

Davis’ smile slowly fades away and he starts to look at Anita with a stern face and replies, “Sweetie, my father likes you and he has no problem with me bringing you into the house. Forget my mother and come over!” 

Anita decides to give in and accepts the offer for she doesn’t have enough energy to argue with Davis in the afternoon. 

Anita and Davis decide to walk three miles east from Guadalajara to Mexico City. They both reach Davis’ house at 167th street at Puebla Avenue. Davis’ mansion is full of yellow sparkling lights all over the interior of the house, beautiful expensive red, black, yellow, and green cars, with antiques. Davis takes his keys out of his pocket and proceeds to open the door. As he opens the door, his mother comes in. She looks at him with a disgusted face, wishing he didn’t bring Anita into the house. Davis’ mother, Juanita, hates Anita with a passion because she comes from a family of farmers, and lost both of her parents due to poverty and sickle cell anemia. Juanita wishes that Davis would settle for a rich beautiful girl named Lola and marry her. But, Davis’ father, Juan wouldn’t allow this arranged marriage to happen, for the sake of Davis’ happiness. Davis’ mother stares at Davis up and down and asks, “Davis, haven’t I told you not to bring this wretched girl into my house, have I not told you?!” Davis looks at his mother and says “Look mom, don’t you dare insult my darling Anita, if you don’t want to talk to her, fine. She’s not here for you!” Davis’ mother Juanita stares at Davis again with anger, sucks her teeth, and leaves Davis’ presence. Then, Juanita gives a warning to Davis, “If you marry this wretched fool, you will lose most of our family inheritance. So I suggest you marry Lola!” 

Davis looks at his mother, rolls his eyes, and then replies, “I DON’T CARE! GO RIGHT AHEAD! TAKE AWAY MY INHERITANCE, AS IF I GIVE A DAMN!” 

Anita says, “Look, I think I must go…It’s obvious that she doesn’t want me here.” 

Davis looks at Anita and is disappointed that she doesn’t want to stay over. Davis grabs Anita’s hand, kisses it, and takes her inside the house. Davis and Anita both sit at the sofas in the living room waiting for Davis’ father,  Juan to come over and have company with them. Anita is nervous and she can’t stand the dirty looks that Juanita keeps on giving her. Anita replies, “What’s the problem?” Juanita says, “My problem is your wretched self keeps on coming to my house, you’re not the one for my son!” Anita rolls her eyes and says, “LOOK, I’M TIRED OF THE DISRESPECT, IF YOU DON’T LIKE ME, I SUGGEST YOU STOP TALKING TO ME! I’M NOT INTERESTED IN CONSERVING WITH YOU OR HAVING ANY RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU! I AM ONLY HERE FOR DAVIS!” Juanita clutches her fists, raises her eyebrows, while her skin turned orange like fires were fuming in her body. Then, started to leave Anita’s presence. Then Juan comes in and greets Davis, then looks at Anita. He is delighted to meet her but Anita is sitting down with a frowned face, not wanting to pay attention to Juan. Juan tells her, “Don’t worry, child! Cheer up! I have a story I want to tell both of you.” Davis says, “Ooo, I love a great story time, this is very interesting. Anita, I think you should stick around and listen to this story.” Anita replies, “This is a great idea, but father, why do you want to tell us a story?” Juan replies, “I understand the problems that you guys are facing in your relationship. I understand societal pressures, especially people who have higher expectations of us can be our loved ones. But instead of focusing on trying to conform to people’s needs and values, you should focus on how this relationship makes you happy.” Then Juan continues telling Davis and Anita the story, he says, “Amaya was the daughter of Queen Amara Sandoja and the King Santiago of Sandoja in Mexico City. Gusman was the son of Queen Maria Sanchez of Cancun and King Alejandro Sanchez of Cancun. Both young people came from royal families. So why is there a conflict, why shouldn’t they get married?” Juan looks at Davis and Anita. Juan continues and says, “ Both kingdoms were fighting for resources, wealth, land, and power and they both hated each other, but not their children. Amaya’s family came from the country’s capital where it had an abundance of resources, wealth and power. In Cancun, it’s mostly rural and resources are scarce but the Gusman’s royal family were rich and greedy. Gusman’s family’s main goal was to control Mexico City and get rid of Amaya’s family to have everything for themselves. But the children have different goals that were separate from the families goals. Amaya’s goal as princess was to continue to make her kingdom prosperous, but she wants to live her life with Gusman and let their relationship grow into marriage. Gusman’s goal was similar to Amaya’s goal, wanting to marry the person that he truly loved. However, Gusman unfortunately lost a beautiful gem named María. She came from a wealthy background from Oaxaca and she was a threat to Gusman’s family position and wealth. María’s family wanted to restore Cancun into the prosperous city like it was before Gusman’s father took over the city and turned it into a corrupt cesspool. Gusman’s family was threatened by this and decided to kill María and her whole family, by burning their whole house on fire. They covered it up and claimed that the fire was accidental, but Lord knows they did this evil deed. Gusman was planning on moving to another city named Tijuana to live his life with Amaya, who agreed to escape with Gusman. But this is when the dark unknown occurred. Amaya and Gusman were almost on their way to Tijuana, but as they were driving to reach their destination, two kidnappers in a green van drove fast and hit their car. After the argument between the kidnappers and the royal couple ended, Gusman got kidnapped and Amaya was left in the car alone by herself. As they tied Gusman up and tossed him into the car, the kidnappers had a conversation about the kidnapping plan, and Amaya found out that Gusman’s parents orchestrated this whole plot to kidnap Gusman and plan on giving him up for an arranged marriage. Amaya was heartbroken by this, then ended up using a knife to stab herself. Gusman ended up going back to Cancun and got trapped into an arranged marriage. He was forced to marry Hannah who is the daughter of King Hamman. Unfortunately at the end, Amaya got buried in Mexico City near the jungle of San Marías, where the place looks abandoned with the dead.” Davis was saddened by this and says, “Wow! This story is very intense…” Anita replies and says, “Wow, I feel so sorry for the girl Amaya and María, they both loved Gusman but never had the chance. But the crazy part is these two young women come from royal backgrounds.” Juan said, “Yes! The purpose of this story is for you guys to understand that you should care about your happiness, happiness is all that matters. You don’t have to conform to your parents’ selfish desires. Had Amaya and Gusman known the type of parents they have, they should’ve planned their escape from the jump. Biggest mistake is that Gusman loved Amaya so much, but he only cared about his parents’ approval, which led to their escape plan becoming a failure.” Anita was shocked but now she understood what Juan meant and the purpose of this story really holds weight in real life. So Anita asked out of curiosity, “Father, how do you know these people?” Juan smiled and replied, “I used to work as a servant in the Sandoja Santajada Palace when I was in high school. Amaya trusted me so much because I was the only one who understood her more than anyone else.” Anita replies and says, “That makes a lot of sense!” Juan says, “It broke my heart to hear the news of her death, from there, that’s where I understand the importance of allowing people to have true happiness, freedom, and love.” 

Juanita was next door halfway in the hallway near the bedroom eavesdropping on Juan’s conversation with Davis and Anita. Juanita begins to get infuriated with Juan’s story, starts to walk faster like a cheetah, and then barges into the kitchen where Davis and Anita are conserving with each other about the story. Juanita yells at Davis, “YOU THINK YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT, RIGHT? WATCH ME! I WILL TELL YOUR FATHER TO REMOVE YOUR INHERITANCE!”  Juanita leaves the kitchen, then rushes into the living room dressed up in a pearl shiny dress with golden earrings and starts to raise her voice, “JUAN! ARE YOU ACCUSING ME OF BEING SELFISH TOWARDS MY SON?! ALL I CARE ABOUT IS HIM PICKING THE RIGHT WOMAN TO BE WITH AND YOU’RE TRYING TO INSINUATE THAT I ONLY CARE ABOUT MY SELFISH DESIRES, HOW RIDICULOUS!” Juan replies at Juanita with an annoyed face, “Darling, you need to understand the young couple. Love has nothing to do with money and class, love is all about trusting that person, being happy with that person, and building a foundation together.” Juanita says, “That girl is not rich! She’s not the one for my son! I want a woman who dresses in perfection and has class. Not wearing basic casual from freaking GAP!” Juan said, “SO WHAT?! You know I came from a middle class background when I met you. If you are so bothered by class and money, why don’t you marry a man that is rich like you?!” Juanita starts to step back and repositions her head with a heavy heart and weary eyes towards the window. Juanita replies, “Maybe you’re right, I think I was looking at the downside of things. I’m sorry for causing all of this drama, I just want the best for my son. She needs to be like the Jennifer Lopez archetype.” Juan replied, “It’s alright, you need to learn how to embrace Anita. I promise you, Anita is a good woman. You will love her.” Davis and Anita returned back to the living room from eating snacks in the kitchen. Davis looks at his mother with a puzzled face and then he narrows his eyes. Davis yells at his mother, “YOU DISGUST ME! YOU SAID YOU WANT ME TO LOSE MY INHERITANCE, GO AHEAD AND STRIP THAT AWAY FROM ME, BUT I DON’T WANT YOU TO CALL ME SON EVER AGAIN!” Davis looks at Anita and says, “ANITA, LET’S GO!” Juanita runs to the main door and tries to stop Davis and Anita from leaving. Juanita goes down on her knees and begs Davis for forgiveness, “I’m sorry my son, please forgive me.” Forgive me for causing you so much distress.” Juanita gets up to hug Anita and says, “I’m sorry that I mistreated you, Anita. I hope you have it in your heart to forgive me.” Anita says cheerfully, “Yes mother, I forgive you! We are all one family.”  Davis turns around to look at his mother, then he says, “I accept your apology, but on one condition, you will allow me to marry my beloved Anita.” Juanita smiles and responds, “Of course! Yes, you can marry her!” Juan comes in to interrupt the conversation, “Let’s enjoy dinner!” Davis replies “Of course, I can’t wait to taste some spicy chimichangas with fried rice!” The family goes to the dinner table and embraces each other while sharing the aroma of baked goods, and fresh meat at the dining table, breaking bread.

THE END!!!