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

offering him-Rudy is not shy-He eats seven of them-
    From that moment on, the Spanish lessons turn into cooking lessons followed by a cup of espresso and a merengue dance lesson to top off the evening-Sometimes, Tía Lola throws in a little Spanish vocabulary between servings of whatever she has made that night-
    “Arroz con habichuelas,”
Tía Lola pronounces.That is the name of the rice and beans she is piling on Rudy’s plate.
“Con un poquito de bacalao.”
With a little codfish.
    “Sweetheart, honey,” Rudy says, between mouthfuls, “I don’t care what it’s called. This is
magnificatl”
Rudy was an altar boy when he was Miguel’s age, and Mami says that sometimes Rudy’s Spanish sounds a lot like Latin. “Lola, I just love your cooking!
Adoremus! Adoremus!”
    “He’s not learning much Spanish,” Mami complains one night after Rudy has left.
    “¿Qué importa?”
Tía Lola says. What does it matter? Monday nights prove her point. You don’t have to speak the same language to have fun with other people.
    Some nights, when the dance lesson begins, Rudy pulls Miguel to his feet from the table. “Venzte,
venite”
he urges in his mangled Spanish. Miguel doesn’t dare refuse. He has found out from Dean and Sam that, in addition to running a restaurant, Rudy is the coach for the Little League team. By the time practice begins, when Rudy might say something to Miguel’s friends about his top-secret aunt, Tía Lola will hopefully be gone.
    “This is just a visit,” Miguel keeps remindinghimself as he shakes the two maracas in his hands.
    It is the first of March, and Miguel has already started his countdown. In thirty days, seven hours, and twelve minutes, it will be exactly midnight, and the day of his birthday. Back in the city, he has always thought of his birthday as a spring birthday. But here in Vermont, spring never arrives until late in April “If we’re lucky,” one of their neighbors, farmer Tom, has explained to him. “Makes for a long winter, I admit, but it keeps the flatlanders away.” Miguel doesn’t need to ask what a flatlander is. The look on Tom’s face says he doesn’t think very highly of them.
    But even if spring is over a month away, there are hopeful signs. On weekend rides in the countryside, Miguel can see steam rising out of the sugar houses. When the family sits down to supper, there is just a tinge of light in the evening sky.
    At the supper table one night, their mother asks Miguel and Juanita what happened that day inschooL Then she asks Tía Lola what happened that day at home.
    Tía Lola tells them that a man in a brown suit came to the door. But because the man was not El Rudy and Tía Lola has been told not to let in any strangers, she waved at him to go away.
    “!Ay,
no!”
Miguel’s mother says. “That must have been the UPS guy. I’m expecting something—” She glances over at Miguel, and then back at Tía Lola, raising her eyebrows slightly.
    Miguel sees a secret look traveling between his aunt and his mother.
    “I’m expecting something, too,” he says, in case anybody should be getting forgetful at this important time of year. His birthday is coming up in ten days, five hours, and thirty-three minutes.
    “!Ay,
Dios mío!”
his mother says, as if she just now remembered it.
    “How you doing,
tiguerito!”
His father is on the phone. It is Saturday morning. In five more days, fourteen hours, and fifteen minutes, it will be Miguel’s birthday. “What you planning for the big day?”
    “Nothing much,” Miguel replies. He feelssad. This will be his first birthday without his father-No matter how special it is, it won’t be special enough-
    “Have you thought about what you want?”
    Of course he has-More than anything, he wants his parents to be together-But he can’t say that-He has already mentioned a few things to his mom: a new bat; a baseball signed by Sammy Sosa, who also came from the Dominican Republic, like Miguel’s parents;