How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over (16 page)

“And I can grant the other half!” Tía Lola offers. Nothing she likes better than to make a wish come true. “When your family moves in, I will leave the country.” She announces this so cheerfully, the children can’t believe it. This is the worst news in the world! Tía Lola isn’t going to stay? This was just a visit after all?

Juanita’s wish has backfired on her! She is ready to sleep in the garden shed if that’s what it takes to keep Tía
Lola with them. “Please, Tía Lola, I’ll share my room, please. Don’t go back to the Dominican Republic.”

“If you leave, I will, too!” Essie folds her arms and lifts her chin in defiance. Too late, she realizes this is not a smart move. You don’t bail out of a family that will soon be going to Disney World.

“Un momento.”
Tía Lola holds up one hand. Who said anything about leaving the country-country? She meant leaving the country, as in “out in the country,” where Miguel and Juanita live. English is so confusing! “I will move into town to run the B&B, if the
coronel
permits. This way he won’t be left alone.”

“Don’t worry about me,” the old man says in a gruff voice, but he is touched by Tía Lola’s offer. He has grown used to good company. And he so enjoys having a B&B in his house. It brings interesting people to his doorstep now that he is no longer able to travel around the world meeting them.

“For me, as well,
coronel
, it will be a pleasure to start over with a new adventure.” This would be Tía Lola’s wish come true: her very own place where the whole world can come visit and stay! “And any of you, children, who want to spend the night, the week, the month, in town at Tía Lola’s B&B are more than welcome!”

“Sounds to me like the best of both worlds,” Papa says, already promoting the idea that a moment ago seemed impossible. “But one thing that still intrigues me,” he adds, fixing his gaze on the family
mascota
, “why would Valentino vote for your B&B to continue if he’s going to be with us in the country?”

Tía Lola shrugs. “You’ll have to ask him.”

Valentino wags his tail at his master, a dog’s way of smiling and evading the question. As much as he loves the country, Valentino is planning on being a frequent visitor at Tía Lola’s B&B in town. He has found that guests tend to be quite generous with treats—especially if he does cute stuff like fetch their slippers from upstairs when they are sitting by the fire or bring in the paper while they are eating breakfast. However, it’s probably not in his best interests to share this discovery with Víctor. Next thing he knows, there’ll be a sign posted in the dining room:
PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE DOG
.

“It’s definitely going to be an exciting year,” Carmen exclaims happily. “Two marriages, a move to the country, a permanent B&B in town!”

“Two trips,” Essie is quick to add.

“And one huge birthday party,” Tía Lola says, turning her bright gaze at the colonel, who scowls back like the sun is in his eyes.

“Don’t even think of it!” he tells her. But that is like telling someone, “Do not think of an elephant in the room.” That’s all anyone can think of: the colonel’s eighty-fifth birthday on the ninth of December.

That night, Miguel has a dream. Cannibals are chasing after him again! This time they catch him and carry him off to their village, where Miguel is sure a big pot of boiling water awaits him. Instead, he comes upon the most astonishing surprise: the whole tribe is wearing party hats and blowing whistles and popping favors. Sitting at the
center of the circle with everyone singing “Happy Birthday” in Spanish is Tía Lola!

When he wakes up, Miguel lies in bed wondering, When exactly
is
Tía Lola’s birthday? Every time he asks, Tía Lola just waves him off.

Miguel corners his mother coming out of her room. But Mami herself doesn’t know for sure, just that it’s sometime in December.

“When I was growing up, we were so poor that Tía Lola never made a point about her birthday. But she made a big deal about celebrating mine, including always telling me a special story.” As to how old Tía Lola is going to be, Mami is not really sure about that either. “It’s like her beauty mark, sometimes it’s here, sometimes there.” Mami points to her right cheek, then to the center of her forehead. “Sometimes Tía Lola is fifty-two, sometimes she’s fifty-five.” The point is Tía Lola is young at heart, no matter how old she is on the calendar. “But why this sudden curiosity about her exact birthday?”

So Miguel tells his
mami
his dream. That’s where he got the idea. “We should give Tía Lola a birthday party this year. You’ve said yourself, she’s never had one.”

Mami hesitates. “It’s a lovely idea. But you don’t know your aunt. She’s worse than the colonel, and more mobile. The minute she finds out we’re planning a party for her, she’ll take off. Maybe even get as far as the Dominican Republic.”

This will not do at all. “So, we’ll make it a surprise party,” Miguel suggests.

“Hide anything from Tía Lola, are you kidding?”

But Miguel thinks it can work. After all, he and Essie were able to keep their Margaret-Henny sting operation from Tía Lola. Of course, that secret lasted less than twenty-four hours. December is a month away.

A sly look has come over Mami’s face. “The only way it could work is if we were to hide the birthday party right under her nose. Say we combine Tía Lola’s birthday party with the colonel’s but make Tía Lola’s half a surprise. Of course, we will have to be absolutely, totally …” Mami makes a motion of zipping up her mouth.

Not a problem for Miguel. But the same can’t be said for Little Bigmouth, also known as Can’t-Keep-a-Secret Juanita. After making her cross her heart and hope to die enough times to kill off a small army, Miguel fills her in on the plan. “AWESOME!” she cries out. “Oops, I’m sorry. I meant”—Juanita leans in and whispers—“awesome.”

Mami talks to Víctor, who calls Carmen at the law firm where he used to work when he represented Tía Lola. Carmen digs up Tía Lola’s application for staying in the United States, which includes her birth date. It turns out Tía Lola will be fifty-six years old on December 12. Víctor and his daughters are on board with the secret half of the birthday party. But they won’t be telling the colonel. He’ll just start fussing all over again about the half of the party that
is
for him. Meanwhile, Carmen has already asked if she and Daniel can come and bring Abuelito and Abuelita along. No one wants to miss Tía Lola’s first birthday party ever, even if she is going to be fifty-six.

With so much excitement in the air (a party, two weddings, a two-in-one trip, a here-to-stay B&B), Tía Lola can’t separate out the children’s extra excitement over the one half of a birthday party that is going to be a surprise for her.

But a few times, she comes close to guessing the secret.

Sometimes, one of the children will let slip a remark. (“Do you think the second cake should be pink or purple?”) Or Tía Lola will go on and on, adding more frills to the colonel’s party (a parade, the Bridgeport school marching band leading the way; Rudy’s son, Woody, doing his magic tricks), not realizing she is making a bigger party for
herself
. The children all have teeth marks on their bottom lips from biting down so hard to keep from laughing.

Planning meetings are the hardest, as Tía Lola insists on being present. After all, it was her idea to give the colonel a birthday party.

At this latest meeting, Victoria announces they are up to a hundred guests.

“A hundred?!” Tía Lola can’t believe it. During their cozy evenings in the parlor, they have managed to wheedle only about forty names from the reluctant colonel.

“People have friends, Tía Lola. Look at you,” Essie hints, giggling. That is precisely it: Tía Lola has a lot of friends, so the guest list is climbing. The giggles seem to be contagious. First Juanita catches them, then Cari.

Victoria eyeballs the gigglers. They are going to ruin
the surprise! “Hey, people, we need some committees here,” Victoria says, trying to distract Tía Lola, who is still puzzling over the guest list. They better change the subject. Out comes Victoria’s clipboard again. “I’ll do the invitations and the food.” Actually, all she has to do for the food is coordinate who will cook what. The party is huge. It only makes sense to have a potluck.

Essie offers to be in charge of the decorations and enlists Miguel to help her.

“Make sure you go to Estargazer,” Tía Lola reminds them. Their friend’s gift shop is full of neat, interesting things.

“No hay problema,”
Essie says, setting off a round of giggling. Tía Lola laughs along good-naturedly. The children often tease her for overusing her favorite mantra.

But the children are laughing because of a funny coincidence. For Tía Lola’s surprise birthday gift, they and their parents decided to order a sign for her B&B. Lo and behold, when they walked into Stargazer’s store, they learned that Tía Lola had just been in ordering the same thing! Perfect. Tía Lola will be getting exactly what she asked for. Stargazer will go ahead and fill the order according to Tía Lola’s specifications. She’ll set up the sign in front of the colonel’s house right before the birthday party. The tricky part will be putting off Tía Lola when she tries to pay for it.

Again, Victoria has to steer the group away from hilarity or Tía Lola will get suspicious. “Juanita, how about you be in charge of entertainment.”

“Sure!” Juanita loves dressing up and putting on skits.
“I can also do flowers. Stargazer has some really beautiful sunflowers that look so real. You know, they’re her favorite flowers.” Juanita gasps, realizing her slip. Oops, I’m sorry, her look says.

“
Whose
favorite flowers?” Tía Lola wants to know.

“The colonel’s?” Juanita says it like she’s asking a question.

“But you said ‘her favorite flowers.’ ”

“Did I?” Juanita smiles lamely and looks over at her partners in crime for rescue. “You must have misheard, Tía Lola. Anyhow, I meant the colonel’s.”

Thank goodness Cari chooses this moment to feel left out. Everybody is getting to be in a committee. “What about me?”

Tía Lola looks at her with disbelief. That she should even have to ask! “Who else can head the Utensil Committee: polishing all the silver, folding all the napkins. In fact, you sure you can manage on your own?”

Cari nods importantly. Reporting for duty, as the colonel would say.

The minute Tía Lola leaves the attic room, the children explode with laughter. Valentino barks. That reminds Cari. “What about Valentino? What can he be in charge of?”

Miguel comes up with a committee for Valentino. “You can be the head of the Distraction Committee. Like, if we’re talking about Tía Lola, and you hear her coming, bark so we stop. Or if we’re preparing something, distract her so we have a chance to hide any evidence. Sound like a job you can do?”

Valentino barks, You bet! The children laugh, so he barks again. The more they laugh, the more he barks. Soon Tía Lola is back at the door. “What’s going on?” She looks from child to child, like she mislaid something in one of their faces and is trying to find it.

“We were, uh, just, uh, teaching, uh, Valentino …”

“To sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ ” Essie rescues the flailing Juanita.

“Hmmm.” Tía Lola thought she heard Valentino barking something about a surprise birthday party. She’d better bone up on her dog language. Lately, she has been feeling like her hearing is off, like she doesn’t quite understand what is going on.

I am getting old, I guess, Tía Lola sighs. She will be turning fifty-six on December 12. A secret no one must know. Of course, Linda will insist on a celebration in December, since Tía Lola won’t say the date. But maybe this year, with so much going on, Linda will forget, and Tía Lola’s birthday can sneak by unremarked.