How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over Read Free Page B

they imagining it?—the room is growing brighter! But the light is not coming from Tía Lola’s bedside lamp, but from the brilliant idea inside her head.
    “The thin edge of the wedge,” Tía Lola says mysteriously.
    “The what of the what? It sounds like a sandwich, Tía Lola.” Juanita giggles.
    Tía Lola explains. “You know how sometimes we can’t open a jammed door? So what do we do? We squeeze thethin edge of a wedge into the crack and pry the door open.”
    Five young faces are looking expectantly at Tía Lola, waiting for the great illumination to come to them. What on earth does an unstuck door have to do with their B&B and convincing Mami and Papa?
    “The B&B idea is stuck,
no es verdad
?” Isn’t this so? Yes, they would all have to agree that this is so. “It’s too big and scary an idea for Mami to agree to.” Now Cari is really nodding. She understands about scary things. “And Víctor is stuck, too, as he isn’t ready to confess he doesn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. But what if we were to suggest just starting with a guinea-pig weekend?”
    “But we don’t know any guinea pigs who want to go to a B&B,” Juanita says, being silly.
    “Valentino can pretend to be a guinea pig, right, Valentino?” Cari volunteers him. Valentino, always a good sport, half raises himself from Tía Lola’s flowered rug. Of course he’ll help out any way he can.
    But Tía Lola says they need human guinea pigs. Some guests to stay at the house—for free, since this is a trial run—to prove to Mami that it can be done with minimum hassle to Colonel Charlebois and the Espada family. Meanwhile, once Papa gets a taste of running a place where he can make people happy, he’s going to feel confident enough to confess to Mami.
    “Tía Lola”—Essie is shaking her head—“you are absolutely
the
most incredible genius I have ever known.” Excepting Essie herself, of course. But it would be immodest for her to say so.
    They troop downstairs to present the thin edge of the wedge to Víctor and Linda. And how can Mami and Papa resist the determination, the reasoned arguments, the barking pleas, the excitement and enthusiasm of the assembled group of five children, one aunt, and a dog ready to turn himself into a guinea pig to convince them to give the idea a try? They all go down on bended knees, even Valentino, which is not so easy for a four-legged animal.
    Mami is having a hard time trying not to smile. “Just one weekend,” she agrees tentatively. One weekend is nothing, a mere two days. The kids will get it out of their system, and Víctor and Colonel Charlebois will be rid of this B&B lunacy. “So who will you recruit for your first guests?”
    They have all been so intent on convincing Mami and Papa that they never discussed who to invite to be their guinea pigs.
    This time it’s Miguel who comes up with the solution. Papi and Carmen are driving up next weekend to celebrate Juanita’s birthday. Instead of staying at the B&B down the road, they can stay at Tía Lola’s B&B instead.
    “Well …” Mami looks over at Víctor. “If it’s okay with you?”
    Miguel can almost hear the creaking of a door being slowly wedged open.

    Now that two parents have come around (and around), it’s time to ask the third parent to join them.
    Since it was his idea, Miguel calls up Papi. “We want you to be our gue—guests at Tía Lola’s B&B this weekend.”
    “Wait a minute,
mi’jo
.” Papi stops Miguel.
“Mi’jo,”
“myson,” is Papi’s affectionate term for Miguel. Sometimes when his father calls him that, it makes Miguel wistful, thinking of how it used to be living with Papi under the same roof. “Let me get this straight, your mother and Tía Lola are turning the house into a B&B? What about her job at the college? And isn’t Tía Lola still teaching Spanish at the school?”
    “No, Papi, listen. Tía Lola’s B&B is actually over at Colonel Charlebois’s house. And it’s just on