Finding Miracles by Julia Alvarez

Author:Julia Alvarez [Alvarez, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ages 12 & Up
ISBN: 9780307433336
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2004-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

7

a cradle and a grave

WE ACTUALLY DIDN’T MAKE it to the orphanage that same day. The visitors hung around into the evening, when appetites started waking up again. Dinner was a serving of Dulce’s cake and a sweet tea made from yerbabuena leaves.

“This will help you sleep your first night, Milly,” Mrs. Bolívar recommended.

“Isn’t yerbabuena what you put on my hands at the airport?”

“Why do you think it is called ‘the good grass’?” Mrs. Bolívar boasted. “When we go back, I will take as much as I can carry.”

Dulce, who had just finished wrapping the leftover cake, sat down heavily in her chair. “You are going back, Angelita?”

Mrs. Bolívar looked uncomfortable. She stared down into her steaming cup as if it might tell her what to say. “Antonio thinks it’s best for Pablo’s education,” she murmured. I knew the stay in the States was the hardest on Mrs. Bolívar. Though she loved working for her little viejita Miss Billings, Mrs. Bolívar was often homesick. She complained of the cold. Her skin was always irritated. But sacrificio had always been her lot in life, she had told me. Unlike Mr. Bolívar, whose family had lived comfortably on their own land in the mountains, Mrs. Bolívar’s family had been poor. “Pobre, pobre,” Mrs. Bolívar said, repeating the word as if to double the strength of its meaning. “This is just for a few years, Dulce,” Mrs. Bolívar added, “until Pablito is graduated.”

“So many absences.” Dulce sighed, wiping her eyes with a corner of her apron. “Perhaps then . . . if you are not returning, I will move back to Los Luceros with Esperanza.”

“Ay, no, Mamá,” Esperanza wailed.

“We will see.” Dulce made the sign of the cross and then kissed the crucifix around her neck. “Nothing has to be decided tonight.”

Later, as I was getting ready for bed in the room I was sharing with Dulce and Esperanza, Dulce prayed out loud. “Our Lord, enlighten us so that we may see and accept Your divine will, amen.” She sunk her head in her hands.

Esperanza was kneeling opposite her mother, facing me. I didn’t know if, as a good guest, I was supposed to join them, too, but it seemed hypocritical since I wasn’t in the habit of praying on my knees. When her mom asked the Lord to guide her, Esperanza looked over at me and rolled her eyes heavenward.

I bowed my head, struggling to suppress the giggles I knew would burst out if Esperanza and I looked at each other again.

The next morning, Dulce shooed me out of the kitchen. No way she was going to let me help with breakfast. “¡Esta es tu casa!” she scolded sweetly. I hated to tell her, but back at my house I was expected to help with meals!

I wandered into the courtyard where we’d gathered for dinner yesterday. At the far end, I caught sight of Pablo, his back to me. He was barefoot, dressed in jeans and a rumpled T-shirt that looked like he’d slept in it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.