all dressed up and nowhere to go | 2002-06-04 - 11:01 p.m.


As soon as I get off the plane en Las Vegas, I sense that algo is not right. The terminal is pr�cticamente empty, except for a creepy Tom Jones look-alike and a few bony, chain-smoking tipos sitting codo a codo in a brightly-lit, smoke-filled glass enclosure. Behind the glass, under the lights, these fellow viajeros look brittle and birdlike, like the gente in of those artsy Edward Hopper posters they sell in W*stw**d.

So, I'm looking around me and starting to worry. Where is Abuelita? Where is her husband-to-be? Where is the rest of mi familia? It's not like they'd be my first choice of people to party with in Las Vegas, but they did insist on picking me up from the airport. And with cada passing segundo, I feel with a�n m�s urgencia the need to be picked up and taken away. I am as cranky as a speed freak, and a la misma vez so dog-tired that I think I am starting to hallucinate un poco; I believe I just saw that Tom Jones character get up and walk toward me, a huge leer on his face.

Oh, misericordioso Jes�s. He really is walking toward me.

De repente, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse a flash of turquoise. With a jolt I realize that it is my madre, dressed in a peacock-colored silk suit that is much too vibrant for her tiny frame. Mam� in a suit? I think. In a color that is not black? Is el entero mundo being turned on its head? But nada prepares me for the shock that is yet to come.

"Mam�," I say, taking her by las manos as Tom Jones brushes past us and continues out the double-doors of the terminal. "Gracias a dios you're here!"

"I got here as soon as I could."

I look around. No sign of the rest of my familia. "So, where's Abuelita?"

Mam� clears her throat, like she is about to deliver some realmente bad news. "I have some bad news for you," she tells me, gravedosa.

anterior - siguiente

pride and prejudice - 2004-09-07
wherein I become a Yahoo! Search Result - 2004-06-23
like 9-11 all over again - 2004-06-20
enough said - 2003-02-05
tirar por la calle de en medio - 2003-01-28

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