How Tía Lola Came to (Visit) Stay by Julia Álvarez Read Free Book Online Page A

the national anthem, whichshe is trying to teach her niece and nephew to sing. It is the first time Miguel has seen his aunt teary-eyed. Mami explains that Tía Lola is understandably homesick from time to time. Having these reminders and rituals from home makes her feel a little less far away from her country and the rest of the family.
    Of course, the raccoons don’t care a hoot about Tía Lola’s map. They start eating up the little shoots of lettuce and eggplant and shred the rosebushes to bits. But Tía Lola figures out a way to outsmart them as well. She ties her maracas to a pair of broomsticks and sticks the broomsticks in the ground by the garden. All day and all night, as the breeze blows on them, they clackety-clack, scaring away the raccoons.
    But the most fun for Miguel is when they go out with garden shears and prune the bushes in the shapes of parrots and palm trees, monkeys and huge butterflies. Everyone who drives by stops to marvel at the transformed property.
    “Keep-out-no-trespassing,” Tía Lola greets them, and quickly they get back in their cars and drive away.
    *   *   *
    If Miguel thinks Tía Lola is having a hard time catching on to plain English, using expressions around her proves downright dangerous.
    “Becky has a green thumb,” Mami remarks one day as she comes in the door with a bunch of basil their neighbor has given her.
    “!Emergencia!”
Tía Lola cries out. The thumb could be gangrenous! She reaches for the phone. Mami has taught her to dial 911 if there is ever an emergency.
    “!No, no, Tía Lola!”
Mami stops her. The phrase is an expression in English that means that Becky is good with plants.
    Then why didn’t she say so? Tía Lola asks, very reasonably for once.
    The afternoon of the first big thunderstorm, Juanita and Miguel are playing outside. They come running in the house, soaking wet. “It’s raining cats and dogs!” Miguel remarks as he throws off his jacket.
    “!No me diga!”
Tía Lola says, running out with a broom to chase the stray cats and dogs away from the front lawn. She slips on the wet steps and goes tumbling down, head over heels. Thank goodness only the broom snaps in two, though the next morning Tía Lola’s whole right side is black and blue.
    *   *   *
    Their mother has still not made up her mind about letting Miguel and his sister visit their father in New York.
    “Mami, please, before practice starts up,” Miguel pleads. In a few weeks, the team will have daily practice, and Miguel does not want to miss one day of it-
    But his mother is not convinced-Tía Lola is still lost in English-Traveling with her would be traveling with an adult who couldn’t really take care of them if they ran into a problem-Furthermore, the way that Miguel and Juanita are always arguing, they cannot be trusted to go anywhere together-
    “I promise I’ll try,” Miguel offers-He’ll do anything in order to visit his father and friends and see New York City again-Even if it involves getting along with his little sister-
    “I have to see some improvement first,” his mother declares.
    Miguel finds his sister in her bedroom-She is putting her dolls in the cradles their father has made for her-They are cut out of cardboard andcolored with bright designs. Every time Papi drives up to visit, he brings a new one along.
    “Truce, Nita!” Miguel holds up his hands. “I mean it. You can have
cielo, dinero, carro
—all the o words you want.”
    Juanita glances up. A look of suspicion spreads across her face. She can have
sky, money, carl
    Miguel nods, but he can see she is not quite sure what to make of her brother’s sudden generosity. He decides to tell his sister the truth. “Mami’s not going to let us go to New York unless she sees us getting along.” And there is one other thing. “We’ve got to get Tía Lola to say just a few things right so Mami feels okay about her English.”
    “How are we going to do that?” Juanita abandons her dolls to