How Tia Lola Saved the Summer

by Julia Alvarez

  “Awesome,” he says, but suddenly the only three Latinos he has ever known are laughing. “What?” he asks, baffled.

  “I am pulling your toes,” Tía Lola explains. She often gets her English expressions mixed up.

  “You mean pulling his leg, Tía Lola,” Victoria offers when she manages to stop laughing.

  “It was only a little joke I play on Owensito,” Tía Lola explains, “so I only pulled his toes this time, but next time, he better watch out that I don’t cut off his head.”

  She brandishes her sword like she means business. Owen ducks, pretending to defend himself. In doing so, he lets go of Miguel’s right side, so that accidentally, Miguel steps on his sore foot. And what a surprise: the ankle is tender, but it doesn’t really hurt him anymore!

  By the time the British regiment has shot its first cannon, and the light infantry has marched across the green at Fort Ticonderoga, the team has been practicing for an hour and is ready for a break. Tía Lola and Victoria come down from the house with a tray of homemade cookies and two pitchers of lemonade.

  “Where is the coronel?” Tía Lola asks, looking around. Colonel Charlebois usually shows up at the team’s practices.

  “Down with a cold,” Rudy sighs. It was a job convincing the old man to take a day off. “How’s our other wounded soldier?” Rudy asks, nodding at Miguel’s foot.

  “Super!” Miguel demonstrates, taking a few tentative steps. He is so ready to play ball.

  But Rudy isn’t sure that ankle is ready. “I hate to be the heavy here, Captain. But how about we give it one more day?”

  Miguel shoots Owen a desperate look. But as the assistant, Owen has to back up his coach. Owen relates how he himself messed up his pitching arm last year by playing too soon after an injury. You’d think he almost died or something; Victoria looks like she’s about to faint.

  “Owen’s right, Miguel,” Victoria pleads. “Please, just one more day, please.” She looks almost as worried about Miguel as she did about Owen.

  The truth is that it’s hard to resist a pretty girl acting like you’ll break her heart if you ignore her request. It helps that she sits down beside him on the bench, needing a lot of help with the rules and moves of baseball.

  One thing leads to another, and before long, Miguel is telling Victoria about his apprehensions for the weekend.

  “What exactly are you worried about?” She is such a good listener, letting him finish without interrupting, thinking about what he says before responding.

  “I was worried that I wouldn’t get to play at all. Now I guess I’m afraid we’ll lose. I also worry Papi might feel bad about your father and my mother.” He doesn’t want to sound like he is criticizing Víctor, whom he actually likes a lot, which is part of the problem. Feeling like he’s not being loyal to Papi.

  “But didn’t you say your father and Carmen are engaged to be married?”

  “I know.” Miguel shrugs. He picks up his sword lying beside him and whips it a few times in the air. “You know what I’d do if this sword were magic? I’d use it to get rid of worries. Wham, wham, wham!”

  Victoria is smiling at him. “So, what’s holding you back, Michael?” she teases. Just then she hears an echo deep inside her, asking, So, what’s holding you back, Vicky?

  That night at dinner, everyone is full of stories of their lovely day. The Fort Ticonderoga contingent almost go to battle themselves over which was the most exciting part of the reenactment: the redcoats firing their cannons, or the infantrymen marching in formation, or the colonials ambushing them just beyond the refreshments stand, or the loyalists waving their white flags in surrender.

  The stay-at-home group listen tolerantly. They don’t seem in the least bit envious, which is odd. After all, they didn’t get to watch the birth of the United States of America right before their very eyes and on the day after the Fourth of July. Miguel didn’t even get to play baseball, spending a second day just watching from the sidelines. Meanwhile, all Victoria got to do was help Tía Lola bake cookies and make lunch and lemonade. But no matter how much more gore Essie piles on, or how much Cari stresses how very scary it was, or how much history Papa emphasizes she missed out on, Victoria seems unimpressed. In fact, she looks like she might be stifling a yawn.

  “Well, next time, Victoria, you’ll have to come,” Papa states, as if it’s a sure thing.

  “We’ll see,” Victoria answers back, just like a grown-up.

  Her father blinks, surprised by the response. “I mean it, Victoria. You would definitely enjoy it.”

  “How would you know, Papa?” Victoria’s voice has suddenly acquired an edge. “Don’t you think I should know more than you what I would really enjoy?” She pushes her chair back from the table with an earsplitting screech. The room has gone absolutely still. Everyone is shocked at the transformation in the sweet eldest Sword. As if astonished herself, Victoria bursts into tears and runs out of the room. They hear her footsteps trotting across the living room and out into the mudroom. Bang goes the front door with that extra force that says: I am slamming this in case you missed how upset I am!

  Víctor is on his feet. He intends to go after his daughter and remind her that she is the eldest, and they are guests, and she owes everyone an apology. But Tía Lola intervenes. “I think right now the best thing for Victoria is to have a little time to herself.”

  Víctor runs his hand through his hair. Suddenly, there seems to be more gray peppering the black. He looks confounded. Unlike Essie, his eldest is the soul of gentleness, so willing to please. “Did something happen today to upset her?”

  “No, actually, Victoria had a lovely day,” Tía Lola says, winking at Mami.

  “Do sit down, Víctor, and let’s talk,” Mami says, reaching for his hand. Víctor seems soothed by her touch and sits back down. “Girls and boys,” Mami says, although the only boy here is Miguel, “could you go out in the backyard and get the campfire ready for s’mores, okay?”

  “Let me carry you out, Miguel,” Víctor says, starting to get up again.

  “I’m good,” Miguel assures him. How it happened, Miguel can’t say, but his ankle really does feel okay. Later, he’ll soak it in a solution with salts that Tía Lola has prepared for him. It looks like his donkey will make it to the top of that palm tree today.

  A little while later, Victoria reenters the house on tiptoe. After she washes her face so she doesn’t look like she has been crying, she goes in search of everybody. The rooms are deserted. Where did everyone go? They probably all got in the car and drove off to … to … Fort Ticonderoga to have a great time without her. Good riddance! She’d like a little time to herself, if they want to know the truth.

  But the truth is that when you finally get a little time to yourself, it is nice to know that at the other end of it, you will find the people you love waiting for you, glad to have you back, eager to hear your stories. So instead of marching upstairs, wrapped in a righteous mantle, Victoria calls out, “Papa? Cari? Essie? Tía Lola?”

  Room to room she goes with growing apprehension. Where are they? And then she hears their bright voices coming up from the backyard. What a warm surge of happiness to look out the window and see them gathered together, safe and sound. They’ve even got a real campfire going!

  But perhaps because she is her father’s daughter, the happiness is tinged with worry. What if they won’t take her back? Or what if they take her back, and she is again imprisoned inside that sweet, polite, responsible Victoria?

  With luck, she’ll be fine. But just in case, she decides to retrieve her sword from the big flowerpot full of umbrellas in the mudroom where she plunged it when she came back from running away. Every time she sees that playful, perky name, Vicky, on the blade, she thinks, That’s not me. But come to think of it, the name does fit. Victoria has been searching for the Vicky part of herself for years. Today she has found her.

  “Let’s go!” she says out loud, flourishing her sword as if she were leading a charge against
the oppressive British. She needs to work up her courage before facing the people who have loved her as Victoria and will also love her as Vicky.

  Seven

  thursday

  Esperanza’s Dashing Hopes

  Esperanza Espada, a.k.a. Hope Sword, may not be in Disney World, but she sure has been having an insane roller-coaster ride all the same.

  First, she was down about coming to Vermont. But upon arrival, Tía Lola announced her summer camp idea, which was an uplifting surprise. The nighttime treasure hunt turned out to be quite fun. Then Miguel got hurt, which Essie knows was a downswing of his personal roller coaster, but hers just about peaked. She was able to play baseball and be as good as, if not better than, some of the team. But actually, yesterday’s trip to Fort Ticonderoga was tops. Who would have thought that in the middle of nowhere there’d be a place as cool as Disney World?

  But the problem with being at the top is that a bottom will inevitably come. And that’s what this Thursday morning is turning out to be. Miguel wakes up with a healed ankle, raring to go. Even before breakfast, he’s out there with Papa, hitting balls, catching, throwing. He’s my father, Essie feels like reminding them both.

  Then, at breakfast, Papa asks Victoria what she’d like to do today. “Just watch baseball practice, I guess,” she says in a small voice, as if she’s afraid to speak up, though she had no problem at all yesterday. Meanwhile, Papa has been enlisted to help coach, mostly running extra drills for Miguel so he can catch up. That leaves only Essie, Juanita, and Cari to participate in Tía Lola’s camp today, which means the activity has to be something that little kids can keep up with. How much fun can that be for Essie? It’ll be like babysitting without even getting paid for it!

  No two ways about it: Essie’s hopes for today are dashed. She feels like taking that supposedly magic sword and just snapping it in two to show what she thinks of miracles. What no one knows, not even Juanita because she had already fallen asleep, is that last night, Essie secretly slipped her sword under her pillow and wished for three things: First, that Miguel wouldn’t be able to play today, so that Essie could fill in. Second, that Miguel wouldn’t be able to play Friday either. And third, you get her drift? That Miguel wouldn’t be able to play on Saturday, and Essie would step in and help the team win their big game.

  Essie knows that she wouldn’t be able to substitute if this were an official Little League team. But Charlie’s Boys is just a collection of local kids wanting to play baseball after their Little League season is over. What’s more, with teammates on summer trips, the team doesn’t even always have substitute players. The one dependable substitute, Patrick, is the worst player. In fact, Essie has been taking him aside and teaching him stuff. All Essie is asking her sword for is to let her be a second or third substitute. It’s not a biggie miracle, for heaven’s sake. She’s not asking to go to Disney World, or to get her mother back, or to make Cari stop stealing all the attention. One crummy chance to be a star baseball player in front of her new friends in Vermont.

  Incredible as it seems, Essie has made friends in this place she was determined to dislike. Juanita, for one. Much as Essie complains, there are some pluses to having a younger friend: Juanita almost always lets Essie take the lead. Essie also likes the guys in Charlie’s Boys. They’ve been complimentary, never adding “for a girl” when they say Essie’s a great hitter or an amazing pitcher. She considers Miguel her friend as well, even if he is standing in the way of her hopes. She admires how he puts his team first, something she would find hard to do. He’s real smart, too, guessing all those clues for the treasure hunt. Most of all, Essie loves Tía Lola because she is like a Mary Poppins aunt who can take the most boring activity in the world and somehow turn it into fun.

  That’s why Essie doesn’t sink into total despair this Thursday morning, even though it looks like her wishes are not going to come true. Sure enough, Tía Lola announces that for today’s camp outing, they are going to bike into town to the municipal pool, swim for a couple of hours, then head over to Amigos Café for lunch. In the afternoon, they’ll visit some of Tía Lola’s friends in town.

  “Like who?” Essie wants to know.

  “Oh, let’s see. Estargazer.”

  Cool, Stargazer owns a totally fun gift shop.

  “Then we’ll visit el coronel Charlebois, who is sick, pobrecito.” The poor old man already missed baseball practice yesterday. “El coronel just caught a little cold from all this wet weather. He gets lonesome by himself when he can’t get out.” Tía Lola can understand. Before she started teaching Spanish at Miguel and Juanita’s school, she used to get so sad cooped up in the house by herself all day long. “We are to have tea and cookies at his home.”

  “Is that the house that looks haunted?” Cari’s eyes widen. Every time they go to town, Cari begs to drive by it so she can get a Halloween thrill right in the middle of summer.

  “Ay, Cari, querida, do not worry. That house is haunted only by memories,” Tía Lola assures her. “El coronel Charlebois has traveled all over the world and has wonderful stories to tell.”

  That could be kind of fun, Essie is thinking. Colonel Charlebois has led an exciting life, from what Essie has heard, fighting real battles, being a hero. He has also amassed a considerable amount of money. From the few books Essie has read on her own—okay, she’s not as big a reader as Juanita—she knows rich, elderly bachelors usually leave their money to somebody. Essie also knows the old man really loves baseball, and he seemed very impressed with her playing during practice on the Fourth of July. So maybe Colonel Charlebois will leave her a million dollars so that she can buy her own baseball team and a big, huge piece of land—probably in Vermont—where she can build her very own diamond.

  From dashed hopes, Essie’s state of mind has taken a decidedly upward swing. As she rolls her sword in her beach towel and stuffs it into her backpack, she is thinking maybe it didn’t let her down after all. Maybe it has an even better fate in store for her. “Cancel last night’s wishes,” she whispers, and then she tells her sword what she is really, really hoping for.

  They ride in, Juanita on her bike, and Cari in a red wagon Tía Lola rigged behind her bike, and Essie on Miguel’s. With her swimsuit under her clothes and her sword sticking out of her backpack, Essie feels the thrill of adventure. Maybe she’ll just keep going, a bicycle hobo, cycling all the way down to Disney World in Florida. Only thing is, how will the lawyers reach her to inform her that she just inherited a million dollars from Colonel Charlebois? Essie wishes Papa weren’t so strict and had gotten her a cell phone.

  For right now, Essie is happy just being at the municipal pool. Swimming is always fun, but what makes it more special today is that Essie is also making friends. Maybe it’s because she’s from New York City, but Essie is like an instant celebrity. Just in the space of an hour, she has added four new friends to her life, and Essie would have to struggle to name four kids in her fifth-grade class in Queens that she could call a friend. Essie doesn’t mean to be unpleasant, but she has a tendency to argue a lot, and nobody seems to like that. But here in Vermont, she hasn’t found that much to argue about.

  Being with Tía Lola also helps. People just flock to her, even though she doesn’t know much English. Many kids even try to talk to her in Spanish, which surprises Essie, but it turns out Tía Lola was their Spanish teacher this past year.

  Essie also meets the Prouty twins, who have horses, and they invite Essie to come over whenever she wants to ride them. There’s a boy, Milton, from Juanita’s class, who asks Essie a lot of questions about the city, but then when Essie finds out he lives on a farm, she fires back a bunch of her own, and between answering and asking, they can’t stop talking to each other.

  A quiet girl listens in like their audience. Her name is Hannah, which is kind of funny that she should have the same name as Hannah Montana, a movie star, when she’s so shy. But then, parents have to name their kids before they have any idea what that little baby will be
like. Look at her with a name like Esperanza, which even in English, Hope, is a name for a goody-goody-two-shoes. That’s not Essie at all! If her mother and father had known what she was going to be like, they would probably have named her Contrary. That’s what Papa is always accusing her of being, contrary, as in not always the easiest person to get along with.

  After swimming, the camp group heads over to the café. Rudy hasn’t left yet for practice, so he has lunch right along with them. Without Victoria around, Essie is free to ask as many baseball questions as she can think of without being reminded that she needs to give Rudy a break so he can eat his lunch. Cari and Juanita are more than glad to have Essie talk while they eat up all the French fries. “Hey! No fair!” she says, slapping their hands away playfully. When Essie is a millionaire, she’s going to hire a chef who specializes in French fries, pizza, macaroni and cheese, and desserts with chocolate. She’ll kiss the food pyramid goodbye forever.

  They stroll through town after lunch. “Good for the digestion,” Tía Lola claims. Even better for the digestion is stopping at Stargazer’s store! They can touch anything in the shop, turn it on, play with it. Stargazer doesn’t seem to mind. She’s too busy talking to Tía Lola about their auras, whole body-size halos that Stargazer can read. Essie wonders if Stargazer might look at her and see money in her future.

  As they walk over to Colonel Charlebois’ house, Essie’s head is spinning. She’ll have to pay close attention to the rooms so she can start planning how she is going to redecorate them once she moves up to Vermont to be a millionaire. Wait a minute! Did she just actually wish to stay in Vermont? Is this the same girl who a week ago was sure it was a death sentence to visit, much less stay in, Vermont? Sometimes Essie has to agree with what she knows is the general opinion in her family: it’s not always easy being with Essie. But if they think that’s hard, they should try being Essie and having to be with herself all the time!