Time After Time 🌹 Daniel LaRusso [1]

Chapter 4: The Homies

Rosalía knocks and opens the door at the same time. "Hey, Mr. Miyagi," she beams as she walks up to him. He stops what he's doing and peers up at the girl. "Oh, Rosalía-san! Come in, come in," he gestures her inside. "What you doing here?" he asks as she approaches him. "My mom made pupusas and my dad wanted me to bring you some," she answers. She raises her arm to show off the bag. Mr. Miyagi clears his table to give her room to set the food down. He releases a delighted chuckle and says, "tell mother and father I said thank you."

He immediately sits down and opens the bag. He pulls out two small baggies, one with tomato sauce and the other with curtido. He examines the baggies and Rosalía explains, "you eat that with the pupusas." She takes the container out and opens it, the smell of the food filling their noses. She grabs a paper plate and Mr. Miyagi carefully takes out a pupusa from the container and plops it down on the plate. The girl opens the baggies and dumps the curtido beside the pupusa and pours sauce over it. The man watches her prepare his plate attentively, so he knows how to eat it the next time. Excited to try the delicious-looking meal, he rips off a piece and begins to eat.

"Mm," he happily mumbles when he tastes it. "Right?" Rosalía laughs. She pulls up a stool and sits across from him, smiling as she watches him eat. "Next time I cook for family," he states before stuffing more food in his mouth. The girl giggles and replies, "we would love that." She reaches into the bag and pulls out two water bottles. She sets one next to Miyagi's plate and opens the second one to take a sip. "How your father?" he asks all of a sudden.

"He's good," she responds with a smile. She loves her father and Mr. Miyagi's friendship. They're like a comedy duo together and are always learning from one another. She swears they're a match made in heaven. Her thoughts are interrupted when she hears yelling. She and Mr. Miyagi both freeze and exchange looks. Is that Daniel? They get up and head to the door to listen to the commotion.

"Would you tell me what's going on here? And don't tell me about another bike accident," Lucille begs her son. "Well, what do you wanna hear, ma??" Daniel aggressively asks. "I need the truth," his mother states. This angers him more and he retorts, "no, you don't want to hear the truth. All you want to hear is how great it is out here. Well, maybe great for you but it sucks for me! I hate this place! I hate it!" He elbows the wall beside the door, causing Rosalía to jump. "I just want to go home! Why can't we just go back home?" he yells.

"Listen to me," Lucille pleads, coming up to him. "What?" he irritatedly asks. She grabs his face to make him look at her. "I cannot help you unless you tell me what's wrong," she acknowledges, desperately hoping to get through to him. "I gotta take karate, that's it," Daniel immediately exclaims. "You took karate!" Lucille counters.

"No, not at the- not at the- not at the Y, a good school," Daniel angrily stutters. Not understanding her son's desire to learn karate, Lucille responds, "fighting doesn't solve anything!"

"Oh, well, neither does palm trees, ma," Daniel retaliates more calmly this time, running a hand through his hair. Lucille is taken aback by this and slightly offended. "That's not fair," she states. Daniel leans off of the wall and walks away from his mom. "Yeah, well, like it was fair coming out here without asking me how I felt about it, right? That was really fair?" he points out, turning to her and placing his hand on his hip. Lucille looks at him in shock. "You're right... I should've asked."

"Yeah, well, I just want to go home, that's it. I don't understand the rules here, I want to go home," he rambles as he walks toward the gate to go into the building. "Let's see if we can figure out the rules together, okay?" Lucille says, trying to comfort him,

Their voices fade away and Rosalía can't help but feel bad for him. She understands what it feels like to be forced to move states without being asked how you feel about it. She was angry about that too when she moved to Texas. At least, she got to come back home. Hopefully, Daniel finds peace here one day. "I should go, it's late," she tells Mr. Miyagi before pulling the door open. The man nods and replies, "thank you for the food, was delicious." Rosalía grins and walks out, making her way home. Mr. Miyagi watches her leave and lingers at the door, looking in the direction Daniel went.