How Tía Lola Came to (Visit) Stay Read Online Free

shaking maracas and swaying their hips to the music of Fernandito Villalona and Juan Luís Guerra and Rafael Solano.
    “If only Tía Lola could stay…,” Mami says wistfully as she sits on Miguel’s bed one night.
    Under his blankets, Miguel crosses his fingers. “You said it was just a visit,” he reminds his mother-How can Tía Lola stay? She is not willing to learn English.
    “Just learn a little bit,” Juanita tries to convince her,
“Un poquito, Tía Lola.”
    “¿Por qué?”
Tía Lola asks. There is no reason for it. She is just here for a visit. She can get along just fine without English.
    “But nobody around here speaks Spanish,” Juanita reminds her.
    “!Qué pena!”
Tía Lola is shaking her head. What a pity! If the Americans are so smart, how come they haven’t figured out that Spanish is easier than English? she wonders.
    Miguel rolls his eyes, “Easier for whom?” he mutters.
    “¿Qué dice?”
Tía Lola wants to know what Miguel has said.
    “Nada, nada,”
Miguel replies. After all, he doesn’t really want to hurt his aunt’s feelings again. Besides, as long as Tía Lola doesn’t know English, she won’t venture out on her own. She can be kept a secret.
    *   *   *
    There is only one problem with a top-secret aunt.
    A big-mouthed little sister in the second grade.
    “I need to talk to you, Nita,” Miguel tells his little sister one day after school He always uses her nickname when he wants a favor from her. He has come into her bedroom and closed the door. He puts on his serious older-brother face, and speaks in a quiet, concerned voice. “Tía Lola might be sent back unless we’re very careful.”
    Juanita’s mouth drops open. “But who’ll take care of me during the day till Mami comes homer
    Miguel grins. “I will.”
    Juanita looks worried. “Why would Tía Lola have to go back? She’s part of our family.” Juanita’s bottom lip quivers. For a moment, Miguel is not sure he can go through with it.
    “She’s been here one whole month. People are only allowed to visit for twenty-one days.”
    “Let’s tell Mami,” Juanita says, jumping up out of her bed.
    “Are you crazy?” Miguel says, yanking her back by the arm. “You know how worried and sadMami was before Tía Lola came? You want her to start worrying again?”
    Juanita shakes her head no.
    “We’ve just got to keep Tía Lola top-secret. You can’t mention her in school, okay?”
    Juanita nods slowly.
    “If our friends come to the door, tell her to hide,”
    Juanita starts to nod, but suddenly her mouth drops open. She claps a hand over it.
    “What?” Miguel wants to know. “You better tell me,” he pleads with his sister. “Or else!”
    “I can’t,” his sister says. “It’s a secret.” And before Miguel can catch her to sit on her and make her tell, Juanita runs out of her room and down the stairs.
    Soon there is a second problem with a top-secret aunt.
    Rudy begins his Spanish lessons.
    Mondays, when his restaurant is closed, Rudy drives over in his old red pickup. “Almost as old as me,” he likes to joke, patting it, as if the pickup were a barn animal. Rudy is tall and big-shouldered, with rumpled gray hair and thickeyebrows and red cheeks-He looks like someone who has lived in the Old West, but has retired to modern times in Vermont-When his wife died five years ago, he opened up a restaurant-“I love eating, but I hate eating alone,” he tells his diners-He is always giving discounts and coming out of the kitchen in a white apron, holding a big pot of something he has just “invented” for everyone to try out-
    The first night he steps into the Guzman house, he smells the mouth-watering odors wafting from the kitchen-“Wow!” he says-“Smells like heaven in here-”
    Tía Lola comes into the room bearing a tray of
pastelitos.
She is wearing her palm-tree dress and a pink flower in her hair-“Looks like heaven!” Rudy adds, reaching for one of the fried, spiced treats she is