It turns out it takes six months for baby chicks to grow into hens that lay eggs. For the next couple of weeks Eve and I get used to our new routine at home. At first Mama wakes us up at 8am but soon we’re rolling out of bed at 10am. We eat oatmeal or granola and then take turns raising up our new pets. I don’t mind the baby chicks. They are cute and fluffy and fragile. The chicks are not big enough to be in the coop yet. So we keep them in a corner of the garage penned in with a wire gate with heat lamps clamped to it to make sure they don’t get cold or sick. We have to change their water often. And leave chick feed scattered around so they can eat and grow big and strong. Most of the chicks are yellow with a little bit of brown. Like bananas ripening in the sun. Mama says that when they get older they will start to change color and we’ll be able to tell them apart better. For now I call them all “Angel” because when they huddle close together they look like a glowing ring of light. Like a halo.
I feel important being in charge of the chicks. I think Eve does too. Because even though she complains about the smell or how we have to keep changing the newspaper in their pen when it gets too full of poop. She always reminds me when it’s my turn to check on them. Even though she knows I never forget. And sometimes she comes into the garage with me just so she can play with them some more.
Other than checking on the chicks every few hours the days pass slowly. Besides trips to the library and weekly piano lessons with our new teacher Mrs. Umanski. Mama lets us make our own schedules.
“I want you both to finish the books I bought you by the end of the month. Then we’ll have a discussion about what you learned. If you encounter a word you don’t know underline it and then look it up! That way you have an ongoing vocabulary list.”
Usually after breakfast I sit in the sunroom with a roll of highlighters and my book. I’d rather watch TV but the only one we have is in Mama and Papa’s room and we’re not allowed to watch it unless she invites us. I find other ways to pass the time. I try to read two chapters a day. One from each of my books. Then I spend time on the desktop computer. I write Lena on our blog when no one is around. Eve is more of a night owl. She naps during the days. Or walks over to El Rio after school to hang out with some of the girls there. And then late at night I see her flipping through her AP English book. Mumbling to herself and making notes.
And Mama reads too. The newspaper. Articles on her laptop computer. Sometimes she stays in bed past noon lost in a TV show or book. And I wonder if this is what she did when she was a girl. If after being in the spotlight. On the radio. And practicing for five hours a day. She retreated to her room to be alone. I wonder what lessons she learned while traveling. What her parents made her do to keep up with her studies. What it must have been like to be so talented and so young.