Freddie Ramos Rules New York

by Jacqueline Jules

  “That’s Angela!” Uncle Jorge grinned. He opened the front door and a woman with dark hair, who looked a lot like Juanita, walked in. She was carrying a large covered tray that smelled delicious.

  “I hope you’re hungry!” Angela said.

  Right away, I noticed that Angela had dimples in her cheeks, making her smile look extra happy.

  Juanita came into the apartment carrying a smaller tray. She put it down on the table and whipped off the foil like a magician doing a scarf trick.

  “Arroz con leche,” she said. “My favorite dessert!”

  “Mine too!” I said.

  “And mine.” Uncle Jorge kissed Angela on the cheek. “You’re as sweet as your rice pudding.”

  The way Uncle Jorge was acting reminded me of the mushy story coming out of the blond lady’s earbuds on the bus.

  I looked over at Juanita to see how she felt about this. She kept smiling like it was no big deal that Uncle Jorge kissed her mother. I wondered what it would be like if my mom had a special friend. Sometimes it was lonely with just the two of us. Dad was a soldier and a hero. We both missed him a lot.

  “Tengo hambre,” Juanita said, sitting down at the table first.

  I was hungry too. I stuffed myself with chicken, beans, and rice pudding. Everybody did. Then we leaned back in our chairs to talk about the next day.

  “I’m sorry,” Uncle Jorge said. “I have to work.”

  Uncle Jorge was a manager at a restaurant. Angela owned the bodega next door, and she had to work too.

  “Juanita is on winter vacation, just like Freddie,” Angela said. “She will take you sightseeing.”

  “¡Excelente!” Mom said. “Only first we need to deliver something for a friend from Starwood Park.”

  Mom got Mr. Vaslov’s white envelope out of her purse. She showed the address to Juanita.

  “Can you find this apartment?”

  Juanita nodded. “Sí. We can stop by on our way.”

  Mom put the envelope on a table by the front door. “Let’s not forget in the morning.”

  When Juanita and Angela went home, Mom sent me to bed. I wasn’t used to sleeping on the floor in a pink bag. And I wasn’t tired. Besides, there were voices outside my room keeping me up—Mom’s voice and Uncle Jorge’s voice. They were whispering again. I got out of my sleeping bag and rubbed the buttons on my purple wristband until they got warm. It was like turning up the volume control on the TV. I could hear everything through the door.

  “I’m nervous,” Uncle Jorge said.

  “You’ll be fine,” Mom said.

  “I can’t express my feelings,” Uncle Jorge said. “I get tongue-tied.”

  “Write her a letter,” Mom suggested.

  “¡Buena idea!” Uncle Jorge snapped his fingers. “And I’ll put the ring inside.”

  “You won’t have to say a word.” Mom laughed.

  I turned off my Zapato Power hearing. There was no need to listen anymore. I knew what was going on. Uncle Jorge was going to ask Angela to marry him. I was going to have a new aunt and a new cousin!

  6. The White Envelope

  The next morning, Uncle Jorge was whistling. Instead of pouring milk on his cereal, he spilled it on the table. We grabbed paper towels to mop it up.

  “My mind is out the window this morning!” Uncle Jorge laughed at himself.

  Just as we finished cleaning, the doorbell rang.

  “That must be Juanita,” Mom said, grabbing my arm. “Let’s not keep her waiting.”

  Mom was in a big hurry to get going. We were all the way down the steps when she realized she’d forgotten Mr. Vaslov’s letter.

  “No hay problema,” I told Mom. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Uncle Jorge was still whistling when he opened the door.

  “What did you forget, Freddie?”

  I told him about Mr. Vaslov’s envelope. He picked it up off the front table and read the address.

  “I can deliver this on my way to work,” he said, putting it beside another white envelope inside the front pocket of his jacket.

  “Are you sure?” I asked. Between the whistling and the spilled milk, I wasn’t 100 percent positive Uncle Jorge should be trusted with an important letter.

  “Of course!” He waved me off. “Go have fun!”

  I dashed back down the steps for a busy morning in New York City.

  The first place Juanita took us was Rockefeller Center. It had an ice rink, flags, a gold statue, and a ginormous Christmas tree. Everything in New York was huge!

  “We’ll come back here tonight,” Mom said, “to see the lights on the tree.”

  In the meantime, we went inside Rockefeller Center to see the city from seventy floors above ground.

  “Freddie!” Mom pointed. “Look at the Empire State Building!”

  “Which one is it?” I asked.

  “The tall one,” Mom said. “Can’t you see it?”

  New York was full of tall buildings. My teacher would say Mom needed to do a better job with description.

  “Look over there, Freddie.” Juanita touched my shoulder. “The tallest one with a needle on top.”

  “I see it now!” I said. “It looks like a giant rocket!”

  “You’re right!” Juanita agreed.

  Some of the buildings had flat tops. Others had round ones. There was a lot to look at. But after a while, my stomach complained for lunch.

  Juanita giggled. “Sounds like Freddie needs some New York pizza.”

  She took us to a place that had the biggest pizza slices I’d ever seen.

  “Use two hands, Freddie,” Juanita warned me.

  It was good advice I should have listened to. Mom had to get a pile of napkins to clean pizza off my jeans. On the bright side, Juanita didn’t say, “I told you so.” She even gave me her second slice. “I’m full,” Juanita said, passing her paper plate across the table.

  “Are you sure?”

  She patted her stomach. “Absolutely.”

  “Thanks!” I smiled at my almost cousin.

  Juanita was super nice. It was going to be fun to have a bigger family when Uncle Jorge and Angela got married.

  After lunch, Juanita took us to Macy’s, this giant department store with more ladies’ purses and shoes than I ever wanted to see in one place. Mom loved it! I thought we were going to be stuck there forever.

  Then Mom’s phone rang.

  “What?” she shouted. “You lost the ring? Oh, Jorge!”

  Juanita’s brown eyes got bigger and bigger as she listened to Mom yell into her phone.

  “My mother wanted a diamond from Jorge,” Juanita said quietly. “I hope you can find it.”

  “Don’t worry,” Mom said. “We will.”

  But her face didn’t look so sure. And I didn’t feel so sure I was going to have a bigger family anymore.

  7. Traffic Jam

  We met Uncle Jorge in his office at the restaurant. He showed us the letter we were supposed to deliver for Mr. Vaslov. Uncle Jorge had put it in his coat pocket beside another white envelope that morning.

  “I wrote out my feelings in a letter,” Uncle Jorge said, “and taped the ring to the bottom.”

  “And then you gave it to Mr. Vaslov’s brother?” Mom asked.

  “Sí.” Uncle Jorge pulled his hair. “When I rang the doorbell, I handed over the wrong letter.”

  “Mom’s going to be so disappointed.” Juanita sniffled.

  “What?” Uncle Jorge asked. “Angela knows? How?”

  “She was hoping,” Juanita explained. “You made such a big deal about meeting at Rockefeller Center tonight under the Christmas tree.”

  “It’s where we went on our first date,” Uncle Jorge said.

  “I know,” Juanita answered. “Romantic.”

  “Not without the ring!” Uncle Jorge moaned.

  “We can talk to Mr. Vaslov’s brother!” I touched my Zapato Power wristband. “We can get it back!”

  “I hope so!” Uncle Jorge
said. “That’s why I called you!”

  We thought it would be faster to go on a city bus. But the traffic crawled. Police officers were in the streets, waving their arms and blowing whistles.

  “Let’s get out,” Juanita said. “At least we’ll move on the sidewalk.”

  I wanted to say that my Zapato Power could get me there in no time. Except I didn’t know where I was going. This wasn’t Starwood Park. I needed Juanita to help me find the address.

  “How much farther?” Mom asked.

  “Look at the signs,” Juanita explained. “The last cross street was 39th. This is 38th. Just keep counting till you get to where you want.”

  So that was the secret to getting around New York!

  By the time we reached the address on the envelope, Mom was pooped.

  “I hope this building has an elevator,” she said.

  It didn’t. Apartment 6D was six flights up.

  “I need to rest.” Mom plopped down on the bottom step.

  “Let me go ahead,” I said. “I can do the stairs in a flash.”

  “You don’t know Mr. Vaslov’s brother,” Mom worried.

  “But I know Mr. Vaslov,” I argued. “His brother must be nice too.”

  Mom took the letter out of her purse. “This envelope has papers to help Mr. Vaslov’s family get a green card.”

  Mr. Vaslov’s brother didn’t want Uncle Jorge’s diamond ring. He wanted to stay in the United States. It was time to make a trade.

  “Please, Mom? I’ll be quick.”

  She gave me the letter. “Okay, Freddie. Juanita and I will stay here.”

  In a blink, I was outside Apartment 6D. A man and a woman were talking inside. I rubbed the buttons on my Zapato Power wristband so I could listen through the door.

  “We’ve waited all day for the man with the colorful hat,” a woman said. “He didn’t come back for his diamond ring.”

  “And the green card papers didn’t come from my brother,” a man’s voice said.

  “He promised they would be delivered today,” the woman said. “What are we going to do?”

  “Don’t worry!” I knocked on the door. “I have what you need. I’m a friend of Mr. Vaslov’s.”

  “Who is that?” the man asked. “And how does he know what we need?”

  For a minute, I thought I was going to have to admit that I had super hearing. But when Mr. Vaslov’s brother opened the door, he was so happy to get his green card papers he didn’t care how I knew so much. He let me explain Uncle Jorge’s mistake.

  “Here!” he said. “Take the love letter and the diamond back to your uncle.”

  Now everybody had what they wanted. Almost!

  I ran down the stairs to Mom and Juanita.

  “Come on!” I waved Uncle Jorge’s letter.

  A bus came by and we got on. But there were still police officers with whistles and orange cone barriers everywhere.

  “Somebody important must be in town.” Juanita pointed out the window at black limousines with flags.

  “It looks like a motorcade,” Mom said.

  “Oh no!” Juanita cried. “Mom’s going to be waiting under the Christmas tree, thinking Jorge forgot about her.”

  8. The President

  We got out of the bus again to walk. The streets were mobbed. People were holding up cameras and cell phones to take pictures.

  “What’s going on?” Juanita asked the man beside her.

  “The president is in town,” the man said. “Everyone wants to see.”

  That included me. The president of the United States! ¡Fabuloso! Only I was too short to see over the tall grown-ups. I needed my super bounce. Did I still have it?

  I held my breath and pressed the second button on my wristband, the one that used to give me super bounce.

  BOING! BOING! BOING!

  It worked! I jumped above the crowd in a swirl of smoke.

  BOING! BOING! BOING!

  The motorcade stopped and a man in a blue suit opened the door of the middle limousine.

  Out came someone I recognized from pictures and TV. Everybody cheered and waved.

  BOING! BOING! BOING!

  I could have jumped ten feet without Zapato Power. This was better than a parade! I couldn’t wait to tell Gio back at Starwood Park.

  But first I had to bounce down to Mom and Juanita before they realized I was missing.

  “Freddie?” Mom asked. “Did you see?”

  “Sure did! The president of our country!”

  The crowds thinned and we were able to walk faster.

  Mom’s phone rang.

  “Yes!” she answered. “Freddie has the diamond!”

  “ANGELA IS WAITING FOR ME!” I didn’t need Zapato Power to hear Uncle Jorge shouting through Mom’s phone.

  I looked at the street signs and counted. There were only two blocks left to Rockefeller Center. I knew I could get there in less than a blink. The problem was getting away from Mom. Maybe my almost-cousin could help.

  “Could you keep my mom busy?” I whispered to Juanita. “So I can run ahead?”

  She winked at me. “Good idea, Freddie. You’re faster than the rest of us.”

  Juanita dropped her purse. Keys, combs, pens, and other stuff fell out. Mom stooped to help. I was off.

  Getting to the Christmas tree was easy. Finding Angela and Uncle Jorge was not. There were so many people—all there to see the beautiful tree with the millions of colored lights. Luckily, I had my super bounce.

  BOING! BOING! BOING!

  Angela was standing off to the side, looking lonely. But where was Uncle Jorge?

  BOING! BOING! BOING!

  Finally, I spotted a brightly colored hat with a rooster top. It was Uncle Jorge pacing by a bench. I ran over to him.

  “Here!” I handed him the letter. “Go talk to Angela!”

  I got back to Mom before she was finished helping Juanita with her purse.

  “Hurry up!” I pulled on her arm.

  When we reached the Christmas tree, Uncle Jorge was on one knee, his rooster hat in his hands, watching Angela read her special letter. I rubbed the buttons on my wristband so I could hear Angela’s answer.

  “¡Sí! ¡Sí! ¡Claro!” She nodded as Uncle Jorge put the ring on her finger.

  “Good work, cousin.” Juanita patted my shoulder.

  Mom clapped her hands and jumped around. She was so happy she didn’t notice Uncle Jorge had the letter and the ring before we got there.

  The next day Uncle Jorge took us to the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

  I had a lot to tell Claude the Second when I came home to Starwood Park. My guinea pig had been just fine with Gio and Maria. There were no poop presents on the carpet.

  But I had presents for my friends.

  “Thanks, Freddie!” Gio paraded up and down the sidewalk in his Statue of Liberty hat. Maria wore her NYC T-shirt all day.

  I gave Mr. Vaslov a tiny model of the Empire State Building. He put it on a shelf in his toolshed beside my too-small zapatos. I was glad to see them there and not on someone else’s feet.

  “What are you going to do with my old shoes?” I asked Mr. Vaslov.

  “I’m not sure,” he said, rubbing his chin. “What do you think I should do?”

  If someone smaller at Starwood Park got super zapatos, they would need help learning how to use them.

  “Do you think you could be a good teacher, Freddie?”

  That was a good question.

  “Maybe.” I smiled.

  Jacqueline Jules is the author of thirty books, including Freddie Ramos Takes Off, a Cybils Award winner. She lives in northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. Visit her at www.jacquelinejules.com.

  Miguel Benítez likes to describe himself as a “part-time daydreamer and a full-time doodler.” He lives with his wife and two children in England.