Little Havana Nights

Orquidea Gets Smart

One morning, the Hernandez families attended a church, which also had a radio show and live-stream on the internet.

There was a guest pastor, from Tampa, who was visiting Miami with his wife.

Afterwards, they left to go to the awards ceremony for Orquidea, but Soledad and Safira saw them coming out.

"This isn't a Catholic church..." Said Safira, baffled.

"It's not." Said Danielle.

"Is this where you and Cassandra had been going after mass when you were younger?" Said Safira. "After that couple spoke to you girls?"

"Yes." Said Danielle.

"Aunt Alice used to take us to the church a few blocks up." Said Cassandra.

"And I went too!" Said Hortenzia, stepping up for her daughters-in-law and the gospel. "These beautiful women showed me this church, and I believe God had to do with that. That's one reason why He gave my sons these beautiful wives."

Soledad and Safira agreed to attend the church with them the following Sunday, and they came to the knowledge of the truth too.

Orquidea, Gabriel and Danielle's daughter, got into trouble in school once when she was 9 for talking back to her teacher at school. Gabriel and Danielle, needless to say were not happy about the situation, and when they told her as much, she simply said that she didn't like the teacher telling her not to "have fun".

What really happened was, she was talking in class with one of her friends that was more "exciting" than what the teacher was talking about, then got rude when the teacher told them to stop and pay attention to her.

Another occasion, she and her group of friends thought it would be clever to get together with her friends and chant mean phrases about the teachers they didn't like.

So it was obvious that Orquidea was going though a phase defying her teachers, but one day, Orquidea's teacher paid a visit to the Hernandez villa where the family were watching TV. Gabriel answered the door, at which she introduced herself as Orquidea's teacher.

"What's she done now?" He said, before turning his attention to Orquidea. "You! Go to your room, right now! Right now! Beat it!"

Orquidea listened and went upstairs to her room.

"I hope it's not too serious, Mrs Hernandez is not gonna like this." Said Gabriel as he invited the teacher in. But to their surprise, she was actually having good things to say about Orquidea!

She told them of how slowly, but surely over the months, Ora changed and became not only a better student, but a better person. The bad months were behind them, she was a "good girl" now, and excelling in school.

"She's been earning all A's, and doing really well in dance class!" She said. "I am so proud of her, she's done an amazing turnaround."

Gabriel and Danielle were pleasantly surprised at their daughter's better behavior, and there was a school recital which was coming up!

Gabriel apologized the next morning to Orquidea for assuming she'd done something wrong when her teacher came over. He also told her that the teacher told him and Danielle about how well she was doing, and to keep it up.

Orquidea said she was inspired by the movie Matilda to do better, and so she took up reading books too.

She eventually won the state-wide writing competition, which brought them to Tampa so that she could receive her trophy.

The other Hernandez family attended as did the grandmothers. But first, on the morning they all attended church at the Calvary Community Church. The pastor and his wife remembered them from Miami, and were happy to see them. They also congratulated Orquidea on winning the writing competition.

After that service, everyone then went to the award ceremony for Orquidea and the families cheered for her as they watched Orquidea received her award. Everyone was so proud of her. Even her teacher, who was in attendance, was also proud of her.

They went for an Italian dinner that night at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant, where they also had dessert as a treat (they didn't usually eat dessert at a restaurant, as they had desserts at home).

The kids went to bed with no troubles, no doubt the "food comas" helped. Gabriel and Danielle got ready for bed too, and after Danielle had a LUSH bath, she'd barely dried herself when Gabriel embraced her, and took her to their bed. He just couldn't resist her!

"Take me, mi amor!" She said.

"With pleasure." He replied.

They made love passionately, and afterwards, they basked in the afterglow in each other's arms, looking out the window and commenting how beautiful Tampa was.