The Mischievous Maria by Allen Henriquez

     Nothing of bright and shining significance existed in the life and lifestyle of the ever pleasant, amicable, and friend magnet type persona of Maria Sanchez.  She worked in a very popular dress shop on Rockaway Beach Boulevard near Beach 116^th Street in Rockaway,Queens.  Maria, an attractive woman of twenty-four years, had a good job, a high school education, and was taking college courses.  She joyfully fended off male suitors who competed for her affection, but their intensity and enthusiasm only made them appear childishly irrelevant.  Maria’s goal in life was to own a dress shop like the one she worked in.  The shop sold stylishly designed dresses, some the latest fashion, and others of an original design created by the owner herself.  Celia’s Smart Shop was owned and managed by Celia Azale.  Celia, a woman in her forties, fromCuba, came to theU.S. as a teenager with her mother, first intoMiami, then up toNew York City.

     A co-worker in the dress shop with Maria was one Valencia Maldonado.  Valenciawas also an attractive woman who was thirty years old and married, with no children.  Valenciaand Maria were good friends who took college courses at the same school, and went to church together on Sundays.  Valencia’s husband, Felipe, was on the custodial staff of the local elementary school P.S. 44 on Beach 112^th Street in the Rockaways.  Felipe was a good worker who loved his wife,Valencia, and hoped soon that they would have children.  They’d been married for three years and Felipe wanted very much to be a proud father, butValencia wanted to get her degree so she could be a teacher and then she would be ready to have a family. Valencia was also in delay mode regarding children because she was deeply in love.  Not in love with her husband, Felipe, but in love with the bus driver for the twenty-two bus in the morning, one Joseph Perez.  InValencia’s thought process the only major obstacle thwarting her was the overwhelming reaction she experienced when in the presence of Joseph.  However her resolve to the dilemma was Maria the magnet woman, men followed and chased her everywhere she went.  SoValencia had Maria sit in the front of the bus and put in the words of good cheer, and hopes of a rendezvous where even greater hopes and deeper meanings could be expressed freely.  And it was in its awkwardness easily expressed and the results favorable.  But the good favor and bubbling cheer was Maria having discovered the great love of her twenty-four years of existence, this one in the same, Joseph Perez.

To be continued…