How Tía Lola Came to (Visit) Stay Read Free Page B

walking in a straight line, kicking the snow to either side. Then he walks in a half circle, out and back to the straight line, andthen out and back again. Every step of the way, he has to imagine what each mark will look like from the house.
    He thinks of his father in New York. Although he works setting up department store windows at night, Papi’s real love is painting. Today, Miguel feels the closest he has felt to his father since his mother and Juanita and he moved to Vermont. He is an artist like his father, but working on a larger canvas. He is trying to create something that will have the same result: making somebody happy.
    At one point, he glances up, and he thinks he sees his little sister waving. It is her job to keep Tía Lola from looking out the windows.
    The sun is right above his head when Miguel is done.
    Inside, the house smells of something delicious baking in the oven. Tía Lola has prepared a special pizza with lots of cheese and black beans and
salchichón
, a tasty sausage that she has brought from the island.
    “Pizza dominicana,”
Tía Lola calls it.
“Buen provecho “
she adds. It is what she always says beforethey eat. Their mom has told them it is sort of like wishing somebody a happy meal.
    “Tía Lola’s got to teach Rudy how to make this,” Miguel says to his sister as Tía Lola serves him a third slice-“Pizza Tía Lola,” he renames it in honor of his aunt.
    When they have finished eating, Miguel announces there is a surprise for his aunt in the back field.
    “
¿Para mí?” Tía
Lola says, pointing to herself
    Miguel can see the color coming back into her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes. The beauty mark that was above her upper lip on the right side is now on the left side. Tía Lola tends to forget little things like that. It winks like a star.
    Miguel leads the way up the stairs to the landing. They line up at the big picture window and look out at the snowy fields where large letters spell out
!Bienvenida, Tía Lola!
    Tía Lola claps her hands and hugs Miguel.
    “Who says I did it?” Miguel asks.
    Juanita and Tía Lola look at him, surprised.
    Miguel points to the tail on the
a
of LOLA, Tracks head toward the letters instead of away from them. Maybe the
ciguapas
have followed Tía Lola to Vermont.
    “!Ay,
Miguelito!”
Tía Lola kisses and hugs him all over again. “Tu
eres tan divertido.”
    “You’re fun, too,” Miguel says. This time he means it-

Chapter Three
Top-Secret
    At school, Miguel starts hanging out with Dean and Sam at recess-Almost every day, they practice pitching and catching in the gym, Miguel wants to be ready for spring tryouts for the town’s Little League baseball team.
    Dean and Sam have never brought up the incident with the ghost in the white turban. But Miguel has noticed they are none too eager to come over to his house after school or during weekends, which is just as well. How can he explain Tía Lola to them?
    Once, as they are dressing for gym, Dean asks Miguel if living in the old Charlebois house is, like, well, maybe a little spooky? “At night,” he adds, as if he doesn’t want to be thought a scaredy-cat for asking.
    “What do you mean?” Miguel stalls for time.
    “He means, like, are there ghosts there?” Sam asks.
    “Funny things happen,” Miguel admits, trying to keep his fingers crossed as he puts on his sweat socks. “But IVe learned not to pay attention to them.”
    Dean and Sam nod solemnly. Miguel can see a new respect in their eyes. They think he is brave for living in a haunted house with a real ghost. They don’t know how real she is, Miguel thinks to himself.
    This is how Tía Lola becomes top-secret.
    It is hard to believe Tía Lola can be kept a secret. She is full of life. She is full of laughter. She is full of stories. And she is full of noise.
    Some nights after supper, Tía Lola gives Juanita and Mami dance lessons. They move across the living room, stomping their feet and snapping their fingers, or