Part 5: El Cantante

Happy New Year everyone!

       I figured since its a new year I'd share with you one of my favorite stories to tell people about my grandpa. He didn't share this with a lot of people or do this when people were around. Well, except for me because I lived there. So I'm letting you in on a family secret so don't tell anyone! A lot of my actual family doesn't even know this because my grandpa was so sneaky and he was a hopeless romantic at heart.

Where to start....

       I've mentioned before that my grandfather loved to play the guitar. He found any excuse to dust off that old thing. Every time he would pull out that dark avocado green guitar case from his closet, I would get so excited. When he opened it and started to tune it I already knew that my day would turn into a great one.

       For me when I was sick, he would always play for me. I would always lay in their bed when I was sick so it was like a double treat. I got to sleep with my grandparents and I got sung to! Even when I wasn't sick I would pretend sometimes just so that I could steal a song! If you've read this far in my story you already know this so I won't bore ya with the redundancy.

Now, let me tell you the story...

       There were days when my grandmother would never stop smiling. As if the sunlight in the world depended on her crooked smile. There were days when she smiled with joint lips. That look that told you, “Yes, I'm ok, but please don't ask me” Those days were the ones where she looked troubled yet continued about her day without skipping a beat. Then, there were days that no matter how may jokes you told or how much chisme there was or even if there was a lot going on in one of her novelas. She wouldn't crack a smile. Those days felt so cloudy and cold. Those days my grandmother would go to their room and sit in her arm chair with her cafecito and pan dulce. Her chair which was placed right next to the west facing window. She said it was her favorite because it was where the sun would last be seen for that day. It was where the sun kissed us all goodnight. Staring out the window reflecting and wondering what to do next.

       As if called back into another deployment, my grandfather took action. As I warned before, he was a sneaky man. It's like he planned it or knew that his serveries would be needed. Normally he kept his guitar in their bedroom closet, but he always knew when it would be needed and kept it in the living room on the side of the sofa out of sight. I was sometimes lucky enough to be sitting in the living room when he leapt into action! It was so exciting! I had to sit still and pretend I was so interested in the show that was on TV. I didn't make eye contact or even ask him what he was about to do. I already knew.

       He would open up that guitar case and head out the side door because the front door made too much noise when it was opened, and again, he wanted to be sneaky. So I would go into the front room which was my uncle Moe's and jump out the window! Of course not without first being cut or scraped by the huge china berry tree that was right outside his window. I would run around the other side of the house and hide wherever I could! I would hide in the bushes where cats had obviously been because of that dank odor or I would hide in a stack of tires my grandfather had. Which was no better! Spiders decided to make it their own city! So I had to be brave and still or I would compromise the second best seat in the house!

       I could see my grandfather standing on the side of the house, out of sight, counting in his head and tapping his foot. Then, he danced around that corner and onto center stage which was the front of that west-facing window that had no screen so it was really easy for me to look inside and see my grandmothers face. It was as if someone turned on the sun! As if the wind came and blew away the heaviest fog in the harbor. As if God himself scattered all the clouds from a stormy day. I stared in awe and with a smile so big it was as if it made a full circle around my face. My eyes welled with joy and my heart was held by that baritone in my grandfathers voice. He would sing a few songs and then he started to get nervous because my grandmother would sit there without an expression and without words. It was as if she was waiting for the next song on the radio.

       Suddenly, you could hear a soft, sore crackle as my grandmother began to sing quietly because she knew it was in that moment she was lucky enough to find the love of her life. The man who would do anything and everything for that crooked smile.

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       The moment my grandmother reached out the window to touch his face was the moment that made laying in spider city worthwhile. Every time I sat and waited for that fairly wrinkled arm to pass through the window. That weathered hand would touch the right side of his face. Suddenly, she became the conductor of the one man show. He would close his eyes to feel that palm and he would pause suddenly as he breathed in the smell of her hand. Knowing in those hands she helped build the love and life he had always wanted. That with those hands she built his entire world. Her thumb would comb his cheek to wipe away any “sweat” that may have been coming out of his eyes because he “didn't cry.” As she went to pull her hand back, he would grab it and kiss it three times.

When she had her hand back she would tell him “Entrate ya viejo”. That was my queue to run back and climb through the window before my grandfather made it back! Watching whatever was on the TV and acting like I wasn't out of breath!