How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over (2 page)

Everyone but Essie, who rolls her eyes. But before she can naysay handstand lessons, Essie is stopped by a look from her older sister. It’s one of those if-looks-could-kill looks that Victoria is so good at. Maybe her older sister should hire herself out as a hit man. No fingerprints, no smoking gun. Just a glance. She’d be in high demand. No one would suspect the sweet, responsible Victoria of being a killer.

But Victoria isn’t feeling particularly sweet or responsible. She glances down at her list. Except for Tía Lola’s offers, the rest are ridiculous! Baseball tutoring? Sword fighting? Handstand and ballet lessons given by a five-year-old? It takes all of Victoria’s self-control not to bunch up her sheet of paper and toss it into the trash can.

As they ride their bikes home from town, Tía Lola and Miguel and Juanita are quiet. Each one is still preoccupied with how to help the Espada family.

At the corner of their road stands the two-story house where Papi and Carmen have sometimes stayed on weekend
visits. Tía Lola stops, head cocked, reading the sign:
BRIDGEPORT B&B

“Miguel and Juanita, I always forget to ask when we pass this place. Why don’t the owners finish the sign?”

“Finish it, Tía Lola?” Miguel doesn’t understand. It’s the same old, weathered sign that’s been up since before they moved to this road.

“Aren’t the owners going to spell out their names?”

Miguel smiles, amused. Tía Lola arrived in the United States only last year, and sometimes she doesn’t understand how things work here. “A B&B is the name of a kind of hotel in someone’s house, like staying with a friend, but you have to pay for it.”

“That’s a shame,” Tía Lola says, shaking her head in disapproval. “To charge your friends.”

“But they’re not really your friends,” Juanita adds. “It’s just a way for a family to earn some money. Using their own house as a hotel.”

A look has come over Tía Lola’s face that Miguel and Juanita know well. The opposite of a if-looks-could-kill look; it is a if-looks-could-save-the-world look. The beauty mark on her forehead glows like a bright star. Some fun and fantastic idea is brewing in their aunt’s head. Before they can stop her, Tía Lola has turned her bicycle around and is pedaling back to town. “Hey, Tía Lola! It’s this way to our house!”

But Tía Lola can’t hear them. By now she is a distant blur. And all Juanita and Miguel can do is turn their bikes around and try to catch up with her.

“I have a solution!” Tía Lola has burst into the room where Colonel Charlebois and the Espada girls have just sat down to tea. Miguel and Juanita trail in behind her. All three are out of breath after their fast and furious bike ride into town.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Colonel Charlebois exclaims once he has settled Tía Lola in a chair. “A solution to what?”

“Oh, just a family project,” Victoria says vaguely. She casts a warning look over at Essie and Juanita, the two blabbermouths. If they confess to the colonel that Papa doesn’t want to be a lawyer anymore and can’t find any other job, the colonel is liable to throw the Espadas out of the house. No, wait; that’s not what the kind old man would do. He’d probably try to give them charity, which Papa would never accept. Victoria doesn’t get why her father has to be so against charity. After all, he named his own baby girl Caridad, which means “charity” in Spanish.

The colonel rises from his chair. “If you’d like to have this conversation in private …”

“No,
coronel, por favor
, you must stay.” Tía Lola has finally caught her breath. Her heart has settled down. “This solution will require your permission and participation.”

Now it’s the colonel’s heart doing a little skip and jump. Not since his army days traveling all over the world has he felt this stirring of excitement. There’s life in the old man yet! He sits back down in his chair, eyes gleaming. “Go on.”

First things first. “What does a B&B stand for?” Tía Lola asks.

“A bed-and-breakfast,” the colonel says without hesitation. “Guests pay for a bed and their breakfast.”

“And how much does this guest pay for this bed and this breakfast?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m not in the market for a B&B, so I’ve not kept up with prices. Why are you asking, if I may ask?”

“
Bueno, coronel
, you may soon be in the market for a B&B, so if you would be so kind as to find out what it costs, we—”

“You mean you’re throwing me out of my own house?” the colonel cuts her off gruffly. He has a look of alarm on his face, but there is a twinkle in his eye.

“
Ay, coronel
, where are my manners?” Tía Lola has forgotten to ask first if the colonel would entertain her moneymaking solution. “Remember how you said you prefer living with company?”

“Well, yes. But I’ve got very fine company here now.” He nods at the three Espada girls, who are all looking quite perplexed.

“But they are your renters, and I am speaking of guests.”

“Guests, you say?” The colonel scowls, but even the Espada girls, who have known him only a couple of months, can tell he is intrigued. “But where will we put them?”

“Here is my proposal.”

They all pull their chairs around the tea table as Tía Lola draws a ground plan of Colonel Charlebois’s house. On the first floor, the colonel can keep his bedroom. But if the Espadas move one floor up to the little attic rooms,
that would free up three bedrooms on the second floor for B&B guests. “What do you think,
coronel
?”

Everyone turns expectantly to the old man. The Espada girls are ready to throw themselves at his feet and beg him to please, please, please let them run a B&B out of his house.

This could be sooooo exciting, Victoria is thinking. Maybe a family with teenage boys will stay here. Papa has absolutely ruled out even talking about dating until Victoria is in high school. But if boys are guests, Victoria can hang out with them and not have to disobey her father.

Maybe a famous baseball player will come to their B&B and befriend the amazing athlete Esperanza Espada. Essie’s heart soars. She can already see herself at Fenway Park, a guest of the Red Sox, sitting in their dugout.

Cari doesn’t care who comes, just as long as it’s not someone scary. But then she remembers Colonel Charlebois is a hero with medals for his bravery. He would defend her. And there’s always Valentino.

Although this B&B won’t be in their house, Miguel and Juanita are excited, too. First of all, anything Tía Lola thinks up is sure to be fun. Second, winter is coming, that boring time of year when you can’t go outside and play baseball or grow flowers. It’ll be good to have a fun project in town.

Colonel Charlebois takes a big breath, as if he were about to blow out all eighty-five candles that will be on his birthday cake this December. “I think it’s a terrific idea!”

A cheer goes up. High-fiving all around.

“What shall we call our B&B?” The colonel looks around the room.

“I know, I know!” Cari raises her hand, but she doesn’t wait to be called on. “Let’s call it Tía Lola’s B&B.” She puffs out her little chest with pride at being the first to come up with the best name in the world.

Tía Lola thanks Cari, but she cannot accept this great honor. “It is Colonel Charlebois’s house. It must be ‘Colonel Charlebois’s B&B.’ ”

But the colonel disagrees. “Sounds too much like a military barracks. No one will want to stay here. Don’t you see, Tía Lola? Your name adds a touch of exoticism—”

“What’s exorcism?” Cari wants to know. After all, the name was her idea, so she wants to understand what kind of touch her suggestion is adding.

“Ex-o-ti-cism,” Colonel Charlebois pronounces. “It means something out of the ordinary, exciting, and enchanting.” The children’s faces light up, but Tía Lola keeps shaking her head.

Victoria steps in. “We’ll settle it with a vote. How many for ‘Tía Lola’s B&B’?”

Everyone except Tía Lola raises their hand. Valentino barks his agreement.

“ ‘Tía Lola’s B&B,’ it’ll be!” Victoria announces. Everyone except Tía Lola is on their feet cheering.

Cari suddenly remembers. “Doesn’t Papa have to vote, too?”

It’s as if someone has thrown a big bucket of icy water on their fired-up heads and hearts. They all let themselves slowly back down into their chairs.

“I guess Papa does have to vote.” Victoria is nothing if not fair.

“Well, that’s the end of that solution,” Essie says in a gloomy voice. “You know Papa, and how he doesn’t want to impose on Colonel Charlebois.”

“This is my house!” Colonel Charlebois reminds her. “I can do what I want here.”

“Try telling that to Papa.” Victoria sighs. Valentino, who understands the language of sighs, comes over and licks her hand.

It’s as if a glove has been flung in challenge at the old soldier. “I
will
tell him. If I want to turn my house into Tía Lola’s B&B, you better believe I will, no matter what Víctor Espada has to say about it!”

They’re all back on their feet again, high-fiving and cheering. Which is why no one hears the front door open or the footsteps coming down the hall toward the room where there’s quite a commotion going on.

Papa is at the door, arms folded, looking disapprovingly at his daughters. “Girls, you need to keep your voices down. This is Colonel Charlebois’s house.” For some reason, his reminder brings on a renewed round of loud laughter.

“Would someone care to tell me what is going on?” Papa asks sternly.

The children all raise their hands.

But Colonel Charlebois pulls rank. “I’ll do the explaining here,” he says. “After all, this
is
my house.”

Papa’s first response to the idea of a B&B in Colonel Charlebois’s house is no surprise. “Absolutely not!”

“But, Víctor, you say yourself you are unhappy practicing law because people are always arguing,” Tía Lola reminds him. “What you love is making people happy.”

“Where did you get that idea?” Víctor asks. The question is addressed to Tía Lola, but Papa is looking pointedly at his three daughters as if he already knows the answer.

“I’m sorry, Papa.” Victoria knows her father’s change of heart is a family secret. But Miguel and Juanita are like a brother and sister, and Tía Lola is like a special aunt and second mother rolled into one.

Papa can’t deny being pleased that his daughters have formed such a strong bond with Linda’s children and aunt.
But what good will that do him if Linda breaks up with him? And who could blame her for getting cold feet at the prospect of marrying an unemployed man with three young daughters?

“This will be an opportunity to make people happy, to make yourself happy.” Tía Lola goes on to describe the many guests who will come to their B&B, the happy times they will have, the oodles of money these guests will spend. “They will shop at Estargazer’s store; they will eat at Rudy’s café; they will get gas at Johnny’s Garage and buy pet supplies at Petey’s shop. You will be helping us all by agreeing to this plan, Víctor.”

Initially, Víctor dismissed the idea because he feared imposing on the colonel. But now it seems that by agreeing to a B&B, Víctor will actually be saving the small town of Bridgeport from bankruptcy.