How Tía Lola Came to (Visit) Stay by Julia Álvarez Page B

birthday.
    “Muchísimas gracias,”
Tía Lola agrees, bowing her head toward the flashing rays, “Thank you very much,” The beauty of the world is an everyday gift. All you need, Tía Lola is always telling them, is to reach out and receive it.
    “Now for your last present,” Tía Lola says to her niece, “Do you remember how when you were a little girl, I would always tell you a special story on your birthday?”
    Miguel and Juanita’s mother nods as if she were that little girl again, “It’s been a long time,” she says, a faraway look in her eyes.
    “A long time,” Tía Lola agrees, “Today I will tell you that same story but in English,”
    “!Ay,
qué bueno!”
Their mother kisses her aunt, “It’s so important to me, Tía Lola, that you came to Vermont and learned English so you remain connected to us. And so important,” she goes on, kissing Miguel and Juanita, “that youhear Tía Lola’s stories so you can always stay connected to your past”
    “Speaking of the past…,” Tía Lola says, hurrying her story along. The sun is sinking behind the mountains and a chilly wind is coming up.
    The wind blows softly through the darkening trees. The leaves make a sh-sh-sh sound as if they are quieting a noisy crowd.
    You might not believe this
, Tía Lola begins,
but once all of the world was warm as summer.
    Flowers bloomed and birds sang and the weather was perfect all year round.
    And our little island was no exception.
    “What about Vermont?” Juanita wants to know.
    “And Vermont was no exception,” Tía Lola continues.
    But people, being people, thought that things were better somewhere else.
    Maybe there was more summer farther north? Maybe the sun was brighter down south? Maybe the birds sang prettier songs somewhere else?
    So they set out for other places to see what they were missing.
    Miguel looks up at the starry sky-
If I see a falling
star…He begins his old magic-wishing game. But it’s no use. Some things, like his parents’ divorce, he just has to learn to accept.
    He wonders if things are better on other planets, other stars. What Tía Lola has said about people is true of him, too. When he is in New York with his father, he misses his mother and new friends. But once he is back again in Vermont, he longs to be with his father and his old friends. It’s hard to know what is home anymore.
    Maybe it would be better to live on some other planet and be some other boy?
    Tía Lola’s voice brings him back down to earth and to her story.
    People were on the move all over Mamá Earth. No place was exactly as wonderful as the people had imagined it would be, so they kept wandering around.
    Some of these people arrived on an island in the middle of a warm blue ocean.
    “This is better than where we were before,” they said, and they decided to stay.
    So was that their home? Juanita wonders. She herself isn’t sure anymore where she is from. Both her mami and her papi came from the Dominican Republic. She was born in New York and lived there all her life until eight months ago, when they moved to Vermont. So is she from Vermont now?
    Back at the house, her dolls are falling asleep in the boxes that Papi has cut and painted into elaborate cradles. Juanita always keeps them in the same place. When Mami or Tía Lola moves them, Juanita gets upset. Her dolls will feel lost if they wake up and find themselves in a new place, she tries to explain. “Is that the way you feel,
amorato!”
her mother asks, touching her face softly. Because Juanita’s mother is a psychologist, Juanita has to be careful what she says about her dolls because her mother always thinks she is really talking about herself.
    But this time, her mother is right. Like herdolls, Juanita feels lost when she thinks of all the places she is from.
    Maybe she will never know where she really,
really
belongs.
    Tía Lola continues with her story, her voice like warm waves of sound lapping against their ears.
    News spread that