Francisco opens his truck and the two step in to escape the cold. He looks over to make sure that Elena is buckled in, "You ready to go see your family?"
"Yeah, I can't wait. It's been a long time since I've seen abuelita and I can't wait for dinner."
He chuckles, "I bet, especially since you didn't want to eat before we went to your recital."
She smiles, "I didn't want to risk throwing up."
He understands; he could feel that her stomach was in knots before she got up on stage. Francisco looks at the road and stays quiet as he drives. He taps his fingers on the steering wheel, and opens his mouth to tell her, "Uh, before your recital started, Lynn told me that she would meet us at your abuela's apartment."
"That's great…is she going to be okay with tío Kiké around though? I mean, they didn't get along too well last time, and abuelita's apartment is smaller than the house."
"Kiké's not going to be there," he tells her.
"Yes he is. He was invited."
Francisco has no idea how the girl would know that her uncle would be at her grandmother's home, especially since his mom rarely invites him around.
"Well…we'll see what happens," he tells her.
He pulls into the visitor's parking lot and sees Lynn walking around, waiting for them. He honks his horn and she sees them. She waves her arm to greet them, as he parks his truck in the space.
Francisco and Elena step out and hear Lynn, "Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas," the two say.
Elena speaks up, "I'm glad that you were able to come."
"Me too, it's nice to spend the holidays with others," she says.
"You didn't have any trouble finding the place, did you?"
Lynn shakes her head, "Well, I passed it, but only because the entrance is easy to miss," she says, pointing at the entry way.
Neither father nor daughter can believe that that was the reason she missed the entrance, and Francisco asks, "Were you driving too fast for your GPS again?"
Lynn's cheeks turn red, "No! I think that my phone's internet was just lagging."
"Or you were driving too fast," Francisco responds.
"Whatever! I still got here before you did," Lynn snaps back.
"Alright, let's get out of cold already," Francisco presses the button to call his mom's apartment, "Ya estamos aquí. ¿Puedes abrir la puerta?"
Chuy's voice is heard in the box, "I'm coming. Just give me a minute."
The three wait for Chuy to open the door; Lynn begins to tap her foot, Francisco looks at the walkway, and Elena stares up at the moon.
"Good thing there aren't a lot of visitors tonight, huh," he says, trying to break the silence as they wait for someone to come open the door for them.
The other two nod their heads, and they see Chuy heading towards them. He spots Lynn with his brother and niece, and can feel a headache start as he imagines hearing her and Kiké fighting over the next few hours.
"A quiet holiday is all I wanted, now my brothers messed that up," he whispers to himself. Chuy waves his arms, "¡Feliz Navidad!"
"Feliz Navidad," Francisco and Elena return.
Lynn shakes her head, "Oh, uh, merry Christmas."
Chuy opens the gate, "I wasn't expecting you today, Lynn."
Francisco glares at his older brother, "I called and left mom a message."
"And you expect mom to check those? How many times have we taught her how to video chat?"
The younger brother nods, both of their parents were hopeless at learning technology, especially when they just kept saying that they were too thick-headed to learn anything.
The four approach the front door of Alicia's apartment and can hear muffled voices from the door.
Elena looks up at her tío, "Is abuelita yelling at tío Kiké again?"
"Probably, I still don't know why she invited him this year."
"Maybe she wants to make up with him," Francisco responds.
Elena and Lynn wonder what the brothers are talking about, but don't get a chance to ask when Chuy opens the door to his mother's apartment. The three are amazed by the beautiful decorations that Alicia placed in the small space.
"Wow, I guess she got newer decorations for the holidays," Francisco says.
Kiké responds, "More like she finally put her decorations to good use. Plus it's easier when no one asks why she bothers."
Francisco ignores his brother. He spots his mom and goes to give her a hug, "Feliz Navidad."
She returns the hug and greeting before she whispers in his ear, "¿Porque no me dijiste que ibas a invitarla?"
While Alicia doesn't have anything against Lynn being at their small get-together, she just would have appreciated a heads-up from her son.
Francisco whispers back, "Te dije y también te deje un mensaje en tu teléfono. Nos mi culpa que no chequeas tus mensajes."
Alicia shrugs her shoulders and turns to everyone, "Todavía no está el pozole, pero ¿quién quiere jugar lotería?"
The brothers nod their heads, and Elena goes to get the game. She counts the lotería cards, "¿Cómo vamos a jugar de dos cartas cuando tenemos diez cartas?"
Kiké turns to Lynn, "You hear that, you're ruining our Christmas traditions."
"Excuse me?" she growls to Kiké.
"Well it's true, we wouldn't have to worry about how to split ten cards if you weren't here."
Elena noticing that they are about to fight, "I don't mind sharing with anyone or maybe team up with someone, that way we can splits the cards evenly."
The two stay quiet, and Francisco responds for them, "Como tú quieras."
Francisco wakes up to a quiet house. It's December 25th, and there is nothing for him to do. His family already celebrated and opened presents the night before, so now the family has nothing to do until his birthday or New Year's Eve. This is the boring part of winter break that he hates; his family rarely goes anywhere, except to visit his grandparents, and his friends are all spending time with their families, so no one is free.
Upon hearing the sound of the snow shovel clearing the walkway, Francisco looks at the time, and while he would rather still lay under his warm blanket, he decides to get out of bed and begins to get changed.
He steps out of his room heads towards the somewhat decorated kitchen. His mom has always wanted to bring the holidays to life for her sons, but at some point, hearing their dad keep asking why she spent her money on decorations, made the boys no longer help put as much effort into any holiday; but she still keeps trying regardless.
Francisco looks in the fridge and pulls out a large bag of tamales. For the next three weeks, he and his family are going to be eating these once or more times a day until they either get sick of them or run out, usually the latter.
Francisco looks in the bag and tries to see what type of tamale is in the bag and he takes out three to heat up in the microwave.
His mom walks into the kitchen, "Feliz Navidad, Pancho," she says as she pulls him into a hug.
"Feliz Navidad," he says as he returns the hug.
The microwave dings and Francisco takes out his breakfast. Alicia looks in the fridge, and notices the whole bottom row in the fridge is filled with tamales, normally it isn't a big deal, but lately she has been trying to watch her health and tamales aren't going to help, especially if they are tempting her every day.
"¿Piensas que tus amigos van a querer tamales?" Alicia asks her youngest son.
He looks up from his plate, "Maybe, pienso que si."
Alicia pulls out some grocery bags to prepare, "Cuando tengas oportunidad, llévales a tus amigos," she offers. She takes out some bags from the fridge to pack, "¿Cuantos tamales piensas qué van a querer?"
Francisco begins to mentally count his friends' family members. He didn't want to go to too many houses, and settled on just taking some tamales to Lynn and Margo, "¿Como cuantas para cada persona?"
"Lo que quieras," she tells him.
"Ocho o diez en una bolsa y veintiséis o cuarenta para la otra," he says; he doesn't feel like traveling around to too many friends' houses, So, he figures it's easier to deliver to two friends instead.
"¿Cuarenta? ¿Estás loco? ¿Para qué les vas a llevar cincuenta en total?"
"Lynn tiene diez hermanos y sus dos padres, pensé darles dos o tres cada uno," he defends himself; it's not his fault that Lynn has a large number of siblings. "Cualquier manera tenemos un montón de tamales, ¿porqué no darles?"
In a huff, she filled the plastic bags with forty and ten tamales, and left them on the counter for him to deliver.
Francisco quickly finishes the last two tamales, and heads to his room to grab his coat, gloves, and cap so that he can start his trek around the neighborhood.
On the way out, Francisco sees his dad at the door with a coffee and pan dulce in his hands.
"¿A dónde vas?" he asks.
"Voy a llevarles tamales a mis amigos," Francisco says, lifting up the bags of tamales.
Juan nods, and steps out of his son's way, "No tomes tanto tiempo, van a venir mis primos más tarde," Francisco hears his dad tell him.
"La Rana. La Sirena. La Bota. La Corona. El Soldado. El Borracho," Kíke calls in rapid succession, as the family makes an attempt to mark their lotería cards.
Chuy, fed up with his younger brother's antics, yells, "Would you slow down?! We can't keep up with you."
"Yeah, right," he scoffs. "You all understand me."
Francisco, Elena, Lynn, and Alicia all stare at Kiké; while he is right that they all can understand him, that doesn't mean that they are able to properly play while keeping up with all the new cards that he is calling.
"Dame esas cartas, Enrique," Alicia orders as she takes the called cards and spreads out them onto the table for everyone to see.
The family peers over the drawn cards and begin to mark their spaces; however, they are interrupted when Lynn yells out, "Bingo!"
"¡Buenas!" the family corrects her.
"Whatever," Lynn scoffs as she takes the small pile of coins from the middle of the table.
The family tosses their lotería cards into the middle of the table. For the last hour, the family has been playing, and each time Lynn has won every single game. Everyone would understand her winning streak if it was a game of skill, but it's a game of luck.
Kiké sighs, "You're a fucking trancera!"
"Hey!" Francisco interrupts; mad at the accusation that his brother is tossing at Lynn.
"Oh like Elena doesn't know the word," Kiké claims, missing the point of Francisco's frustration.
Francisco sighs loudly, "I meant, don't call my girlfriend a damn cheater. You've been calling the cards, you shuffle them weirdly, and you call them from random parts of the deck, let it go," he defends Lynn.
"She's won every single damn game, what else do you call that?!"
Chuy tosses another quarter into the middle of the table, "Lucky."
"Fine! You know what," he hands Lynn the deck, "You call them."
Kiké places a quarter in the middle of the table, and collects two new lotería cards to play with. The family members place their bids on the table, and wait as Lynn shuffles the pliable cards.
"I still don't get how two cards are a quarter, but one is a dime. Why don't you just give out a third card, or charge just two dimes?" Lynn questions.
"It's how we've always played," Chuy informs her. "Everyone has quarters in their pockets, and it's not like we have extra cards to play with," he says pointing to the table.
"So put down your damn quarter so we can finally end your winning streak, ¿quieren llenar una carta entera esta vez?" asks Kiké.
The family agrees, and Francisco translates to Lynn that they had to fill all of the spaces to win.
Lynn tosses her quarter into the pile and calls the first card. In a heavily accented Spanish, she slowly says, "La Mu…er…te."
Elena bites down on her lip to hold back a giggle. She doesn't want to be rude, but she can't help finding humor in Lynn's pronunciation; luckily, she's not the only one who is holding back a laugh at her pronunciation.
"La Luna," Lynn says a bit more ease.
Kiké stares at his cards, and marks his space with a frijol.
"Rosa," she calls out. "El Co…ra…zon."
"Would you hurry up?!" complains Kiké.
"Hey! You gave me these cards to call out, so don't complain because I can't speak Spanish as fast as you!" Lynn retorts. She resumes, "Las Ja…ras."
The family burst out in laughter at her mispronunciation, until Alicia speaks up and corrects Lynn, "Jaras."
"Jaras," Lynn repeats properly. "Okay, El Dia…blito."
Lynn continues calling the cards as is, and soon enough as she is almost halfway through calling the cards, she yells out, "Bingo!"
Kiké groans loudly, "¿Ya está el pozole?" he asks his mom.
Alicia gets up from her seat, and turns to Lynn, "¿Me puedes ayudar con la comida? Ustedes mientras pueden limpiar la mesa," she tells her sons.
Lynn nods and follows the woman to the kitchen. As they both left the room, Lynn can hear the other four family members make conversation as they cleaned up and set the table for the meal. This is the first time that Lynn ever spent with the family for a major holiday, and aside from the language barrier that Lynn and Alicia had to deal with it, things seem to be going smoothly.
When the two women walk into the kitchen, which like the rest of the house was decorated for the holiday, the kitchen is no exception; everywhere Lynn looked it reminded her of her house growing up, it sort of makes her wonder why Francisco mentioned that Christmas was dull at his house.
"Man…you definitely go all out for Christmas," Lynn says to Alicia, "I mean, very pretty," she says with a smile and an approving nod, hoping that the older woman would understand despite knowing that she does not understand her words.
"Thank you," she responds. "Perdóname por la impaciencia de Enrique, desde que era niño, se enojaba por todo. Unas veces, pensaba que no mas lo hiso para agarrar atención, pero otras veces no mas por ser mendigo."
Lynn stares at Alicia; not sure what she said.
Alicia notes the younger woman's confusion and says, "Sorry por Enrique."
"Its fine," Lynn says, she was used to their little game even after all these years.
Elena walks into the kitchen to join Lynn and her grandmother. For the last couple of hours, she was hoping to ask Lynn what made her change her mind about spending time with them, but she didn't want her dad around in case he beats Lynn to a response.
"Hey Lynn," Elena says with a little fear in her voice.
Alicia opens the pot in which the pozole was resting in, the steam comes up and makes the warm room worse than it already was.
Lynn rushes towards the window in the kitchen and opens it up, "I'm sorry, but it's really hot in here," she lets the cold winter air hit her, and she turns around to Elena, who is beginning to bleed from her nose. "Wow, you do that too?"
The girl doesn't know what she means, until she sees her abuelita gesture at her nose. Like her father and uncles, she was prone to suffering from nosebleeds when exposed to dry air, luckily, it seems to happen much less frequently with age, but it's still an inconvenience.
"Alright, let me stop your suffering," Lynn closes the window.
"It's not really suffering, it goes away in a few minutes."
Alicia gently holds her granddaughter's head back, "Ve acuéstate, y ahorita te chequeo. Ten," she grabs a kitchen towel and runs it under some cold water.
Elena sighs as her abuelita leads her to the couch to lie down.
The men see her with the wet towel, and they knew what happened. Francisco asks, "Lynn opened the kitchen window?"
She nods.
Francisco looks over at her, "It's not a lot, is it?"
She shakes her head.
"Good, I remember hating having to lay in bed waiting for it to stop too. Just stay put and before you know it, you'll be enjoying your abuela's pozole."
Chuy goes to the kitchen to help Lynn and his mother bring the bowls into the living room, where the brothers have already placed spoons, toppings, tostadas, and pops for everyone.
While the eldest brother is gone, Francisco whispers to Kiké, "Can you please be civil for the rest of the night? I want to have one nice holiday without worrying about yelling or anyone ruining mom's Christmas."
Kiké was already planning on at least making dinner enjoyable to the best of his abilities, but to mess with his younger brother's head, he crosses his arms and with a smug look on his face, tells his younger brother, "You're in for a long wait, Pancho."
Francisco knocks on Lynn's door. He's already delivered tamales to Margo, and now all he has left is Lynn and then he can go home; except he doesn't want to go home. He heard his dad mentioning that cousins are going to visit later today, and he can already sense his mom freaking out as she gets the house clean for the visitors.
He sniffs in some cold air as he stares at the door, he can hear a lot of talking, and he assumes that no one heard his knocking. He sees the doorbell, and presses on it; a shock of electricity courses up his arm, and he screams from the shock.
The door opens and one of Lynn's older sisters opens the door, "Oh! It's a Christmas caroler, and he's sick too!"
"Leni, that's Francisco," another blonde sister tells the other. "Lynn! Francisco is here!" she calls to her younger sister, she turns to him, "You can come inside if you want," she invites him.
"Aww, I thought that he was going to sing."
Francisco chuckles, "I don't think that you want to hear that. You're better off with Lana singing to you," he suggests.
Upon hearing that, a little blonde, offended by the boy's comment, begins to sing Frosty the Snowman as she foregoes cleaning the wrapping paper that she and the other younger sisters were picking up.
Lynn runs down the stairs, "Lola, what are you doing?"
"What? Francisco said that Lana is a good singer, can you believe that?" Lola asks, before going back to singing.
Lynn turns to her uninvited guest, "Nice to see you, but what are you doing here?"
"Merry Christmas to you too?"
"Oh! Merry Christmas to you too, but seriously, why are you here? I thought that you'd be hanging out with your family today or avoiding me after the birthday party I tried throwing you."
He playfully rolls his eyes as he remembers the birthday she tried to throw him before school let out, he pulls up the bags of tamales, "My mom thought that you and your family would want some, and we celebrated yesterday, so there's nothing going on at home except reruns and holiday specials."
Lynn takes the bag and looks inside. Francisco has told her about the tamales that his mom makes for Christmas, but she can't recall the fillings that he mentioned, "How many are there?"
"About forty, so three or so each?"
"Aww I was hoping for more. C'mon! Let's heat these babies up," she says as she takes a bag from him.
"Fifth eldest sister, we just had a holiday breakfast feast, how can you possibly be hungry?"
Francisco turns to the girl in glasses, "You haven't seen her eat in the cafeteria; she can put away a meatball sandwich, chips, and milk and still crave our leftovers, Luna."
The sisters stare at him, wondering why he called Lisa by the wrong name. Despite, him knowing Lynn for a few years, he still hasn't gotten the hang of each of the sisters' names.
Lynn sighs heavily, "Do I seriously have to teach you my sisters' names again? How many times have we gone over this and how many times have you met them?"
"One time, you've gone over everyone's names one time, and I've only met them a handful of times before today," he turns to Lisa, "Sorry for getting your name wrong, Lily."
Lisa corrects him, "It's Lisa. Please try to remember it in the future."
"I'll try."
"So what do you think?" asked Caroline, as she shows her daughter two different venues for the wedding.
Elena stares at the two pictures as she tries to determine which one she likes best; she isn't sure, the church seems nice, but she can't picture her mother not attempting to have some sort of wedding with a nice outdoor venue like the island destination.
Caroline has gone through most of the details in her mind. She knows that her daughter has wants to help her plan the wedding, but she's the indecisive type, and if Caroline asked for her opinion too often, then the girl will slow the planning down, so she is willing to listen to her input on the venue.
"When is the wedding taking place? Late spring? Summer? Early Fall? Mid-Fall? Winter?" she asks, "I mean, some places might look nicer in certain seasons, oh, but is it going to be an outdoor wedding or indoor? Because you might have to get tents depending on the weather…"
Caroline chuckles to herself at her daughter's nature, but she can't blame the girl, it is important and it does possibly add or reduce costs depending on the choice made.
Rather than watch the girl stress herself out anymore, Caroline says, "We were hoping for June, does that help you out?"
"A little, but summer weddings work so well in both locations, I mean, Mackinac Island is a beautiful location and you and Andrew can show up in a horse carriage," she sighs. "but it's a little further away and unless family is willing to make the drive, you may not have too many guests."
"But it is a beautiful location," Caroline begins to tempt her daughter; at some point, one of her parents begins to do so to hurry the decision making process along.
Elena nods, "and I also loved that week that we went up there with grandpa and aunt Violet."
"Wouldn't it be nice to make another memory up there?" the mother continues to tempt her daughter.
The girl stares at the photos of both locations and her eyes begin to drift towards the island. Her mother clearly is tempted, Andrew is an outdoorsy guy, and chances are that if the family heads up there for the wedding, she'll likely stay with them for a few more days and have an opportunity to buy some of the island's famous fudge.
Elena begins to smile, and Caroline knows that she won her daughter over, "I guess, Mackinac Island would be nice, and their website does mention it as a national wedding spot, especially when the photos make it look like a fairy tale."
Caroline asks, "So you think Mackinac Island would be good venue?"
"I think so," Elena confirms.
A knock at the front door interrupts the two, Caroline looks at the time, "Your dad is here. Go get your things," she tells the girl, who is tidying up the photos before heading upstairs to her room.
Caroline opens the front door, and greets Francisco, "Hello Francisco."
"Hey Caroline, how are you doing?"
"I'm doing fine, Elena was helping me out with some wedding preparations."
Francisco smiles, "Are you planning on getting married before or after she becomes a teenager?" he jokes.
Caroline laughs and soon Francisco does as well.
"No, but I just gently nudged her towards a wedding on Mackinac Island."
"Nudged her," he repeats, "More like you knew what you wanted and then you brought up some sentimental feeling and suddenly she deems it the best place, while thinking that she helped with the wedding preparations."
"She can help in other ways, but I needed to reserve the location," Caroline responds. Suddenly she remembers that she needs to tell him something. She closes the front door, "Before she gets here," she starts, "the wedding is this June."
Francisco is quiet; he isn't sure where this was going, he knows that he won't be invited, and if he is, well it would be rather strange to show up to his ex's wedding, especially with her family around.
"Andrew and I were hoping that Elena could participate and be there for the ceremony…"
"It's going to be on one of my days," he says as he finishes her sentence.
"Yes, it is," she confirms. "Also, my sister offered to watch Elena while Andrew and I go on our honeymoon."
"And I can assume that your sister wants to keep her from the start of the ceremony until you come back?" he asks, with a subtle tone that lets Caroline know how he feels about that.
"Look, I get that you aren't excited about this–"
"Of course I'm not!" he interrupts, "I can take care of my own daughter, you know, contrary to whatever your sister says."
Caroline scowls and begins to whisper to keep Elena from hearing them, "Look, I get that you and my sister don't get along, but unless you plan on making a trip to Mackinac Island to pick her up after the ceremony, it's going to be easier for that weekend."
"And what about the rest of the week?" he asks in a matching whisper, "Is she just going to stay with Violet, you know that I can take care of her."
"You work, and my sister already stays with her in the daytime during the summer. I think that she'll be fine for a week. Elena's not a little girl anymore; she isn't going to be enamored by a bunch of shiny toys or a trip to Chicago."
"Chicago?! I thought that we agreed that we both had to know about these trips before she goes."
"She's not going to Chicago. I told Violet that they're staying here, and if they plan on going anywhere I have to know. Francisco, I'm taking care of it, and it's only one week. After that, Andrew and I return and everything goes back to normal."
"I've been working shorter hours, and Jackson can watch her or maybe I can take her to work, it's at the university," he bargains with her.
Caroline crosses her arms, "You told me that your neighbor moonlights at different places randomly and your work is at a BSL-3 laboratory, so who's going to watch her while you or your neighbor work?"
"I can arrange some things, and if not that, what if I pick her up?"
She sighs, "Do you really want to keep driving everyday to drop Elena off at my sister's before you go to work and pick her up after you work? Francisco," she places her hand on his shoulder, "I know that you don't like missing your days with her, but it's only one week, after that everything goes back to normal."
"She'll almost be eleven at the time of the wedding," he starts. "What if she stays home alone for a few hours?"
Caroline lets go of him, "I don't like the idea of her being alone, especially with some of sketchier neighbors that you have, I'm sorry Francisco, but I've made up my mind." She opens the door to call their daughter, "I'll see you Sunday," she tells him.
Francisco bites down on a chocolate chip cookie, "Thank you, Mr. Loud. These cookies are delicious."
Lynn Sr. looking happily at the teenager chomping down on the cookie, "Well, I'm glad you like them, if you want I can give you some to take home."
Lynn, with a mouth full of cookies and milk, talks, but no one could tell what she was saying. She swallows the snack, "Why don't you just give him the recipe? I bet he'd love that."
Francisco shakes his head, "No, that's okay. Besides, my mom isn't much of a baker, we wouldn't ever use the recipe to begin with."
The girl gets up from her seat and looks around the kitchen for her dad's recipe book, "Nonsense! Besides, now you'll have something sweet for the holidays," she searches in the cabinets and finds a black book, "Found it!"
The older man turns to the boy, "I don't mind if you want the recipe, you know. We can make it an even trade for your mom's tamale recipe," he winks before taking a bite of a chicken tamale.
Feeling the pressure from both Lynns, Francisco decides to take a photo of the cookie recipe so that he can try it out one day, "I'll send the tamale recipe with Lynn when I get it from my mom."
Lynn Sr. takes the plates to the sink, "What are you planning on doing today?"
Francisco shrugs his shoulders, "I don't really have much planned since my family and I celebrated yesterday."
"That's boring!" Lynn responds, "Why don't you hang out here, or maybe we can go to park or go swimming."
"Lynn," Francisco starts, "it's Christmas and it's cold outside."
Lynn Sr. laughs, "She keeps wanting to jump in the lake for a frozen swim–"
"But no one lets me try," Lynn complains. "What if we go to the park or something, I bet it's more fun than just watching reruns."
"Lynn," her dad interrupts, "maybe Francisco would rather spend time with his family today."
Upon hearing that Francisco, remembered his father's words; his cousins are going to be at his house and if it's anything like last year, they're going to be there until evening. Normally, he wouldn't mind, but his parents insist that he spend time with his little cousins, and there's only so much fun he can have with a toddler and a second grader.
"Well, we aren't doing anything, but I don't want to take you from your family."
"It's no big deal, we can hang out for a bit and be back by lunch time, what do you say dad?" she pulls out her puppy-dog eyes routine and Lynn Sr. can't resist.
"Alright, but only until lunch, LJ."
"Deal! I'll go get my coat."
The two teens head out into the snowy neighborhood. It's a silent walk, and Francisco is surprised that Lynn hasn't said anything yet.
"Did you get anything good for Christmas?"
"Mostly clothes, that's usually what my mom gets us."
"That's it?! No offense, but that seems kinda boring. I mean you can get clothes whenever you want."
Francisco shrugs his shoulders; any present that he gets from his mom is hardly a surprise, and not just because she gets him and his brothers clothing every time, but also because she asks her sons what they want every time.
"We're used to it."
"What about your dad, did he get you anything?"
He clears his throat and in a deep voice he says, "You have a roof over your head and warm food, son."
Now Lynn felt a little bad; it isn't the worst thing, but in her eyes Christmas should be more fun than that.
He feels uncomfortable with the silence and challenges her, "Race you to the park!" he yells as he begins to run.
"Oh, you're on!" Lynn says as she speeds down the sidewalk.
The two run down the street without a care in the world. They can see the sign for Ketcham Park, and put in that last blast of energy to finish.
"I win!" they both yelled at once.
"No! I won!" They repeated, before bursting into laughter.
The two stop laughing and Lynn spots blood trickling down his nose. She reaches over to wipe it off, and he steps away from her, "What are you doing?"
"Your nose is bleeding."
"Then tell me, don't just wipe my nose clean," he laughs.
She joins in until she remembers what she was going to ask him, "So I'm curious, why didn't you want to hang out with your family?"
He's surprised by the question, but rather than answer, "I could ask you the same thing. I mean, you guys seem like you have a lot of fun and instead you choose to hang out with me?"
Lynn is about to answer, but realizes that he's trying to change the subject, "I'm serious, what's so bad about your family?"
He sighs, "There's nothing bad about them, I just didn't want to be cooped up in a quiet house until school starts."
"Your birthday's coming up, is your house quiet then?"
It isn't, but again, it's the same problem; too many family members most of which are too young, too old, or complete strangers that he's never met all in a small house. He wouldn't mind spending the holidays with just his immediate family, but his dad always invites extended family and it just goes from relaxing time off to stress cleaning and hearing his parents gossip with the other adults.
"Sometimes."
Lynn scoffs, "And you didn't want me to throw you a birthday party."
"You tried to throw me a quinceañera."
"I don't see the problem."
"I'm a boy!"
Lynn grabs some snow off the ground, forms it into a ball and tosses it at him, "Quit complaining," she says with a smile.
Francisco bends down to grab some snow and Lynn can see what he's about to start.
"Oh you're going down."
Lynn looks out the window; the snow is melting, the air is still cool, and the sun is still going to be out for maybe another hour. Excluding work, errands, occasional trips to her apartment, the gym and a few snowball fights, she and Francisco have been indoors more often than not, but spring is almost here and she's ready to go out again.
She walks over to Francisco, who is reading a newspaper, and asks, "Do you want to go for a walk?"
Without looking up, he asks, "Why? It's almost time to make dinner and Crash Course is on tonight, you know we both love watching that."
She presses down on the newspaper and looks at him, "We can order something to eat, pick it up, and eat here. Besides, we'll be back before seven. C'mon! Aren't you sick of being cooped up inside reading?"
Truthfully, he is. He's not fond of driving in the dark in the winter, so that limits his time outdoors, and most of the season is spent doing the same thing over and over again.
"Alright, but let just put on my boots, and we can go," he tells her as he sets down his newspaper and heads to his room.
He closes the door and opens the drawer in his nightstand and takes out a pill from his little amber bottle, which he swallows dry. Francisco quickly grabs his boots and puts them on when he hears Lynn from the front door.
Lynn, dressed for the cool weather, is scrolling through her phone, "What do you want for dinner? There's a pizza place near here, maybe burgers, fried chicken, or maybe we can find a food truck, if you don't mind splurging a little."
Francisco walks to the door, and grabs his coat, "Fried chicken doesn't heat up too well, and how many food trucks are you planning on seeing along the way?"
"You never know."
He doesn't believe that they'll run into many, it's not late, but most of the food trucks have probably begun to head into the city at this hour.
"How about a burger? I'm craving some curly fries right now."
Lynn puts her phone away, "Alright, let's go!" she says as she runs out the door and to the sidewalk, "Hurry up!"
Francisco locks his front door, and slowly walks towards her.
Seeing him slowly step in her direction, she asks, "Are you serious? What the heck, Francisco?"
"You said that we are going on a walk, so I'm walking, plus I don't want to slip."
"Your boots are slip-resistant," she tells him. 'I've read them."
He chuckles, "Why did you read my boots?"
"I was bored and I was looking for a hangar for my shirts."
"My boots are on the floor."
"You could have hangars there too," she said in an effort to excuse her nosiness.
"Just slow down for a minute, enjoy your surroundings, besides Burpin' Burger isn't going anywhere," he tells her, as he wraps his arm around her shoulder.
Lynn looks nervously looks down at the sidewalk. He's normally not the type to show affection, big or small, and she's okay with that since she's not that needy, but this little act feels…nice.
The alarm on his watch goes off, and he takes his arm from her to turn off the time piece, "Sorry, I forgot that it was almost time for it to go off."
"Yeah, warn someone next time," she jokes. "So did you bring your medicine?"
He checks his pockets and can feel a bottle in his pocket, "Yeah, but I'm not feeling much pain right now."
Lynn shrugs her shoulders and takes his arm, "Alright, but don't say that your alarm didn't warn you."
"I won't," he tells her. "Can I ask you something? Why did you really want to go a walk right now?"
"Really? Is it such a bad thing to want to spend time outside with you?" she asks.
He smiles, No, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You've been trying to think of something to do all winter."
She wasn't limited in what she could do, but she always insisted that he join her for whatever random activity popped into her head; from either another polar bear plunge, to skiing, or ice skating on a lake of her choosing. He didn't mind indulging her requests, but as the new year came in, heavier snow storms forced the couple indoors, and she slowly became more frustrated at not being able to leave and enjoy her favorite activities.
The smell of burgers and fries begins to hit both of their noses, and Lynn feels as if she's floating towards the scent. Francisco can see that she just wants to run and burst through those doors, but he just wants to take a nice leisurely walk.
Rather than force her to wait for him, he digs out some money from his pocket, "Get me a Double Belcher with curly fries, and surprise me on the pop," he digs out more money, "And this should cover your food."
"Really? I can wait," she says, offended that he thinks that she would be willing to ditch him for the food.
Francisco begins a mental countdown from ten, and before he reaches three, Lynn grabs the money from his hand, "I'll be right back, you can just catch up," she tells him before running to the burger joint.
"Remember! It's a to-go order!" he yells to her, as he slowly follows.
The sound of snow crunching underneath his feet keeps him company as continues after her. He begins to think about how she wanted to walk with him, before he tempted her with the money and before Burpin' Burger tempted her with their scent.
"Is it really such a bad thing that she wants to spend time with me?" he asks himself out loud. "It isn't," he responds.
When Lynn is no longer in sight, he remembers Elena's Christmas Eve recital from a few months ago, and how Caroline asked about why Lynn doesn't spend time when his daughter is around. He can't recall if he's invited her, but that's never stopped Lynn from trying; rather than waste time thinking about if he asked, he begins muttering possible ways of bringing up the topic to her.
He hears footsteps quickly approach him, and sees Lynn with two bags of food and a drink carrier running towards him.
"Hey!" she calls out as she begins to slow down, "Sorry, I took so long, they had to make new fries," she says happily, as she bites down on a fresh curly fry.
He didn't even notice how much time had passed, "It's fine," he tells her, as his hand begins to sneak into her bag.
She quickly smacks his wrist, "You got your own fries, mister."
He laughs, "Well it sounds like you were trying to sell me on your fries," he jokes.
The two quietly walk back to his house, and Francisco breaks the silence, "You know, Elena doesn't mind if you want to hang out with us on Saturdays, you know that, right?"
Lynn stays quiet and continues walking. After so many years, she figures that Elena wouldn't mind, but she still can't bring herself to intrude on the girl's time with her father, even if they didn't mind.
"I know…but we hang out enough. I'm sure you want a break from me," Lynn tries to laugh off.
Francisco stares at her; that thought never ran through his mind, and he knew that she didn't mean it either.
"Well, just know that you're always welcome."
"Alright."
Lynn dodges a snowball he throws at her and laughs, when she hears her phone ring. She checks to see the text that she received from one of her family members, "Dang it, I have to get going. It's almost time for lunch."
Francisco looks at his watch and is surprised by the time, "Yeah, I should probably get home, my family is probably wondering where I am."
"Alright…" she says looking down at the snowball in her hand.
He sees the projectile in her hand and he quickly grabs some snow that he forms into a ball, "Let's go."
"Okay," she says, while still holding onto the snowball.
She notices that he's following her, "Are you walking me home?"
"No, I just don't want to turn my back to you with a snowball in your hand."
"Smart."
The two silently walk until the end up in front of her house. Francisco sets his snowball down, "Thanks for the recipe, I'll let you know how they turned out."
"No problem."
"I should probably get going before my folks call, thanks for hanging out."
"Of course. I'll see you at school or your birthday or whatever comes first," Lynn slowly steps back, without turning away from him.
Francisco doesn't move from his spot, "I'm not gonna throw the snowball at you!"
"Well, I just want to make sure," she says with a smile on her face. She opens the front door, and throws the snowball in his direction.
He dodges the snowball, "Miss! Nice try, Loud."
"I'll get you next time!" she declares.
Francisco rather than heading towards his house, the teenager walks around for a bit, bored as he notices how empty the streets are on Christmas day. He slowly walks to his house. As he's at the front door, he can hear his family members talking inside, and he imagines that everyone is going to ask where he's been.
He opens the door and the guests get quiet as a variety of cousins stop to greet the teenager who finally shows up after being gone for the last couple of hours.
He heads into the kitchen to get some tamales for a late lunch. While he waits for the microwave to alert him of his food, his eldest brother walks in to get a pop.
"Where have you been?"
"Out."
"On Christmas day? What could you have possibly done today?"
"I went to deliver tamales to my friends, we talked, their families invited me inside and we talked for a bit. Time sorta got away from me."
Chuy doesn't believe him, but he doesn't want to make a scene, despite how frustrated he is with his brother ditching the family on Christmas day.
"Well, that sounds nice."
Francisco can tell that he's mad at him for being gone, he decides not to say a thing.
Chuy stares at his quiet brother and just sighs instead, "Just clean the kitchen when you're done."
Francisco sits outside on Saturday. The heat from the sun is beginning to make him sweat, but he can't bring himself to get up and go inside.
A door opens, and Jackson notices that Francisco is sitting and staring at his roof, "Are you okay, Francisco?"
He silently nods. Jackson knows that that isn't true, after so many years, he knows that whenever he silently nods with the same stern look on his face, it meant that he didn't want to speak in fear of letting his emotions out. The neighbor is aware that Elena wasn't going to be around this weekend, but it never ceases to amaze him how badly Francisco gets when he can't see his daughter.
"Are you sure that you wouldn't rather be indoors away from this heat?"
He sighs, "I guess…"
Jackson notices that Francisco isn't moving, and decides to make light conversation with the man, "Francisco, have you ever gone on vacation out of the country?"
"Just to Mexico, but I wouldn't count that as a vacation."
"Why not?"
"Because we never did anything. Most of the time, I either played with my toys or watched tv with my brothers. I mean, sometimes we went to the beach, but that was the only fun thing we did."
"Why do you say that?"
"I don't know. From what I remember, my mom said that the only reason we went there was because it was the only fun thing that she knew of in the area."
"That's it? So you never enjoyed your trips to Mexico?"
Francisco shakes his head, "I love my grandparents, but I couldn't stand the heat. They didn't have an air conditioner and I sorta wanted to do something more…fun."
Jackson nods his head and is about to ask another question when he hears his house phone ring, "I should get that. Remember neighbor; don't stay out in this heat for too long."
"I won't!"
Francisco feels his forehead, he's beginning to feel a little warm, so gets up and goes inside. Rather than turn on the lights, he sits on his recliner in the dark. As his eyes acclimate to the darkness, he looks around the empty room and thinks of how things were before Elena was ever able to visit, before Caroline arranged for him to get her on the weekends, before her family tried to buy Elena's affection.
He closes his eyes and decides to take a nap to hopefully forget about his loneliness, when the front door opens and Lynn walks through.
"I know that you probably would've wanted a heads up, but I figured that a surprise is more fun, and–" she notices the darkness. She turns on a light and sees Francisco sitting on the recliner, "There you are! Where's Elena? I wanted to surprise her."
"She's not here…she's at Caroline's wedding."
"Oh!" she checks her phone, "That's this weekend?"
He nods.
She turns on more lights, "Well, then we can have fun together? Maybe a board game? You got one?"
He shakes his head.
"What about a movie? Is there anything that you've been wanting to stream?"
He shakes his head again.
"What the hell has you so dang mopey? Look, I get that you really want Elena here, but is shooting down every single one of my ideas really going to solve anything? No. So why don't we get out and go do something? Maybe we can even crash that wedding, you know, really have some dumb fun."
Francisco raises an eyebrow; he knows that she isn't serious about that last part, but she did make a point.
He opens his mouth and slowly starts, "I'm upset, because…" Lynn waits to hear his response. "I'm upset, because I hate the idea of Elena spending so much time with Caroline's sister."
"That's it?!" she asks, surprised by his response. Lynn assumed that it was going to be something bigger, but he just didn't want Elena to spend time with her aunt.
Francisco takes a deep breath, "Lynn…for a long time, I've watched my daughter be exposed to Caroline's family. The same upper-middle class family that loves taking her on nice vacations or trips whenever I'm supposed to care for her, the same family that gives her almost everything she wants, just because she asks, the same family that looks at me and sees some idiot who got their princess pregnant out of wedlock, the same family thinks that I'm just after their money, and the same family that thinks that I'm just some troublemaker with no future."
Lynn looks at him. She could see the frustration manifest as tears in his eyes that none have shed yet. She didn't know that he was going through that. Francisco rarely talks about Caroline or her family, but base on his current reaction, she's sure that it the interactions aren't great.
"And Violet…she is one of the worst critics. When Caroline and I were together, she would never really hide what she thought of me, and I know it's silly, but I always wanted to show her that she was wrong about me, but…" he shakes his head, "It doesn't matter. The point is, I hate knowing that Elena is going to be with them, her really, especially when Caroline and I aren't around."
"It bugs you that much, huh?" Lynn wishes that she knew what to say, "Is it going to be a long time? I guess it doesn't matter, but Elena's a good girl, and it's not like Caroline is going to keep her from you."
Francisco tilts his head to let her know that he heard her, "I know that she's a good girl–"
"Then what's freaking you out?" she interrupts
"I told you already!" he takes a deep breath.
"C'mon Francisco! Be real! You know that she won't fall for whatever lies that her aunt tells her about you, so what's really freaking you out?!"
He taps his fingers, "I don't know!" he sighs, "I just…I don't want…I don't want her to get so used to the things that they give her."
He isn't sure of what really is bothering him, but his mind and heart feel like they're going a million miles a minute trying to think of the real reason.
Lynn takes a seat next to him, "One weekend isn't going to change her."
"Yeah, but little by little they're getting to her and all that'll be left is for her to get sick of visiting and never wanting to come over anymore."
It's his worst case scenario. He knows that he brought it on himself when he asked Caroline to give her the best education that she could, and it didn't take long for Jacob to pounce and offer Elena private school, museum memberships, trips to the country club, and vacations outside of the general area. Heck, he's sure that he would be probably be tempted to head in their direction too if they liked and offered him the same opportunities.
"You're being ridiculous."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm serious," Lynn says. "I mean, what can they give her that you can't?"
"Most reasonable things that money can buy," he answers. "But I wouldn't blame her for walking in that direction; I probably would have if I was given the opportunity."
Lynn can't blame him. She can recall how growing up, he would show up in either hand-me-down clothes and equipment, and while it's not like she didn't do that same, he just always looked at the better things he didn't have instead.
"Can they love her the way you do?"
"Sort of."
"That's not the same, so that's your thing. I know that you aren't the perfect dad–"
"Thank you?"
"Let me finish," she interrupts, "but you really care about her, and I think that she knows that. I mean, hold on," she gets up and finds the photo of the father and daughter from their Christmas at Dairy Land a few years ago and shows it to him, "do you really think that this little girl is going to forget about the nice things you do with her?"
In all fairness, the reason they even went was because of Lynn, but he understands what she's trying to tell him.
When she sees his eyes begin to soften, she pulls him into a hug, "See! You remember. Now stop pretending that she's going to forget about you in a week."
"Easier said than done."
"Fine! I'll find a way to make you forget," she says as sets the photo down and places a kiss on his lips.
