“Here you go, Angela,” María said, reverting to her normal hostess tone. She poured imaginary tea into her cup. “Who else?” she asked.

“Me!” Miss Magic Lips said.

“You’re happy today, Miss Magic Lips,” María observed, pouring tea into her cup.

“I want a cupcake,” Angela said.

“I don’t have any cupcakes.”

“Can you bake some?”

María looked at the pink stove by the wall and said, “Well, maybe. But Teddy still needs his tea. Right, Teddy?”

“Yes, please.”

She filled his cup.

“Can I have honey with it?” he asked.

“I only have sugar. Is that okay?”

“Yes, please.”

She picked up an imaginary cube of sugar and dropped it in his cup.

“I want a cupcake!” Angela said.

María sighed and went to the oven. She turned some knobs and said, “Okay, they’re baking.”

Back at the table, she took her seat opposite Angela, poured herself a cup of tea, then raised it to her lips. “Oohh. It’s very hot! Be careful every—”

She never finished the sentence.

2

María’s mother knelt before her, a worried expression on her face. María blinked, slowly, torpidly, like a housecat after it had been fed. When did her mother arrive? Was she here for the tea party too? She was speaking to her. “Answer me, María,” she said. “Are you okay? Can you hear me?”

“I’m having a tea party, Mom,” she said.

“I see that, sweetheart. But just now, what were you thinking?”

María frowned. “That the tea was hot.”

“That’s all?”

She nodded. “Why?”

“You didn’t answer me when I came in the room. You were staring off into space.”

“I was thinking the tea was hot.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

Her mother seemed relieved and hugged her.

“Are you here for the tea party?” María asked into her shoulder.

Her mother released her. “No, honey. It’s lunchtime. I made you tortillas.”

“I love tortillas.”

“Then let’s go eat.”

“What about my tea party?”

“You can finish it later. Your dolls won’t mind, will they?”

“Angela might. She doesn’t like waiting.”

“That’s part of learning how to become a little lady. Sometimes you have to be patient.”

“Angela,” María told her, “you have to be patient.”

Angela stared back at her.

“Be good while I’m gone,” she added. Then she followed her mother from the playroom to the kitchen for lunch.

Jack

1

I saw Pepper first, then Elizaveta. They were standing next to a tree on the bank of the canal.

“Jack!” Pepper said, opening his arms wide. “Bienvenidos Xochimilco!”