AN UNFORGETTABLE GUEST

After Meme broke both arms we couldn´t play in our tree-house and Meme’s mother was a little angry because we incited Meme everyday to come with us to invent new games, because of that Meme had to stay at home until he recovers. So, those days were the most boring of my life and sometimes when I looked at him through his house’s window I could imagine how lonely he felt.

I needed somehow fun and without a best friend I thought it was impossible. I guess my mother realized how I felt because some days I just laid on the floor and hummed any melody; for that reason she bought me a secondhand notebook in Gil’s store. It had blank pages and she said that I could use it for whatever I wanted but that didn’t excite me. Nevertheless, I could offend my mother if I didn’t use it, so I decided to transform it in a strange album in which I put different kind of things, such as: photos, draws and pictures.

One day, my mother gave me money to buy some things at the grocery. I only had to walk to the corner but for me it was more than just that, it was an excuse to come away home. Also, I liked to go to the grocery because it was located inside of a special house, it was a cute house painted with strong colors like green and yellow with a native Mexican decoration. The grocery’s owner was a very kind man who always smiled when he listened to his buyers.

When I went back to my house I found in the pathway a little puppy and I could realize that the poor doggy was injured. I took him in my arms and I immediately felt affection towards the puppy. I couldn’t understand how someone could maltreat a dog because he was a Chihuahua and with his big eyes in my opinion he had the ability to make you fall in love of him. As I started to walk again I thought about how I would say to my mother that I wanted to keep him as my pet. So, I remember that Meme was in his house and I could ask him what should be the correct form in which I had to tell my mother about the doggy.

All the way back home I stroked the puppy’s head to make him feel comfortable, although when I was near my house I was scared because I created in my mind the scene between my mother and I discussing about the doggy. I understand that my mother didn’t want a dog because we couldn’t maintain one but he was tiny and he would not occupy a big space. In first place, I visited Meme and I told him about the doggie, I showed to him the Chihuahua and he thought it would be awesome to have other pet. He suggested me to hide the dog in his house because many people lived in his house and nobody would notice him.

We made a plan to enter the dog to his bedroom, so we hide him in a little box and we came in his house very quickly. Once we were in his room, we felt better with that situation and Meme told me that we should name our new pet. All the afternoon we discussed about what would be the perfect name for him, I my mind I desired to select a good name for him because I didn’t want that the puppy to hate his name as I do with mine. Finally, we agreed about an American name, the name was Alex. We concluded that his name should be short and popular in my new country.

One moth passed and I started to notice that Alex wasn’t the same because didn’t move his tail as he did before. For that reason, we took Alex to the veterinary and Meme had to take money of his moneybox. Fortunately, the veterinarian heard our story about how I found and Alex and he didn’t accept money in exchange of consideration. Although everything was fine again the following day Meme’s mother found the little box under Meme’s bed and she said it to my mother. When I arrived at home my mother was with one of our neighbors and my mother told me that she would be Alex’s owner. In that moment I understood that it was impossible for me to have Alex as my pet, the positive part was that we could visit Alex on weekends and Meme bought a beautiful mini t-shirt for Alex. Maybe Alex was like a guest for us but I was sure that we gave to him all the love that he deserved.

RATIONALE

In “An unforgettable guest” I tried to conserve the essence of Sandra Cisneros’s style which the author applies in every chapter to tell the story according to the growth of the main character. I consider the location of this new chapter because in this case this situation happened while she was a little girl and that is the reason why I used a simply vocabulary as we can see in the stories at the beginning of the book. Also, it has relation with Esperanza’s thoughts and it is based in one of her desires: to have a best friend. I selected this tittle to the chapter because an important detail of the story is about how this girl has to fit in the American society and at the same time I wanted to show up to what extend the principal character’s lives is based on her special perspective of the world and her preferences of the simplest things of life.

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