Make Your Home Among Strangers

Lizet says nothing about going to her father’s apartment to Leidy and Mami that night as they share a light dinner before the feast for Noche Buena. Leidy mentions that Omar called a few times that night, but hung up when Leidy answered. Mami insists Lizet call Omar back immediately because he is a good man and he loves her. Lizet gives in and dials the number, only to get her father’s voice on the other end. She is shocked, but pleased. He asks her how school is going, and Lizet feels a moment of gratitude, “It was the first time anyone had asked me this in the three days I’d been home […] it wasn’t that they didn’t want to hear; it’s that they didn’t even know to ask.” (161). Papi invites Lizet to breakfast the next morning, and Lizet agrees. She lies to Leidy and Mami, saying she is working things out over breakfast with Omar.

Lizet arrives half an hour early to the restaurant, nervous. The waitresses repeatedly ask if someone is really coming to meet her. She tries to be confident and orders a café con leche. Papi shows up shortly after, and they hug. He asks her about school, assuming she got good grades, and Lizet doesn’t have the heart to tell him the realities of her academic struggle that semester.

Papi expresses concern about Mami’s obsession with Ariel Hernandez; he asks Lizet to tell Mami to relax, but Lizet, on guard, refuses. Papi gulps down his eggs and hands Lizet three envelopes, one for her and two to give to Leidy and Dante for Noche Buena. On her way back home, Lizet tries to find peace after a tense breakfast by visiting her old house, but it has been stripped of grass and covered over with cement. 

At home, Leidy, who is in the bedroom changing Dante, notices the envelopes immediately. Lizet tells her the truth, that she went to see Papi. Leidy agrees not to tell Mami, and the pair open their envelopes. Each contains $50. Leidy is upset because she wanted a gift, proof that her father had thought of her and her baby.

Lizet sneaks into the living room to read the note her father left inside her envelope. He admits he forgot Dante and had to take some of her money last minute, but that he owes her another $50 for school. Lizet is ashamed of her father for preferring her over her sister, but also realizes this is the first time anyone in her family has said they were proud of her: “And now, right there in my hands, I had written proof” (186). Lizet and Leidy get ready for Noche Buena without Mami, who is at Ariel’s house, and entertain themselves by playing with Dante, who squawks like a parrot when they tickle him. 

At the Noche Buena party, Tia Zoila greets Mami with a string of supposedly kind slurs and insults. It is a familiar scene, which Lizet is happy about—everyone is drunk and wild, mocking each other and pretending to remember the details of each other’s lives. Lizet and Leidy stay together, fending off cousins and aunts and uncles, and explaining Omar’s absence. Dante is passed around, becoming the hit of this year’s party.

Lizet gets upset with Mami when she finds Omar’s name plate on the table, along with a place setting for him. She suspects Mami left it there intentionally, to upset her. She goes to confront her mother, but Mami is in an argument with Tia Zoila about Ariel. “Zoila turned to Tony in the commotion and said, ‘The only reason she gives a shit about ese niño is because she’s lonely and has nothing better to do’” (198). Lizet sees her mother is angry but accuses her of including Omar’s nameplate anyway, and they get into a physical altercation that ends in Mami storming out of the house. Lizet gets drunker, and keeps making excuses for Omar, as if pretending he is coming next year will allow her to “undo it […] backslide into something more recognizable” (203).