==Anticipation==
The grip on her luggage bag was getting limp by the minute. It was only five minutes to liftoff time, but the gate was nowhere in sight. Typical of her nervous self, Esmeralda began to fear that she would be marooned at home for the summer rather than get to experience the sun, surf, and intrigue that her parents had already paid for.
"Home" was Buffalo, NY. Her mom, Teresa, and dad, Santos, both worked there as architects, and had lived there since they were in their mid-twenties. Their original home was in South Florida, or Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba if one wanted to get completely descriptive of them. Since forever, the Matos family had been showing the flag of their heritage, which seemed a little clownish living in a city where their was four foot snow and kids started practicing for hockey once their amniotic fluids had been cleaned off.
In a certain sense they had lived their humdrum lives up north in order to be able to afford those brief vacations back to FLA. Esmeralda remembered the numerous instances when they would take the holiday flights down to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, cool their heels with Tía Roberta in Aventura, or her mother's cousin Norberto in Little Havana.
The best destination had always been to her Tía Gladís, her mother's sister. Whereas all of her father's family seemed to be dominated by macho guys who only talked about their storefront businesses if they were mature or old, or walked around in popped collars and slacks if they were younger, Gladís's house seemed to be an island of serenity. Her cousin Veronica had always been more of an older sister than a distant cousin to Esmeralda, even though they would only see one another for isolated months of a year.
Esmeralda finally located the correct gate and panted in exhaustion as she withdrew a boarding pass from her luggage and presented it to the smiling middle aged boarding crew woman. "Have a nice flight Miss May-toss", pronounced the woman with a heavy Swedish Minnesota accent. This gave her scarce time to settle into her chair and ease up, and she of course could not use her I-Pod to listen to her latest Freezepop download. Her neighbour was this dorky thirty year-old accountant type. Breathing in deeply, Esmeralda Matos exhaled hoping that the mediocrity of her average life in Buffalo would be expelled in the same breath.
Before she knew it, a neighbouring passenger was nudging her awake. Esmeralda deplaned and was greeted at the gate by Gladís and Veronica who both enveloped her in hugs and kisses. Gladís was a rather slim bookish looking woman in her late forties who nevertheless had a very business-like demeanour. She was an insurance risk assessor, and was usually vivacious at home. Maybe this was to compensate for her mundane job. Veronica had blossomed into a stunning portrait of the ideal Miami girl, and was wearing an outfit that would have been perfect for clubbing right then and there even though it was only 2 PM. She wore a black miniskirt, high heels and leggings, and a purple sequined backless top with straps along the back and neck.
While Gladís was asking her about her flight and if she was hungry, Veronica showed that she had one priority on her mind. "Chica, I'm gonna get you all dressed up, and we're gonna introduce you to everyone. The Cespedes girls are one more stronger." Cespedes was Esmeralda's mother's maiden name, and therefore that of her relatives. She wondered why Gladís didn't have her husband's name, and then realized that she had no idea whether Gladís was married or what her status was. But her curiosity was short in this respect, and she focused on getting caught up and absorbing the South Florida lingo.
That night, after a nap, a generous seafood dinner, and clothes shopping for a perfect clubbing outfit, Esmeralda was ready to set out. Hers was much more modest than Veronica's, and included a spaghetti strap tank top with a dark green-blue shiny pattern and matching blue miniskirt and shoes. When Veronica's best friend Flor showed up, the trio were completed by her own outfit dominated by green. Veronica explained hesitantly that she usually liked to colour coordinate with her circle, and that this was the usual, but not the only, pattern that they stuck to.
The actual dancing experience was very hectic, as was to be expected at Latin clubs. They had taken Gladís's spare car, a Toyota Yaris, over to the South Beach section and were enjoying themselves at a club ridiculously called Peekante. They exerted themselves on the floor, and the three danced among themselves and occasionally with guys. Esmeralda was being very physically pursued by a tall Cuban guy with reddish tinged hair who looked to be of mixed race, and for a few seconds, she thought he was going to undress her right then and there. She was feeling very uneasy about that, even though he was by no means ugly, but at the right moment Veronica stepped in and guided her away.
"You should sit down and cool off a second with Flor, nenita." she said, using her affectionate address of "baby" to her younger cousin. "Quita de ella, cabrón, es una de nuestras," declared Veronica to the nameless man who had been dry humping Esmeralda only moments before. Even with her basic northerner high school knowledge of Spanish, Veronica could understand that Veronica was saying ¨She's one of ours". And the guy took one look at their group, and then gave a knowing smirk and walked off.
She pointed Esmeralda toward a circle of couches where Flor was seated with three other girls that had already been introduced to her, the fellow Cuban Lorena, and two Anglos: the redheaded Vanessa and the cocoa brown Gwen. Lorena and Vanessa were sitting awfully close when Esmeralda approached, and separated slightly when seeing her arrival.
Flor was dominating the conversation, and it was mostly talk of which art galleries in the area were destined to survive or fail. Flor was already making a name for herself as a burgeoning art critic, and commanded a good audience. "I'm telling you, Fabián Vasquez will soon be doing home fixtures. He's a great sculptor, but people just won't make that investment these days."
She turned her attention to Esmeralda. "What's wrong baby? Calmate acá (Calm down here)." She said smiling; her throaty voice was reassuring. "Don't let these creeps work on you. He's practically making the leap between stranger and deadbeat dad. Stick with us here."
The girls continued to chat for about forty-five minutes, with some of them coming or going to the bar, bathroom, or dance floor. At one point Veronica, who had been at the bar ordering a cocktail, motioned Flor over to the wall next to a huge pastel mask decoration. She whispered in Flor's ear one second, and then they both came over to Esmeralda.
"Are you having fun?" Veronica yelled over the throbbing beat of the live band's drums.
Esmeralda took a second to respond. She had had two Smirnoff Ices and she wasn't used to drinking at all. "Of course I am. Why, are you planning on something?"
