State of the Union by Kitty Felde

Author:Kitty Felde [Kitty Felde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chesapeake Press
Published: 2021-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Who knew Abuelita had an Instagram account?

She said it was so that she could follow her favorite singer Pitbull, but she also followed Papa’s official congressional Instagram account. And, apparently, Gabby’s.

“Dios mio!” Abuelita shouted when she saw the picture. I peeked over her shoulder to look at the screen. It was a selfie of Gabby at her school dance. I recognized the purple fingernails. Gabby’s hair was up, her eyes were plastered with mascara, and she was wearing a dress I’d never seen before, a dress held up by skinny little straps with a great big slash across the middle. You could see her belly button. A pierced belly button with a tiny gold ring.

When Gabby walked in the front door, she didn’t even get a chance to put down her backpack.

“What is the meaning of this?” Abuelita demanded.

“What’s the meaning of what?” asked Gabby.

I made a face, trying to warn her. Abuelita pointed to her phone.

“What kind of young woman puts a picture of her stomach on Instapost?”

“Instagram. It’s just a dress,” whined Gabby.

“Do all of your dresses show off your belly button? A belly button with an earring of its own?”

“It’s a piercing, not an earring.”

“And that phone of yours, sharing pictures of your naked stomach with the world. If you cannot use a phone in a responsible manner, you shouldn’t be using it at all. No social media.”

“But everybody’s on social, Abuelita. That’s how we talk to each other!” said Gabby.

“We?”

“People younger than a hundred and fifty.”

“Why don’t you just use your mouths? You are grounded.”

“But tonight’s the basketball game and …”

“Starting right now. And hand over the phone.”

Gabby stared at Abuelita. And then stared at me. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.”

“Now, mija,” said Abuelita, putting out her hand.

Gabby fished her phone out of her backpack and practically slammed it down on the coffee table.

Abuelita put the phone in her pocket. “And I’m calling your father.”

Gabby ran upstairs. I heard her slam the door to her room.

Abuelita looked at me. “Unless you have homework, Fina, you can go fold laundry.”

I did have homework, but decided it would be better to hang out with the sheets and towels.

I didn’t understand why Gabby would want to show off her belly button in the middle of February. I always wore four layers whenever I left the house for school: undershirt, polo shirt, hoodie, and overcoat. It made me shiver just to think about naked skin in 30-degree weather.

I headed down to the basement. Our house was really old. Down here, you could hear things through the floor boards. I heard Abuelita calling Papa at the Capitol. I knew he was at another Gang of Eight meeting. Except it was only a Gang of Seven now. One of the congressmen got mad and quit.

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