Angel and her family travel to Spain and visit their relatives She has fun with the people she meets and she learns what is really important.

Angel Marquez

37-44

by

Paula Dillon

It was like a madhouse at Carmine’s home on Sunday and Monday. There was washing the girls’ clothes and packing the clothes the girls wanted to take with them. Luckily Carmine and Margarita had been sane enough to buy more luggage, shopping. Margarita got a large purse and put all her documents in a travel wallet; this included passports, birth certificates, Letters from Angel’s psychiatrists, traveler’s checks, seven plane tickets and documents for both Angel’s guitars(Angel’s guitars were flying with her and not as luggage). Still the girls had to make several dashes to the store for something they just couldn’t do without.

Angel then bought herself and her cousins Canon SX1 IS Digital Camera kits, with her own money. They agreed not to carry batteries, as they were heavy. She also bought a travel outfit that was very androgynous. She found a silk shirt in a neutral color and a pair of hip hugger jeans, that were pretty non-descript.

They filled out customs declaration forms for the US and Spain, to speed things up when they arrived in Spain. Margarita attached copies of the Christie’s provenance, for the Torres guitar and a form Uncle Javier provided, for the Amara Verdad Cantu guitar, the cameras and a laptop they were taking with them. They inventoried and listed everything they took more valuable than five dollars.

Tuesday, Angel played at Leo’s and took her guitar from the locker. Margarita called the insurance company and informed them.

Almost every square inch of Margarita’s and Carmine's cars was filled to the brim as they headed to Margarita’s home.

Once Angel and Margarita were home, Angel had to take off her breastforms and place them in her carry on luggage case, with one set of clothes. Everyone was surprised to see Angel’s chest, there was no denying it, she now had small boobs, a little more than an AA cup.

“How did you get a pair of titties?” Sierra asked

“A side effect of the anti-androgen, I would suspect,” Margarita said. “She has been taking that since she was twelve. Her testosterone is way down and that leaves estrogen the dominant sex hormone.”

The girls were sent to bed at four, for a few hours sleep, but nobody really slept. They had a light meal at ten and then corralled their luggage at the front door.

The twins took a lot of pictures of nothing special on the way to JFK airport, just getting use to their new cameras. Angel had gotten some pictures of everybody but her. She didn’t want to see any pictures of Luis.

At the airport, they checked in and had a two hour and twenty minute wait to board the airplane. They were flying an American Airline 777 to Madrid via London.

Chapter 38

Sleeping had been hard on the airplane; the girls were all excited at the thought of finally flying to Spain. They noticed that the plane was a bit noisy, that, even the movie on the screen, wasn’t enough to overcome the constant drone of the engines.

They arrived in Madrid at four thirty in the afternoon. It took another hour and a half to get through the Immigration checkpoint. Angel and Margarita were pulled aside, not for Angel’s appearance, but for the two guitars she carried. The officer checked the paperwork carefully and inspected the two guitars and the cases. He then had to have his supervisor signoff. Speaking Spanish and claiming Spanish ancestry, made their entry a little easier.

As soon as they cleared customs, Angel hit the ladies bathroom, no one in there questioned the young girl being there. Inside a stall, Angel put on a bra and slipped her breast forms into the cups. She then let out her ponytail and combed her hair with her fingers, before adding a little makeup; lipstick, powder and mascara.

Uncle Javier was waiting with the rest of the family when Angel came out of the restroom. He made a phone call when Angel joined them.

(From here till they get back to NY, NY, consider all conversations to be in Spanish, unless otherwise noted.)

“Rolando, Fernando and Jesus Cortez will be waiting for us at the curb in a second,” Javier said. “We have two vehicles; baggage goes in the van with a few passengers.”

Javier led the way out of the terminal. Outside there was a jumble of cars. They stopped and looked around till Javier saw what he was looking for. He made his way to his goal.

The girls got a really strange look on their faces when they saw their uncle Rolando behind the wheel of a really strange vehicle.

As if reading everybody’s mind, Javier began to explain, “Girls, that is a genuine, 1938 Mercedes Benz, 770K convertible. It has been in our family since after the war. Before that it was the property of the German government. It is rumored to have been the German Military Attaché’s personal vehicle.”

All five of the girls got in the convertible, with it’s top down. Uncle Javier got in the van with Fernando. Angel let her uncle take her guitars with him.

All three of the youngsters had their cameras out and were taking pictures, while Uncle Rolando drove away from the Barajas International Airport. There weren’t a lot of sights to see, as they were shortly on major highway that headed northeast from Madrid. Just past Villanueva de la Torre, they left the main road and drove a couple of miles to a large Ranch style home.

“This is where Carmelita lives with the Cortez family. You probably won’t see her today. She only has a few good hours a day to be around people, but she is still quite mentally active and as sharp as a tack,” Uncle Rolando said.

As they drove up to the backside of the house, the girls did see an older white headed lady sitting in a rocking chair, catching the last rays of the sun. Uncle Rolando went up to her and spoke with her for a few seconds. The lady looked up smiling and did a little wave to the girls, as they were waiting besides the car.

A few seconds later, Uncle Rolando returned, “Not today girls, she is happy to see you, but…”

“Yes, we understand Rolando,” Margarita said. “Give her our warmest love.”

Another lady in her mid to late 40’s, came out of the house. She ran up to them and hugged Jesus, before turning to them and saying, “Welcome to my home, I am Felicia Cortez, Jesus’ wife. It is so good to see my American cousins.”

She barley finished talking and was already giving everybody hugs and kisses.

“Hello, Felicia. I am Margarita Marquez, this is my sister Carmine Santiago, with her daughters Sierra and Nevada, and this is my daughter, Angel Marquez.”

“Oh, you are all so beautiful, please come with me.”

Felicia took them inside her beautiful ranch style home. It was an older home that had been constantly updated. The roofing was made of red clay tiling, the exterior walls were stucco. They had a large tiled patio, much of it covered by an awning. Inside, she had central air and the beautiful painted tile kitchen, which was a cross between modern and old style Spanish design. There was some marvelous black walnut wood paneling everywhere and not that cheap ply board paneling either.

“Don’t worry about crowding, this home was built for a working ranch and I have lots of bedrooms.”

There were a lot of bedrooms and bathrooms. She had ten bedrooms and four bathrooms. The dinning room and living rooms were cavernous, compared to the girls’ homes back in America. The whole place had well worn slate flooring, except for the living room, that had wood. There was a huge fireplace and mantle at one end of the home.

“The original parts of this home were built in the thirties, but the original owners kept rebuilding parts of the home and adding on to the original. The kitchen and some of the bedrooms are from the fifties, but still in keeping with the original design. Much of the old living room was added to the dinning room and we added the new living room and master bedroom.”

Everyone could tell that Felicia loved showing off her home. It was filled with a mix of real antique and antique reproduction furniture that went well together.

“I know you must be tired, let me show you to your bedrooms,” Felicia said.

She showed them to a wing of bedrooms, “You may select the bedrooms you want and tell the guys which room you are in. They will move your luggage into your room.”

The bedrooms were the smallest rooms in this house; even so, they were still larger than the bedrooms back home. Angel selected a room for herself, although she would probably sleep with her cousins. She didn’t want to cause a scandal, so she decided to test the waters first. Margarita and Carmine chose a room together. They felt that there would be more company here later.

The rooms were gender neutral, but had a lot of nice touches, like four poster king sized beds, armoires, dressers and vanities in each room.

“You can rest for an hour or so; I will wake you for dinner.”

The girls had their luggage delivered to their own rooms and collapsed on the beds.

They were awakened a little more than an hour later. Felicia served them dinner out on the patio. There were about twenty-four people who gathered for dinner. Introductions were made, the food was blessed and they all sat down to eat. Felicia dispersed the Americans between their Spanish kin. Angel sat between Felicia and Juanita, Felicia’s daughter. Food and drink flowed as they all chatted and got to know each other. Even Angel, Sierra and Nevada got half glassfuls of Spanish wine. Carmelita was the only relative in town that was not at the table; she had already gone to bed.

All of the Americans were bombarded by questions. Everyone wanted to know everything. There was a twelve-year old boy, named Tomas Cruz, who sat between Sierra and Nevada, and who was smitten by the girls. The twins thought he was kind of cute and spent a lot of time teasing and flirting with Tomas. Dinner started at about seven forty five, but desert wasn’t served till after nine thirty.

Between ten and eleven, most of the people had to leave, as they had to work the next day. The ones that stayed discussed the upcoming agenda for the Americans. It was arranged for the girls to go sight seeing with a few of the older Spanish teens, while Felicia would take Margarita and Carmine around town sight seeing.

A chance to meet Carmelita would come on Friday, or Saturday, depending on how she felt. A big to do was planned for Friday night, and the Friday before they all went home. On Monday, it was planned for them to visit Barcelona and be back in Madrid on Friday night.

**************

The next day, Juanita Cortez and Pablo Ramos took Angel, Sierra and Nevada into town, with a couple of other cousins, Tomas and Suela Cruz. The twins and Angel were dressed in jeans and T-shirts that spoke of their American heritage. Together they headed to Xanadu Snow Zone. The girls had wondered why Juanita loaned them some light jackets now they knew. The Snow Zone was a huge building. Inside the temperature was around 30 degrees f. There were five snow covered slopes inside. They tried skiing and snow boarding. Angel didn’t ski very well; she fell quite a few times, as she tried to keep her skis parallel and under her.

She traded in the skis after half an hour for a snow board. Sierra and Nevada saw this and decided to change too, even though they had done fair on the skis. Soon all three of them were zooming down the easy slopes and on the medium difficulty slopes. Angel began to see some of the fun she had missed growing up. She wouldn’t change her past one bit, she was what she was, but she did plan to have some more fun.

There was also an awesome go-kart track there, designed like a formula one track. Angel killed everyone on the go-kart track, much to the frustration of Tomas and to the amusement of his sister. He couldn’t believe that he had gotten beat by a girl. The twins tried to console him, but they still wound up giggling.

After lunch, the girls took off shopping.

“Hey can I join you?” Tomas asked, wanting to flirt more with the twins.

Juanita asked him, “Does Tomas want to try on a pretty dress, or find a cute bra to wear?”

“Come Tomas, let the girls go to the stores, join me in the arcades,” Pablo said.

Dejected, he went with his cousin.

The girls spent a little time looking at clothes, but spent most of the time shopping for souvenirs. They each bought several T-shirts that had something to do with Spain and Madrid.

One shop owner offered Angel three T-shirts, if she traded her T-shirt that had the pre 9/11 World Trade Center picture on it. She took the deal and changed into one of her new T-shirts. The shop owner immediately put it on a mannequin and shortly sold it for a nice profit.

On the way home, Pablo drove a circuitous route home, as he and Juanita told the girls some of the history of the area. They took a lot of pictures and made several stops on the way.

As they pulled around back, the kids saw Margarita, Carmine and Felicia sitting with and talking to Carmelita. As the kids headed to the house, Felicia stopped them and asked them to come over.

“Aunt Carmelita, you know Pablo, Juanita, Tomas and Suela of course, with them are Sierra, Nevada and Angel. Girls, this is your great Aunt Carmelita Ramos.”

The girls gave a small curtsy, as they were introduced. They didn’t know what else to do.

“Come girls, give your Aunt a hug and a kiss,” Carmelita said.

The kids one by one gave their great Aunt a gentle hug and kissed her cheek.

“Sit with me for a few minutes, before I have to go inside. It is good seeing so many young people having fun together. How was your day?”

The kids told their Aunt about what they had done. Suela just had to gloat over Angel beating Tomas driving go-karts. Carmelita even got a giggle out of that. Angel said that she really liked snow boarding. The girls loved all the stores that they had a chance to visit. They refrained from teasing Tomas about the dress and bra.

Carmelita was becoming visibly tired, “Children, I am getting tired and must go in. but first Angel, will you play your guitar for me tomorrow.”

“Yes ma’am, I would be proud to play for you.”

“Good, then I will see all of you tomorrow.”

Felicia and a nurse that had come out, helped Carmelita up and into the house.

After Carmelita left, Margarita and Carmine asked some more questions, “So where did you go snowboarding in July?”

“Oh Mom, they had this big building that was very cold. Inside they had all of these hills covered with snow. I tried skiing, but I couldn’t keep standing too long wearing the skis. So then I tried snowboarding,” Angel said.

“Yeah, she was pretty fair at snowboarding, Mom,” Sierra said. “Pablo, Juanita and the rest were better, but we did pretty good.”

“Poor Tomas,” Margarita said. “You let Angel beat you in a go-kart.”

“She had to be cheating, Aunt Margarita,”

“Did not,” Angel said, a little indignantly.

“Why do you say she cheated?” Margarita asked.

“She had to be cheating, she is a girl.”

“Oh my, Tomas. Didn’t you know girls can do a lot of things very well.”

“Yeah, but men are better drivers. She had to get a better go-kart or something.”

“Maybe so, Tomas. She might have gotten a faster go-kart. Then maybe she is a better driver.” Margarita said in closing.

“I want to go practice on my guitar Mom, especially if I am playing for Carmelita tomorrow.”

The kids followed Angel inside. She retrieved her new guitar from her room, went to the living room and began to play as the others talked. The kids kept talking for a bit as Angel warmed up, but when she began to play in earnest, they all stopped to listen.

Angel spent quite a bit of time playing her scales and working on her progressions. After about an hour of hard work, she chose to play eight pieces out of her collection of her master class Spanish and classical pieces. She rotated to some of the pieces she hadn’t played in a while. Her time at the new school made her realize, she needed to work in a more diverse manner and that she needed to maybe expand her repertoire.

Juanita and Pablo had seen the Internet show, but Tomas and Suela hadn’t. Even seeing the show, had not prepared them for how good Angel was with her guitar. Everyone was strangely silent when she finished.

“I couldn’t believe that anyone could play better than Raul Vargas. Most of us thought of him as the best the family had,” Tomas said. “But then I had never heard of you Angel. You are both a magnificent player and a maestro at the guitar; I have to say that you are probably the best in our family now.”

“Thank you Tomas, I know how hard that was for you to say, but I am still learning.”

“Play some more for us Angel,” Juanita asked.

Angel played and sang some of her fun songs, singing in English, as she didn’t know them in Spanish. Sierra and Nevada translated some parts of the songs roughly into Spanish, when they were asked.

Chapter 39

The next day, Angel worked on her guitar again. She was told that her cousin Raul would be there to practice with her around noon. She wanted to make up for the lack of practice after she left school.

Raul came in with the Old Men and the five of them began to hash out a program. Angel was a little sad that her Uncles weren’t going to play with them, but it was Carmelita’s request that these two play for her. The Old Men would play before Angel and Raul came out. Javier and Rolando chose most of the music and Angel and Raul selected a couple of their favorites. They would each have two solo numbers.

They then spent time working out the kinks of playing together. Angel and Raul really enjoyed playing together. He really presented a challenge to her play and he liked being forced to work harder to do his best. By the end of their practice sessions, they were playing very well together.

Before the fiesta, they all took time to put on their festive best costumes. Juanita helped Angel with her hair falls and makeup.

The fiesta started early that evening. Carmelita was assisted by Felicia and her nurse, to a well cushioned wicker chair beneath the awning. About forty people applauded her appearance. Ladies began serving the feast; a whole pit roasted pig was served along with all the accoutrements.

After most of the people had finished eating, Javier and Rolando, along with three other family members, came out playing their guitars and trumpets, in all their Spanish attire. Dancers then appeared, including Margarita, Carmine and the twins.

At the conclusion of the fourth piece, the dancers and musicians took their seats. Raul and Angel made their entrance. They strode up the middle of the crowd playing, the crowd clapping to the music and castanets were clacking away. At the table in front of Carmelita, they did a quarter turn towards each other.

During the show, Angel switched guitars. She had tuned the Torres guitar down two full steps to a C, rather than on an E, to harmonize with Raul and let him shine. It made the pieces sound richer and fuller. Raul caught on and adlibbed it up a bit.

The two also worked to compliment each other, rather than to compete with each other. The guitarists could feel the excitement of the people that had gathered. On Angel’s favorite pieces, she tried to play the best she ever had. In many ways her play showed a new level of maturity than she had shown previously in New York. The two of them played to each other’s strengths.

There was silence when the two finished, everyone was afraid of breaking the spell that had been woven by the two musicians. Finally they all began clapping, shouting and whistling.

Felicia got the attention of the two guitarists and led them over to Carmelita.

Carmelita sat up straight and smiled, as the two guitarists approached her. Felicia placed a mike in front of Carmelita so everyone could hear.

“I just don’t know what to say, in my 102 years of life, I have heard a lot of people play a lot of music. I have never heard the likes of what I have heard tonight. Both of you are great guitarists, but together you transcend greatness. I don’t know where life will lead you two, but if you never play together again, it will certainly be a waste of talent. Thank you for playing for me my dear children.”

She gave the two a hug and a kiss. The two of them bowed to her, turned and bowed to the crowd. After another round of applause, all the people wanted to meet the two. Angel handed off her two guitars to Rolando, while Raul handed his off to Javier.

They then went and talked to the people there. All of the Americans found themselves at the center of one group or another. The other musicians played for the people. It was almost like a second fiesta had started.

Towards the end of the fiesta, Felicia announced that Carmelita wanted to have lunch with all of the children under 20, tomorrow. This brought a stir of excitement from the parents. It wasn’t often that their children got to spend time with Carmelita.

Raul and Angel played some more together, much to the crowds delight. They especially liked it when Angel played from her rock repertoire. It seemed a few already knew the English words to the songs, even when they didn’t speak the language. Angel loved singing with them.

**************

The next day Felicia, Juanita, Margarita and Carmen were busy preparing food again. They dressed up the living room a bit and set the tables. The girls were busy trying to look their best. Carmine did let the girls use a bit more makeup than usual.

Around eleven thirty, Angel and the twins began acting as greeters to the people arriving. Most of the kids arrived by eleven fifty five and were seated around the table.

Carmelita came in and was seated at the head of the table. They said a blessing and the food was served to those there. Everyone there was on their best behavior, some under heavy threat from their parents. The Americans were dispersed amongst their cousins. Angel sat to Carmelita’s right. Tomas was fuming, as he was seated away from Sierra and Nevada, and next to Suela, his sister. It wasn’t to her taste either, but she put up a better front of it.

Carmelita just smiled, looking at the twenty one children there and ate. Her meal was much different; blander than the kid’s food, but she was the only 102 year old there.

After lunch, they all assembled in the living room. Carmelita sat in her large cushioned chair; a couple of mikes had been set up. The kids sat on the couches, on the chairs, or on the floor around her.

“Children, please bear with me,” Carmelita said. “I know many of you don’t like school, but the history I am about to give you relates to our family.”

Excerpts from the lips of Carmelita Ramos. (Facts may or may not be 100% correct but hey, what history is.)

I was born in 1905 and have seen and lived through a lot of history. I was born during the reign of Alfonso XIII, King of Spain. This was after the infamous Spanish American war, which taught us how misguided perceptions can easily lead to war.

I was nine when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated and the First World War took place. As a child I didn’t understand what was happening or why my parents were so disturbed by the events.

We lived on a small ranch back then. My father Miguel Ramos raised bulls for the arena back then. He was a proud man who raised brave bulls.

Spain was neutral back then, but we still worried that the conflict would spill over into our country. Conflicts have a habit of spreading once they are started.

But I stray; the time I am really concerned about, began in 1923, with the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. He was a general in the army. Spain’s government up to that time, was splintered and unresponsive to the people. There were many factions and most didn’t get along well with each other. Financial distress and social unrest led to him overthrowing our parliament. He took power away from them and our king. Alfonso tried to placate him and declared him Prime Minister.

Rivera suspended our constitution, dissolved our legislature and declared martial law. He sent forces to the Basque and Catalonia regions to suppress separatism in those regions.
Between 1923 and 1930, things did get somewhat better, but there was a period of inflation in 1929 and the value of the peseta dropped like a rock, hurting the people. Rivera’s rule fell apart in 1930, Alfonso XIII abdicated and the Second Republic began.

The thirties were very turbulent and the conditions worsened. The worst part in our history began in 1936, the Spanish Civil War. Of the people that you know, my nephews Javier and Rolando were alive then. There may be others, but very few.

We were a divided family, with members in many different factions. I won’t list the factions or say who was what. It was a time that nearly tore us apart.
I will say people who loved freedom were the big losers during this time.

Many factions made up the Popular Front, which included the Republicans, Communists and Anarchists, are but a few and many made up the Nationalists, which included the military, the strongly fascist falange and monarchists, most of whom were Catholic, are a few.

In the next three years, hundreds of thousands of Spaniards were killed and executed, with many more injured.

Most of the family pulled together on our ranch. It was hard to keep everyone fed. One side or another would come through and take what they could find. We were smart, we had more than some, but we were able to conceal it. We kept our family well and helped some of our neighbors stay alive.

I have to say, that even though the majority of us didn’t like Franco and his government, he may have been the lesser of two evils. He did one thing that was good; he kept Spain out of WWII.

Although we were neutral, both the Axis and the Allies operated in our country. Mostly it leaned Axis, but there were many who helped and fought for the French and the Allies.
Stalin, who had sided with the Popular Front, hated Spain and at the Potsdam conference, urged the Allies to invade Europe through Spain. Thankfully, Churchill and Roosevelt both resisted that idea.

Life after WWII wasn’t any better for many years. Spain was punished in some ways, mostly economic, for their neutrality. Parts of our family went to Mexico, to the United States, Argentina and many other countries.

We may be separated by many miles, and some of us may have diverse beliefs, but one thing is important children; we are all Family. Our family is our strength. You may not like one Aunt, or Uncle. You might not be able to stand this family, or another. There may be good family members, or bad family members. One thing remains for us, “We are all Family!”

“Felicia, I tire.” Carmelita said, after talking for over two hours. “I need my nap.”

Felicia and the nurse helped the old lady to her room.

Quietly, the kids all hugged and their parents took their children home.

**************
Sunday morning, everyone in the household went to confession and then Mass. The church they went to was incredibly old and had a gothic appearance. The girls took a lot of pictures from the outside, but they left their cameras in the car before they went in. Even here, Carmelita had a place of honor, a nice comfy chair for her to sit in.

It was interesting listening to a sermon in Spanish; back home there were Spanish speaking churches, but their parents all went to predominantly English speaking churches.

Throughout the litany of standing and kneeling, Carmelita just sat, she would have liked to be able to kneel with her family, but it was enough for her to just be there.

After the service, Angel was invited to ride back home with Felicia, Jesus and Carmelita. The nurse rode back with Margarita and Javier. They hadn’t gone far when Carmelita began to address Angel.

“Angel,” Carmelita began. “Yesterday was for you and for our family. No matter what else, never forget that. You Are Family. You are not the first to be this way, in our family. There have been a few others. They have remained a bit more anonymous, but you have a rare gift. It will be hard for you to be anonymous. Just hold your head up high and smile, knowing that you are loved, and that you are family.”

“We shall speak of your differences no more, as a matter of concern. You are, to us, what you appear to be, just be the best person that you can be and that will be enough, little one.”

Chapter 40

Monday found Angel in the accompaniment of eight children and seven adults, on the AVE high-speed rail, headed to Barcelona. None of the Americans, except for Margarita, had ever been on a train before. To actually ride a train, was more exciting than even flying, to them. It was different to fly thirty thousand feet over the land and when you could see the land, it was small and anonymous. From the train windows you could see everything, at least briefly; considering they were traveling at 300kmh. Angel figured that out to be about 186 mph.

Angel was traveling with her guitars again; her uncles had insisted that she bring them, but they didn’t say why. She loved looking out the windows at the landscape. Portions of Spain are very rugged, especially on the border with France. It was similar in appearance to parts of New Mexico.

They arrived in Barcelona at two; Uncle Rolando had already rented two vans for them and had made hotel reservations. It was just a short trip to the hotel, where they were free for the rest of the day. They all went out to eat and then sightseeing around the hotel.

**************

The next day, the Americans and the Old Men took a side trip. They went to what looked like a warehouse district. Angel got real excited when she saw the sign for Amara Verdad Cantu Guitars.

“This is the place that made my new guitar, isn’t it Javier,”

“Yes, we thought that you might like to meet the lady who built your guitar.”

“Thank you.”

The eight of them entered the storefront of the warehouse. Angel was carrying her two guitars and was surprised to only see about a dozen guitars. The storefront was quite nice. This shop didn’t have the feel of a traditional store; it was more like some luxury stores. There was real wood everywhere and the ceiling wasn’t a drop panel ceiling but consisted of fancy moldings. They even had crystal chandelier.

“Welcome to Cantu Guitars, what can I do for you,” the salesman said.

“My niece is from America and we bought her one of your guitars. She just wanted to see the place where it was made,” Javier said.

“We don’t usually have tours, but let me check with Amara Cantu.”

The salesman made a call, while everyone waited.

Angel looked at the displays; she could pick out the guitars she thought might be cheaper and those that were up there with hers. The cheaper guitars might be less expensive, but they looked to be just as well made. Some were made with different woods and most didn’t have the detailing that went into hers.

A woman in her late forties, to early fifties, came in from the back. She was a hefty woman, but not overly fat. Her arms were muscled from all of her work and her hands had speckles of varnish on them.

“Hello, I am Amara Verdad Cantu,” the middle aged woman said. “I understand that you want to see the place where your guitar was made.”

“Yes, I am Javier Ramos, we bought my niece, Angel Marquez from America, one of your guitars. She really loves it. We thought that she might want to see where her guitar was made.”

“Which one of you is Angel?” the woman said smiling.

“I am ma’am.”

“I am Amara Verdad Cantu, which of my guitars do you have?”

“I am not sure, but I have it here,” Angel said, opening the case.

“Ah, that is one of my Concert Classical Guitars,” she said looking at it. “I sold that one not a month ago, to Raul Vargas, if I remember correctly?”

“Yes, he is one of my uncles.”

“Maybe one day you will play as well as he does.”

“Maybe,” Angel said smiling. “May I play it for you?”

“Yes, please play for me.”

Angel tuned up the guitar and began to play Pachelbel’s Canon in D. The expression on the woman’s face changed to surprise and then to joy, as the girl played first few measures. Angel then went on to play Recuerdos de la Alhambra. A few more workers came up front as Angel played.

“Oh Mother of God, forgive this old woman for talking down to you Angel. That is a good name for you, you play like an angel.”

“Thank you,” Angel said, giving the woman a thousand watt smile. “I really do love your instrument.”

Angel then put away her Cantu guitar.

“What is this other guitar you have with you?”

“It is my favorite, but I can’t keep it with me all the time,” she said, opening the case of the second guitar.

Amara raised an eyebrow, at the girl’s statement. Angel took out her Torres guitar and tuned it up, before playing Malaguena and Cavatina on it.

“Oh, Mother of God, who made that guitar?”

“Antonio de Torres.”

You could hear a pin drop in the room, after Angel said that.

“Just a moment, let me get Grandfather,” Amara said, hurrying into the back.

Amara came back in with a very elderly man. The man looked like a workman, who had been hard at work.

“Grandpa, this young lady is Angel Marquez and her Torres guitar. Angel, This is Juan Alfonso de Torres. His great uncle was Antonio de Torres. Would you mind playing your guitar for him?”

She played Romance de Espana, Sarabande BWV 997 and Paganini Caprice no. 24.

“That was wonderful,” the old man said, as tears stained his cheeks. “What number is your guitar?”

“Fifty.”

“Ah yes, he was in Almeria then. Uncle Torres never revealed what made his guitars so special. It has been many years since I have heard one of his guitars. Thank you for the gift you have given me.”

“Your granddaughter has come close, in my opinion, Mr. Torres. I have to keep my Torres in a vault, but I take it out to play on special occasions. My Uncles have two Jose Ramirez guitars.”

“Ah yes, they are very good too, but none are like a Torres.”

“May I look at your guitar young lady?”

“Yes you may.”

Juan took a minute to wipe his hands clean and then Angel handed him the guitar. He looked it over with a careful eye and then used his hands to feel the wood.

“Your family should be commended for taking such good care of this guitar. I can see its age, but it is in excellent shape.”

He smiled and handed the guitar back to Angel.

“I would be honored to show you my shop Angel,” Amara said.

They all headed into the back with the woman.

“May we take pictures,” Sierra asked.

“Yes you may. Our secrets can’t be photographed. Our secret is only the touch of our hand’s and the qualities of the materials that we work with.”

Her people went back to work so that the visitors could see what they do. There were maybe a hundred guitars in various states of completion.

“I am a small operation. I can’t make guitars in the thousands with the same quality. We do use some machines to cut and shape the woods, but all of the fine work is done by hand tools.”

She led them to a room that was full of various types of wood.

“There are a lot of woods a guitar can be made of; each type of wood can give the guitar a different sound. I have found that old growth woods, or wood that has been recovered from the bottoms of various lakes and rivers, can add a certain richness to my guitars. So where possible, I choose to use them.”

Amara took them through step by step of the process. All three girls took a lot of pictures of the craftsmen doing their jobs. Angel tried to look into the soul of the men at work, and took some really good pictures.

Amara herself put her hands to work on a soundboard. She would scrape the backside of it and feel it with her hands, before doing some more work.

Angel loved seeing Juan work on a guitar neck. He had a neck in a clamp and was shaping it with a plane. There were no electric machines in his corner of the shop, just his hand tools.

In the finishing department, one man was adding gold leaf to a high-end concert model, before varnishing the instrument.

“Everything we do to an instrument can affect the sound quality, even the gold leafing and the finishes we use. So we have to be careful not to do something just for the sake of beauty, but an instrument that is as beautiful as it sounds, is a joy to the eyes and the ears.”

The family spent about two hours in the shop.

**************

Barcelona was a lot like Madrid and yet very different than Madrid. It had some wonderful beaches, some beautiful parks and a lot of history. They visited several museums, went to a symphony, visited a cathedral that has been under construction for over a hundred and twenty years, visited the Olympic sites in town and visited many quaint shops.

They even spent one day visiting the city-state of Andorra. This is a country that is just over 450 square smiles. It is smaller than many large cities, with a population of only about 85,000 people. It is located on the border between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains.

Chapter 41

Monday, in Madrid, the girls were so excited, that they had to set their laptop up in the kitchen and loaded all their photos on the hard drive. They went through all the pictures, sorting out and deleting the pictures that they didn’t like, before transferring the photos they wanted to keep, to their Photobucket account.

They got a call from Tomas, just after they finished loading the photos on the Internet.

“Hey Angel, this is Tomas.”

“Hey Tomas, what’s up?”

“You’re famous Angel. I found some videos of you on youtube.com.”

“I have never posted any videos on youtube.”

Tomas gave the girls the search parameters he used for youtube and they pulled up the site and did the search. Sure enough, there were six videos of Angel on You Tube. They were the videos the school had taken.

“Mom,” Angel called out.

A few seconds later, Margarita entered the kitchen. “What is it Angel?”

“Mom Look!”

Angel played one of the videos, “That is one of the video’s they made of me at school.”

“I never gave them permission to post any videos on the Internet,” Margarita checked her watch and took out her cell phone.

“Sarah Adams’ Academy, my name is Marlow. How may I help you?”

“I am Margarita Marquez; I need to speak to Mrs. Beckman regarding my daughter Angel.”

“Just one moment please…” after about a minute the phone began to ring again.

“Hello Mrs. Marquez. How may I help you?”

“You can tell me why there are videos of Angel, taken by your school, on YouTube,” she said calmly. She didn’t see any point in getting angry.

“I didn’t authorize any of that, believe me Margarita.”

“Well it is there,” Margarita said, as she gave the URL to Mrs. Beckman.

“Oh Lord, yes those are our videos of Angel. I am so sorry. Let me get to the bottom of this. Where can I contact you?”

“I am in Madrid, Spain, for the next eight days. You can call me on my cell phone.”

“I hope that you won’t pull Angel out of our school.”

“No of course not, but I was upset about the videos.”

“We will provide adequate compensation and I assure you that no more videos will appear on the Internet. We will try to remove the one that are there.”

“Don’t bother, taking them down. Once something is put up on the Internet, it is almost impossible to completely remove.”

“We wanted to use those videos to help in our recruitment.”

“I have no problem with that, Ethel.”

“How is your vacation in Madrid?”

“We are having a wonderful time. We got to meet a lot of distant relatives, including my 102 year old great, great, great, Aunt. We went to museums, art galleries, amusement parks and we got to see the sights of Spain. We even visited the country of Andorra.”

“That sounds wonderful. I hope you took lots of pictures.”

“We did, we posted them at Photobucket,” Margarita said, “We will have a non family viewing directory when we get a chance.”

“I look forward to seeing those pictures. Well let me get right to tracking who posted those videos. You have a great time in Spain.”

“Thank you, I expect to hear from you soon.”

“I hope nobody gets into too much trouble over this,” Angel said.

“Don’t worry too much about it Angel. I don’t think anyone will be fired or expelled over it, but someone violated the school’s trust and our rights.”

“The videos were posted on Saturday and look at the hits they have already picked up,” Sierra said.

“And the comments people have posted.” Nevada said.

Margarita checked out what her nieces had said. In forty-five hours one video was already at twenty thousand hits. Even the least popular video had over fourteen thousand hits. The comments were ‘oustanding’, ‘fabulous’, ‘a beautiful girl, making beautiful music’, ‘a real genius’, ‘a real virtuoso’ and other similar comments.

**************

Tuesday, Juanita and Pablo took the Americans to a park where many people gathered to perform. There were mimes, musicians and even people who were performing plays. One Man was doing Marc Anthony’s funeral soliloquy. Hearing it in Spanish was new to the girls.

Angel had brought her Cantu guitar. She found an area where she wouldn’t interfere with the other performers and sat on a concrete bench. After tuning up, she began playing her Spanish repertoire. She already had a small crowd of family. The twins changed into their Flamenco shoes and began dancing.

They soon had a nice crowd gathering around them. After she played four or five pieces, she switched over to some classical and American pieces. The crowd loved her Bohemian Rhapsody and Hotel California. One guy even sang the words to Hotel California in English, as she played.

She had been playing a while, when an old man approached her.

“Hello I am Servando Morales. You are such an angel. May I play with you?”

“Yes, you may. I am Angel Marquez.”

The old man began laughing, “Of course your name is Angel.” He took out his guitar and quickly tuned it to Angel’s. “Do you know Bach’s Sonata no, 2 BWV 1003,”

“Yes I do, you take the lead and I will follow you.”

They were both tentative at the start, but as they played together, they began to challenge each other. Angel had misjudged the old man at first and had to work to keep up her part of the duet. They gave each other places to play solo and played follow the leader a couple of times.

They played six more pieces together, including two of Angel’s most difficult pieces. The old man never missed a beat and neither did Angel. They had drawn a huge crowd of people who were strangely silent and listening.

He was amazing, playing at Angel’s level, but she suspected that he was better, than she was. Together the two guitarists were incredible weaving together the notes that flowed from their fingertips. When they finished, the applause was tremendous. Servando stood and offered a hand to Angel. She took his hand and stood, together they bowed to the audience. Then Angel bowed to Servando. He smiled and then bowed to her.

“You play wonderful, young lady. I feel I will be seeing more of you.”

“You play pretty good yourself,” she said giggling.

Margarita, Carmine, Juanita and Pablo made a buffer for Angel and Servando. The people there wanted to know who the girl was and more.

“Thank you kindly, for allowing me to play with you.”

“No thank you, Servando. I needed a good challenge. You provided that and more. I loved playing with you so much.”

“You are too kind.”

He turned and put away his guitar.

As the crowd began to dissipate, many came by and threw coins and bills into her guitar case. It took Angel about five minutes to clean out her case and stow her guitar, she had €327.50. She turned to give the old Servando half of the money, but he was already gone.

“Dang it, Angel, you could pay for this trip in a couple of weeks doing these shows,” Margarita said.

“Servando didn’t stay so I could split the money with him.”

“It is good that you want to share, honey. There will be times that people will want more than their fair share in the future, I believe. You will have to do what your conscience tells you is right then.”

**************

When they got home, they went over the pictures they had taken that day. Nevada had taken about two dozen really good pictures of the two playing their guitars. She was really becoming a good photographer. Felicia stopped them when she saw the picture of Servando Morales.

“You played guitar with Servando Morales?”

“Yes, that is what he said his name was.” Angel said.

“He is one of the premier Classical and Spanish Guitarist in the World,” Felicia said.

She got on the girl’s computer and searched Wikipedia for Servando Morales (Fictional Character). He is eighty three, calls Madrid his home and plays with several of the great European orchestras at times. Other sites listed him as high as the third best Classical guitarist living and in the top fifty of all time.

“I knew he was better than me. I had to work hard to keep up with him.”

Sierra found that he even had his own webpage. She played a video of him playing.

**************

Later that evening Margarita’s cell phone rang.

“Hello,” Margarita said.

“Hello, Mrs. Marquez, this is Mrs. Beckman. I called to inform you of what I found out.”

“Hello Ethel, it is good hearing from you and please call me Margarita.”

“Well, we found the girl who posted the videos. It was Vanessa Hall. She is one of our freshman, soon to be sophomore girls, who WAS taking a course in Video Editing. She had taken, as part of her course work, the raw video of Angel and had edited it into short videos. She did a really good job of it too; she seems to have a knack at picking the best shots to go with the audio. Vanessa told me that she really loved Angel’s playing and the videos we shot. She took some of her favorite pieces home with her last weekend and posted them. She really is a computer whiz.”

“I had all of the students in the auditorium and talked about ethics and copyright laws. I told them that they could be expelled, or sued for posting copyrighted material on the Internet. If you want, I will expel her.”

“Don’t do that Ethel, but I would like an apology from the girl.”

“You both will have that. Vanessa really is a good student, but she just didn’t think before she did this.”

“I think that will be sufficient.”

“Not quite enough by us Margarita. She will also be in my personal doghouse, this fall. I guarantee that when she gets out of my doghouse, she won’t want to get back on my bad side anytime soon.”

“That sounds good. You will tell me if Angel gets placed in your doghouse too won’t you.”

“Of course, if her actions warrant it.”

“Well, then we will see you in August.”

“Enjoy your vacation.”

“Thank you, bye.”

Chapter 42

Angel treated several of her Spanish cousins to a day at the arcades. Tomas and Suela were both in heaven. At least till Angel beat Tomas at a Grand Prix race game. He couldn’t get away from Suela teasing him. Angel’s best time was number 19 on the race game’s top twenty.

Sierra and Nevada gave everyone at the Arcade hell, on the dancing game. They ruled at the arcade, till some of the champions of the arcade came in, then they held their own, winning as much as they lost. Their one two punch, crushed a lot the players. Sierra would beat someone and they got their hopes up when Nevada challenged them, only to be crushed again.

Tomas did get some satisfaction from Angel on the Hogan’s alley shooting gallery. Angel, encouraged by Suela and Juanita, really did try to beat him, but Tomas was better. He was going to Lord it over her, but remembered that she had beat him driving.

**************
As their vacation days wound down, the girls went shopping for souvenirs and things not readily available in the states.
At a Spanish costume shop, Angel picked up a couple more outfits. The first was a heavily embroidered, white Curro Romero jacket and a gray skirt. She also bought a blue embroidered, Rejoneador jacket, vest and breeches. These costumes were better made than her other costume. She bought a pair of calf high boots, a pair of ankle high boots; both had 3 inch block heels, two ruffled blouses, two more sets of chandelier earrings and several more bracelets. She wore the blue jacket, vest and breeches out of the store, with the ankle high boots.

**************

They held a big fiesta on Saturday. There were more people there than the first one. Raul and Angel were the featured musicians as before, but there were a lot more of the family involved in providing musical entertainment.

Carmelita got to spend a couple of minutes with each family there. When Margaritas and Carmine’s turn came, the old woman smiled and handed each child a piece of jewelry, which she had collected over the years. To Angel she gave a jeweled guitar broach that looked very old. The edges of the guitar were lined with some shiny stones. The twins each received ruby slipper dangle earrings.

“That was my broach, Angel. I too use to play the guitar. Music was important to us back in the bad old days. Music helped us forget our troubles, at least for a little while. My only regret Angel, is not having met you years ago,” Carmelita said. “Wear that broach with pride and remember me, my little one.”

“I will Aunt Carmelita,”

As they left Carmelita’s side for the next family, Felicia handed Margarita and Carmine some documents, “You might need these documents when you go home. They state that the items listed were indeed a gift, and the value of the gifts is unknown. You may have to pay a duty on them in the U. S. I don’t think they are just costume jewelry, but I don’t know.”

**************

Monday they all went back to the Snow Zone, with Margarita and Carmine. The kids liked watching the olds try to snow board. Neither Margarita nor Carmine had skied or snow boarded before. Just like the kids, they had a hard time at first. Carmine plopped down face forward and plowed snow down half the hill. She sat up laughing at herself. After a while though, they were able to make it down the easy hills without embarrassing themselves too badly.

The parents did worse though, in the arcades and the go-karts, the kids were just too much for the olds. Angel was the grand champion at the go-karts and Grand Prix racing game, Tomas ruled on Hogan’s Alley and the twins on the dancing game.

Margarita and Carmine loved playing with their children; it had been too long since they had just played with their kids like this. The kids got to see a softer, sillier side of their parents. Margarita they found, could be quite the prankster.

**************

The next day they spent getting their purchases and gifts listed on the declaration forms and packing. They were all amazed at how much stuff they had accumulated. They packed all of their new things in one large case, which they bought in Spain, except for Angel’s new costumes, which had their own garment bags.

**************

They had an early breakfast the next morning and they were all surprised at the number of people, many very drowsy that met them at 4 am.

They all received a round of hugs after eating and a promise to keep in touch with each other. Sierra and Nevada both gave Tomas nice kisses on the lips.

Chapter 43

After a long flight, with a two-hour layover at London, Heathrow, they landed at New York JFK. This trip through customs took a little longer. The question wasn’t the Torres guitar, but the Cantu guitar, it was a good thing they had it registered before they left the US and the jewelry. Margarita nearly fainted when she was told the broach was Fabergᨠdiamond and emerald creation. The twins were equally surprised at the value of their earrings. Both families paid more in duties than they expected.

They headed directly to Carmine’s place from the airport. They all were thoroughly exhausted, even though it was early evening, when they arrived. They just managed to get all their stuff inside before they collapsed in their beds.

**************

Saturday, Janice came over with her guitar. The girls just had to regale her with their pictures and stories of their trip to Spain. Janice couldn’t believe the number of pictures that they had taken, there were hundreds and hundreds of pictures.

After a couple of hours of going over their trip and lunch, Angel gave Janice a guitar lesson. She could play an acoustic guitar, but after playing the classical guitar so much over the last few years, she had to think about what she was doing a bit more. Janice was a quick study; she paid a lot of attention to Angel as they worked on their guitars.

Their work was interrupted by the doorbell. A minute after it rang, Carmine came into the girls’ room and asked Angel to come to the living room. All the girls came with Angel to find out what was happening.

In the living room, Angel saw her mother talking to Mrs. Beckman and another girl. Angel’s heart was in her throat. She was worried that there might be a problem with her going to school at Sarah Adams Academy.

“Hello Mrs. Beckman,” Angel said. “Is there a problem with my going to school there?”

“Oh heavens no Angel, this is about Vanessa Hall apologizing to you for putting your videos on the Internet.”

Vanessa Hall was a fifteen year old girl, just a little taller than Angel. She had long blonde hair and two beautiful blue eyes that sparkled. She was dressed in the school’s blue blazer, red tartan pleated skirt, white blouse, red crisscross tie, knee socks, and black Mary Jane flats. Her face was full of worry, but she stood upright and tried to smile.

Angel felt a lot better.

“Angel this is Vanessa Hall, Vanessa, I know that you know Angel.”

“Yes Ma’am, I know of Angel, although we have never met.”

“Do you have something to say to Mrs. Marquez and Angel, Vanessa?”

“Yes Ma’am. Mrs. Marquez, Angel. I am very sorry for posting videos of Angel on YouTube. I didn’t think about what I was doing before I did it. I liked what I had done, in working with the raw video and audio. I have never heard anybody play the guitar like you before, Angel. I loved listening to you play. You are the greatest, Angel.”

The more Vanessa talked the more she began to tremble. She was almost in tears at this point.

“I now realize that I violated your privacy by posting those videos without your consent. I also violated the schools trust in me. They let me work with those raws, so I could learn how to do video editing. I know that you, your Mom and the school can sue me and my family for this violation and I won’t blame you if you did. You would be fully justified in this action. I admit, I did it, nobody else is to blame, I did all the editing at school and loaded the finished videos onto a flash drive and uploaded them onto my You Tube account. I just wanted to show other people the wonderful music you made Angel. I am sorry.”

The dam burst and Vanessa started to cry. Angel ran over to the girl and hugged her, telling her not to worry about it. Vanessa hugged Angel tightly.

“I am so sorry Angel,” Vanessa said, as she cried on the girls shoulder.

“It was bound to happen sooner or later Vanessa. Don’t worry; my mom is not going to sue you. Are you Mom?”

“No, I am not happy about it, Vanessa, but I am not out to ruin you or your family.”

Vanessa then ran over to Margarita and gave her a big hug.

“I am so sorry Mrs. Marquez; I didn’t do it to hurt your daughter.”

“I know you didn’t, but some actions have consequences, sometimes big consequences. You need to think before you do things.”

Vanessa then stood before Mrs. Beckman.

“Again, Mrs. Beckman I am sorry for what I did. I know that you could expel me or worse. I would deserve it if you did.”

“We aren’t going to expel you Vanessa, we might monitor you more closely for the next few months and you will have to earn our trust again, but you are still one of our best students.”

Mrs. Beckman was a very proper lady, but she knew the power of words and the power of a good hug. She reached out and gave Vanessa a big hug.

After she let Vanessa go, Mrs. Beckman said, “I guess we should be returning to school now.”

“I won’t hear of that Ethel,” Carmine said, “You will stay here for dinner.”

Mrs. Beckman smiled, “Well I guess, if you insist.”

“I insist.”

“Yes, you are welcome,” Margarita said.

Sierra and Nevada each took one of Vanessa’s arms and said, “Come on back to our room, Vanessa.”

“What video’s are they talking about, Angel?” Janice asked.

“Oh sorry, Janice, we didn’t tell you about them. Janice, this is Vanessa Hall. Vanessa this is Janice Fletcher, she is a friend of mine.”

Back in the girls’ room, Angel had Vanessa pull up the videos of Angel that she had posted. All of the videos had garnered lots of hits and comments. One video had gotten almost three quarters of a million hits and twenty three pages of comments.

“Oh, my Angel. I would never have thought that they would get those kinds of numbers in just over two weeks,” Vanessa said.

“Wow, Angel, you’re an Internet star,” Janice said.

The girls played all of the videos online for Janice. They all talked about the videos and each girl picked out her favorite.

Angel then said, “Let’s dress up for Dinner. Janice you are staying for dinner.”

“I don’t know, I have to talk to my mom and I don’t have any good clothes.”

“Call her; better yet, ask her to come over too. I will tell my Mom.” Angel said, handing Janice a cell phone. “Don’t worry about clothes; there are enough dressy girls’ clothes here for all of us.”

They all started working on getting dressed. Vanessa was just going to sit back and watch, but Sierra and Nevada got to work on undressing her and dressing her up, as Angel was working with Janice. Vanessa was handed the outfit that Angel had worn in the video, Angel wore her White outfit and helped Janice dressed in the blue outfit.

The jacket and skirt were too tight in the waist, so Angel had to pull out her basque. Janice blanched a bit, she didn’t know what to call it, she hadn’t worn one before, but she knew in her heart what it was meant to do. Angel strapped it on Janice in her own room. She was surprised that Janice had more up top than she did, without the breast forms.

Janice saw her confusion and said. “I have been taking hormones for years, Angel.”

“They prescribed them for you at your age?”

“No, I snuck behind Mom’s back, till she caught me. The doc was pissed at me too. These,” Janice said, indicating her breasts. “Were the reason, I started dressing as a girl full time. I just couldn’t hide them very well.”

Angel stuck a couple of pads into the cups, to flesh them out and Janice fit nicely into her clothes.

**************

Carmine started the cooking in the kitchen, with Ethel and Margarita’s help. Then Ethel took over as Margarita and Carmen went to get dressed.

Ethel didn’t escape either. Margarita brought her a lovely teal, cocktail dress and shoed her off to her room to change, after she had gotten dressed.

**************

The girls’ room was a war zone, with hair and makeup flying everywhere. Vanessa was, much to the twins delight, very good with makeup. She was ecstatic with the girls’ makeup kits. The twins went to work on the hair, of those not getting their faces done.

Once they were finished, they waited in the twins’ room for Mrs. Fletcher to arrive.

Carmine greeted Rita when she rang the doorbell and made the introductions in the dinning room. Margarita knocked on the twins’ bedroom door.

The ladies were all standing as the girls came in. They oohed and ahhed as they saw the girls. First the twins came out in long sheath dresses, Sierra in red and Nevada in green. Next was Vanessa, followed by Angel and last was Janice.

When Rita saw Janice, she gasped. Janice was really beautiful. She reminded her of herself as a young girl.

“Oh my gosh, Janice. You look so lovely. Where did you get that outfit?”

“It belongs to Angel, she loaned it to me. She also loaned an outfit to Vanessa too.”

“Well it is so pretty, you better be careful not to stain it, ok.”

“I will Mom.”

“Mrs. Fletcher, this is Vanessa Hall, a girl that goes to school where Angel will be going,” Angel said.

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Fletcher.”

“It is nice to meet you too Vanessa. All of you girls look so nice.”

Everyone sat at the dinner table and after the food was blessed, they began to eat. Vanessa took this time to explain why she was here. Janice told her mom about what a big Internet star Angel was. Angel and the rest of the family talked about their trip to Spain.

After dinner, Angel and Janice played their guitars. They played some easy pieces: House of the Rising Sun, Greensleeves and Janice played the bass line, while Angel played the main line, of Pachelbel’s Cannon in D.

They girls then went to Photobucket on a laptop and put their pictures of their trip up on the LCD TV for all to see. The girls explained what the pictures were, as best they could.

Mrs. Beckman was fascinated to learn that Angel had played guitar with Servando Morales. She hadn’t known that name before this summer, but after hearing Angel play guitar, she had done a lot of googling on the classical guitar. She had found a list of the top classical guitarists.

After going through the pictures, they all sat around and talked.

“Well Janice, where do you go to school?” Mrs. Beckman asked.

“I did go to Crestview High, but that is going to change this fall. I am going to have to change schools.”

“It’s a long story, Mrs. Beckman and I don’t want to go over it right now.” Rita said.

“What kind of grades did you get?”

“Last semester, I got five A’s and two B’s. I usually do better, but Calculus and Physics were kind of hard at first. I got the hang of it now.”

“Were you taking a senior level math course as a freshman?”

“Algebra was boring the first semester. I took a test in December and they let me take Calculus in the spring. I had a lot of catching up to do.”

“Girl’s, why don’t you go change out of those nice clothes, I would hate to see them get dirty.” Mrs. Beckman said.

The girls got up to go change. Angel and the twins suspected what was going to happen after they left the room. Angel and Janice undressed and then hung up the outfits.

“Angel, this jacket and skirt are so nice, thank you for letting me wear it.”

“No problem Janice, you are welcome. You and Vanessa looked so nice in them. I loved helping you out.”

Back in the living room Mrs. Beckman said, “Mrs. Fletcher, I would like to test Janice and see if she could fit into our school.”

“I… I… couldn’t do that. For one thing I don’t have the money to send Janice to a private school. We just couldn’t afford that.”

“We do have a scholarship program. A good third of our students are on some sort of financial aide.”

“I… I… just couldn’t.”

Mrs. Beckman reached into her purse and took a card, out of her card holder. She scribbled a note on the backside and then handed it to Mrs. Fletcher.

“Call me Monday, I bet we could work something out for you. Please Mrs. Fletcher, call me.”

Mrs. Fletcher looked at the back of the card. It read, I know, please call me. I can help you.

Once the girls were back in the room, Rita said, “Well it is getting late. We need to be heading home.”

“We need to be going too, Vanessa. I hadn’t planed to spend all day in town, but I admit it was a delightful experience.”

Janice hugged Angel and the twins, and then Vanessa hugged Angel, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you Angel. I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“You didn’t hurt me, Vanessa. I was just surprised to see myself on the Internet.”

**************

Angel had to start getting ready for school. Sarah Adams’ Academy actually started next Monday, a full nine days before Sierra and Nevada had to return. She had to come in two days before the regular students, for orientation. Margarita had already returned to New York to start her new job.

Her first stop was a shop, which sold uniforms for Sarah Adams’ Academy. She got five sets of uniforms and two extra Long uniform skirts for cold weather. She also needed the orchestra outfit, which consisted of a jacket, a long black skirt and a blouse. She passed on the Phys Ed clothes, except for the schools hooded jacket sweat shirt and pants.

She got her hair and nails done one last time before school, visited her doctor and her psychologist, picked up a ninety day supply of meds and played with the guys at Leo’s one last time.

She was a big hit at Leo’s. He had life-sized posters made up from some of the images downloaded off the Internet. Leo asked if she minded, she said it was alright. He then had her autograph the posters that he had up.

“I have to admit,” Leo said, “I was surprised to find you on youtube.”

“I hadn’t planned on being there. One of the students at the school I am going too, boot legged some video the school had shot and uploaded them herself.”

“I have to admit, those were some fine videos, very professional. The audio was outstanding and the video editing was above par.”

“The school has a really nice recording sound stage. The girl is a sophomore in school, named Vanessa Hall. She edited the raw video herself and mixed in the audio. She took feed from four cameras and melded it into a video.”

“Wow, I am impressed. You say she is a sophomore. I am going to keep my eyes open for her name. I am sure she is going to do well in the biz.”

“She got in a little trouble over it; she didn’t have my families, or the school’s permission to post it.”

“Are you or the school gonna sue?”

“No, she is a good kid, but she is in the doghouse right now.”

They played their usual set and Angel sold seven high-end guitars, three she autographed. Leo’s was so packed for the jam session. They had to move it to the courtyard in front of the shop.

As Angel was getting ready to leave, Leo stopped her.

“You don’t think we are going to let you go without saying goodbye. Do you?”

“I’m not going away forever Leo, just to school.”

“Well, just come over here girl.”

Wee Willy and Jeffery Wilkins brought out a guitar shaped cake, with three sparklers burning on it. ‘Good luck at your new school’ was written on it, in icing.

“Come on guys. You didn’t need to do this. I will be back.”

“You better come back and visit us Angel,” Wee Willy said.

“Don’t make us come to kidnap you from school,” Jeffery said.

“I won’t be here for your jam sessions, but I will drop by here on some weekends.”

“Just give us some warning, Angel. We will set up a show for you. Here are our E-mail addresses. Write us girl,” Leo said.

“I will send you my new E-mail address, when I get it guys.”

They cut the cake and sat around talking in the back of the shop.

“We also got some presents for you,” Leo said.

The guys handed her three presents. Leo bought her a sterling silver necklace with a guitar pendant. Wee Willy bought her silver guitar drop earrings and Jeffery gave her a charm bracelet with a guitar charm on it. Angel kissed all of them on the cheek and put on her new jewelry.

“Guys you shouldn’t have, but thank you anyways.”

Chapter 44

Angel couldn’t find Janice to say goodbye. She had seen neither hide nor hair of her all week. She did leave her some emails in her inbox, but she was a little sad that she would be unable to say goodbye in person.

Saturday, after breakfast, Angel, the twins and Carmine loaded all of Angels’ things into a van that Uncle Rolando had brought by. It was a nice van and they needed all the space. Margarita was unable to make it down this weekend. She was on a retreat with the senior management.

As they pulled onto the campus, a senior student stopped them at the gate. After identifying themselves, they were directed back to the Mrs. Westfall’s cottage.

There were three girls sitting on a bench, near the cottage, wearing the scools sweat pants and hoodie. They approached the van as it pulled to a stop. The girls introduced themselves and asked.

“Angel Marquez, for Mrs. Westfall’s cottage right?” One girl asked.

“Yes, this is Angel Marquez,” Carmine said, standing behind Angel.

The girls attacked the van. With Carmine and the twins, they only needed to make two trips to the van.

Mrs. Westfall greeted them all warmly, as they entered the dorm.

“Where is Margarita?” She asked.

“She just started a new job and is in a business meeting this weekend. She gave me guardianship. That is not going to be a problem is it?”

“No, of course not. Some students arrive here with only a chauffer. We don’t like that, but some parents are just too busy.” Sarah said with a little distaste to her voice. “I just wanted to tell her how happy we are to have Angel here.”

“You don’t have to worry about Angel. We won’t leave her here and forget about her. She may spend one or two weekends a month here, but we love her too much just to abandon her.”

Mrs. Westfall smiled at that. She had three girls that spent all of last year here.

“I didn’t think she would be forgotten. I will need to sign her in, verify contact information, collect any medicines and get her into her room. Girls, she is in her old room.”

The girls headed to the room she had been in this summer. She was the first to arrive at the cottage and had her pick of beds. She chose the bed nearest the bathroom.

Everything was taken from the van and in her room in fifteen minutes. The seniors headed back to their station and the twins helped Angel to get all of her things put away, as Carmine sat and talked with Mrs. Westfall.

In an hour, they had the luggage all nested and stowed on top of the armoire. The bed was made; her stuffed guitar was strategically placed on the bed, her laptop on her desk, family photos on top of her dresser and the few other personal touches that were allowed.

“My room is ready for inspection Mrs. Westfall.” Angel said.

Mrs. Westfall was surprised by that; it usually took girls hours to get their rooms in order. Especially when they brought in as much stuff as Angel had. She found the room neat and in order. It was unusual to find a freshman that had as much discipline as Angel was.

“Yes, this room is in order. Nice job Angel, Sierra and Nevada. You all did a good job.”

The girls ate lunch with Mrs. Westfall and then took Carmine on a tour of the Campus, showing her areas that she had yet to see. At three thirty, Carmine and the twins gave Angel a tearful goodbye. The twins hated to leave their cousin. It had been so much fun having a third sister, so to speak, this summer.

There were two more girls there by dinnertime. Neither one of them were in Angel’s room. One of the girls Angel already knew from this summer, so they had a happy reunion.

**************

Sunday, nine more girls arrived. Angel took up station with the seniors and helped the girls get their things into the dorm. An hour before dinner, Angel was inside playing her guitar, as a large group of girls sat around listening.

As she was playing, she heard her name called. She turned to the door and screamed as she saw Janice.

“Janice, it is so good to see you. Are you going to this school too? Are you staying in this dorm? Come on tell me.” Angel said, in one breath. She had jumped up, set her guitar gingerly in its case and ran over to give her a hug.

“Yes and no.” Janice said. “Yes I am going to this school now and no I am not in this cottage. I am in Mrs. Collins cottage.” Janice said, pointing in the direction of her cottage.

“How?”

“I got a full scholarship. I have been here all week testing. Yesterday we went to town and got my things and some uniforms.”

“You have got to tell me all about it.”

“It will have to be later. I have to get my room in order. I just came over here to say hi.”

Angel put her guitar in her room and walked Janice back to her cottage, talking all the way. At the door, they hugged and parted ways.

As she walked back, she thought how life had changed for her. Life seemed to be getting better. Angel was walking on air, knowing she had many new friends, a new school, a wonderful family and many more wonderful relatives that all accepted her for who she really is. Life was definitely going to be interesting from now on. She couldn’t imagine where it would all end up, but she definitely wanted to be part of this exciting journey.

The End

I want to thank everyone who have read and commented on Angel Marquez. It has been a fun story to write. I am taking a little break from this story to write others, but there just may be a sequel in my gray cells somewhere.

Thank you,

Paula