Before We Were Free by Julia Álvarez Read Free Book Online Page B

stand in front of the mirror, staring at myself. My black hair is a tangle of curls. My nose is average. My mouth is average. Come to think of it, my whole face is really pretty average. But Mrs. Washburn says I look a little like Audrey Hepburn with a suntan. When I tell Lucinda, all she says is “Dream on.”
    Still, if Mrs. Washburn thinks so, maybe Sam thinks so, too? I search Lucinda’s old
Novedades
magazines and Mrs. Washburn’s cast-off copies of
Look
and
Life
for pictures of Audrey Hepburn. But every one I find, I have to agree with Lucinda, and dream on.
    One canasta afternoon, Mrs. Mancini brings Oscar along. Mami has told her that I would be encantada— enchanted!—to have my classmate around. When she says so, I have to do everything in my power not to roll my eyes. Mami says this is a terrible habit I’ve picked up since I turned twelve. (She must not have been looking at me when I was eleven!)
    I’m worried that Sammy will not want to hang out with me if “cousin” Oscar is around. I stay in my room after Mami calls that my guests have arrived. When I finally come out to greet them, Oscar and Sammy have disappeared. I find them jumping on the trampoline, daring each other to see who can touch the branches of the ceiba tree.
    Even though I’ve been worried that they’ll be enemies, now I’m upset they’ve become friends without me. Sometimes, it’s totally confusing to be me! Only writing in my diary helps me feel a little less crazy.
    Oscar is the first to notice me. “
Hola,
Anita!”
    Instead of waving back, I turn to go.
    “What’s wrong with her?” I hear Sammy ask.
    “I think her feelings are hurt,” Oscar replies. “Hey, Anita, wait up,” he calls. I can’t believe it’s Oscar who understands my feelings, not Sammy, whom I’m secretly planning to marry.
    When they catch up with me, it’s also Oscar who says, “I was wondering where you were.”
    “Yeah,” Sammy adds, and sunshine breaks upon my heart again.
    “The entire country is in trouble,” Oscar explains. We’re sitting under the trampoline after having busted one of the ropes by all three jumping on it at once. “Mami saw Mrs. Brown at Wimpy’s and she said the school might have to close because so many families are leaving.”
    “We’re staying!” Sam announces proudly. “We’ve got amnesia.”
    “Amnesty,” Oscar corrects. I bite my lip so as not to smile. Even though I’m almost in love with Sam Washburn, I can’t resist feeling proud when a Dominican corrects an American’s English. “But you mean immunity,” Oscar goes on. “We have immunity, too, because my father is with the Italian embassy. Lots of people hide in the embassy because the SIM can’t touch them if they’re on another country’s property. Like your uncle,” he says, turning to me.
    “Which uncle?” I want to know. Of course, I’m thinking of Tío Toni.
    “I’m not supposed to mention names. But the embargo means countries are closing their embassies. That’s why you don’t have an embassy anymore,” he points out to Sammy. “Just a consulate.”
    “My father’s the consul,” Sammy boasts.
    “I know, but he’s not the ambassador.”
    “So?”
    Oscar shrugs. “Just that he can’t help the people who want to free this country.”
    We
are
free!
I want to cry out. But thinking about how the SIM raided our property, how Tío Toni had to disappear, how I have to erase everything in my diary, I know that Oscar is telling the truth. We’re
not
free—we’re trapped—the Garcías got away just in time! I feel the same panic as when the SIM came storming through our house.
    “Your father,” he points to Sammy, “and yours and mine, too,” he adds, pointing to me and then to himself. “They all know about this, but they don’t want to worry us.”
    “So, how do you know all of this stuff?” Sammy confronts him.
    A slow grin spreads across Oscar’s face. “I ask a lot of questions.”
    So do I,
I’m thinking,