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Teen

El Lector: Chapters 16-19

By WILLIAM DURBIN
Published March 12, 2007

Last week: Bella continues to ask Mama why she can't go on to school. Bella's brother gets into trouble for gambling.

Chapter 16 The Heat Wave

The following Monday night Bella was telling the girls the legend of the pirate Gasparilla when a knock came at the front door and a voice called, "Mrs. Lorente?"

Mama brushed back her hair and started down the hall.

"Maybe it's Ta Lola." Juanita ran after Mama.

Officer Burns stood with Pedro beside him. The policeman handed Pedro's slingshot to Mama. "Your boy has something to tell you, Mrs. Lorente."

"Didn't we just have a talk?" Mama demanded. Pedro refused to look her in the eye.

"It was only a joke." He stared at his feet.

"Explain yourself." Mama placed her hands on her hips.

"One of my friends dared me to shoot my slingshot at Cannella's cart horse."

"Luigi Cannella, that poor old vegetable man?" Mama's eyes filled with tears.

Pedro lowered his head farther.

"I'm sure he meant no harm, Mrs. Lorente. But the horse got hit in the flank, and it bolted. A few bushels of tomatoes and cucumbers spilled onto the street. And the rim of the wagon wheel was dented when it hit a rock."

"How could you?" Mama wrung her hands, but Pedro only shrugged.

Juanita let out a wail and began crying. Bella knelt and gave her a hug. "It'll be all right."

"No. No, it won't." Juanita cried even harder.

"The policeman won't hurt Pedro," Bella said.

"It's Mama. She's going to hang herself from the clothesline. I know she is."

"What did she say?" Officer Burns frowned.

"Nothing," Bella said. "She's just upset."

Mama turned to Officer Burns. "We'll pay for the damages, of course."

"I told Luigi that you'd make things right. But in the future, Mrs. Lorente, could you . . ."

"I assure you this will not happen again - will it, Pedro?"

"No, Mama." Pedro kept his eyes cast down.

Mama didn't cry until after Officer Burns had left. Bella hugged her tightly as they both wept. "Hasn't he learned that his conduct soils us all?" Mama gulped between her tears. "If only Domingo were here. Have I been such a bad mother?"

"Don't say that, Mama," Isabel said. "It's not your fault."

She looked at Pedro. "See what you've done!"

Pedro's lip quivered as he, too, began to cry.

It took every penny of the family's emergency fund - $8 in all - to cover the cost of the ruined vegetables and to repair Mr. Cannella's wagon. Mary walked to the market with Bella to pay the money. On the way, Mary showed Bella a postcard her father had sent from the Hoover Dam construction project.

"He says it's 135 degrees out there!" Mary said.

"I'd better stop complaining about the stripping room," Bella said.

"Workers are dying of heatstroke every day."

Mr. Cannella said, "Thank you so much for settling things so quickly."

"It was the least we could do." Bella hoped the woman at the front of the store wouldn't overhear their conversation.

"Let me give you some vegetables."

"You don't have to bother." Bella wanted to get out of the store as quickly as possible.

"I insist." Mr. Cannella opened a paper sack and walked to the bins near the door. "I have some choice tomatoes and onions today." Bella's face burned with embarrassment.

As Mary and Bella started down the street, Bella said, "I can't believe Pedro did this to me."

"You have to remember he's just a little boy," Mary said.

"I'll be spending the next 20 years in a cigar factory. And he gets to go to school!"

"Things are bound to improve soon."

"That's easy for you to say, Miss Shiny Shoes." Before the last word was out, Bella regretted what she'd said.

But it was too late. Mary looked as if Bella had slapped her.

"I was only trying to help."

"I'm sorry." Bella reached out to take her hand, but Mary pulled away.

When Bella got home, Pedro met her at the door. "I promise to pay you back," he said. "I really will."

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe that? And you're the one who'll be going to school instead of me! I'll be stuck in that factory. It's not fair." Bella was just as angry at herself for being mean to Mary as she was at Pedro. She turned to Mama.

"I'm wringing wet." Bella's dress was plastered to her back with sweat.

Mama noticed the sack in Bella's arms. "Did you have extra money to buy vegetables?"

"Mr. Cannella gave us a few tomatoes and onions."

"How nice of him," Mama said. "And did you tell him that Pedro would be coming over to help him load his wagon each morning for the rest of this month?"

Bella nodded.

"What?" Pedro said.

"It's time you learned responsibility, young man," Mama said. "I've decided that you have too much time on your hands."

As tired as Bella was, she couldn't get to sleep that night. Not only was she worried about Pedro and Mary, but the heat was also worse than it had been all summer. A breeze usually blew through the tall windows of their casita after dark, but tonight the air stayed dead calm.

Bella turned over, trying not to wake her sisters. A whistle blew as a freight train rumbled through downtown. She heard soft music from somewhere far away. She tried to take a deep breath, but the mosquito netting overhead felt suffocating. And Juanita's hot breath was wet and sticky on her shoulder.

After listening to El Reloj toll 12 and then one o'clock, Bella tiptoed out to the porch with a blanket and a pillow and curled up in the green wicker rocker.

The following morning remained hot and still. As Bella took her seat at the worktable, the bitter scent of damp tobacco hung heavy in the air of La Barbacoa. Ruby said, "It didn't cool off one bit in here overnight."

"The air's so stale," Lorena said. "We need a sea breeze bad."

As the sun baked the roof, Bella heard the tin sheeting creak, expanding overhead. Ruby said, "If it gets any hotter, my head's gonna catch on fire."

Bella was too tired to smile. Her hair and dress were soaked with sweat.

"You holding up okay, honey?" Lorena asked.

Bella nodded, peeling loose a tobacco stem for what seemed like the ten-thousandth time that morning.

"Hades must be a heap cooler than this factory," Lorena said.

"At least you'll be feeling right at home if you ever have to pay Beelzebub a visit," Ruby said.

"Speak for yourself," Lorena said. "I plan on walking right through those pearly gates when my day comes."

"You be dreaming." Ruby smiled.

Luckily, a thunderstorm passed through Ybor just before quitting time. Bella took a deep breath of the cool afternoon air as she and Lola stepped outside. Thin trails of steam were rising from the wooden paving bricks on the street.

"I bet the temperature's dropped 20 degrees," Bella said. "That will cool off the union hall for tonight's meeting,"

Lola said. "Are you coming?"

Bella eyed the cypress blocks in the street that had popped during the rain. "We'd better watch our step."

"You're changing the subject," Lola said.

"The union's doing just fine without me."

"You are the union."

"I really need to apologize to Mary tonight."

"You've been fighting?" Lola asked.

"I was rude to her," Bella said.

"Yes, say you're sorry," Lola said.

When Bella got home, Pedro walked into the backyard with a La Gaceta sack slung over his shoulder.

Oh, no - did he steal it? "What's this?"

"I've got a job peddling newspapers."

"Really?"

"I promised I'd pay you back that money," Pedro said.

"So you are a man of your word." Bella hugged him. "But don't hang around the nightclubs selling those."

"Would Papa have been proud of me for getting a job?"

"Absolutely," Bella said.

When Bella saw Grandfather the following evening, she said, "I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to visit lately."

"I would have been bad company in this heat." Grandfather fanned himself with the newspaper.

"How can you wear that suit coat all the time?"

"It's the lector's uniform. So how does Pedro like his new job?"

"You heard already?"

"My friend Victor Manteiga owns La Gaceta. Tell Pedro he's doing an honorable thing." Grandfather fanned himself again.

"So how is your electric lector working out at the factory?"

"The radio?" Bella smiled. "I can't hear the broadcasts in the stripping room, but Lola says the static is so bad that she feels like putting in earplugs."

Grandfather chuckled. "Maybe they'll decide that even a bad lector is better than one of those infernal noise boxes."

"A hundred radios couldn't replace you."

Chapter 17 The Pop Shooter

A week later, Bella was walking home from work when something sharp stung her from behind. "Ow!" She turned to see Pedro, crouched under a chinaberry tree, grinning.

He had a pop shooter in his hand.

"You stop that!" Bella caught him in a headlock and rubbed her knuckles across the top of his head. "Now we're even," she said. "I should have known it was time for the pop shooter season."

Each August when the chinaberries were green and firm, the boys in town hollowed out bamboo stems. Then, holding the bamboo with a thread spool, they shoved a steel rod into the stem and pushed out the berry with a loud pop.

Pedro said, "You were such an easy target."

"Did you sell a lot of papers?" Bella looked at his sack.

"I did okay, but evening is the best time. I'll get rid of the rest later on. So what were you dreaming about?"

"How do you know I was dreaming?" Bella asked.

"You walked right by without even noticing me."

"I was thinking how much I'd like to go to school this fall."

"The paper said they're adding a junior college to the Hillsborough High building in October," Pedro said.

"So you're reading the papers?" Maybe he was beginning to grow up after all.

"It helps kill the time," Pedro said. "It's too bad Mama wants me to go to school. I'd rather work in a factory any day."

"If only she would see it that way."

"Race you home?" Pedro sprinted toward their casita.

"No fair!"

"Catch me if you can!" Pedro called.

Bella ran after him. It felt good to run hard. Her shoes pounded the hot, packed dirt, and her braids flew off her shoulders.

She and Papa used to race from Ferlita's to their doorstep. The very last time they'd run home, Bella had lost by only a stride. Papa had panted and laughed at the same time.

"I'll need to get into better shape if I want to keep up with you," he'd said. Bella had been sad to lose that day, but she'd been glad ever since that Papa had won their final race.

Now, Bella lengthened her stride, knowing she'd pass Pedro before they reached their yard.

Chapter 18 A Shopping Spree

On Saturday Lola stopped by. After passing out lollipops, she turned to Bella. "So how long have you been working now?"

"Going on three months," Bella said. "It feels like three years."

"It's time we treat you up with a shopping trip."

"We spend all my money for groceries." Bella looked at Mama.

"I've already talked with Rosa about this. It's been ages since you've had a new dress, and there's a big sale at Maas Brothers this week."

Bella hugged Lola. "A dress! Lorena did ask if I was going to the Halloween Ball at the Centro Asturiano."

"And you told her you had nothing to wear?" Lola said.

Bella nodded.

"It's your birthday next week! Your grandfather and I will buy you a new outfit - shoes and all."

Mama smiled and smoothed Bella's hair. "You've worked so hard. You deserve a treat."

Lola said, "Grab your purse, we're catching the trolley. This will be a girls' day out."

"To be young and have a figure like this." The salesclerk took Bella by both shoulders and looked her up and down. "A size 6, I'd say. But those long legs are going to bring the hem up a bit."

"Good," Lola said. "We won't let Bella hide her best feature."

The clerk cocked her head to one side. "That little number is the cat's pajamas."

Then the ladies helped Bella select a slip, a bra and her first high-heeled shoes. Bella said, "You're spending too much money," but Lola only said, "Doesn't your grandfather say a thing worth doing is worth doing well?"

"Yes, but I don't think he meant it to apply to shopping."

"Shopping can be just as much an art as literature." Right then Lola noticed an imitation pearl necklace. "Look," she said, holding it up to Bella's throat. "A perfect contrast to your beautiful skin."

"It's darling," the clerk said.

"A little advertising never hurts." The clerk patted Bella's hand. When Bella blushed, the clerk added, "You're a shy one. Unlike some of your relatives." She grinned at Lola as Bella fingered the sleeve of a gorgeous blue dress.

"Enough gabbing," Lola said. "We've got serious work to do."

For the next hour Lola and the salesclerk paraded Bella in and out of the dressing room, trying one outfit after another.

Finally, when she walked out in a soft lavender dress, Lola shouted, "That's it! Perfect!"

"Now, we'd like a bag for her old things," Lola said. "This young lady is going to walk to the beauty shop in style."

"Beauty shop?" Bella asked.

"I took the liberty of making an appointment."

When they got outside, Bella said, "You've already spent way more than you should."

"I've been dying to see what that gorgeous black hair of yours would look like trimmed and styled."

"But -"

"It would be impolite to refuse a birthday present."

"Mary's not going to believe this!"

"Time for these to go." Lola's friend Lujuana unplaited Bella's braids and combed them out.

"Did you ask Ma -"

"No more braids!" Lola made a snipping motion with her fingers.

The whole time Lujuana was clipping and curling her hair, Bella tried to look into the mirror, but Lola said, "No peeking."

When she had finished, Lujuana said, "Now for a dab of rouge and powder and a touch of lipstick. There!" She spun the chair around.

"What do you think?" Lola squeezed Bella's hand.

Bella's jaw dropped when she saw the rich sheen of her chin-length hair. Her first thought was I look like Grandmother Belicia! But she said, "Where did my ears go? I look . . . so different."

Lujuana laughed as she flicked the chair cloth aside.

"That's the object, honey. It'll grow on you."

"I love it!" Lola said. "Great job."

"She's a knockout for sure," Lujuana said.

As Bella crossed the street, her legs wobbled and she had to lean on Lola. Was it her new shoes? Or the shock of her new hair? She felt light-headed. When Bella glanced at her reflection in a store window, she saw herself standing taller. Could clothes make such a difference?

Lola said, "Before we catch the trolley, let's celebrate with a cup of caf con leche."

As Bella sat down in a sidewalk cafe, a low voice said, "Que carne!"

"See?" Lola whispered. "Those boys think you're pretty."

"No!" Could the hint of Belicia that she'd seen in the mirror be real?

"Look over your shoulder." Lola shaded her face with a menu as she spoke.

When Bella glanced behind her, a young man sitting with two friends tipped his hat and smiled at her.

As they walked up La Sptima, Bella concentrated on keeping her shoulders back and standing straight.

"That's my girl." Lola gave Bella's hand a squeeze. "Doesn't it feel great to get all dolled up?"

"Rosa!" Lola called up the porch steps. "Come see your new daughter."

When Mama came to the door, she covered her mouth with both hands and gasped, "My, my." Tears filled her eyes.

"Ain't she a beaut?" Lola said.

"Bella!" Juanita shouted. "Is that you?"

"Do you like it, Mama?" Bella stepped toward her.

"I never expected . . ." Mama touched the back of Bella's hair. "I mean - it is very nice, but I'll need some time to get used to the new Bella."

"Me too, Mama! But so far, so good!"

Chapter 19 The Halloween Ball

On Monday morning Lola stopped by the stripping room.

"So what do you ladies think of the new Miss Lorente?" she asked.

Lorena said, "I was just telling her that she's too cute to be wasting her time in this hothouse."

Bella blushed.

Edgar Mendez peered through the doorway. "I think she's pretty enough to go to Hollywood and try out for the pictures."

Lola turned. "The only thing you need to picture are these knuckles knocking you into next week if you bother my Bella."

The ladies laughed as Edgar retreated, shaking his head.

When Bella and Lola walked home from work that afternoon, they passed a high school girl. Bella's eyes followed her as she turned into the library. "You're doing a poor job of pretending," Lola said.

"What do you mean?"

"I can tell you're dying to trade places with those kids."

"Oh . . ."

"You can't fool your auntie. But Rosa's right not to let Grandfather help. He hasn't saved a nickel for himself."

"What about all the money he's earned as a lector?"

"Everything he hasn't spent on you kids and his books, he's given to support the Spanish revolution," Lola said.

"He does joke about being owned by his books and his causes," Bella said.

"It's true," Lola said, "but he wouldn't have it any other way." She put her arm around Bella's shoulders as they walked.

"I haven't told anyone this, but I've got a fruit jar at home just like Rosa does. And since I don't have Pedro burning up my savings like you folks do, my kitty is getting pretty full."

"Don't you believe in spending every dollar having fun?"

"I still have my fun money. You know a good life stretches the wrinkles?"

"So you've said." Bella chuckled.

"But I've managed to put a little aside. For you."

"Me?"

"I know how much you love books," Lola said. "I can't understand it myself, but you've clearly got an itch to learn things. And I'd like to help you with your schooling."

Bella stopped and grabbed Lola.

Lola smiled. "I checked with the high school. They'd let you enroll at the next semester."

"Oh, Ta Lola!" Bella hugged her. "This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"But for now we'll keep this our little secret."

"Can I tell Mary?"

"I'll leave that up to you."

Though Mama and Lola both wanted Bella to wear her new dress to the weekly dance at the Centro Asturiano Club, Bella decided to wait until the big Halloween Ball. Lorena had invited Bella and Mary to go to the ball with her youngest sister, Concetta. Since Lola had a Halloween party the same night, Lorena would chaperone the girls and loan Mary the gown she'd worn to her first formal dance.

Mary came over to Bella's to try on the dress. "You slip this on, honey" - Lorena opened her sewing box - "and Rosa and I will pin what we need to take in." But when Lorena and Mama stepped back to look at the silky blue dress, they both shook their heads.

"Does it look bad?" Mary was ready to cry.

"Just beautiful!" Mama said.

"Don't that take the cake," Lorena said, stepping forward and tugging gently at Mary's waist. "Perfect."

"You'd think it had been made special for her," Mama said.

"Colonel Purcell's daughter has one this same color." Mary beamed. "You put your dress on too, Bella, so we can see how we'll both look."

In the days leading up to the Halloween Ball, Bella and Mary practiced dressing for the dance in Bella's bedroom. They wanted to wear their hair up, but Mary's kept springing out of the pins and combs. "I just hate my hair." Mary pulled at a tuft.

"Maybe we could iron it to make it lie down?"

Bella laughed. "Don't complain. Mine is as limp as a noodle." Her hair popped loose from a bobby pin and slid down over her nose. "See what I mean?" Bella crossed her eyes.

Mary giggled. "Stop! I'm getting a side ache."

"I give up!" Bella yanked the pins from her hair and collapsed onto her bed, laughing.

. Watch the Sunday Comics pages for My Kid Scoop, an occasional feature full of newspaper activities for preschoolers and beginning readers.

Fast Facts:

. Story schedule

April 16:

Ch. 19 (cont.)-21

April 23: Ch. 22-24

April 30: Ch. 25-27

May 7: Ch. 28-39

May 14: Ch. 30-31, afterword

In the neighborhood

You can stroll Bella's neighborhood and see how she lived, at the Ybor City State Museum at 2009 N 18th St., Tampa. Hours: 9 to 5 p.m., Sundays through Saturdays.

Cost: $3 for ages 6 and older.

To get to the museum: Take Interstate 4 to Exit 1: Ybor City. Turn south on 21st Street, west on Palm Avenue and south on 19th Street. The museum is the yellow brick building on the northwest corner of Ninth Avenue & 19th Street.

For more information: check out www.ybormuseum.org

Source: www.tbt.com/features/guide/article13215.ece

. next Time

El Lector

(The story will resume April 16). Members of the union are arrested for their actions. Factory workers organize to protest the arrests.

[Last modified March 12, 2007, 06:48:10]

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