How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over by Julia Álvarez Read Free Book Online Page A

cries out. Then, remembering that she is supposed to be asleep, she whispers, “It just opened this weekend. And it’s already sold out.”
    “My dad said the owner sounded kind of weird. Anyhow, your mom said for us to meet up in town at Tía Lola’s B&B. I’m so glad we finally came to visit.”
    The two girls go on talking, fighting back sleep because it’s so wonderful to be together again.
    “There’s so much I want to show you,” Juanita whispers to Ming. She starts to enumerate all the things they will do tomorrow, including visit Stargazer’s store, drop in on Rudy’s, explore Colonel Charlebois’s attic, maybe even go out to her teacher Mrs. Prouty’s horse farm.
    By the time she leaves on Sunday, Ming will have fallen in love with Vermont. If she ever needs to run away from home, she will know where to come.

How Cari’s Kindergarten Teacher Almost Didn’t Get Married
    Cari loves her kindergarten teacher. Not just likes, not just is relieved she isn’t a mean teacher or a strict teacher, but really la-UH-uvs her nice, curly-red-haired fairy-tale teacher. And what is very special is that her teacher seems to love her back in equal measure!
    Every morning Cari wants to bring Ms. McGregor a present. Papa explains that now that he is not working as a lawyer, the family has to budget. Cari will have to think of presents that don’t cost money.
    With Tía Lola’s help, Cari makes an easy-as-pie apple piñata, which Ms. McGregor shares with the whole class. Cari also brings her teacher a bouquet of late-blooming asters from Juanita’s flower bed; a pumpkin Miguel grew in a patch in the garden; a discarded candied guinea pigTía Lola says looks too much like a skinny rabbit; some shiny buttons from one of Colonel Charlebois’s old uniforms that he’d gladly donate to the cause (that’s the way he talks); and a pebble that Victoria says is good luck because it has a white ring all the way around it.
    But Cari is running out of ideas that don’t cost money.
    Thank goodness, Tía Lola comes up with a solution: “Why don’t you draw whatever you want to give Señorita McGregor and just tell her to use her imagination?”
    This is an excellent idea! Cari starts out by drawing a picture of Ms. McGregor holding hands with a little brown girl with dark, straight hair and big brown eyes.
    The very day Cari gives Ms. McGregor this special drawing, her teacher makes an announcement to the class: she is getting married. Cari is so excited and claps right along with everyone else.
    But a minute later, she’s not so sure she is happy about this. If Ms. McGregor gets married, then she’ll be busy with Mr. McGregor, or no, wait a minute, she won’t even be Ms. McGregor anymore. Cari’s not real sure how it works with last names, but she has heard Tía Carmen say that she is probably going to change her name to Guzmán when she marries Miguel and Juanita’s
papi
. That way, if they have a baby, Tía Carmen can have the same last name as her child. There’s another thing Cari isn’t happy about. Ms. McGregor, who might not be Ms. McGregor anymore, could have a baby, and then she’ll definitely have her hands full, as everyone knows that you need both hands to hold a baby—or so Cari has been told every time she has been given one to hold.
    Every night since she heard about the wedding, Cari has made a wish on a birthday candle that Juanita gave her. It’s one of those trick candles that Essie got at Stargazer’s store to put on Juanita’s cake. You make a wish, then blow and blow, and they don’t blow out! Cari assumes that this being a birthday candle, it preserves its wish-granting properties. So, before going to bed, Cari goes in the bathroom with Victoria, who lights it—Papa has given them permission to do this in the bathroom sink only. Then Cari closes her eyes and wishes that Ms. McGregor won’t get married. Cari tries blowing out the candle, but it flickers and flares up again, so she gets to