How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over (4 page)

“I think we should have themes,” Essie suggests. “You know, a baseball theme in one room, a tropical theme in another.”

“I can really help with that one,” Juanita offers. After all, she and Tía Lola turned her own bedroom into a tropical paradise. Her four-poster is painted to look like palm trees, with fronds forming a canopy above her mattress. A parrot piñata hangs from the ceiling. Just being in her room is like going on a Caribbean vacation.

“I have extra posters and stuff,” Miguel offers for the baseball room.

“Maybe your father can paint a field of dreams on the walls, you think?” Essie recalls the beautiful painting Miguel’s father did of a baseball field. It was quite the sensation
when Papi unrolled it at the first big game that Miguel’s team played this past summer.

“Now, hold on there, Essie.” Her father has come around to liking this B&B idea. However, painting the colonel’s walls with murals is out of the question.

But Colonel Charlebois is all for Essie’s “brilliant suggestions.” They are two peas in a pod, always delighted by the crazy ideas the other one comes up with.

“We’ve got the baseball theme and the tropical theme. What about the third bedroom?” Victoria asks. She’s got that clipboard out again and is making lists of what sorts of things will be needed for each room.

“Well, this is New England; we should consider a colonial theme,” Papa proposes. They could go over to Fort Ticonderoga and visit the gift shop. “They have some authentic memorabilia.” Oh no, Papa is about to ruin everything, the big history buff. He’ll soon turn the room into a museum with a velvet cord across the doorway.

“I really think we should have one room that’s kind of … you know … sort of …” Victoria knows if she says “romantic,” Essie will stick her forefinger in her open mouth and pretend to be gagging. Papa has told her that it’s an offensive way to show disagreement. But that’s never stopped Essie from being a repeat offender. “I mean, what if a newlywed couple want to come for their honeymoon?”

“They’d come to our B&B?” Papa is doubtful.

“I would,” Victoria says brightly. “Not that I’m getting married any time soon,” she adds, because Papa is looking
at her with
that
look, like she’d better be careful, or he’s going to padlock her in one of these rooms until she’s at least twenty-one.

By Friday afternoon, Tía Lola’s B&B is ready to receive its first guests. The lush, colorful tropical room is reserved for Abuelito and Abuelita, who will feel like they’re back home on the island. Tía Carmen, as the Sword girls affectionately call their father’s former colleague, will absolutely adore the bridal bedroom, especially with her own wedding to Papi coming up sometime soon. (They have not yet fixed a date.) Meanwhile, Papi is going to love his baseball room. Although he does not play the sport, he is a huge Yankees fan. But the best part of his room will be the inflatable mattress beside the bed, where his son,
mi’jo
, will sleep, both under the same roof just like the old days.

It is Friday night of the guinea-pig weekend at Tía Lola’s B&B. The guests are being shown to their rooms before walking down the block to dinner at Rudy’s café.

Since its theme was her idea, Victoria gets to escort Carmen to the romantic bedroom.

“It’s like a bride’s fantasy in here!” Carmen exclaims, turning circles in delight. The curtains are lacy and white and held back by pale pink sashes. The bed is strewn with rose petals, and there’s a white canopy overhead with little doves dangling down. Even the air smells perfumed with roses.

“Do you really like it?” Victoria asks timidly.

“What do you mean? I adore it!” Carmen cries, hugging the pleased girl.

Victoria is relieved. Most of the little touches were her idea. But for days, every time Essie would walk by the room, she’d pretend she was going to be sick.

Next door, Abuelita and Abuelito are full of admiration for their tropical bedroom.
“¡Un paradiso de verdad!”
they tell Cari and Juanita. A real paradise. “Like being back in the Dominican Republic!” Who would have thought that by driving six hours north, Abuelito and Abuelita would feel closer to the tropical island they miss so much?

Meanwhile, at the end of the hall, Víctor and Essie and Miguel are showing Papi his room. It is packed with baseball memorabilia, including a life-size cutout of David Ortiz standing guard by the door. Even though Miguel’s
papi
is a Yankees fan, he loves the Red Sox slugger Big Papi, whose name he shares. “Amazing how you guys pulled this together.” Papi shakes his head in disbelief. Suddenly his eye is caught by the sign above the bed. “Is this for real? I mean, I thought we were your first guests.”

“You
are
our first guests,” Víctor confirms.

“But what about that sign?”

Víctor looks in the direction Papi is pointing. “Essie?” Víctor asks like it’s a question, but he already seems to know the answer.

“Well, it’s just decoration …,” Essie grumbles.

“It’s false advertising, is what it is.” Even if he doesn’t practice law ever again, Papa will never get rid of the lawyer he once was. “Please remove it, Essie.”

But Miguel’s father persuades Víctor to keep the sign with a slight revision. Using Essie’s marker, Papi inserts a few teensy words, so that the sign now accurately reads:

Meanwhile, upstairs in the attic, Tía Lola has finished unpacking her things in the big front attic room, where she will be sleeping. It’s a large, cozy room, where the kids like to hold their meetings. A bank of windows looks out on the street, so Tía Lola can check on the comings and goings of her guests. She also has a bird’s-eye view of the majestic maple tree with brilliant leaves in the front yard. Tía Lola opens the window and leans out to take a breath of fresh air.

Suddenly she remembers the letter. She sits down on the foldout couch and pulls the envelope out of her pocket.

This morning, Tía Lola had set out to town on her bicycle to put the finishing touches on Colonel Charlebois’s house while the children were all in school and Mami was at work. As Tía Lola was riding past the house with the B&B sign, a big, red-faced woman rushed out and flagged her down.

“
Buenos días
, good morning! How are you?” Tía Lola began. Not that she needed to ask. She could already tell from the look on the B&B woman’s face, and the violent way she thrust the letter at Tía Lola’s chest, like a punch, that the lady was very angry.

“¿Qué pasa?”
Tía Lola blurted out. What was wrong? By now, she knew enough English to be able to ask this
question in her new language. But she was so flabbergasted by the punched missive that the words tumbled out of her mouth in Spanish.

“This is America, and in case you haven’t noticed, we speak ENGLISH in this country.” The way the lady said “ENGLISH” made spit spray from her mouth.

Tía Lola wiped her face with her lucky yellow scarf, which made her feel better. “I can speak a little English, Mrs. B&B,” she offered in a friendly voice.

“My name is not Mrs. B&B!” the lady snapped back. “I’m Odette Beauregard.
Mrs
. Beauregard to you.”

“Very pleased to make your acquaintance, Mrs. Beauregard.” Tía Lola was about to give the woman a kiss on the cheek, which is how Tía Lola normally greets everybody. But Tía Lola was left kissing the air. The woman had already turned on her heels and marched back into her house, slamming the door behind her, although there was a sign on it saying
DO
NOT
LET THE DOOR SLAM
.

Tía Lola stood gazing at the unpainted, ramshackle house with the
VACANCY
sign out front. What could have upset the woman so? As she was getting back on her bike, Tía Lola caught sight of a pale girl who had been raking leaves in the backyard. She lifted a hand in greeting. Tía Lola waved back, but she didn’t dare say a word, as the poor girl looked terrified.

Tía Lola stuck the letter in her pocket and rode into town. She didn’t actually forget the incident, but soon she was caught up in all there was to do: checking all the guest rooms; making her little animal candies; drawing up the breakfast menus and going grocery shopping with Víctor.
Then the kids all came back from school. Mami swung by after work to pick up the colonel and his suitcase. The guinea-pig guests arrived shortly thereafter and had to be settled in. At long last, everybody is taking a short rest before setting out for the dinner special that Rudy is offering at his café to all of Tía Lola’s guests.

Tía Lola gazes down at the envelope in her hand. It is addressed, “To Tía Lola’s B&B.” How did the woman even know that Tía Lola’s B&B was in the works? There is no sign up front. There has been no notice in the paper. In fact, only two people in town know of the B&B plan: Rudy, of course, as they had to tell him in order to arrange the dinner special for their guests; and Stargazer, who helped out with some of the decorating, including ordering things like the dangling doves, the Big Papi cutout, the parrot lamp that sits on the bedside table between the two beds in Abuelito and Abuelita’s room.

So how did Mrs. Beauregard find out about Tía Lola’s B&B? Only one way that Tía Lola can figure out. Her little niece Juanita finds it extremely hard to keep a secret. Just yesterday, Juanita mentioned the visit she had with Mrs. Beauregard’s daughter, who actually bought three boxes of the chocolate mints Juanita was selling to help pay for her class’s field trips this year. The teenage daughter was in the backyard raking leaves and waved her over. She seemed so lonely. What was really weird is that she asked Juanita not to mention the purchase to her mother, if Juanita happened to run into her.

Juanita would not want to hurt the daughter’s feelings, but if she ever saw Mrs. Beauregard coming toward her,
sorry, but Juanita would run
away
from her. In fact, the only reason Juanita even stepped foot on the property was because she’d already seen Mrs. Beauregard pulling out of her driveway in her big black Buick.

Tía Lola opens the envelope and unfolds the letter. Of course, it is written in English, but Tía Lola can tell that Mrs. Beauregard is very upset: the handwriting looks like slashes on the page. Something something about “a foreigner opening a B&B.” Then something something about “decent Americans being prevented from earning a living because of people like you.” On and on and on. Toward the end of the letter, Tía Lola can pick out the words “report” and “authorities.” Mrs. Beauregard is threatening to report Tía Lola to the authorities? But what has Tía Lola done wrong that she should get in trouble for?

Tía Lola considers taking the letter to the children or to Víctor to translate. But why ruin this guinea-pig weekend with unpleasant news? A nice dinner awaits them at Amigos Café, and then tomorrow, Juanita’s birthday. Mami and Tía Lola have planned a party out at the farmhouse. All week, Víctor and the colonel and the children have been so happy. Tía Lola folds the letter back in the envelope and puts the envelope in her pocket.