The next day we brought overnight bags to Tía Nona’s because she had promised to take us someplace fun. “We can finish the champagne bottles later this week,” she said. “You girls need to see the beach!”
The whole family piled into Tía Chea’s van. Well, there was only room for twelve of us, so Tío Pepe said he would follow in the pickup truck with Pepito and Juancito. “You don’t both have to squeeze into the truck,” Tía Chea said to the boys. “There’s a spot here beside your grandfather.” Don Feyo patted the seat next to him, but my cousins insisted the truck was more fun.
“Tía Nona, what’s Clarisa doing today?” I asked.
Tía Nona squinted at me. “Who?”
“The girl that works for you.” I was not going to call her Cosita.
“Oh, Cosita? She’s got laundry to do. Why? Do you need something?”
“No, I just thought that, since we have room for one more, maybe she could take the day off and come to the beach with us.”
Tía Nona laughed and shook her head. “It’s not a good idea to fraternize with the help.” She looked over at her house. “Although it might be helpful to have her around to carry things for us.”
“Carry things? But she’s so little!” Did my aunt think Clarisa was a mule or something?
“You need your laundry done, Nona,” Mami said. “Come on, let’s go.”
It took almost two hours to get to Puerto Plata. Connie asked about every flower and tree she saw along the way. Papi tried to answer her questions, since Mami — the real tree and flower expert — was engrossed in wedding talk with Abuelita and my aunts. Gracie and Muñeca giggled about cute boys, and Don Feyo showed Rosie some card tricks.
I couldn’t believe everyone was acting so normal. Didn’t it bother my parents that Tía Nona would treat a child like she wasn’t even a person? Maybe she was still mad at Clarisa for breaking her stuff. That would make me mad too, if it really happened.
Juan Miguel and his parents were waiting for us at their hotel when we pulled up. The place was amazing, with palm trees stretching out of wooden boxes throughout the lobby, shiny marble floors, and fountains that looked like waterfalls. Muñeca’s mouth dropped open when we walked into our room. “This is so luxurious!” she said. She ran around stroking the lace curtains, the ginormous television, and the leather love seat in the sitting area. Then she plopped herself down, grabbed the remote, and clicked through every channel in the universe.
Gracie admired the embroidery on the linen bedspreads, then went to see the bathroom. Rosie was already in there. “Look at me!” she said as she tripped in a way-too-big-on-her fluffy white bathrobe.
“That’s for after you shower, silly!” Gracie helped Rosie out of the robe, and went to hang it back up.
“Let’s check out the balcony,” Rosie said. I stepped outside with her and felt the warm ocean breeze against my face. The beach was right there. Cool.
“Hi, Anamay!” Connie was in the neighboring balcony, where she was staying with my parents.
“Get your swimsuits on, girls,” Mami said. “We should take advantage of this beautiful beach.”
It really was beautiful. I put a toe in the water expecting to feel cold, but it was as warm as a bath. Then I walked all the way in up to my shoulders. When I looked down, I could see clear to my feet. This had to be the cleanest beach in the world!
“Anamay, I want to introduce you to some friends!” Tía Nona was at the water’s edge in an orange two-piece. A bunch of glamorous people were with her. She introduced me as her brilliant niece who was so much like her. The friends all bragged about themselves. One woman had been Tía Nona’s classmate and was now the top oncologist in the country. At least that’s what she said. One man was a top businessman, another one the best lawyer, and the other woman had perfect children who were nowhere to be seen.
Abuelita came over and draped a giant towel over Tía Nona. “A respectable girl like you should wear something more modest,” she said.
Tía Nona rolled her eyes. “This is my mother,” she said to her friends as she took off the towel and handed it back to Abuelita. “I don’t need this.”
Mami kept slathering sunscreen on my little sisters and telling Gracie and me to put some on too. I did at first, but then I had too much fun in the water to bother reapplying it. When we went back inside, my shoulders were bright red and what should have been a wonderful shower was very painful. I should have listened to my mother.
The day ended with a lobster dinner at a fancy restaurant in the hotel. Our family sat at two tables — one for the grown-ups and one for the kids. Pepito and Juancito cracked us up doing impressions of all the snooty people we met that day, but they made sure to speak softly so Tía Nona and Juan Miguel and his family wouldn’t notice.
I felt a little guilty about making fun of my aunt’s friends. We wouldn’t even be here having such a great time if it weren’t for her and her fiancé’s family. So I couldn’t decide if I should join my cousins and sisters in the fun, or if I should scold them and stick up for Tía Nona’s friends. I ended up enjoying my cousins’ impressions. After all, maybe those people were just acquaintances and my aunt was only being polite to them. And she was nothing like them, right?
When we finished eating, I watched the waitresses and busboys running around with sweat on their foreheads, hauling huge trays of dishes. I wondered if Clarisa would ever get to enjoy a place like this.
***
We spent most of the next day at the beach again, and piled into the van to head back in the early evening. “I need to go to the clinic tomorrow,” Tía Nona said, looking at her phone. “Some patients are asking about me, and I have to complete some paperwork before I go off on my honeymoon.”
“Do you want us to finish the champagne bottles?” Mami asked.
“No, there aren’t that many more to do,” Tía Nona said. “We can finish them on Friday. Just enjoy yourselves tomorrow.”
So Tía Chea dropped Gracie, Muñeca, and me off at Tía Nona’s house the next day, then went back to help Tío Pepe and the boys on the farm. “Don’t get too used to this,” she told her daughter. “When your cousins go home to the United States, it’s back to work for you, young lady.”
“I know, I know.” Muñeca grabbed Gracie’s hand, and the two of them started to run off.
“Where are you two going?” Tía Chea called.
“To socialize with the neighbors!” My sister and cousin kept moving. I had heard Muñeca tell Gracie that some cute fourteen-year-old twin boys lived near Tía Nona.
Tía Chea probably knew about those boys, because she shook her head and shouted for all the world to hear, “You come back here if their parents aren’t home!”
After Tía Chea left, my parents, my little sisters, and Abuelita sat on the porch and entertained a stream of visitors. Everyone acted like we were celebrities or something. “You’re the one who hasn’t been back in sixteen years!” a bunch of people said to Mami. I went inside to practice piano. The wedding was two days away and I had to perfect Prelude in C Major. It wasn’t too tough, but everyone would be watching and I would be nervous.
Clarisa came in while I was practicing. “That sounds good,” she said after I had played it twice.
“Thanks. Do you want me to play something for you to sing?”
Clarisa smiled and reached into the front pocket of her shorts. “Do you know this song?” She handed me a wrinkled sheet of paper.
I took it from her. It was an old merengue by the Dominican singer Johnny Ventura. “I’ve never played this before,” I said. “But I’ve heard it.” At Gracie’s graduation party, actually. Could I play this like Sarita did?
“This is my favorite song,” Clarisa said. She sang a few lines and danced along without waiting for me to join her on the piano. “Guess what?” she said suddenly. “I’m moving to Santo Domingo with my mother.”
“Really? When?”
Clarisa looked at her hands. “I’m not sure. Whenever she makes enough money to get a place big enough for the whole family.”
“Where does she work?”
“She sings at a nightclub and she’s really good. Right now she just gets food, a free room, and fancy dresses to wear on stage, but her boss says that when the club starts to make more money, they’ll pay her. And he said I can work with her when I’m thirteen.”
“Wow. No wonder you’re so good. It’s in your blood.”
Clarisa blushed. “I can’t wait until I’m thirteen.”
“What about school?” I said.
“I don’t need school anymore,” Clarisa said.
“Oh,” I said, “are you allowed to drop out of school at your age?”
Clarisa shrugged. “My parents don’t make me go anymore. There’s no time for that. But . . . could you show me how you know which notes to play?” She sat down next to me at the piano.
In less than an hour, Clarisa was reading music. Well, all the notes around middle C at least, which was really impressive. She was so smart. It was a shame that she didn’t want to keep going to school.
“I’m going to miss you when you go back to the United States,” Clarisa said.
“I’ll miss you too. Maybe I can teach you to play a song, and then we’ll think of each other when we play it.”
“I’m not allowed to touch this piano. I’m only playing now because you’re here.”
“Oh.” I wondered if I should say something to my aunt about that. Would she give Clarisa permission to practice for a little while each day? I wanted to believe that she would, but I had to admit that I didn’t really think so. “Maybe you can get your own instrument, something small to play at home — ”
“Cosita! Cosita!” The cook was calling her.
Clarisa jumped up. “I’ll see you later!” she said with a big smile on her face.
I wondered how Clarisa could be so cheerful when she had so little. I got whiny just because my parents didn’t want to pay for the Eleanor School. Would anything ever upset Clarisa?