In walked a beautiful young woman named Joanna, who was Carlo’s “aunt”, as well as a nice man and his wife, his great aunt and uncle, and a man in a wheelchair.
He was short even without the wheelchair and as he approached Carlo, his mother said, “Son this is Jorge. You’ll be sharing a room with him.”
“Gusto conocerte, sobrino.”
The young man said with a smile on his face.
Carlo shook his hand but remained without a word.
They had a big Mexican feast that night.
Homemade pupusas.
Tacos with lengua meat, cheese galour, salsa, you name it!
They had to celebrate. The family was finally reunited after so long. Family Carlo didn’t even know he had.
Carlo wasn’t used to speaking Spanish all the time. In fact, his recall of the language when he had to speak it was slower than other natural Spanish-speakers were.
Every time he heard Spanish, he could immediately tell what the other people were saying, but for him, not only was he slow at speaking in Spanish, but he had an accent.
The accent of a gringo.
“Y todavía tienes diez y ocho años?” Jorge had asked.
“Si, y tú?”
“Ahh no, yo ya tengo twenty-three.”
“Ok,” Carlo said.
They sat in an awkward silence there, until Jorge asked, “te gusta jugar juegos?”
“Si, los videojuegos me gustan mucho ¿Y tú?”
“Nunca jugué, solamente una vez, en la casa de mi primo allí en Central.”
Carlo heard it but couldn’t believe it. He thought every person around his age must’ve played video games at least more than once in their lifetime.
That was a realization for him, that other people around the world have it completely different from him. Some people don’t have access to video games like how he did.
“Estaba hablando de ajedrez, o tal vez dominos.”
“Jedres? No se esa palabra.”
“Chess, o checkers? No sé la palabra exacta.”
Carlo knew what he meant. He went up to the attic, brought a cardboard box, which was both a chess and checkers set, and brought it down to the room.
“¿No juegas mucho?”
“No en mucho tiempo, pero yo sé cómo.”
They proceeded to set up the chess side, and played rounds of chess until long after it was dark.
Carlo would always get into playing different games, as long as they were competitive. Tennis, lacrosse, video games, but not many board games.
This was a new experience for him.
And every time Carlo thought he had a lead and was quite sure he was going to win, his uncle would make a move and be only one move away from checkmate.
It was a cat-and-mouse game, for sure, one that Carlo didn’t want to lose, yet lost for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Carlo got up early, got dressed, and saw his uncle there, his short body laid out on a cot set up for him.
His wheelchair was right beside his chair and Carlo wondered how hard life must be for him. Never being able to walk.
What other things can’t he do?
Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
Carlo tried a new neighborhood this week, one that was walking distance from his house.
He was serious about making money and saving it because ever since he saw that brown-eyed beauty at the door, he set his heart to ask her out on a date.
But what was he going to do? Walk over to her house holding a rose and ask her on a date down at the taco stand down the street?
That was all he had the money for, at the moment.
No, he thought. I’m going to get a Jeep. Or something like that. A car. Maybe a truck, depending how hard I sell.
He couldn’t stop thinking about her.
Instead of a taco stand, what he had in mind was more like a Mexican buffet.
Then she would like me, he thought, and know that I can provide.
“Hello?” Someone opened the door and was speaking to him through the screen.
“Hey there! I’m Carlo, I’m with Channel Marketing, here to find out if you’re in-“
“We’re not interested.”
“But-“
The customer closed the door before he could say anything more.
It was a rough day.
Carlo didn’t know that it could get this bad.
The other day, it seemed like everything was going right.
But today, “Ch, I can’t believe I even came out today, I should’ve just stayed at the house.”
He wore a lousy expression on his face all the way home.
As Carlo was walking towards his house, he heard the sound of Mexican music being played outside. As he walked in, there he saw his mother and father, his great-aunt and uncle, Victoria his sister and his aunt, who was younger than him, dancing, with Jorge in the corner doing his best to move his wheels in rhythm with the music.
He was doing pretty good.
“Epa, epa, epa…” Jorge shouted.
Carlo smiled, dropped his satchel down, walked into the crowd of family dancing and smiling,
“Carlo!” They shouted when they noticed him, and proceeded to dance, sing, eat, and converse well into the evening.
Would you like to buy Carlo’s Gap Year on Amazon?
MARK SOTOMAYOR 