Almudena didn’t ask for it, she doesn’t need it, however she’s getting it anyway: Her mother is flying off and leaving her with an odd man in an odd metropolis.

Yeah, I do know. Sounds sketchy, doesn’t it? However in some way her mother has rationalized the entire state of affairs away.

You see, Mother has raised Almudena as a single mother or father for, like, 14 years now. And he or she has one final probability to attempt to turn out to be the skilled dancer that she at all times wished to be. So, why not ship her daughter off to fulfill the daddy she’s by no means identified? Ugh!

Not solely that, however the man (Xavier) can’t even converse English. Oh, and never solely that, however this man expects Almudena to spend her total summer time break renovating an previous Brownstone into an condominium constructing. Double ugh!

After Mother jets off, they’ve to show to “Dad’s” girlfriend, Idola, to translate his Spanish into one thing that Almudena can nearly perceive. Yeah, seems to be like she’ll be sleeping on the ground, working handbook labor and having to depend on powdered mini-doughnuts—from the “White Individuals” aisle within the native Bodega—as her solely technique of sustenance.

What did she do to deserve this?!

Nevertheless, as soon as Almudena dials her angle again from fuming to merely irked, she begins to note some issues that she didn’t see when she first acquired right here.

Xavier is a comparatively good man for one factor. And he’s making an attempt to attach together with her. She additionally quickly learns that her heritage isn’t Mexican as she thought, however Guatemalan. And imagine it or not, there’s fairly a little bit of distinction.

Earlier than you realize it, Almudena can also be selecting up some Spanish. Regularly, she realizes that she has some ability at tearing down plaster and placing in wood flooring. And she’s assembly folks in the neighborhood whom she kinda likes.

This will not have been the summer time break she would have chosen. I imply, even a cloudy day on the seaside beats being coated in plaster mud and spilled paint. However there’s one thing about these folks and this place that’s rising on her.

She might even get an opportunity to, in some unspecified time in the future, to search out out why Xavier by no means confirmed up or why Almudena’s mother by no means mentioned a factor about him? Or how about only a easy reply to … why?

That’s in all probability an important phrase she will be able to’t determine how you can say.