Going Home (8 page)

We decided to stop at a small park that was far enough from school and our block so that we wouldn't bump into anyone we knew. Except for some older people feeding the pigeons, no one was around. We sat on a bench all by ourselves.

“July Second is when we all go to P.R., Vinny. That's not very far away.”

“I know. But think, Felita, you're going to have a wonderful time there.”

“I guess,” I said. But I was almost wishing I didn't have to leave; things were going so good here. “I wish both you and Gigi could come with us. You two are my very best friends.”

“I'm gonna miss you so much, Felita.”

“You are?” I was so pleased to hear him say that.

“Yes, and I hope you don't forget me.”

“Forget you, Vinny? You gotta be crazy!”

“Then promise that you'll write to me.”

“I promise,” I said. “Will you write back?”

“I promise, if you promise me one thing. . . .”

“Anything,” I told him.

Vinny put his arm around my shoulders, then leaned toward me and kissed me right on the mouth. This time it wasn't such a surprise, and when he finished, I kissed him right back. “Will you still be my girlfriend when you get back from Puerto Rico?” he asked.

My heart seemed to jump right into my throat. Up until that moment Vinny had never actually said I was his girl. “Yes, you know I will,” I told him.

 

I managed to get pretty good marks on all my tests except math. That's always been one of my worst subjects. I wish I had Consuela's brains for math. She's a whiz at it. At last graduation day came, and it was a great big success. Everybody kept admiring the decorations and the big album. I even got a special mention for my artwork and had to stand up and take a bow. Everyone clapped, and even though I was real nervous, I loved it. Mami, Tio Jorge, and Johnny were there, but Papi had to work and Tito had school.

Toward the end of the ceremonies Mrs. Feller told the whole graduating class to come up on stage and sign their names with Magic Markers in the big album. I had already signed my name first. Then we all began to say good-bye. Some of the kids were crying. They were sad because not all of us were going to the same junior high. Most of the kids lived in our district, but some others who lived in other areas had to go to a different junior high. For instance, Gigi and I weren't going to the same school. That really upset us both because we'd never been separated since we had started school together. But Consuela and most of the other girls would be going to my school and so would Vinny, so I couldn't stay too sad. When I said good-bye to Vinny again, he squeezed my hand and whispered to me not to forget to write.

That evening Mami cooked a delicious celebration dinner. Papi was home and all of us were real excited about our trip. Tio bought me a vanilla cake with pineapple icing that had been decorated with the words

Except for my parents, none of us had ever been up on an airplane before. Tio Jorge was the most nervous. “Birds are supposed to fly, not people. I don't like it,” he grumbled the morning we were leaving.

“Por Dios, Tio,” Mami said, “it's nothing. You're gonna feel like you are standing still. When I first came here from Puerto Rico twenty years ago, it was nothing; imagine today when things are so modern. Tell him please, Alberto.”

“Rosa is right, Tio Jorge, you have nothing to worry about. I guarantee it,” said Papi. “You will feel like you are sitting in the living room and not up in the sky.” Papi had been a mechanic in the air force before he married Mami, so everyone knew he was telling the truth.

“It's not natural ... I don't like it,” Tio kept on complaining.

“I can't wait to go, man,” said Tito. “You should've seen my buddies, man, green with envy.”

Mami went around the apartment double-checking to make sure the windows were locked and all the appliances were unplugged. “We are not coming back for two weeks,” she said, “so everyone make sure they got all their things packed away.”

The buzzer sounded from downstairs and we all filed out of our apartment. Chuco, my father's friend from work, was driving us to the airport in his car.

When we got to the airport, I felt so excited, because even though I've been there before, it's always been to greet somebody coming in or say good-bye to somebody going out. Now it was my turn to travel.

On the plane I got a window seat next to my parents. Tio sat next to Tito and Johnny in another window seat. They sat directly in front of us. When the engines started and the plane took off, I got so scared I held on to Mami's arm with both hands.

“It's gonna be all right, Felita. In a moment we will be high up and you won't even feel like you are moving.” She was right. After a while all the buildings and water down below disappeared and all I could see outside was a white fog. The plane felt like it was standing still. When the drink cart came around, I ordered a ginger ale and the flight attendant put a cherry in it for me. Later we had lunch. The food looked a whole lot better than it tasted. Still, it was fun to get my very own tray. It made me feel like a grown-up. I got up and walked around, but there wasn't any place to go to. I saw that Tio Jorge was sleeping. My brothers were reading sports magazines and listening to music on the headphones. I went back to my seat, put the headphones on too, and before I knew it I fell asleep. Mami woke me to tell me that we were going to land in San Juan in a few minutes.

“Look, Felita,” Mami said. “There are palm trees!” When the plane landed, all the passengers applauded. We got our luggage and went toward the exit. In the airport lots of people were waving and calling out names in Spanish. We heard somebody call out our names. From the pictures we had at home I recognized my mother's sister, Aunt Julia, and her brother, Uncle Tomas. They came running over with Mami's father, Abuelo Juan, followed by two little kids, a boy around nine and a girl around seven, as well as two older boys around my brothers' ages. I knew from the pictures at home that they were my cousins: Carlito, his little sister Lina, and José and his brother Tony. Mami and Aunt Julia began to cry, but it was Abuelo Juan who was crying the loudest.

“At last!” he said, wiping his eyes and blowing his nose, “I've seen my daughter and my grandchildren. I'm content now and ready to meet my maker anytime.” Abuelo stepped back and looked carefully at me and my brothers. “Now, do you children understand your grandfather? Do you understand Spanish?” We all said yes. “Very good,” he said in English and laughed. “I know a little English too, listen: ‘How much it costs, please? Sorry, is too much money!' ” Everyone laughed with Abuelo. Then Uncle Tomás picked Mami up and spun her around.

“Rosita, you look as beautiful as ever!” I noticed that Aunt Julia, Uncle Tomás, and Mami all had dark complexions like Abuelo Juan as well as his same smile.

We split up into two cars. It was very hot and the sun was so strong that I had to squint to see clearly. But once we got into my uncle's car, he put on the air conditioner and it got cool and comfortable. All through the ride to Abuelo Juan's, Lina kept on holding and squeezing my hand.

“Felita,” said Uncle Tomás, “ever since Lina heard you were coming here, she has talked of nothing else. Every day she asked us, ‘When is my cousin, Felita, coming from New York?' ”

“That's right”—Lina hugged me—“you are going to be my very best friend, right?”

“Sure”—I looked over at Carlito—“and your brother's friend too.”

Lina whispered in my ear, “You don't wanna be his friend, all he's interested in is sports.”

“Here we are.” Uncle Tomás pulled up in front of a house painted bright green with white and yellow trimming. I noticed that all the houses in the neighborhood were painted in two or three colors and had lots of flower pots on the porches. Inside Abuelo Juan's house a chubby old lady wearing a large apron came over and started hugging everybody.

“Just call me Abuela Angelina, or plain Abuela. I know I cannot take the place of your real grandmother, who is now in heaven”—Abuela Angelina made the sign of the cross—“may she rest in peace. But I am your other grandmother now, and I love you all because we are family.”

“Angelina is a wonderful cook,” Abuelo said proudly. And something sure did smell delicious.

Everybody sat down at a long table. In front of us were large platters filled with yellow rice, red beans, root plants with garlic and olive oil, fried fish, meat, avocado salad, all kinds of vegetables, and fresh bread.

“You can't eat like this where you people come from.” Abuelo kept piling food on everybody's plate. “This here is authentic Island food. One hundred percent Puerto Rican!” Everything tasted delicious.

“Papa, I'm going to steal my sister away from you,” said Uncle Tomás.

“Oh, no, no sir.” Abuelo reached over and hugged Mami. “I've waited too long to see my daughter and her family, so you will just have to wait your turn.” It felt so nice being with all my new family. I knew they were not really new, but since I'd never met them before, it felt that way.

“Rosa, Alberto,” Abuelo suddenly said in a serious voice, “how come your children can hardly speak Spanish? Not so much Felita, she does all right. But the way the boys speak is a disgrace! Why didn't you teach them the language of their parents and grandparents? Why?”

Mami looked very upset. “Papa, it's hard to teach the kids Spanish because everyone back in the States speaks English. Two languages would have only confused them. We wanted them to concentrate on their schoolwork, not on speaking Spanish. Besides—”

“Nonsense!” Abuelo interrupted Mami. “It wouldn't have done no harm. Especially if you would have taught them in the home. I cannot understand how folks can leave here and then forget their language. It's not right! I don't like it!”

Mami sat perfectly still with her head bowed. I could see she was feeling miserable. In fact she reminded me of myself when I got hollered at by her and Papi. I looked over at my brothers, but they kept their eyes lowered too. No one was saying a word and there was dead silence at the table.

Finally Papi said, “Listen, Don Juan, sometimes things happen that we have very little control over, okay? But now we are doing something to remedy the situation. Johnny and Tito are studying Spanish in school and while they are in Puerto Rico, they can learn even more. As for Felita, by the time she gets back home after the summer, she'll be talking Spanish like a parrot.”

“Very good!” Abuelo stopped looking angry. “I'm glad, Alberto.” He looked at my brothers. “Now you two boys will begin to learn to speak Spanish properly like real Puerto Ricans and not like the gringos. Understand?”

Johnny and Tito looked like they wanted to bolt right out of there. Was I glad for my lessons with Vinny! At least I could speak a whole lot better than my brothers.

That evening I met so many relatives I never even knew I had, like all kinds of cousins, aunts, and uncles. Most of the grown-ups sat out in back talking. I could hear Mami's laugh and Papi's voice coming through all the other voices. The real little kids were inside watching T.V. Lina kept on following me around and babbling nonstop. I was beginning to feel like I was Consuela minding little Joanie.

Most of us kids were hanging out on the front porch. In fact it looked like most of the neighborhood was doing the same. Cars and trucks kept coming down the block so that the kids playing out in the street had to jump back onto the sidewalk. When an ice-cream truck came by and parked by the corner, Abuelo bought all of us ice cream. As I sat on the steps watching the action, a strange feeling came over me: I felt like I had been here before. Then I realized that in so many ways it was just like I was back on my own street. The traffic, the grown-ups and kids hanging out, and the ice-cream truck were so much like home.

But here everyone spoke Spanish and being outside was real easy. You didn't have to go up and down the stairs or go in and out of big buildings. Also there were so many plants and trees around that it felt and smelled like I was in the park. I thought about all my friends, especially Gigi, Consuela, and Vinny. Right now I bet they were hanging out just like me. How I wished they could all be here with me and see some of this.

Some of the older kids were playing disco on a cassette player. Tito had gotten up and began explaining in his broken Spanish all about break-dancing. I couldn't believe it. He began to give a demonstration. I went over and stood by Johnny, who smiled at me and whispered, “What a show-off that Tito is!” Really, Tito didn't break-dance all that good. Back home they would have laughed him off the street, believe me. But here they didn't know the difference. There were two older girls watching Tito, one around fourteen and the other around sixteen. I could see he really wanted to impress them. When he finished his break-dancing, he walked right up to them and went into real loud rap-talking:

Everybody laughed and clapped for Tito. Even though we knew what was happening with our brother, Johnny and me had to admit that sometimes Tito could really be fun.

 

Early the next morning we all went to visit Old San Juan. We saw a large cathedral, a museum, and an old fortress. Mami and Papi kept on saying how much things had changed. “All these expensive restaurants and boutiques!” Mami was outraged. “We might as well be back in a fancy neighborhood in New York.”