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185 Chapter Twenty-Four Special Olympics Santa Barbara had a few distinctive neighborhoods, most of them close to the Pacific. Through WTP we had both become acquainted with the Mesa, a safe middle-class area where we rented an apartment on Rose Avenue for Stephanie, not far from where she had lived with the three other girls from WTP. It was a nice two-bedroom apartment, with a view of the sea, which she shared with a UCSB student in her late twenties. But she, too, turned out to be unreliable. Then Aida, our wonderful Aida, came back. She had missed her Stephanie—and I suspect her earnings in the United States as well. Stephanie was acquainted with some of the stores by now and went grocery shopping by herself. She made lists of the foods they needed and accounted for the money she spent. She never carried more than twenty dollars with her and came home with the correct change. She also lived within walking distance of City College, where she attended special education and gym classes. There she took ballet again. Capri still lived at my house but was allowed to visit. These months, however, were not without terrifying moments. Stephanie had met Jesse, a polite and nice-looking young man in one of her remedial classes at City College. He walked her home. She whispered to me that they had kissed. When she asked him why he didn’t work, he told her he was on disability because he was HIV positive. It was the beginning of the 1990s, and I had no idea that HIV was the precursor of AIDS and was contagious . How could I have been so ignorant? I sensed it was something serious, if a seemingly strong young man is considered disabled. I asked our gynecologist , Dr. Quijano, about this disease. He explained it to me. I was shocked. I knew that Stephanie had little self-control if she felt attracted to a boy. I needed information: was he bisexual? or did he get infected sharing needles when using drugs? Thinking about it, though, it didn’t matter how he became infected. The frightening aspect of it was that he had become infectious with this incurable disease. I took her home to stay with me to cool things down for a few days, to gain time and then make a decision. 186 Broken Butterfly She stopped going to her classes. When I spoke to Aida, she told me the young man had left letters at their doorstep every day. Stephanie let me read them, and they were the sweetest—if illiterate—letters. I was tortured with indecision. Yes, I knew she’d have to break up with Jesse, but how could I make her understand? I wished we could still purchase medieval chastity belts. She promised to see him as a friend only and never kiss him again. I knew I could not trust her promises. I needed her father to talk sense to her. He was not alarmed when I told him. His sister was in town, and he had to be with her. “Come see us with Farol then. Both of you,” I pleaded, “Please! Please come and talk to your daughter!” “No. Judy and I are leaving town the day after tomorrow. Maybe Farol can visit you; she’s going to spend a week in Ojai.” “Thank you for your help. You are the best father a girl could wish for,” I said and slammed down the receiver. Stephanie and I went to Ojai for a spa day. When I told Farol what had happened , her face grew red, and she set her mouth in a grim line. “How could he act like such a bastard,” she said of her brother. She spoke to Stephanie about the seriousness of this disease. “Stephanie, if you were infected you would die, a slow and horrible death. Our lovely Steffi, just think, you survived one terrible illness, but from AIDS there is no cure, no survival.” Stephanie bit her lower lip, and cried, “Jesse has HIV, not AIDS.” “HIV is the beginning of the disease, it develops into AIDS. Steffi please, listen . You can’t go on seeing this boy. Promise me, promise your Mom, that you will stop seeing him, please?” I knew Stephanie. She had no concept of disease or death and neither would scare her. The only one she would listen to was her father, and he was in Never...

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