How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over (15 page)

“You
are
very lucky children,” Tía Lola is saying, as if reading their minds. But she has her own reason for saying so. “In this country, children have only nuclear families: mama, papa. That’s it!” She holds out two empty palms. “So few to love and be loved by. Back home, we have huge
familias
, with
mamá
,
papá
,
abuelitos
, grandparents,
tíos, tías
, uncles and aunts,
primos, primas
, cousins and more cousins, and many
amigos
. Now you, too, will have a big
familia
in
this
country.” Tía Lola starts counting them off: Linda, Víctor, Daniel, Carmen, Abuelito, Abuelita,
el coronel.…

“But wait, Tía Lola,” Essie stops her. “Daniel and Carmen aren’t related to us.” She points to her sisters and herself.

“
¿Qué no?
Oh no? Of course they will be. Daniel is the father and Carmen will become the stepmother of your stepsisters. So they are your stepparents once removed!”

Essie can buy that. After all, the Espada girls have been calling Tía Carmen aunt for as long as they can remember. Carmen and Papa used to work together in the same law firm in New York. In fact, if Carmen hadn’t recommended Víctor for Tía Lola’s immigration hearing, this story wouldn’t be happening at all.

“Sometime this weekend, we will have a big meeting of the whole
familia
.” Tía Lola spreads her arms as if she
means to hug all of them. “Each of you will get your chance to tell your wishes.”

“Is there a limit?” Essie
would
ask.

“Because you are many, why don’t you each pick one thing that you’d like to see in the new family, and one thing you’d like to keep from the old one?”

For the rest of the evening at Tía Lola’s B&B, the children are quiet, thinking over their memories, their hopes, and their dreams. Even Valentino stares pensively into the fire, wondering how best to convey his own doggy desires.

Saturday night, after all the guests have had a day to settle in, Tía Lola calls for a gathering in the front parlor. “
Todos
. Everyone. Including our one-and-only
mascota
,” she adds. Valentino loves the Spanish word for “pet.” It makes him feel that he’s not just a pet, but the mascot of the family.

Tía Lola explains why she is holding this meeting. How they will soon all be one
familia
. How everyone in a
familia
gets a vote, just like in this great United States of America, with people coming from around the world to form one country together. “You, grown-ups, have had a chance to share your hopes and fears with each other. Now the children would like their turn.”

Tía Lola glances over at the children, sitting together for moral support. “Who would like to start?”

No surprise, Essie does. “We all agreed on the one thing we’d like to keep, Papa.” Suddenly, very uncharacteristically, Essie is stricken with speechlessness. She turns to her big sister. “You say it.”

“Thanks a lot,” Victoria mutters under her breath.
Essie
would
pull a “You’re the oldest” when faced with something she doesn’t want to do. “First, let’s each say what we want in our new family, okay?” she suggests, delaying the uncomfortable request.

This part is no problem for Essie. “I’d like for our whole new family—you guys, too …” She nods toward Daniel and Carmen. Before Papa can stop her with that look of his, Essie races through her wish: “I’d like us to all gotoDisneyWorldlikeyoupromised, Papa.” Earlier this year, Papa said he would consider a trip to Disney World. Instead, he brought his daughters to Vermont, which Essie has to admit turned out to be fun. But still. Essie can’t help feeling shortchanged.

Incredibly, Papa says, “Well, Essie, you’re in luck.”

Linda elaborates. “Your father and I have been talking about going to the D.R. so my
familia
there can meet our new family. Disney World is on the way—”

Before she can finish, the room explodes with cheering. Two cool trips in one! Essie especially goes ballistic, as her older sister calls it, high-fiving everybody, including Valentino. Finally she settles down so her little sister can have a turn.

“For something new, I want a little baby sister,” Cari whispers. “I promise I’ll carry her with both hands.” She shows how she will do it.

“We’ll definitely work on it,” Carmen promises her, biting her lip so as not to smile. “Except it might turn out to be a little boy. Would that be okay?”

“Just as long as it’s littler than me,” Cari says, relieved that her wish is being taken seriously.

Victoria levels one of her killer looks at Essie. Don’t you dare. It would be just like Essie to make fun of Cari by reminding her that a baby sister or brother has to be littler than she. But the look is lost on Essie, who is already far away in Disney World, zooming down Space Mountain, screaming her head off.

Victoria is next. She feels timid about wishing for stuff after her water polo boy-wish fiasco. She settles on something that’s not too personal—so she won’t feel awful if it backfires on her. “I know this is going to sound weird because we’re Mexican-Americans. But, Papa, like you’ve told us, you were raised almost totally in English. You guys know so much more Spanish.” Victoria nods at Miguel and Juanita. “I’d really like it if we spoke Spanish sometimes as a family. Like maybe even pick a day a week?”

Ding-dong
goes the homework warning bell in Miguel’s head. But Miguel also feels pleased to be complimented on his Spanish. And with Tía Lola in charge, this wish could turn out to be fun. Only problem is his little sister. Having a second language will only increase Juanita’s territory for showing off how special she is.

“
No hay problema
, right, Tía Lola?” Juanita says, as if on cue.

Victoria takes a deep breath. Here goes the awkward request. “For our family wish of something we’d like to keep …” Victoria hesitates. She doesn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. But with a stepmother about to enter the scene, all three sisters are aching for a way to include their own mother in this new
familia
.

“It’s about Mama.” Victoria glances toward her father, not sure that she should continue.

“Go ahead, Victoria. It’s okay,” her father reassures her.

“We want to keep doing something special on Mama’s birthday.” Then the harder words to say, “Just us.” This is a tradition they all came up with when their mother died three years ago. On the first anniversary of her birthday, the family went out to Montauk, a place Mama loved. On the second birthday, the family attended a concert of really pretty music Mama liked to play on the piano. This year they went camping by a waterfall where Mama and Papa had gone on their honeymoon.

Víctor pulls his three teary-eyed girls toward him. “Of course we’ll keep having our own special day,” he promises them.

“What a beautiful way to remember your mother,” Linda says, tearing up herself.

More than anything she could say, these words endear her to Víctor’s three daughters. They will not have to choose between their stepmother and their own mother. Víctor sighs, gazing with gratitude at his bride-to-be.

“Our turn,” Juanita pipes up, eager to say what she’d like to keep from her old family. She has done the math. There are four big bedrooms on the second floor in the old farmhouse, as well as two little attic bedrooms, one of them being Tía Lola’s. There isn’t enough room for everyone to have their very own bedroom. “I want to be able to keep my room by myself.”

“We’ll see about that,” her mother says noncommittally.

Juanita presses on as if her mother had said yes. “And
for my new wish”—Juanita steels herself not to look over at Essie—“I want to change the decoration of my room to be like a bride’s room.”

A shocked Essie comes hurtling back from Space Mountain. Another girly girl in the family! But Essie knows better than to show her disgust by sticking her forefinger into her mouth and risk Papa canceling the trip to Disney World until Essie learns her manners.

“And from my other family—”

“You’ve had your two wishes already,” her brother points out.

“But we’ve got two new stepparents.” Juanita appeals to their aunt. “Right, Tía Lola, that we can have two wishes for each new family?”

Before Tía Lola can deliver a verdict, Carmen pleads Juanita’s case. “I’d actually love to hear any suggestions for things to keep from your old family.”

“I want to be able to keep coming down any time we want to see Papi,” Juanita blurts out the minute Tía Lola nods. And then, without warning, she is crying. The adults all swing into consolation mode. Mami puts her arm around Juanita; Carmen squeezes her free hand; Papi strokes her head. “Of course, of course,” they all keep cooing like she’s a little baby.

If his sister had stuck to the rules, this meltdown could have been avoided. Especially since Miguel’s wish is this same exact one, and he could have said it for both of them without bawling.

Juanita gives her nose a final blow. “Your turn, Miguel,” she sniffles.

“Ditto on that wish,” Miguel says, trying to avoid another scene. “And for my new family, I’d like to have a friend stay over even if it’s a weeknight.” His
mami
is pretty good about letting him have friends over on weekends. But with so many girls around, Miguel will occasionally need another boy in the house even if it is a weeknight. “It’s just a lot of sisters,” he adds, as his mother is looking like she might veto his request. But the word “sisters” warms her heart. The thin edge of the wedge, Tía Lola would call it.

“Poor Miguelito,” Mami sympathizes.

There’s another wish Miguel would make if he thought it would do any good. He doesn’t want to be called “little Miguel” anymore. Bad enough that he’s losing his place as the eldest. At least he will continue to be the eldest son.

“Maybe we can have a man’s night out,” Víctor puts in. “Go to Rudy’s. Afterward catch a movie. In the summer, throw some pitches.”

This sounds awesome! But Miguel doesn’t want to seem too excited and hurt his father’s feelings. No matter how great a stepfather Víctor will be, he will never ever replace Papi.

“I think these are all cool wishes,” his father is saying. Víctor nods. Meanwhile, Linda and Carmen are both dabbing their eyes, touched by the loving spirit among all the families.

As if he were the gavel concluding the meeting, Valentino starts barking. The room explodes with laughter, thinking Valentino is just being his cute doggy-wanting-to-be-a-human-being self. He barks again, more insistently.

Tía Lola intervenes on his behalf. After several months, she has become quite proficient in dog language. “Valentino says he wants his turn. For his new wish for the new family, he would like to cast his vote to move out to the country, where he can run free.”

The children again break into cheering. The truth is, if you are going to be in Vermont, it makes sense to live out in the country, surrounded by rolling hills and green pastures. A dog can feel like he doesn’t have to die to be in heaven.

Tía Lola cocks her ear and listens to Valentino’s little barks and pants to be sure she understands. “As for what Valentino would like from his old family, he votes that we keep Tía Lola’s B&B open.”

Víctor and Linda are about to say, “We’ll have to see about that.” For one thing, how can they live in the country and still run a B&B in town? But they are drowned out by the renewed cheering and clapping of five children, two fairy godparents, and the insistent barking of Valentino.

The four parents exchange a worried glance. It’s as if they just now did the math and realized they are in deep trouble. Anything that comes up for a vote, they will be outnumbered.

There’s no denying there is a contradiction in Valentino’s wishes, which Víctor points out once the children have quieted down. They cannot both live in the country and run a B&B in town.

“At least we can grant half of your wish, old boy,” Víctor consoles Valentino. The family will move out to the farmhouse as soon as he and Linda marry.