Return to Sender (18 page)
Authors: Julia Alvarez
So twice a week, after school, Tyler rides the bus to the edge of town and gets off on the block where the old man lives. Then, when he's done, he calls his grandmother to pick him up, as his dad's involved with the evening milking and the mom is getting supper ready. The grandmother has her car back finally; the family had taken it away last November when she kept getting into
accidents because she was so sad about her husband dying.
The first time the bus dropped Tyler off, I recognized the old man coming down his front porch. This was the very same old man who had said some not-so-nice things about Mexicans at that town meeting. Tyler had helped him find some money he lost, and the old man offered a reward, but Tyler refused. I suppose when he saw the story in the paper, the old man decided to help out. Still, I would be afraid to work for him, but Tyler says the old man couldn't be nicer.
This past Tuesday, my sisters and I were over with the grandmother when she got Tyler's call to come pick him up. So she invited us along for the outing. She gave me a cake to hold on my lap that she had baked for the old man. Ofie asked if it was his birthday. “Oh, nothing like that,” the grandmother explained. “It's just we've got to fatten him up. Poor old Joseph is just skin and bones. No wonder he's gotten so mean.”
Well, Ofie was in one of her nosy moods. The whole ride over, she kept asking questions. “Grandma, how old do you suppose Mr. Rossetti is?”
“Oh, I've figured it out from some things he's said. Joseph must be seventy- six, seventy- seven.” There was a sweet little smile on the grandmother's face as she spoke. “I remember him
when he was a handsome young fellow. There wasn't a girl's heart in the county that didn't flutter when she saw him. Why do you ask?” she said, peering at Ofie in the rearview mirror.
Ofie answered her question with a question. “And how old are you, Grandma?”
“Well, dear, that's not something you normally ask ladies to disclose. But I'm your grandma so you can ask me. I'm seventy- three, or will be this May. You're suddenly very curious about birthdays, aren't you?” She gave a little laugh. “You care to inform me what you're cooking up in that lively head of yours?”
“First, Grandma, how old do people live to be?”
The grandmother suddenly got very sad. “Only God knows that, honey. Look at Gramps.” She bit her lip. I turned around and gave Ofie the eye so she would stop before she had the poor grandmother in tears.
But forbidding Ofie anything is like giving her a green light. She stuck her little chin in the air, like she knew better. “I just think you should marry Mr. Rossetti soon before one of you dies.”
The grandmother was turning into Mr. Rossetti's driveway, and the old man had come down the porch steps to greet us. Just in time, the grandmother braked really hard. Now I believe what she says about seat belts. That poor cake
wasn't belted in, and it jumped out of my hands and smashed against the dashboard and windshield!
The grandmother looked like she was about to die. Meanwhile, Mr. Rossetti had opened the car door and reached in a hand to help her out. “Excellent reflexes, Elsie!” he complimented her.
When we got home, Ofie told Papá that Grandma and Mr. Rossetti were going to get married! I can't believe her imagination. “This must be the month of romance,” Papá observed. “The grandmother and her beau, Tío Felipe and Alyssa, and,” he added, glancing over at me with a sly look, “the
patrón's
son fighting for a certain girl's honor.” How on earth had he found out about Tyler's fight with Clayton and Ronnie?
I don't know if I figured it out by myself or if I saw the guilty look sneaking across my sister's face. But right then and there, I knew that Ofie had been feeding Papá what Mr. Bicknell calls misinformation! No wonder he has gotten even
more
strict about my going over to Tyler's house even with my sisters.
I tried explaining to him what I wrote for Mr. Bicknell's Valentine's Day assignment. How friendship is a country that includes everybody. All you have to do to belong is be a good friend. But Papá just shook his head like he knew better.
“Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por
diablo.”
A favorite saying of his about how the devil knows more because he is old than because he is the devil. I did not want to be disrespectful, but very softly, I asked, “Papá, and what do angels know?”
Just like that, his face lost all suspicion, and he gave me the most angelic smile!
Abuelito and Abuelote and Abuelota and Tío Felipe and
toda la familia,
I certainly hope that Papá is wrong about how you do not allow girls and boys to be special friends. Because if this is so, I hate to say it, but just like my sister Ofie, I would not want to live in México.
Your granddaughter, niece, cousin, and special
amiga,
Mari
INTERROBANG FARMApril is definitely turning into a month of surprises. It's like every day is April Fool's Day. Any moment, Tyler is ex-pecting someone to jump out and say, SURPRISE! APRIL FOOL!
Take all the surprises that have come with his new job.
First of all, who would have thought he'd end up working for Mr. Rossetti? And then, who would have thought that Mr. Rossetti wouldn't be so cranky after all? Or that after losing Gramps, Tyler would find a grandfatherly friend again?
Not that Mr. Rossetti will ever replace Gramps. What
Tyler feels toward the old man is probably similar to what the three Marías feel toward his grandmother. They already have a real grandmother back in Mexico, whose picture Alyssa brought back from her spring break. And yet, all three girls still call Tyler's grandmother Grandma, and they love visiting her. A lot of times, when Grandma picks up Tyler from work, she brings the girls along. Grandpa, they've started calling Mr. Rossetti.
Talk about surprises: Mr. Rossetti with Mexican granddaughters!
“They aren't Mexican. They were born here, fair and square!” Mr. Rossetti will correct anyone who gets it wrong. No one has corrected him on this point. Ofie and Luby are under strict instructions not to let on that Mari was born in Mexico. For that matter, they're not supposed to admit that their father and uncle don't have the permission papers they need to be here legally. “The least said the better,” Mom has instructed Grandma and the girls.
“Nonsense,” Grandma says under her breath.
According to Grandma, friendship—and that's what she has with Mr. Rossetti—means you help your friend become a better person. “How else are we supposed to improve our-selves?” she explains to Tyler and the girls. Slowly but surely, Grandma has been working on Mr. Rossetti's improvement, and that involves a lot of baking, visiting, and taking him to church on Sundays.
“It won't kill you, Joseph,” she tells him when he grum-bles. Mostly, Mr. Rossetti loves any excuse to get to see more of Grandma, whose sad spells seem much improved.
At school, Tyler learns about a new punctuation mark, which Mr. Bicknell calls the interrobang.
“The what?!” Kyle calls out.
“You just used it in your voice.” Mr. Bicknell laughs. Now there's someone who loves surprising his students. “An interrobang is a double punctuation mark: a question mark followed by an exclamation point. When you're surprised but you're not sure it's an April Fool's joke. ‘The what?!’ as Kyle just said. Any other examples?”
Tyler can come up with plenty of them. In fact, April is turning into a whole month of interrobangs.
Mr. Rossetti attending church?! Grandma going to the beauty parlor again?! Tyler headed for the nation's capital after being told by his parents that there was no way they could afford it?!
The girls’ mother, lost for over a year, finding her way back to the family again?!
This last surprise begins one spring evening when Mr. Cruz and Mari come to the Paquettes’ back door. Can her father have a word with the
patrones?
Tyler tags along as they all head for the den. But before he goes in, Mr. Cruz says something to Mari, nodding in Tyler's direction. Mari looks suddenly uncomfortable.
“My father says this is private.” Mari shrugs as if to say this is not her idea.
Tyler is not surprised. Recently, he has noticed how Mr.
Cruz—it's not exactly that he's unfriendly, but he seems to be watching Tyler closely as if he thinks Tyler is going to sur-prise him in a way he doesn't want to be surprised. It makes Tyler feel bad that Mari's father doesn't fully trust him for some reason Tyler is not even aware of.
As soon as he hears the back door bang shut, Tyler heads toward the den, where his parents are having a serious discussion. “This is one time when I do think we should call Homeland Security!” his mom is saying.
“What?! So they can track the husband back to our farm?!”
“Well, what do you propose to do?”
“I don't know.” His dad sighs. “I sure can't spare him even if it's just for a week. And how's he going to get there and back? I mean, it's not like he can hop on a plane. And as I told him, I don't have that kind of money lying around to loan him.”
“Tyler Maxwell Paquette!” His mother's voice startles Tyler. But she can't very well accuse him of eavesdropping. After all, Tyler is standing in the doorway with his mouth wide open.
“I only came back when I heard them leave,” Tyler de-fends himself. But both his parents are too upset to have the energy to scold him.
Tyler must look worried because his father says, “It's okay, son. Just your mother and I have a private matter we need to settle.”
“Up to your room, Tiger,” his mom adds.
Tyler interprets the order liberally as his mother just
wanting him to go away and heads over to Grandma's house. It turns out that Mr. Cruz has already been by to ask if the girls can stay in Grandma's care while he travels to Texas. Their uncle will be staying on, but Tío Armando will have his hands full with what used to be a three- man job.
“But why's Mr. Cruz going to Texas?” Tyler wants to know.
Grandma closes her eyes as if she's hoping that it's all a nightmare that will disappear when she opens them again. “You might as well know because María will tell you any-how. Mr. Cruz has to go buy his wife back from some sleazy guys who are holding her hostage.”
“Buy her back?!” Tyler can't believe it. This is the kind of surprise that happens in the violent movies that his par-ents won't let him watch.
Grandma nods gravely. “I wouldn't go telling your par-ents, as I don't think Mr. Cruz gave them all the details. He's afraid of losing his job, poor man.” Ever since the Cruzes took her in when she ran away from home, Grandma has felt a special closeness to them.
“The little ones don't know, either,” Grandma adds. “Except for María, who has to translate for her father. Poor María.” Grandma sighs. “What a burden on that sensitive girl.”
“How much will it cost to buy her mom?” Tyler asks.
“Three thousand. Dollars, that is.” Grandma shakes her head as if she can't believe it.
Tyler can't either. Three thousand dollars is more than the $500 he has put together for his D.C. trip. More
than the $860-plus he found in the boys’ bathroom. Now he can see what his parents mean about “that kind of money.” But then, his grandmother doesn't have that kind of money, either.
“Maybe we can raise it?” Tyler wonders aloud.
“That's more bake sales than I've got left in me.” Grandma smiles for the first time this evening.