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

most ashamed of—on account of Colonel Charlebois is, like, the nicest person to me in the world—is what I’ve been doing to him.” Henny pauses, as if she herself can’t believe what she has done. “Momma made me fill his thermos with Knock-Me-Out Tea.”
    “Knock out Uncle Charlie? My sister is trying to kill our old family friend?” Even Margaret Soucy, who has lived among cannibals, is shocked.
    “No, no, not kill,” Henny explains. “Just put him to sleep so I can sneak in when everyone else goes out and do all the tricks I told you about that’ll make the B&B have to close down.”
    Margaret Soucy looks like she just got pierced with a poisoned spear. “You should have come to me sooner, Henriette,” she says. All her silly feuding with her sister has fallen by the wayside. “And I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to talk to the police. Your mother needs help.” Then after a pause, in an even sadder voice, she adds, “You need help.”
    This news, of course, sets off another round of Henny’s tears. “Oh please, Aunt Margaret, I don’t want to go to jail. I don’t want Momma to go to jail. I’ll make it up to the colonel. I’ll clean his house for the rest of my life, for nothing.”
    “We’ll have to see,” Margaret Soucy says. She has studied human beings on every continent, and one thing she has learned: in order to ensure justice on this planet, young and old have to be held responsible for their actions. But justice without forgiveness won’t make the world a better place. “People do have to take responsibility for their actions, Henriette. But maybe if your mother confesses, we can get you both into a diversion program.”
    “Momma will never confess,” Henny says bleakly. “You know her, Aunt Margaret.”
    “But what if we have proof? I don’t mean your word against hers. I mean hard evidence. What if we caught her in the act?”
    “But how?” Henny throws up her hands. “She always has me do stuff for her.”
    For the first time since Miguel laid eyes on her, Margaret Soucy looks totally stumped. She might know how to eat tarantulas and sleep with cobras and protect herself against cannibals, but she doesn’t know how to catch her own sister red-handed.
    They have all been so intent on Henny’s confession that they’ve missed the figure who slipped out the back door a while ago, wondering where her guest was going and why the children had been exercising so long. When Tía Lola finally speaks up, everyone jumps. Miguel and Essie are flushed out of their hiding place. “I have an idea for how to catch your mother, Henrieta. And I am sure if you cooperate with us, it will go easier for you.”
    Henny is already nodding, without yet knowing what Tía Lola is going to suggest.
    Before she unveils her plan, Tía Lola turns to Miguel and Essie. “I am disappointed you didn’t tell me the truth. You know Tía Lola would always try to help you.”
    “It’s my fault, Tía Lola,” Miguel confesses. Like Margaret Soucy said, people have to take responsibility for their actions. And it was his idea to keep the mystery solving a secret. “We were afraid you might decide to close down your B&B.”
    “Close it down?” Tía Lola is shaking her head with her whole body. “And what? Give Odette Beauregard exactly what she wants?
¡No, señor!
I know what will make her come around so we can catch her in the act.”
    “You do?” It’s as close to a chorus as any four people not in a chorus can be.
    “It’s called the Messenger Hasn’t Come Back strategy,” Tía Lola says. Seeing their baffled looks, she goes on to explain: “Henrieta’s mother has sent her on a mission. What if Henrieta doesn’t come back? Her mother will eventually come to find out what happened to her messenger.”
    “Ingenious! Worthy of the wise Kogis.” This is Margaret Soucy, world authority, commending Tía Lola, who never went past fourth grade. “But will it work?”
    Tía Lola nods with