Read Online Nilda by Nicholasa Mohr - Free Book Online Page B

chuletas and arroz con gandules.”
    â€œIt smells like a party, Mamá.”
    â€œAll right now, hurry up and wash so you won’t be late for school.”
    â€œCan I stay home to celebrate?”
    â€œNever mind. You go back to school. You can celebrate at three.”
    â€œI hate that teacher; she’s mean and she’s always giving lectures and saying she’s gonna do this and that and …”
    â€œGood, you could use some lectures. You do as the teacher says and learn, so you can be somebody someday. Amount to something. I don’t want to hear no complaints, because it’ll be much worse for you here with me. Comprende? I only got to the fourth grade; I never had the advantages you got here in this country. You want to be a jíbara when you grow up? Working in a factoría? Cleaning houses? Being a sucketa for other people?”
    Nilda went to the bathroom to wash and could still hear her mother talking. She doesn’t even care about my side of it,thought Nilda. But she was too happy about the lunch to brood and came out smiling and ready to eat.
    Her mother set out a plate filled with food and she sat down. She chewed each mouthful with enormous pleasure, eating vigorously.
    â€œPapá is coming home this weekend. Gracias a Dios, we will be able to have a nice dinner and a few things for him when he gets home. Nilda, that reminds me, you have to accompany me next week to the welfare office to see about Home Relief.” Turning her head away, she continued in a half whisper, “Papá can’t work no more. Thank God for the number,” she said, making the sign of the cross.
    Aunt Delia walked in with a brand-new housedress on. It was yellow and the fabric was covered with a tiny red-and-white flower print.
    â€œYou look pretty, Titi,” said Nilda, pointing to her dress. Aunt Delia smiled, showing her gums. “Your mother bought it for me; she hit the numbers.” The old woman sat down and opened her paper. Slowly and intently she began to study its contents. Nilda could hear her reading quietly to herself. Looking at Aunt Delia, she wondered how the old woman could read every word in English and yet not speak one word of it in a regular conversation.
    â€œWe’ll be able to get some new things for the baby, Nilda.” Her mother smiled and went on, “It will be my first grandchild.”
    The clinic had told them that Sophie was due to have the baby any day now. All attempts to locate Jimmy had failed and no one had heard from him. Nilda was used to sharing her room with Sophie now, and sometimes almost liked her.
    â€œIt’s getting late. Hurry, or you’ll be late for school.”
    â€œMami, can I have money for milk and cookies tomorrow? Please?”
    â€œSí, but only for tomorrow, because we have to stretch what money we have.”
    â€œBendición, Mamá,” said Nilda.
    â€œDios te bendiga. Hurry up now and be careful.”
    She ran down the steps two and three at a time, bouncing up when she hit the ground. Outside she felt buoyant as the cold sharp air filled her lungs. Skipping, she ran toward the tunnels, rushing to make it back to school before the late bell rang.

Late November 1941
    N ilda looked at the big round clock on the wall facing the rows of benches in the large rectangular waiting room. They had left the apartment early that morning, taking the bus downtown to be at the Welfare Department by nine A.M., and it was now a quarter past eleven. The hands on the clock looked so still, as if they were never going to move on to the next number. She concentrated on the red second hand that jumped sporadically from black dot to black dot until it finally reached a number. Shutting her eyes, Nilda would open them quickly, hoping to catch the red second hand in action. At the beginning, she had lost almost every time, but after a while she was able to catch the second hand just as it landed on a dot.