"Hey mama," Corazon said. "What's for dinner?" Dinner at home, at least once a week. The house was full of people, as always. Her mother, Luz, barely five feet and built like an ottoman, was at the stove. One of her brothers, all muscle in a white wife beater, was standing at the fridge with the door open. "Arroz con pollo. And either get something or close the door. Don't stand there with the door open." This directed at Chaco, who ignored her. "Anything I can do?" Corazon asked. "Make the salad," Luz said. The rice and tomatoes had already gone in with the chicken and the house smelled wonderful. "Chaco!" Luz said. "Close that door!" He grinned at her, took a can of beer and headed out the back where the guys were clustered, talking. He opened the door, rolled his eyes back at Corazon and announced, "The drama queen is here." Corazon flipped him off. "Don't behave that way in my kitchen," Luz said. "Sorry mama. You want me to make tortillas?" "No," Luz said. "Not tonight. We have rice." Corazon chopped lettuce and tomatoes and peeled avocado out of the skin. She liked being in her mother's kitchen. Always had. It was not very much of a kitchen. The cabinets were dark and dated from the seventies. It was a shotgun, with a screen door that led to the backyard. The door had little ruffly half curtains. It always made her feel safe. "You know," Luz said, "you're the only one who can make tortillas." "That's because I'm the only one you took the time to teach," Corazon said. "None of my girls make tortillas. Only you." "You should teach Chaco," Corazon said. "Chaco!" Luz said, amused. "Sure, why not?" "He would never learn," Luz said. "He's like his father." "I learned," Corazon said. "You were different." In the front room on the green couch, Corazon could hear Novia talking to the baby. Novia, her baby sister, already a mother with a baby of her own. Luz said, "Victor couldn't come?" Corazon frowned. "Victor stood me up. We were going to do a shoot." Luz asked, "A shoot?" "Photos," Corazon said, but Luz had already thrown her hands up in the air. "Please, don't tell me. I don't want to hear." Luz assumed that every photo shoot was pornographic. "When are you going to stop all that nonsense and get a real job?" Corazon turned. "I do fine. I do filing work a day a week at the center. I do escort service. Sometimes I do modeling work. It's a living, mama." "What did I do that you live this way?" Luz said. She turned to face Corazon and Corazon realized that they were both standing the same way, hands on hips. The only difference was that Corazon could look down on the part in her mother's hair and see the gray at the roots. "You want I should lie to you, like the boys?" Corazon asked. "Okay, I am a secretary. Every day I go to an office where I type letters for a nice man in a suit. Does that make you happy? That I should be some man's servant?" "Ahh!" Luz shouted. Out the window, the boys could hear them and had stopped talking and were watching. "Out of here," Luz said. "Go help Novia take care of the baby!" Corazon was furious, but it was okay, because she was at home. Already, the boys had gone back to talking. In a little while, the food would be on the table and they would all sit down and eat. Together.
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