Tiny dinosaurs
We were playing in a bar next to the airport, waiting for Papi’s plane. Mami, Titi Evelyn, Tio Poco Loco, and the Skipper were drinking beer and rum and coke. The little, little planes that flew to Ponce kept flying over our heads but none of them with Papi yet.
It was really hot and there was nothing to do but wait and wait and wait. My sister Evie was the first to see the lizard. “Look!”
It was a real, alive lizard, shiny green, walking on the clay floor.
“Don’t let it get away!,” Fever said and ran to the bar and got a plastic cup.
Unlike back home in Brooklyn, PR was filled with amazing animals and insects. You didn’t see any nice insects in Brooklyn. We only had cockroaches.
“What are you gonna do?” Evie said.
“I’m going to catch it.”
“You think we can take it home?”
Fever put the cup over the lizard but the cup was too small. He picked it up, and we all saw that he had cut off most of the lizard’s tail.
“You killed it!,” I said.
“But it’s not bleeding.”
“He doesn’t look hurt.”
“It’s gonna die,” I said.
“It’s not gonna die. The tail’ll grow back.”
“Really?”
“I think so.”
“Ask Mami.”
Like nothing, the lizard started walking again, leaving its tail behind.
“Wowwwww,” we all said.
And then Mami said that Papi’s plane was coming in.