How Tía Lola Learned to Teach Read Free Page A

eyes and open your imagination!” Juanita translates.
    Suddenly—or does Juanita imagine this?—the room fills with screeching parrots. Ocean waves crash against the blackboard, and jungle flowers press against the steamed-up windows. The sun is warm on her skin, andher feet sink into soft sand. All around, Juanita hears her classmates talking in Spanish. Oh my! Juanita knows her aunt is special, but this is extraordinary, and totally surprising.
    “¡Ya!” Tía Lola claps her hands. Juanita pulls herself away from this tropical wonderland. Her classmates are also rubbing their eyes and shaking their heads. Everyone looks slightly tanned, and extremely impressed. Even Milton is silenced, though his mouth is wide open in wonder. Hannah, a quiet, usually shy girl, speaks for them all when she says, “That was … awesome!”
    At the door, Miguel has arrived to escort Tía Lola to his classroom.
    “ Adiós , Tía Lola!” the children call out. “When are you coming back?” It’s not every day they get to have such an amazing visitor.
    “The next time you have a Special Visitor Day,” Tía Lola says, and tells her niece to translate.
    Juanita and Miguel exchange a look. Their little white lie is getting bigger and darker.

    Tía Lola is thoughtful as she and her nephew walk down the hall. “Why didn’t your sister translate what I just said?”
    Is this the time to tell Tía Lola the truth? Miguel wonders. But if he tells her now, it might ruin her visit to his class. The end of the school day will be soon enough.
    “I think maybe Juanita was having such a great time, she forgot to translate,” Miguel says, which is sort of true. In fact, when Miguel had opened the door, the whole class seemed to be in a trance. He himself had felt a blast of warm, sunny air on his face. Not only that, he thought he’d heard parrots! Parrots in Vermont, in the middle of winter?! It was like that classroom was under a spell. “You didn’t work some magic in there, did you?” Miguel asks his aunt bluntly.
    Tía Lola laughs and shakes her head. “No hice nada.” She didn’t do a thing. The children just used their imaginations.
    “Fifth graders have really great imaginations,” Miguel brags. He wants to be sure Tía Lola understands that she is moving up in the world. From third to fifth grade is an enormous leap. It’s like going from being an ape to being a human being. In his imagination, Miguel sees Juanita suddenly turning hairy, with a long tail coming out of her dress. He can’t help but laugh.
    Tía Lola looks over at him as if she knows exactly what he is thinking.
    Suddenly, Miguel can see himself transformed into a big, dumb orangutan. Quickly, he turns his sister back to her normal self in his imagination. Lo and behold, he can see himself turning back into a boy. He slows his steps. He wants to be sure that the change is complete before he faces a room full of his classmates.

    Mrs. Prouty, the teacher for the combined fourth and fifth grades, has already met Tía Lola a number of times in town. They kiss like old friends. Tía Lola asks after Mrs. Prouty’s gorditas , which Miguel can’t really translate, as it’s not really polite to call his teacher’s twin daughters fatties. His mother has explained that Tía Lola actually means the word as a compliment. Back on the island, where a lot of people are so poor, being chubby means your family is well-off. But here in the United States, it would be a mean thing to say.
    “Tía Lola wants to know how your daughters are,” Miguel translates.
    Mrs. Prouty’s face turns pink with pleasure. They are very well, thank you, taking skating lessons, eager to start middle school in September. Throughout this exchange, Miguel is busy with the back-and-forth translation. He hopes Tía Lola soon picks up English and his teachers and classmates learn Spanish, or he will be working extra hard from now on. Hey, maybe he can get paid for his services? Now, that would be