We burst back into the apartment like a blustery fall day. Papi was sitting at the dining room table with his checkbook in his hand and a slew of bills spread out in piles. Connie hopped over to him and shoved her new dress in his face. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she said.
Papi’s lips curved up but his eyes stayed on the papers in front of him. “Yes, beautiful,” he said. He started to write a check.
“You didn’t even look!” There was no fooling Connie.
“Mine is the same, see?” Rosie waved her dress around. “Gracie and Anamay have yellow dresses too. And we got one more for our cousin in the DR. We’ll all match for the wedding!”
Papi nodded. “That’s nice.” He looked at Mami. “What are we having for dinner?”
“Mecho’s tired,” Tía Nona said. “Let’s get takeout. How about pizza?”
That sounded like a great idea to me. But I knew Mami wouldn’t go for it. She thinks the only food that’s real is whatever she ate when she was a kid. If a meal doesn’t involve rice, beans, or plantains, it’s just a snack to her. So she never let us get takeout.
“Pizza, pizza, pizza!” Connie and Rosie jumped up and down, waving their dresses in the air.
Mami looked at Tía Nona and frowned. “Pizza isn’t very nutritious,” she said. “I can whip something up quickly.”
“Oh, Mecho, lighten up,” Tía Nona said. “It’s just one meal, and you said you’re exhausted.”
“You do look tired,” Papi said. He stood up and cupped Mami’s elbow in his hand. “Are your ankles swollen again? Here, sit down.” He led her to the sofa. “Rosalba and I will make a salad to have on the side, okay? Pizza’s not so bad. Cheese has protein.”
Mami let Papi help her onto the couch. “I guess that’s okay,” she said. “But let’s invite Mamá. I know she wants to spend more time with Nona.”
“We’ll go get her!” Gracie said right away. “Come on, Anamay.”
“Why don’t we just call her?” I said.
“This way is more personal,” Gracie said. “You know how sensitive Abuelita can be. She’ll love an in-person invitation.” She grabbed my arm and dragged me out before anyone could stop us.
“What is your problem?” I said when we were out in the hallway. “Why are you being so weird? Well, weirder than usual.”
“I just had to get away from Tía Nona,” Gracie said. “She’s driving me crazy!”
“Why?”
“She’s so bossy! I don’t know how Mami can stand it.” Gracie pressed the down button for the elevator.
“She’s not bossy. She just doesn’t let people push her around.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gracie said. “She was so rude to that poor saleslady, I just wanted to die.”
The elevator door opened. “Who? The lady that was mean to Connie?” I said as we stepped inside.
“She was not mean.” Gracie pushed the button for the fourth floor. “She just told Connie to stop running around the store.”
“Well, Connie’s little and she was bored and Mami didn’t even stick up for her! She just apologized like a wimp.”
“Mami apologized like a polite person,” she said. “I can’t believe Tía Nona asked to see the manager. That was crazy.”
Now we were on four. We stepped out and headed down the narrow hallway. “Well,” I said, “like Tía Nona told them, the customer is always right, and she spent a lot of money there, so she’s a really good customer.”
“You can’t be serious!” Gracie said. “Tía Nona’s a snob and a bully, and I can’t wait for her to leave.”
I could not believe my sister. I mean, Tía Nona had just bought us these beautiful dresses, and she was giving us a trip to the Dominican Republic, and this was how Gracie thanked her?
“But you know what?” Gracie said. She stopped suddenly and faced me. “I should have known you would stick up for her. You’re a snob too.”
“What?!” My voice went up super high. “How am I a snob?”
“Just think about it.” Gracie crossed her arms over her chest. “Your best friend in the whole world is a rich girl from Riverdale.”
“I thought you liked Claudia!”
“I do like Claudia. But that’s not the point. The point is that you think the people in Washington Heights aren’t good enough for you.”
I looked at Gracie. I had friends in our neighborhood. There was Ruben and . . . well, there was Ruben. But that had nothing to do with the neighborhood. I just didn’t make friends as easily as Gracie did. “That’s not true,” I said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Humph.” Gracie turned and started walking again.
We stopped in front of Abuelita’s apartment. The purple door was still kind of a shocking sight. The building manager told my grandmother she had to paint it dark brown again like all the other doors, and she had smiled and said she would. That was two years ago. Gracie knocked loudly.
Tío Lalo opened Abuelita’s door. “Mamá,” he called back into the apartment. “It’s my two favorite nieces.” He always said that, no matter which two nieces were around.
“I didn’t know my favorite uncle would be here,” Gracie said. She and Tío Lalo laughed and hugged. He reached over with his other arm and pulled me into the group hug. He smelled like beer.
Abuelita and Tío Lalo said yes right away to our pizza-dinner invitation. “But pizza?” Abuelita said. “I’m surprised Mecho’s not making something healthier. She’s always so picky about food. What’s gotten into her?”
“Tía Nona talked her into it,” Gracie said.
“And Papi too,” I added. Why was she blaming everything on Tía Nona? “Papi said the cheese has protein, remember?”
Gracie smirked. “Yeah, whatever.”
I was about to say something else to defend Tía Nona, but then I remembered, pizza’s a good thing. So why were we all talking like it wasn’t? That Gracie just got me all turned around sometimes.