How Tía Lola Ended Up Starting Over by Julia Álvarez Page A

bathroom.”
    Thank goodness Miguel slept in his clothes as a precaution. In no time, the two children are bounding downstairs and through the kitchen on their way to the backyard. One thing they should have anticipated: Tía Lola is already awake, standing by the stove, frying up some bacon.
“Buenos días. ¡Qué sorpresa!”
What a surprise to see the kids up this early on a Saturday morning!
    “Um … uh … um,” Essie begins. It’s as if she just learned a tribal language from Margaret Soucy, full of grunts and onomatopoetic sounds.
    Esperanza Espada at a loss for words? You bet this makes Tía Lola suspicious. “Okay.
¿Qué pasa
?” What’s up?
    At last, Essie finds her tongue. “We’re just going out to get some exercise before breakfast, Tía Lola.” For proof, she whacks the air with her samurai sword, which she thought to bring along this time, just in case.
    Tía Lola cocks her head, unconvinced. But she is soon distracted by the sound of their guest coming down the stairs, calling out good morning in several languages. The children slip out the back door and head for the woodpile. They crouch down just in time, as here comes Henny, rounding the side of the house, looking over her shoulder. The back door opens again, and Margaret Soucy steps out.
    It takes a moment for the long-absent aunt to recognizeher grown-up niece. “Henriette! Is that you?” she calls out. Henny swivels around and runs toward her aunt, looking like a shipwreck victim who has finally sighted land. She collapses, sobbing, in Margaret’s arms.
    “There, there.” Margaret keeps patting her niece’s back as if she were burping a baby. After a while, Henny calms down and leads her aunt to a bench in the back of the yard. “Let’s talk here. Any other place in town, well, I’m just afraid it might get back to Momma.”
    At the mention of her sister, Margaret Soucy’s face tightens. “How is Odette?”
    The question unstoppers Henny’s bottled-up feelings. Before they’ve even sat down, Henny is pouring her heart out to her aunt. How her mother got so furious about the competition from Tía Lola’s B&B. How she was especially upset about this “foreign woman” putting her out of business.
    “Odette did that on her very own,” Margaret Soucy remarks. “Her bad character would put the Ritz out of business.”
    But what sent Henny’s mother over the top was when another foreign-sounding family, the Espadas, moved in with the colonel, and her own daughter was demoted to part-time cleaning. “She just flipped! Even though I told her Colonel Charlebois was still paying me my full salary. She didn’t care. She wanted revenge … And she made me … oh, Aunt Margaret, I was just so scared.”
    “Made you do what, child?”
    Henny bursts into sobs again. The story comes out in bits and pieces. How Henny smeared Vaseline all over thewater polo team’s equipment. How she steamed open an envelope and changed the address on the groom’s family’s wedding invitation.
    Miguel and Essie exchange a look of amazement. So Henny and her mother are the culprits! Essie’s grip tightens on her sword. In case Henny gets out of hand.
    “And yesterday, Momma somehow found out that a guest was coming here. No, she doesn’t know it’s you, Aunt Margaret. She ordered me to go in the guest room and put these in your bed.” Henny pulls out a bag of plastic critters: spiders, squiggly worms, and long, rubbery snakes.
    Margaret Soucy’s mouth twists scornfully. “I hate to tell sis, but these would not have scared me in the least. Why, I’ve slept in the jungle with crocodiles and scorpions and poisonous snakes. I’ve eaten beetles and tarantulas and three kinds of locusts.”
    Miguel and Essie are glad they have not yet had breakfast, otherwise it might come back to haunt them now. Just when they’re on the brink of solving the mystery of the B&B mishaps, they don’t need another mishap.
    “But the worst part, the part I’m