My Year in the Middle by Lila Quintero Weaver

Author:Lila Quintero Weaver [Weaver, Lila Quintero]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780763699833
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2018-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

I take a tray rattling with china and set it down on the table in front of Mamá. Flowers, doilies, pretty teacups. She looks over everything with shining eyes. “Oh, you shouldn’t have gone to so much fuss!”

Papá says, “You deserve a fuss, darling! Happy Mother’s Day!”

Whew. I was jittery as a polecat getting everything together without Marina. She stayed up all night working on Mamá’s present, so it was only right to let her sleep in. She’s at the table now, but with big raccoon circles under her eyes.

Mamá is crazy about the fruit salad I made and the coffee cake Papá got from the bakery. She drinks nearly a gallon of hot tea with cream and sugar. That’s the easy part. Then Papá announces, “We have a few surprises for you!”

I bite my knuckles. When he hands her the gift-wrapped slippers, she reads my card and eagerly opens the box. “What a lovely blue, just like my robe! Gracias, mi amor!” She plants a kiss on my forehead, then kicks off her faded terry-cloth slippers and swaps them with the new ones. Right next to her robe, you can tell the blues don’t match — not by a country mile — but she acts like they’re the latest thing from Paris. Whew.

Marina says, “Papá, you go next.”

As Mamá peels away the Scotch tape on Papá’s gift, her smile is almost as big as the box. She breaks into a laugh when she sees the picture on the carton. It’s a Lady Sunbeam hair dryer, the kind that fits over your head like a bonnet.

Marina excuses herself, saying she’ll be right back. I know why; it’s time to show Mamá the secret project she worked on all night.

“More tea, Mamá?” I ask.

Papá slices the hair-dryer carton open. Getting the dryer out of the box is no easy trick. There are lots of Styrofoam pieces holding it in place, and it takes tugging and prying to set the dryer free. Sitting on the table, it looks enormous. Mamá leans in close while he shows her the adjustments you can make to temperature, fan speed, angle, and who knows what all. “You’ll never have to sleep in your curlers again.”

Mamá and Papá are still cooing like lovey doves when Marina shows up, carrying the garment bag that holds the wedding dress. Mamá sees it and gasps. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. This is my Mother’s Day gift to you.” Smiling, Marina unzips the bag. The stitches of the finished hem are tiny and perfect, exactly how Mamá would’ve sewn them herself. At first, Mamá can’t even speak.

“Santa Claus’s elves paid you a visit last night,” Papá says, grinning. “We never knew they worked on Mother’s Day.”

“Gracias, hija,” Mamá says, wiping away tears. “You made my job much easier!”

Ah, what a nice Mother’s Day it turned out to be! Now that the wedding dress is nearly finished, Mamá can count on buying a plane ticket to Argentina. I can tell that she’s on Cloud Ninety-Nine.

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.