How Tía Lola Saved the Summer Read Online Free PDF Page B

the edge of the vernal pond that never totally dried up this rainy spring. “Are you coming?” he asks, because Cari is still sitting on the bed, cross-legged, her two little hands clutched together as if she were praying.
    “But maybe the bullfrogs will jump out and hurt us?”
    “They won’t hurt you, you’ll see.” Miguel can tell that Cari is teetering on the edge of fear. But he ignores her hesitation, as if there’s no question that Cari is going to follow him into the beautiful, if wet, Vermont countryside. It isn’t Disney World, but it has its very own magic.
    Miguel heads for the door, Valentino at his heels, eagerfor any outing. Behind him, the bedsprings squeak, and next thing he knows, Cari is scurrying to join him. He can’t decide if she is being brave by coming or is too scared to stay by herself. As they enter the hallway, she calls out, “Wait!” and races back into the room, grabs her sword where she left it on the bed, and returns to Miguel, breathless with terror and triumph.

    “I’m in shock,” Victoria says that night as she pulls her marshmallow from the fire. They are sitting in front of the fireplace campfire, each one with a roasting stick. Cari has just related how she and Miguel caught the half dozen tadpoles that are now swirling around in the Mason jar beside her on the coffee table.
    At the table in the dining area, Mami and Víctor are finishing up a game of Scrabble. Tía Lola has been tending the fire, adding a log from time to time.
    “You did all this brave stuff without us?” Victoria shakes her head in disbelief. “You are really something, Cari baby—”
    “I’m not a baby!” Cari protests.
    “I mean ‘baby’ as in hot babe, cool chick,” Victoria says, exchanging a high five with her little sister. “And you are, Cari girl! You went up to the attic all by yourself to visit Miguel. You went out in a rainstorm, braving the elements, lightning and thunder—”
    “There wasn’t any thunder and lightning!” Unlike her middle sister, Cari won’t take credit she doesn’t deserve.“That would have been dangerous. Dangerous isn’t the same as scary, you know.”
    Miguel has noticed this before. Cari is very particular about her vocabulary. That must be why she is always asking what words mean. She’s probably going to grow up to be an author, maybe an author of dictionaries. Somebody’s got to write them.
    “Okay, so there wasn’t any thunder and lightning, but you went out exploring to a pond full of bullfrogs that you were scared of last night.”
    “They’re more scared of me than I am of them,” Cari declares. She demonstrates by patting the Mason jar with her hand. Sure enough, the little tadpoles dart away frantically. “And the big frogs all hopped in the water when they saw us coming, and they stayed hiding and didn’t make a sound. Right?” She turns to Miguel. After all, this is too incredible to be believed without the confirmation of a witness. Miguel nods.
    “And they aren’t bully frogs, they’re bullfrogs, because they sound like bulls.”
    From the table, where their respective parents have one ear cocked to the conversation by the fireplace, Víctor says, “Way to go, Cari. You’re going to turn into a Vermont farm girl before the week is over.”
    “I love Vermont,” Cari announces. “It’s not scary here. It’s more scary in New York.”
    “One down and two to go,” her father remarks to Mami as they pack up their Scrabble game and join the campfire. Miguel must be the only one who overhears the comment, as the girls are busy besting each other’s storiesof the scariest thing that has happened to them in New York City.
    When the girls run out of scary city stories, Víctor starts in on his own story of growing up in New Mexico. His family has lived there since before it was the United States of America, back when it was still part of Mexico. Before the story turns into too much of a history lesson, Victoria asks Mami