TRINA & MAGGIE

TRINA & MAGGIE

Patricia Miles Martin

Words are very importance to friends, as you will see when you read this story. Trina is a Mexican - American, who has just moved with her parents and her older sister, Carla, to a little Wyoming town. More than anything else, Trina wants to be friend with Maggie, a girl at school. Maggie wants to be Trina's friend, too. When Trina speaks Spanish, her words flow out. But when she tries to talk to Maggie in English, nothing comes out right.



Trina went to school. Every night mama held the reader and listened while she read papa listened, too. Trina spoke words and more words. But she was still shy and unsure of herself with Maggie and the other girls.

In school, she reads through the second. She read slowly. But she read well.

One Friday after school, Maggie spoke to Trina and Carla. "Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m having a party. I’d like it if you two would come."

"It will be at two o' clock tomorrow," Maggie said.

"Charlie Wilson is coming and Abner Marshall and all the others."

Trina looked at Maggie. She would be a friend with Maggie. She swallowed hard and spoke in English, "I-like-you."

Everyone laugh except Trina. She felt hot with her embarrassment. She could hardly believe that Maggie was laughing at her.

"No voy a tu fiesta," Trina said.

"She says she won't come to your party," Carla said. She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess she doesn't want to go. I’ll go, I guess."

Trina told her mother what had happened.

How wonderful it was to tell her troubles to mama in Spanish. How wonderful to speak Spanish together. It was a beautiful language. At the moment, Trina didn't care if she ever spoke English.

"Well," mama said, "they are at fault. You are not. Sometime boys and girls do not know how to accept a compliment with grace. Perhaps until they learn this, you will show that you like people rather than tell them."

"But I do not like Maggie now," Trina said. "Perhaps I hate her. I am not quite sure."

"You will never have friends if you except them to be without fault," mama said.

That evening their mother ironed a red dress for Carla. She reached for a white dress and laid it over the ironing board.

"I am not going to the party, mama." Trina said.

"You have not yet forgiven Maggie?" her mother asked.

"No, mama."

"Very well. You need not go, of course. But you may feel differently tomorrow. You will take presents when you go."

"What presents?" Trina asked.

Their mother set the iron on the stove. "Let me think." she lifted the lid of the linen chest. "Perhaps we might make a doll's dress. Maggie will have a doll like your Ana Maria on her birthday. I was on the store when her father bought it. The doll in the glass counters."

She shook out a short length of red material sprigged with tiny yellow flowers. "See. I have saved this material. Now we will measure your Ana Maria. We will make dress for Maggie's new doll. We will start at once."

"But if I do not go to the party?"

"You could then have a beautiful dress that will fit Ana Maria. this is for you to decide."

While they talked, Carla said "I will buy a present for Maggie. I’ll stop at the store and get something on the way to the party."

She reached on the self for a baking powder can that held coins she had saved. She twisted off the top and emptied the coins on the table. She brushed half of them into the palm of her left hand and slid the coins into her pocket. Then she put the rest of the coins back into the can and twisted the top tightly shut.

"What will you buy?" Trina asked.

"A surprise," said Carla. Mama and Trina measured and cut and sewed to make a dress to fit a doll.

The next afternoon Carla dressed for the party.

Trina looked at her white dress, crisp with mama's starch. It would be beautiful with her red sash. She remembered Maggie's laughter. "I can't go,” she said to her mother.

"Very well," mama said.

"And the present for Maggie? Do you choose to give this?"

"Yes. I choose to give it. I will send it with Carla," Trina said.

She watches the girls and boys going up the hill to Maggie's house.

That afternoon, mama made hot chocolate, and they each had a sweet roll with it. Even so, the time dragged until Carla came home. The afternoon was so long.

"But I am not sorry I came home, mama. I couldn't have gone."

"I understand," mama said.

When Carla came home, she took off her red dress and put on her jeans her blue and yellow shirt.

"Everything happened at that party," Carla said. "It was fun. The birthday cake fell off the table, and if hadn't been for me, Maggie wouldn't have had any candles to blow out."

"What do you mean?" mama asked.

"Well, after the cake fell, I picked up the candles and put them on my present," Carla said.

"What was your present?" Trina asked.

"Gumdrops," said Carla. "I put a candle on each gumdrop. It was as good as a cake. Mrs. Tolley lighted them, and Maggie made a wish and blew them out."

"What did Maggie wish?" Trina asked.

"How could I know?" Carla asked. "When you blow out candles and make a wish, you don't tell what it is."

"And the doll's dress?" Trina asked. "What did Maggie say when she saw it?"

"I don't remember," Carla said.

The next day at school, Maggie walked straight to Trina.

"Trina, thank you for the doll's dress. It’s the prettiest dress I ever saw. it fits my doll." she pushed her red braids over her shoulders, and the dimples came in her cheeks. "Trina, me gusta," she said.

Everybody laughed, even Trina. Maggie, too.

"I sound funny," Maggie said. "Spanish words are hard. But if you want to, I can try to speak Spanish while you try to speak English."

"You sound funny Maggie," Carla said.

"I know. Everybody does at first," Maggie said. "Now, I will say 'thank you,' Trina, and you can say 'you're welcome' in English. Now listen, Trina. Say it after me: you - are - welcome."

Trina repeated the words slowly: "say it after me, you are welcome."

Maggie bent over with laughter.

Trina felt her own face crinkling. She blinks to keep back the tears.

"Don’t pay any attention to her," Carla said. "She cares."

"Oh, well," Maggie said. "It’s not fun to play with her anyway. If I laugh, she cries. And she won't even try to speak English."

Trina didn't stay to watch Maggie go up the hill. On her way home, she kicked the dirt until the air was thick with yellow-red dust.

"Why you are so dirty?" mama asked pleasantly in English.

"You have it backward, mama," Trina said in Spanish. "it should be, 'why-are-you-so-dirty?"

"Good," said mama. "One of us is learning English."

Trina did her homework and thought about Maggie. If she wanted Maggie to be a friend, she would have to do more than learning English. She would have to be a friend. She would have to laugh with Maggie.

She laughs out loud.

"Why do you laugh?" mama asked.

"I am practicing," Trina said.

And suddenly she and mama laugh together.

The next day Trina went straight to Maggie.

Trina speaks in English.
"You are welcome. That is the lesson for yesterday. And I am sorry. This is my lesson for today."

"All right, Trina." Maggie said. "Now you have to teach me how to say 'I’m sorry,' too."

"So easy," said Trina. "I am sorry. Lo siento."

Maggie repeated the words. "Lo siento."