The dectuplets' great-grandmother, Petra came to stay for a few months with Rebecca and Guillermo. She could not come before because they didn't have school vacation. Rebecca and Guillermo were first-cousins, the dectuplets' father's sister's children. Aunt Rosa Ma. couldn't come because as she worked in the U.S., she didn't have much vacation time, and send the kids with their great-grandmother, who took them to Piedras Grandes during their summer vacation.
Even though Petra, whom everybody called Mama Teta, had lived at Piedras Grandes most of her life, now that she was a widow, she lived in a small town, Villa Matamoros, Chih. where she lived in a small house, close to the plaza, with only one or two maids to attend her. The dectuplets usually went to stay with her whenever they went to Parral for the Jornadas Villistas, as Matamoros was only half an hour away from Parral.
Rebecca was a thin girl, with long, dark hair, who usually liked to go play different kind of sports. Guillermo, her younger brother, was mischievous, active, and a whiner. Despite this, the dectuplets loved him. They had their own special name for him, "Memin", which had been the first word he said.
"Memin, is it true that you actually lost the ring Grandma Rosa gave you for your birthday last year?"asked Ma.Ximena.
"Yes, it is. He did."Rebecca answered for him. "He wanted a ring, because he kept saying he was the only one who looked poor, because he didn't have any jewelry. Now, I don't even know why they bought him a ring. He just lost it."
"Tsk, tsk, Memo. We were planning on giving you something great, but now that we've seen how you lose what people give you, forget it."
"No, no, no. I want you to give me something for my birthday."
"We'll think about it."
"No. Please."
"I want to see my cousin."interrupted Rebecca, as Guillermo was beginning to cry. "You cry because of everything, Guillermo, and Mother said that you shouldn't be a crybaby, or she won't let you come anymore."
"Don't worry, Memin. We were just joking, you know. We wouldn't really let your birthday go by without giving you something special, we always do."
Rebecca reached into her backpack, and pulled out a box, wrapped in wrapping paper, with a ribbon.
"Mother said this was supposed to be for Lalo. She told me to give it to him right away when we got here. Mama Teta has something for him, too. And then there's something from Grandma, and from everyone else. Grandma said she was sorry she couldn't come to the wedding, either, she had to stay in Juarez, but she send a something for him, and a wedding gift, from her and Grandpa."
"That's great, Becky."said Ma.Xiomara, as she took the boxes from her. "What did we get?"
"Mama Teta has yours, but I wanted to give this to Lalito myself. I also have one from me."
"I'm sure he will be very pleased."
"I have one, too."said Guillermo.
"I see you're not as cheap as we though, are you, Memin? Let's go."
They send Juanita to tell everyone that Mama Teta, Rebecca and Guillermo had arrived, while the dectuplets told her about Ma.Eugenia.
"What exactly was that child doing at the top of the stairs, if she felt bad, anyway?"she asked, shaking her head. "She didn't suffer any serious injuries, did she? After all the time and money, Rigoberto and Francisca have put into all of your treatment, this. It's always getting worse. Perhaps if you didn't go up and down the stairs. Just stayed on the main floor. The should also do something about those front steps."she said.
"There's nothing to be done, Teta. Just, well, hope you're lucky, you know."said Ma.Xochilt.
"How is she? You know, someone told me about some teas that might help with that."
"We drink lots of teas. Manzanilla, hierbaniz, hierba buena, basically anything that's not poisonous."
When they entered the room, Lance was hugged many times by his cousins and great-grandmother. Rebecca and Guillermo, insisted on sitting next to him, while they babbled loads of things, about what their parents were like, asking him what he liked, telling him what they liked, and so forth. He was also showered with gifts, just as he and everyone had been when they had gotten there. There were clothes with his name embroidered on them, hand-knitted and crocheted, gold watches, rings with his birthstone and name, almost anything you could think of. He had never received so many gifts in his life.
"I picked this one out myself,"said Rebecca, pointing to a large painting of a horse. "I like horses. This year, I'm going to have all my notebook with nothing but horses on them."she told him.
"How is Francisca?"asked Mama Petra.
"She's much better, she already woke up."answered Alfonsina brightly.
"That's wonderful! Of course, I can't go up and see her."she said, looking at the stairs.
Mama Petra, who was about in her late seventies, early eighties, and could no longer walk long distances, or climb stairs, due to the pain in her knees, and sat in a chair, which everyone said was her own, started telling everyone about what had happened recently to Edgar, one of her great-grandkids.
Nobody, especially the dectuplets were very interested. They only nodded, and drank their coffee, obviously looking at the clock, and thinking of someway to distract Mama Petra from that subject. When she finally started on something, they wished she had stayed on Edgar.
"My, my,"she said looking at Kitty.
"What?"Kitty asked.
"Where exactly do you come from? Your family? How come your hair is so short? When a woman gets older, her hair and her skirts get longer. Not to mention she wears it all up. That way you are wearing it is so...vulgar, so common. You must wear it properly. Surely your parents have told you."she said, turning to look at Kitty's parents.
"Mama Teta, tell us, have you gotten anymore of those 'phantom' phone calls, are you still in Juarez, like you told them, or have you already come back?"Ma.Xiomara said quickly.
Mama Teta laughed, and told them that she was still in Juarez, and that the person who made those 'phantom' phone calls had already left town.
That afternoon, Sevundo came to visit the dectuplets, and see how Ma.Eugenia was doing. Sevundo was about nineteen, an orphan, and like Ma.Eugenia had never known his father. He knew who his father was, of course, but he had never met him. As in Ma.Eugenia's case, this didn't stop the dectuplets from treating him like an equal. He lived by himself, on the beach. He said he loved to look at the ocean, and he wouldn't live anywhere else. Because he also didn't have a father, he and Ma.Eugenia had always been very close.
"So,"he asked, "what kind of a favor did Maru do for you guys?"
Maru had insisted on not telling anyone the whole truth about why she left Piedras Grandes. Just part of it, which was that she was simply doing the dectuplets a favor, with which they could not trust anyone else.
"Nothing, really. It's kind of a secret, and it's not important, anymore. We should go see how she's doing, anyway. It must be very boring."
Sevundo shook his head.
"You guys have to do something about that cousin of yours, Chachi. She's obviously dangerous."
"Yeah."
"Did Maru fall because of the seizure, or did Chachi push her, Sissy?"asked Ma.Xacinta.
"Chachi."Sissy simply answered.
Of course, the prof., had asked to be close to Ma.Eugenia, so the dectuplets had arranged for Hector, one of the workers on the hacienda, to attend him, if he needed to be carried up or down the stairs. When Sevundo saw the prof. he stared.
"You know, you look quite like Maru."he said, looking a the two. Oh, no, though Maru. She knew exactly how Sevundo would react. Meche dropped what she was holding, and froze.
"Well, of course, they look alike."Jean explained. "They're family."
"Oh, are you her mother's brother, or something?"Sevundo asked him.
"No, he's her father."
"What?"Sevundo couldn't believe his ears. "How? That's not possible. How dare you even look at her?"he asked Xavier. "Have you no shame? Do you know who I am? Do you know what I am?"he asked, even more fiercely. "I'm a bastard. I was also abandoned by my father. Should I ever meet that man, which I won't, I would probably kill him with my own hands."
"He didn't abandon Ma.Eugenia."Jean told Sevundo.
"Oh, no? Of course, not, he just neglected her. You do know that neglect can do much more damage than outright dislike? Don't you?"he exploded. "Besides, I don't really even believe he is a father at all. With just a few minutes of seeing how he acts, I can tell you that his conduct towards Ma.Eugenia that his conduct probably isn't that of a father toward a daughter. Or is it?"
Ma.Eugenia looked at Xavier, and then at Sevundo. She couldn't lie, even though it might be disrespectful, it would be much worse if she lied. And Sevundo would know if she had lied.
She looked at her hands, and answered, "No."
It was true, that his conduct towards her was not that of a father towards a daughter. Her godfather had never treated any of his daughters the way her father treated her. Her godfather always hugged and kissed his daughters. He always looked at them, and spoke to them in a special way. Her father didn't do this, why if she could even say that he treated her just like any other person. Sevundo said that as long as this man was staying here, he would stay away from Piedras Grandes, and left.
"Now what are we going to do?"asked Ma.Xiomara sadly.
"Let me think,"said Arthur. "Maybe you could talk to Sevundo."
"That won't help."said Ma.Eugenia. "You know what he's like."
"Yeah, it won't."said Arthur.
"He had a point, though."commented Jesus, and he looked at the prof. "Your conduct really isn't that of a father towards a daughter."
"Chuy, why don't you keep your comments to yourself."Arthur told him.
"Hey, that wasn't a comment. It was the truth, besides, Sevundo said it, I didn't."
"Well, don't repeat it."
"And what exactly is the conduct of a father towards a daughter?"asked Ororo.
"It's different here, than it is over there."Arthur told her. "You've probably noticed that this is more of a close contact society. It's just...more, well, you know, expressive, I guess you could say. You...it's different."he finished shaking his head.
Arthur didn't really care what other people did with their lives, however, he still hadn't forgiven his cousins for the trip he had to make to Piedras Grandes to bring Ma.Eugenia to Bayville, and he didn't want it to have been in vain. So, later, he spoke to Xavier.
"Look, it's none of my business, of course, but you know, I would like to help you get along with Maru better. If you'd let me."he said to him. "If you don't mind making a couple of sacrifices."
"How could you help me?"
"Because of what Sevundo said. You know, that your conduct isn't the right one. Well, we'll make it the right one."
"How?"
"First of all, I think...What church do you belong to?"
"I don't go to church."
"Even better! You should become Catholic. Roman Catholic."
"Why would that make a difference?"
"Religion is very important here. That would be the first step. Then, of course, you would have to start acting like a man, you know. A man rides, he drinks, he smokes, you get the idea. There's nothing we can do about the riding, of course, but there is something we can do about your religion, and the fact that you don't drink. You will simply have to start, well, like I said, acting like a man. And you're going to have to stop listening to what everybody says. When you're going take sides with someone, it should be whomever's closer to you. Like, if it's your sister against your friend, you take your sister's side, and so forth."
Lance had absolutely no trouble blending in here, something which Kitty wasn't really very fond of, but he did spoil her immensely. He took out a box, out of a drawer, and showed it to her.
"Well, open it."he told her.
She opened it and found a lovely gold necklace with her name on it. She gasped.
"Just perfect, isn't it?"he said, and took it out of the box, and put it around her neck. "Perfect for my own little Gatica."
"But why for me?"she asked.
"And why not? Who else would I give it to?"
"Oh, geez, you didn't have to."
"Actually, I think I did."
"Wow, it's overwhelming."
"Nothing less than Don Eduardo Altamira's wife deserves, Sweetheart."he said, giving her a peck on the cheek.