Sometimes Sebastian imagined that the little yellow house where they gathered was not in the city, but in the lush green mountains of Puerto Rico, and that the breeze that wafted in through the open windows had been tempered by the warm waters of the Caribbean and that the vegetables he chopped hadn’t been purchased at the supermarket down the street, but grown in the garden out back or purchased from the open air market in the nearby village. When the sun went down, there would be only candlelight and conversation for their entertainment, and the hot embers on the grill would glow all through the night in case somebody needed a late night coffee or just a place to warm their hands, for he remembered Abuela Lola telling him that even on a tropical island it could get chilly at night high up in the mountains.
“The kitchen is the heart of the home,” Lola had said to him on several occasions. “When the home has a warm and busy kitchen, you can be sure that the family who lives there will be healthy and strong.”
On this particular afternoon, they were making carne guisada, beef stew with potatoes, tostones, and an avocado onion salad. The stew had been simmering in a hearty wine sauce for hours by the time Sebastian arrived, but Lola assigned the preparation of the tostones to him, saying that he made them better than anyone she’d ever known. Sebastian greatly enjoyed the process. He began by slicing the peeled plantains into rounds and frying them in hot oil, turning them over when they were heated through but not yet golden. Once he had fried a good batch, he took a plate, this was his favorite part, and pressed down on each slice of banana until it resembled a small pancake. Then he returned the lot to the pan for a final frying. Once they were golden brown, he sprinkled the finished tostones with coarse salt. It took awhile to make enough for everyone, but by the time he was finished, the weekday crowd which varied slightly from day to day had already assembled.
Sebastian puffed up with pride as he arranged the tostones on the platter and took them to the table, his head held high.
“Little man,” Aunt Gabi said, giving his shoulder an appreciative squeeze. “Did you make all those for me?”
Before Sebastian could answer, Terrence said, “Maybe your aunt will find it in her heart to spare one or two for the rest of us.”
“Of course,” Gabi replied, with a secret smile. “For you I might even spare three or four.”
While the dinner conversation could take many turns, from the threat of nuclear war to the various cures for hiccups, during this meal Jennifer and Gabi had dominated the conversation with talk about their favorite places to shop. They were excited about a sale that would be taking place over the weekend at an exclusive department store downtown, and were planning to go together. Since Sebastian had already finished his meal, he listened with half an ear from the kitchen as he made more tostones.
“Why don’t you come with us?” Gabi said to her sister.
“Yeah, come with us Mom,” Jennifer said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been out shopping together.”
“I’m not much of a shopper, you know that Jen.”
“Yeah, but you shouldn’t buy all your clothes from those mail order catalogues of yours. Every now and then it’s good to get out, and see what’s new.”
Gloria sighed wearily. The truth is she deplored shopping. Of course, she hadn’t always felt that way. Years ago, when she was thinner and life was simpler, she could spend an entire day at the stores, and even if she didn’t have the money to buy much of anything, she enjoyed herself. On more than one occasion she’d even gone shopping with Susan. In those days Cindy was still in a stroller and Jennifer, who was no more than two years old, insisted on pushing it all throughout the mall.
“Oh come on Mom,” Jennifer persisted. “I swear I’ve seen you in that skirt you’re wearing a dozen times this month.”
“And I’ll wear it a dozen more times next month,” Gloria replied with a stiff nod. “These are my work clothes, and if I wear something new every day of the week, I’ll have no money left to buy clothes for you, or to pay bills at the end of the month.”
“Well then, how about some new play clothes,” Gabi said, with a provocative smile.
Gloria dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. “What’s for dessert Ma?” she asked.
At this, Sebastian’s ears perked up. He’d been eyeing the bag from the pastry shop on the counter and had taken a peek at the deliciousness inside earlier. What’s more, he was quite bored with all this talk about shopping.
“We have Pastelitos de guayaba for dessert,” Lola said, but she made no move to get them. Sebastian’s mouth watered as he imagined the flaky light pastry filled with a sweet paste made from guayaba. As far as he was concerned guayaba paste was thousand times more delicious than strawberry jam.
“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked, when he noticed that Lola had closed her eyes.
“Do you feel sick, Ma?” Gabi asked, alarmed.
“Maybe I should call an ambulance,” Terrence said, pushing himself away from the table.
“No, don’t be silly,” Lola muttered, although her eyes were still closed and she was breathing heavily through flared nostrils. The only one who wasn’t worried was Sebastian because he’d seen his grandmother do this before when she was trying to remember.
“I don’t think I ever told you about Tia Maria,” she began.
“Oh no, here we go again,” Gloria said. “Last time you told us one of your stories, we didn’t get out of here until ten o’clock, and tomorrow’s a school day.”
Lola continued. “She was a beautiful woman with thick black hair and an hourglass figure. She could’ve had any man she wanted, and she played around with a few, but she never allowed herself to get too serious.”
Gloria sighed and folded her arms across her chest. “I guess dessert will have to wait,” she muttered.
“The only time I saw her passionate about anything was when she was out catching butterflies. She had an amazing collection that she carefully labeled and mounted in a glass covered case. It was quite something to see so many delicate wings spread open at once, a rainbow of silken colors, vibrant blues, yellows, and oranges, intricate patterns that looked like they were painted by hand. And it was something to see my aunt out in the garden or traipsing through the jungle, casting her billowy white net all around her, sometimes leaping through the air, and looking very much like a butterfly herself. But her hobby soon turned into an obsession that overshadowed everything else in her life. She wasn’t interested in working, or in learning how to cook or how to look after children. She didn’t care that her hair was turning gray and there was no special someone in her life, all she cared about were her butterflies. And to be fair, she probably found every species that inhabited the island. There was only one very rare butterfly that eluded her, and she told everyone that if she could find this last one, the one with lavender wings, she should settle down and get on with her life.
“And then one afternoon, I saw something that I don’t understand, even today,” Lola said her eyes wide. “Maria didn’t know I was watching her when she took a newly caught butterfly out of her killing jar. It had large lavender wings that shimmered as though sprinkled with a dusting of jewels. I had no doubt it was the one she’d been searching for, but then she lit a match and held it to the small creature until there was nothing left but a tiny pile of ash she swept away without a thought.
Lola softly drummed her fingers on the table, her expression troubled by this memory of long ago.
“Why did she do it?” Gabi asked.
Everyone was silent as the question hung in the air. Sebastian had been listening intently as he did to all of his grandmother’s stories, but he couldn’t understand why anyone would destroy something so beautiful. He glanced at his mother to see if she had any clue, but from the sour look on her face, all he could gather was that she didn’t like this story about butterflies very much.
Jennifer spoke up first. “Well it’s obvious that Tia Maria didn’t want to get on with her life.”<
br />
“But why?” Lola asked. “What was she so afraid of?”
“Maybe someone broke her heart, and she didn’t want to take the chance of being hurt again,” Terrence offered while gazing at Gabi who was momentarily lost in thought, but when she sensed him watching her, she glanced back and smiled.
Charlie cleared his throat and said, “Well, I don’t know much about these things women do, but I can tell you that I could fill this house from floor to ceiling with butterflies if I wanted to.”
“What do you mean Charlie?” Lola asked.
“Excuses,” he replied. “Excuses for not growing up and being the man I knew I should be. They all seemed like very good reasons at the time, but eventually all of my butterflies turned into regrets. I suppose we all have our butterflies. They wouldn’t enchant us so if they were ugly as cockroaches now would they?”
“My goodness Charlie,” Lola said, while looking at him as though she hadn’t really seen him before. “You do surprise me sometimes.”
Gloria cleared her throat. “That’s a very interesting story, but weren’t we just talking about dessert?”
“Actually,” Gabi said with a wry smile, “we were talking about taking you shopping, but you sure do have a lot of excuses.”
“That’s right, Mom,” Jennifer said, raising her eyebrows. “I didn’t realize you were such a collector.”
Gloria shook her head, clearly baffled. “Am I the only one ready for dessert?”
Sebastian tentatively raised his hand like he did in class, although this lesson was way over his head.
“Oh, for goodness sake, Nena,” Lola said while pulling down Sebastian’s hand. “Do you need a brick wall to fall on your head? Get your mind off of dessert, and go shopping with your daughter and your sister. Buy some new clothes, maybe get some new shoes, one for each foot. You’ll feel better about yourself if you do.”
Later in the kitchen, when Sebastian was sure that only his grandmother could hear him, he asked, “What happened to Tia Maria, did she keep collecting butterflies forever?”
“Oh my goodness no,” Lola replied. “Eventually, she had to give it up because she was too old to go out looking for them. But years later her entire collection was stolen in the middle of the night while she slept, and neither the thief nor the butterflies were ever found.”
“Maybe they escaped,” Sebastian said, imagining hundreds of butterflies coming to life, breaking through the glass, and taking flight, their frosty wings filling the night sky with a rainbow of colors.
“You know, Sebastian,” Lola whispered. “I believe that’s exactly what happened.”
Chapter Twenty
The neatly folded note landed on Sebastian’s desk just as Ms. Ashworth was writing the day’s assignments on the white board. He was startled and confused by the sight of it. Sebastian had earned some respect amongst his classmates since his most recent encounter with Keith, but even so he was certain that the note was being passed through him rather than to him. Of course, participating in the passing of a note carried a certain degree of prestige as well which pleased Sebastian, but when he saw his name clearly printed on the front, he couldn’t believe it. He turned to his left, and was shocked to see Kelly Taylor smiling and encouraging him to open it.
With trembling fingers, Sebastian began to carefully unfold the note. He glanced up at Ms. Ashworth from time to time to make sure she wasn’t looking at him. Although he was new at this sort of thing, he’d seen enough people get caught to know that the sound of crackling paper was the first thing that could give him away. He finished his delicate task, while keeping his eyes glued to Ms. Ashworth’s face as she explained the next assignment to the class. It was only when she turned to her desk for a moment that he glanced down at the note and read the words, “Will you teach me how to play footsie tether ball at recess?”
Sebastian’s chest welled up with joy, and he wanted to shout out at the top of his lungs, “Yes, I will teach you! I will teach you whatever you want!” But Kelly Taylor was watching him to see what he would do and he didn’t want to appear foolish. He had to fight the desire to place his hand over his heart, and it took him a moment to compose himself and catch his breath.
Once he felt calmer, he scribbled the words, “yes I will teach you,” at the bottom of her note and sent it back the way it came.
After the first morning recess bell rang, the class was excused to go outside, and Sebastian made his way directly to the tether ball court as he did every morning. But he was far too nervous to turn around and check if Kelly Taylor was following him. Perhaps she had changed her mind, or Keith had told her that she was crazy to spend time with ‘Monkey Boy’ when she could be doing something infinitely more fun with him. Yes, it was a momentary madness that had accosted her, and surely she’d come to her senses by now. This thought, as disappointing as it was, actually helped Sebastian to relax a little bit.
But when he was almost at the tether ball court, he heard footsteps coming up from behind, and turned to see Kelly Taylor running towards him, her pigtails floating on the wind, her knee high socks slouched down to her ankles. She looked like a wildly beautiful exotic bird, and the sight of her took his breath away.
Panting lightly after her run, she bent over at the waist and rested her hands on her thighs to catch her breath. Sebastian was so overwhelmed by her presence that he feared he wouldn’t be able to teach her anything about anything. And then it occurred to him that he was gazing at her with that same lost and adoring expression his father had when he looked at his mother in that photo, and he quickly looked away.
“Is it hard to play?” she asked.
Sebastian shook his head and took hold of the ball. “I don’t think so,” he replied, relieved that he’d been able to respond to her first question appropriately.
“What do I do?” she asked with hands on hips, and Sebastian could see by her focused expression that she truly wanted to learn. He could only imagine that she’d heard about what happened between him and Keith at the tetherball court while she was out sick, and Kelly Taylor didn’t like to be left out of anything, especially when it involved a new game.
Sebastian immediately lay down beneath the ball and demonstrated the position she should assume. Then, balancing the ball on the tip of his toes, he kicked it, careful not to kick it so forcefully that it could hit her. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve kicked it harder and demonstrated his power, but this might’ve only put her off.
She copied him, arranging her skirt snuggly around her legs, although she always wore shorts underneath. He gently kicked the ball to her again. She had a hard time returning it the first few go rounds, but pretty soon she was able to tap it consistently and get a rhythm going.
“That’s good,” Sebastian said. “Now try to kick it a little harder. If you lower yourself down on your elbows it’ll be easier.”
Kelly nodded and followed his suggestion. She was in fact able to kick the ball more soundly, and before long they were kicking the ball to one another and getting quite a good rally going. Sebastian played gently, careful to challenge her only slightly so that she wouldn’t get frustrated because if he’d wanted to, he could’ve won the game with very little difficulty.
“This is really fun,” Kelly said as she kicked the ball with greater force again and again. “It’s like we’re kicking the sun around.”
Sebastian had never thought of it this way, but it’s true that against the back drop of blue sky with the ball whirling up over their heads, it looked very much like a pale muted sun sheathed by clouds. “Yeah,” was all he could think of to say in reply.
“I think the chain in the pole sounds like a train,” he added a few seconds later.
After listening for awhile, Kelly said, “You’re right. It sounds just like a train coming down the tracks.”
Sebastian could’ve also said that sometimes he heard words in the groaning of the chain, and that he felt comforted by them even though he didn’t always underst
and them, but this would be too much to reveal. Kelly Taylor would probably think he was crazy if he said that. And while Sebastian was distracted by these thoughts, she kicked the ball well enough, and hard enough to make it sail past his feet and around the pole.
“That was great,” Sebastian said, but he was resolved not to let it happen again and he kicked the ball back more powerfully than before. It swooshed past Kelly’s feet, and she laughed.
“You were playing easy on me weren’t you?” she asked.
“Just a little,” Sebastian replied sheepishly.
“Don’t play easy on me anymore,” she said. “I want you to play your best.”
“It won’t be any fun if I do that.”
“C’mon,” Kelly said. “I can take it.”
Sebastian kicked the ball again and again to the best of his ability, surprising himself with the increasing dexterity of his feet. And each time he did, the ball swept past Kelly and wrapped around the pole, so that in less than thirty seconds he won.
Sebastian lowered himself to the ground. “You see what I mean?” he said apologetically.
“You’re good,” she said with a humble kind of hush that gave him goose bumps.
Several of the other kids had gathered around to watch the end of the game and they asked Sebastian to teach them how to play as well. He showed them the position and how to kick the ball and then stood up so that they could play on their own. All of a sudden footsie tether ball had become the new game that everyone wanted to play. Now only half of the class was kicking the soccer ball across the field, Keith among them. Sebastian wandered over to the bench beneath the willow tree and sat down to watch, and catch his breath. Kelly followed him, but she didn’t sit down.
“I think it’s really cool that you made up that game,” she said, planting her foot at that irresistible right angle.
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