The way that we usually celebrated in my Mexican hometown was in a way that involved dancing, singing and eating spicy foods, my mother was usually the one in charge of the cooking while my father would tend to the drinks and table arrangements, I would stay close to my mother in the kitchen and watch her prepare the delicacies that the neighbors would enjoy and even come back for more, I loved the way my mother sang as she cooked in the kitchen to keep our spirits up. It all felt so different now because we were in America and I was trying to cook that kind of amount of food in my small trailer home, Lucia helped me with the cooking and it made me to have the feeling of nostalgia because of the way she looked and acted.
"Where did daddy go?" Lucia asked me as she noticed the absence of my father, I closed the pot of the broth that I was boiling then I checked the casserole that was in the oven.
"He is going round to invite the neighbors for the big occasion" I said with a small chuckle a I remembered how excited he was when he was about to go and start ringing up the neighbors.
"He shouldn't invite the whole park into our small trailer, there isn't much space for them in here" Lucia said as she looked round the trailer that was looking extra neat and lively because of the decorations that we had put up, Lucia had taken extra care in hanging the ribbons around the trailer both inside and out so she was feeling proud of herself.
"I know about the space issue, I will tell him not to invite everybody… it's not like we are actually close to anybody in this shit dump" the way that we kept our distance from everybody in the park because they saw us as proud or pompous because of the way that we lived our lives so peacefully without getting in anybody's way.
"I wonder why he have to celebrate it, I mean… isn't that just calling for attention? Attention is the last thing that we need at this point because we don't want anybody to start giving us envious looks" Lucia said in a small voice, she looked around after she had made her statement.
"As if we haven't gotten enough of those already" I said with a scoff, the neighbors were hostile to us but we were not bothered by them at all, the only problem was that my father had already started to do the inviting.
"You see my point, we have gotten tired of such looks and inviting those kind of people would only get us more looks like that, or even worse…" whatever Lucia was about to say next was interrupted by my father's loud voice.
"COME ALONG EVRYONE! WE NEED TO BE MERRY BECAUSE THERE IS A CELEBRATION AT HAND" we heard the sound of other trailer doors opening and the chattering of the neighbors became so loud that it made Lucia want to cover her ears.
"I guess there is nothing left to do other than to go with the flow, go and start setting the tables because the food is almost ready" I watched how Lucia reluctantly stood up and take the table napkins to start arranging the tables, I smiled a small smile at her but I was on her side when she said that my father was inviting too many people, most of the neighbors outside never liked us or even know what is the cause of the celebration but they showed up with broad smiles and a chattering spirit.
"What is the celebration about?" I heard one of the neighbors ask my father, I was expecting my dad not to tell him the truth but to my annoyance; he told him the truth.
"My daughter got accepted to work in the most prestigious company in the States, the Mateo company" I heard an audible gasp from outside and the small crowd fell silent before somebody spoke.
"She works there as a janitor or a cook?" somebody said with a mocking tone, I figured my father would flare up because of that insensitive comment but he didn't.
"No, the offspring of Romeo would never be any of those things… she works as his personal assistant" the gasp was heard again and I figured that if I don't go outside to stop him from running his mouth like a chatter box then I would probably be robbed by the next day.
"There she is, the lady of the hour" my father said as I came out of the trailer, there was a small crowd gathered in front of the trailer and I knew that it would increase in size soon, I saw Lucia still arranging the tables with a long face.
"Hello everybody, welcome and please take your seats because we are about to start" that was all that I could say before dragging my father to the side of the trailer that was not crowded with people so that I could talk to him in private.
"What are you doing? I don't want anybody to start-" my father didn't even let me finish what I was saying, he acted on his own accord as usual.
"Enough with this talk, I have already heard it from Lucia and I saw the way you looked so it's not hard to put two and two together… relax, everything will go smoothly as planned and what's more is that there is an unexpected guest that is coming so you better change what you are wearing into a finer dress" my father left me after that to return to his loud talking and happy singing, he was drunk and it wasn't hard to notice from his behavior and the way he spoke to me. I went back inside to start taking out the food but Lucia stopped me and ordered me to change my clothes instead, I was puzzled at the reason why they insisted on me changing my attire but I changed into a flowery dress that my mother had bought for me before she died, it gave me so much memories so it was the feeling of nostalgia that I was riding on before Lucia burst in on me smiling at my own reflection.
"Why did you run in like that?" I asked in shock, Lucia was breathing heavily as if she had been running.
"What is it? What happened?" I asked quickly as she panted for all her life was worth.
"Carl is here".