Despite his objections ("I want to wear my green pants with that shirt!" "Julio, orange and green wouldn't look good together." "Neither does anything you wear."), I finally got my brother dressed and ready for dinner. While I was getting myself ready, I heard a knock from downstairs and my tío Samuel's voice followed by tía Maria and their kids'. Julio and Rosa ran past my door to greet our family while I finished fixing my skirt. After that was finished, I put everything back where it supposed to be in my drawer (which was also where I was hiding Julio's fortune slab). I glanced at the slab for a second before quickly shutting my drawer and making a few last-minute touches to my outfit and hair. Then I heard the door knock a second time, this time followed by voices I couldn't recognize.
After walking out of my room and to the top of the stairs, I saw our dinner guests turned out to be the family papa and I helped move in and planned on introducing their sons to my tío Samuel to help them get into his construction business. "That explains my tío's rare appearance." I chuckled to myself. As I walked down the stairs, I locked eyes with Jhon and that's who I decided to greet first.
"Welcome to the Castaños!" I smiled.
"Pleasure to be here." Jhon nodded. "Beautiful house, incredibly beautiful. Rose, wasn't it? Like the flower."
"Rosa." I corrected him.
"You still look-
"And this is my sister Gloria, and my loveable headache of a brother, Julio." I said, pulling Julio and Gloria toward our guest. Gloria smiled at Jhon while Julio just shuffled his feet.
When everyone said their greetings, Sofia and her husband helped her parents to the table while papa led everyone else behind them. Papa took his usual head at the table while mama sat closest to him and my siblings and I filed in after. The other family sat on the other side of the table with Jhon sitting across from me. Before everyone started taking food, papa stood up and smiled at the table before him.
"Welcome everyone, to this beautiful dinner prepared by an even more beautiful woman." Papa placed his hand on my mother's shoulder and her face started turning slightly red as she smiled. "I'm sure they have heard this plenty by now, but I would like to welcome the Rojas family to our house. Here's to a night of fun and friendship that I'm sure will last a lifetime. Now, I know I don't want to wait and I'm sure you all don't either, so lets eat!"
With that, everyone started grabbing knives, forks, and spoons to gather what they wanted and the conversations started.
"Everything looks great, mama." I whispered as I poured a yellow soup into a bowl.
"So, what's your favorite material to use?" tío Samuel asked Carlos.
"Can I have another spoon, please?" Julio asked, straining to reach the silverware on the table.
All around the table, everyone talked to one another throughout the dinner, minus Julio who would chime in here and there but otherwise was very quiet most of the night. At one point, I was having one conversation with Sophia and another with her father.
"What are some of your hobbies, Rosa?" Mr. Rojas asked.
"I love books." I responded. "History, I love embedded narrative works especially, poetry-"
"She writes her own poetry." Papa interjected. "She's a great cook too. She made your arepa. Takes after her mother.
"I do?" I thought, trying to remember when I've ever written my own poetry. "I didn't cook anything tonight…" Before I was able to say something, mama quickly asked I could pass her the bottle of wine and a couple glasses for her and papa.
"I used to write myself." Jhon said. "When I was a kid, I got at least new notebook every year on my birthday because I kept filling all the others up with my poetry.
"What were they about?" I asked.
There was silence for a minute and I could almost see the wheels trying to turn in Jhon's head. "You know," he smiled. "I wrote so many of them I can't pick just one to tell you about. I'm a man of many topics."
Gloria and I seemed to be thinking the same thing as both of us looked at each other out of the corner of our eye.
"What made you stop writing then?" Gloria asked.
Again, it seemed like it took Jhon's wheels a while to start working and come up with an answer. "I grew up." He said happily. Again, this made my sister and I look at each.
"And poetry is just for little kids and love-struck teenagers?" I thought.
I think Jhon could tell I wasn't impressed with his answer since he quickly started again. "Can't really write much if you work. Wake up, get ready for the day, go wake up my little brother-"
"Loudly." Carlos said, earning a small laugh from their parents.
"-And go build where we're needed."
"Interesting." Was all I said before turning to continue a previous conversation I started with Sofia.
While the food at the table started to become scarcer, the conversations didn't. Even once the food was completely gone, everyone stayed at the table talking for almost another hour. The conversations changed depending on whoever you were listening to. Tío Samuel was busy quizzing Carlos and Jhon on what to do in different scenarios if they were building something, Gloria kept trying to get tía Maria to tell her why their neighbors were fighting couple nights ago ("That is between them Gloria!") and I got up a few times to entertain Julio (who I could tell was getting very bored being the youngest at the table and having practically no one to talk to). The table conversations ended soon after papa told the table the story about how he met mama, and just before Mr. and Mrs. Rojas told the story of how they met.
Even though papa tried to get everyone to some into the front room to continue their conversations, it was becoming increasingly obvious Julio wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake. Between everyone being full from the dinner and the night slowly creeping up on all of us, I don't think anyone had any conversation left in them no matter how hard papa tried to push for one
As everyone was saying their goodbyes, Jhon pulled me to the side away from everyone else. "Hey, so I have something to mention."
"You never wrote poetry, did you?" I asked and he sheepishly nodded his head.
"You seemed into interested in books, didn't know what else to say."
"I would have thought you were smarter if you didn't say anything at all." I said.
"Well-"
"Rosa?" I heard a voice behind me say before feeling something pull on my skirt. When I turned around, I saw Julio standing behind me with a very tired look in his eye. "Can you tuck me into bed now?"
I couldn't help but laugh at my brother as I said "Of course." and picked him up before turning back to Jhon. "Well, it was nice to meet you and your family. And I'll put in a good word for you and your brother with my tío. That is, as long as you aren't lying about being a construction worker either."
This earned me a laugh from Jhon and he shook his head. "No, I have experience, I promise."
I just nodded my head and muttered out a "good." Julio hid his face in my shoulder as I waved Jhon goodbye and went up the stairs to tuck Julio into bed.
Once we reached his room, I gently laid Julio in his bed and pulled the covers up around him.
"I think I like the Madrigals better." Julio yawned. "They have more fun."
"They also have someone to keep you entertained. But I think the jaguar gives them a little bit of an advantage, doesn't it?" I smiled and Julio nodded his head.
"But I won't let papa know I like them better."
I gave Julio a quick kiss on his nose before tucking him in one last time and closing his door behind me. After leaving Julio's room, I went into mind and started getting ready for bed myself. As I got into my night clothes, I could see the faint glow of the emerald tablet in my drawer. I looked at it for a few minutes, debating whether I should look at it even though I already knows exactly what's on it, minus the person the image shifts to if it's looked at from a certain angle.
"No, No." I thought as I continued to get ready for bed. "That's one less thing I need on my mind before I sleep. I'm not going to do that to myself. Not tonight at least."
