OFF THE RECORD (First Person)

22. Hometown

November 2014

Tomas

I finally had some time off. I was set to arrive to Houston, how I had promised Emma, but she stopped me with a text message.

I'm going to Corpus, to see my parents. Wanna come over? She wrote.

At the last minute, I changed my flight to my hometown. It would be nice to see my family, too. When I had come to pick up Emma's parents for her birthday, I had wanted to stop by my house, but I didn't have much time.

When I arrived at my parent's house, surprisingly, my mom dropped any plan she had. As she saw me entering through the door, she dropped the towels she was carrying on her arms. She ran to hold me and took my face in between her hands. It had been too long since the last time we had been this close.

Amanda, my younger sister, ran to me too, but she just hung to my side.

"Mi niño, you should have told me you were coming. I could have prepared something." Said my mom, scolding me.

I could only smile, wrapping her in an embrace again. I had needed one of her hugs.

We were in constant communication, after all, mom made sure to video call me to keep me in check. Nevertheless, it had been almost a year since our last reunion.

Mom called my brother, to ask him to come back home early to be able to have a family dinner. My father would arrive home from work soon, too. She started boiling some chicken to make red enchiladas, my favorite meal.

I'm here. You want me to go over, or do you want to see each other somewhere else? I answered Emma.

I'm going over to yours! But tomorrow, I promised my parents to spend the day with them. She explained in writing.

My heart skipped a beat. I wasn't planning on her coming to my house. I didn't want mom asking questions, or my brother or Erica. I wasn't sure of how they would see my affection towards Emma, but it was better to come clean now, that nothing had solidified.

Memo had arrived with Erica. Mom treated her as her own daughter, already used to her presence. In reality, it was as if she was part of our family. After Omar had left her, Erica had to live by herself in the house he had bought for her, but she mostly only went there to sleep.

Mom had offered her to stay at our house, for her to use my old room, but Erica had to refuse. She said she would wait for her brother to come back, even if she didn't know when that would happen.

My mom had hopes for the young couple. She knew they were not ready yet, but they had a solid relationship. She couldn't help but wish they would get married and make her a grandmother already. She had giving up on that hope with me a long time ago.

"Mom, Emma came to Corpus, too. I invited her over, is that okay?" I interrupted her quiet thoughts.

"Emma's coming? That's great! It's been a while since I saw her." Erica intercepts our conversation.

Mom nods, smiling. "Of course. I'm very happy to have you all together. How I wish you could all see each other again." She replied as she calculated how much more food to prepare.

"Mija, could you go buy some sodas from the store?" Mom asks Erica. "Memo, go clean your mess from the living room." She ordered my brother.

Memo sighed but does as told. Erica is about to leave when I stop her.

"I'll go, no worries. Do you need anything else, Mom?" I volunteered.

She shook her head. Amanda offered to join me, to which I accepted happily. I take our mother's keys to her car. We had to drive to the closest convenience store, which was a couple of blocks away.