To be Seen or Heard

Chapter Fourteen: La Granga (pt2)

Alexander looked as nervous as I felt, "W-Were we bein' too loud, Mr. Hershel?" I asked when it looked like my cousin was frozen in his spot.

Eva grizzled loudly from the basket, her arms and legs flailing to show her displeasure that we'd stopped the music. My baby sister was an oddball, every time any sort of song played she'd start wiggling around like she was dancing but the moment it stopped she'd throw a tantrum. Well, maybe she wasn't an oddball as much as already highly opinionated for someone so tiny. Isabella was quick to start patting Eva's tummy to ward off said tantrum.

"No. Volume was just fine." the man denied but his eyebrows were furrowed with displeasure, so we'd obviously done something to upset him, "But may I know why you children are hanging around on my porch."

"Tía's inside helping the others." Alexander replied this time, taking on a falsely even tone, "They wanted to help make dinner. We didn't wanna be in the way."

I gnawed on my bottom lip nervously, "Should we, um, do you wanna us to go? We can't actually leave without Mamí's permission but-"

The veterinarian waved me away, before patting Olivia on the head when the two-year-old grabbed onto his pantleg to show him her plastic Boots doll, "Very nice. No, no, you children stay put. Just wanted to make sure your mother knew where ya'll were." he said before disappearing into the house. He was mad. Big mad. And the fact that he was so calm about it only made the pit in my stomach grow even bigger.

"Otra?" Camila asked as she patted my knee.

I shook my head, "Maybe later." I choked out before clearing my throat, "We'll sing again later."

"Why?" Camila whined, tugging at her own shirt in frustration, "Wanna dance!"

"Later, Cami!" Alexander snapped before rubbing the bridge of his nose when Camila flinched back as her eyes watered almost immediately in response, "Sorry, Cami, I'm not mad at you."

I put the ukelele down under the seat and hugged the younger girl to my chest, "It's okay, Xander." Camila sniffled before grinning, having already characteristically forgiven him, "Why you mad? Do you have a tummy ache?"

"No." he slumped in the chair, "Just hungry, I guess. Hey, Olivia, ven pa' acá! You gotta play over here." Alexander scolded the toddler who'd been trying to 'subtly' sneak away. Olivia squeaked in glee over having been caught, but she didn't make a fuss or try to run and plopped her butt back down in front of her toys.

"Go play, Cami." I gently pushed her towards Olivia before sharing a worried look with Alexander and Isabella.

Isabella had frozen when Mr. Hershel had appeared, his disappearance had loosened her tongue once more. "He didn't look happy." she said in a whisper, "Are we in trouble for singing? Think he's gonna tell Mamí?"

"No." Alexander shook his head, "Think it was something else. Don't think he was happy we're hanging out at his house."

"Oh..." Isabella's face crumbled into confusion, "Where else we gonna go?"

I shrugged, "Maybe he wants us to stick to the RV?"

My cousin was most likely right. Mr. Hershel probably wasn't thrilled to see a bunch of kids he didn't know on his porch after a long day of tending to his cows. Papí was never really happy when we had friends over after a certain time either, we made a lot of noise on our own but with guests added to the mix... nah, Papí wanted everybody that he wasn't required to feed out by 5:45 PM, and before he walked into the house.