One Tribe by M. Evelina Galang
Chapter One, Selection Two
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A small-boned woman with a wide painted smile kissed her on each cheek like they had known each other forever. “Sweetheart, you’re so beautiful,” she said. “I can’t believe you’re not married yet.” She waved her hand in the air, and called to her child, “Anak, come here.” She leaned over and whispered, “I’m Anita Starr, Tita Nita. I want you to meet my daughter. She’s gonna love you.” She ran her hands through Isabel’s hair. “Look at you!” she said. “What do they call you?”
     “Isabel.” She took a step away. Tita Nita smelled of heavy perfume and nicotine. Isabel pulled her camera strap over her shoulder.
     “That’s so long. What’s your nickname? Isa?”
     She hated that nickname. “Bel,” she answered.
     “That’s too American,” Tita Nita said. “I’m gonna call you Isa.” Then, waving her arms, she screamed, “Anak, where are you? I said I’m calling you!”
     “Mrs. Starr—”
     “Anak, call me Tita Nita!”
     “Okay. Tita, what kind of trouble are they talking about?” Tita Nita smiled as if she hadn’t heard her. “With the kids, I mean.”
     “What kids? Not ours. Our kids are good. They just need a role model like you to show them the way.” She smiled again at Isabel and then called out for her daughter.
     That’s so weird, Isabel thought. She gulped her water down and looked through the crowd. Bodies swam left and right, and then a small pathway opened up and she saw one of the girls sauntering toward her. It was the girl with eyes blue as stained glass. She wore hip-huggers that widened into big bells of black Spandex. Five-inch heels lifted the girl’s small body up off the ground so that she appeared to be floating right at Isabel. Her belly ring slipped in and out from underneath a cropped T-shirt. When she reached Isabel, Tita Nita put both arms around the girl and squeezed her tight. “This is my daughter,” she said. “Lourdes Starr. She’s gonna be a senior this year and her daddy is an American. Louie Starr.” She pointed across the room, to a guy sitting at a table by himself. He looked like an unkempt version of Dean Martin. Tita Nita reminded Isabel of her own Auntie Baby, a well-meaning misguided tita. “My Lourdes is gonna learn a lot from you.”
     Isabel smiled at Lourdes. “We’ve met. Hi, Lourdes.”
Lourdes mumbled a greeting, her eyes shifting back and forth. When Isabel’s cat was held against his will, his ears winged backed and his haunches rose up like furry shoulders. That’s what Lourdes looked like, she thought, only not as sweet. The daughter crawled out of her mother’s embrace. She smiled in a way that Isabel could not read. Flipping her hair back,      Lourdes turned and strutted back to her homegirls.
Lourdes hated her. Isabel was sure of it. Then again, when she thought of the week she had moved to town, she remembered that Lourdes hated everybody.

From the first chapter of One Tribe by M. Evelina Galang

New Issues Poetry & Prose, Western Michigan University, Dept. of English,
1903 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331
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