City Girls by Loretta Lopez

Author:Loretta Lopez [Lopez Loretta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mexican American; El Salvador; asylum; friendship; parent with cancer; death of a parent; death in the family; divorce; immigration; immigrant; middle grade novel; middle grade; tween fiction; realistic fiction; books for 9 year old girls; books for 11 year old girls; realistic fiction books for kids 9-12; books for 10 year old girls; books for 12 year old girls; kids books ages 9-12; books for kids age 9 12; kindness; books for 8 year old girls; books for 10 year old boys; girls books ages 9-12
ISBN: 9781644213438
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2024-02-18T17:30:00+00:00

Dear Tita,

Last night I started to get nervous. It all felt sort of stupid and embarrassing. Maybe deep down I was actually scared. I wanted Elisa to forget about the whole plan. I told myself, Don’t say anything about it, distract her. I told her we should make cupcakes, so we did. I told her we should make up a dance and record ourselves, so we did. I told her we should watch a movie, and we did. I wanted Elisa to get sleepy and forget it. But she didn’t.

It was dark outside. Mami still wasn’t home. She was having a late night at the hospital. Papi was busy in his office, still working with the door closed. He wasn’t paying any attention to us. Elisa’s eyes, even though they are black, remind me of the moon sometimes. They got so enormous, full of light. “It’s time now,” she said, “to talk to your abuelita.”

She asked me for the mirror, the matches, and the doll. Because I knew she would get super mad if I didn’t get them, I obeyed. When she lit the candle, she told me to turn off the light.

“Sit here,” she said pointing to a spot on my carpet. “Here you will be able to see the mirror, but not your face in the mirror.”

I obeyed and sat but Elisa scowled.

“No, no, no, no . . .” She pushed me just an inch. “Now, that’s the perfect place.” She gave me a very serious look and said, “Now you have to concentrate really hard on this or it won’t work. You have to think about your abuelita and her espíritu.”

I wanted to ask Elisa what she meant but she kept going.

“Close your eyes and think,” Elisa commanded.

I thought about you, Tita, and my heart started to thump. I thought about you feeding the stray black cat in the patio, how you told me you didn’t give it a name because the cat didn’t want one. I thought of you sitting by the pool reading a book. I liked to bring you limonada and you liked it when I put my head in your warm lap.

Elisa broke the silence, she said, “Son bienvenidos.” She said it many times and told me to say it with her. You are welcome here, you are welcome here, you are welcome here. She said that the spirits needed to feel safe to come into the mirror to talk to us. I wondered what spirit Elisa was thinking about. Her voice was strong and it sounded much older than an eleven-year-old’s. It was scaring me. Her breath was becoming like a strong wind. Wind that could blow something over. Would she blow the candle onto my carpet? Would she burn up the whole room? I was going to say, Elisa, please stop. But it was too late. She let out a long and horrible scream that made my whole body stiff.

“I saw him! I saw him,” she said. “It means he’s dead!

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