How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay by Julia Alvarez

Author:Julia Alvarez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

The crowd swarms around them in the small but busy terminal.

Juanita slips her hand into Miguel’s, She looks scared, as if all that Spanish she has been showing off to their mother has just left on a plane to South America. “You think we’ll recognize her?” she asks.

“We’ll wait until somebody who looks like she’s looking for us comes out of the plane,” Miguel says. He sure wishes his mother would hurry up and find a parking spot.

Several businessmen rush by, checking their watches, as if they are already late for whatever they have come for. Behind them, a grandma puts down her shopping bag full of presents, and two little boys run forward and throw their arms around her, A young guy turns in a slow circle as if he has gotten off at the wrong stop, A girl hugs her boyfriend, who kisses her on the lips, Miguel looks away.

Where is this aunt of theirs?

The crowd disperses, and still their aunt is nowhere in sight, Miguel and Juanita go up to the counter and ask the lady working there to please page their aunt, “She doesn’t know any English,” Miguel explains, “only Spanish,”

The woman in the blue suit has so many freckles, it looks as if someone has spilled a whole bag of them on her face. “I’m sorry, kids. I took a little Spanish back in high school, but that was ages ago. Ill tell you what. I’ll let you page your aunt yourself.”

“Shell do it.” Miguel nudges his sister forward. Even though he is older, Juanita is the one who is always showing off her Spanish to their father and mother.

Juanita shakes her head. She looks scared. She looks about to cry.

“There’s nothing to be scared of,” Miguel encourages, as if he himself has paged his aunt every day of his life.

“That’s right, sweetie,” the woman agrees, nodding at Juanita. But Juanita won’t budge. Then, turning to Miguel, the woman suggests, “Seeing as she’s scared, why don’t you do it instead?”

“I don’t speak Spanish.” It isn’t technically a lie because he doesn’t know enough to speak Spanish in public to a whole airport terminal.

“You do, too,” Juanita sniffles. “He knows but he doesn’t like to talk it,” she explains to the airline lady.

“Just give it a try,” the freckled lady says, opening a little gate so they can come behind the counter to an office on the other side-A man with a bald head and a tired face and earphones sits at a desk turning dials on a machine. The lady explains that the children need to page a lost aunt who does not speak any English.

“Come here, son,” The man beckons to Miguel-“Speak right into this microphone-Testing, testing-” He tries it out-The man adjusts some knobs and pushes his chair over so Miguel can stand beside him.

Miguel looks down at the microphone-He can feel his stomach getting queasy and his mind going blank-All he can remember of his Spanish is Tia Lola’s name and the

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