Every girl, since she was a little girl, dreams of a quinceañera, and even more so when she is a teenager.
Since I was ten years old, I always dreamed with my father about what my party would be like and we would design my dress together. We never managed to save money for that moment. At that time our house consisted of two rooms, a wall dividing the living room from the kitchen, and a large patio.
Almost every day I went out with my mother to buy the fabric for the dress, a tiara of precious pearls as a hair ornament, the invitation cards, the crystals to give to the guests, in short, everything related to the celebration. My father loved the decorative part, it was Christmas, so he bought some polystyrene sheets with which he made some beautiful Christmas bells. He knocked down the wall dividing the living room from the kitchen with a hammer, so that there would be more room to dance the Blue Danube Waltz and also so that we could continue the party. My mother went to see her friend Iris to order the cake. So the days went by, we had everything ready, my dress, the decoration, the cake, the appetizers. One day before the party my father noticed that the bathroom had no door, only a curtain that half covered the person inside. He thought:
"The bathroom has no door, how awful, this is the most important day for my daughter."
So he bought a used door and some wood at the market. When he got to the house with all those things, he took a chair, put it in the living room, a piece of wood, put it on the chair with his foot and left hand held it, with his right hand he took his handsaw, got to work. We had a pet dog we had gotten on the beach, lost with no destination, we named him "Bobby", he was big, but very smart and playful, at the moment my father was sawing the wood the dog thought dad was playing with it, then Bobby ran out with great force, he jumped on my father, as if he was in a circus act, he moved my father from his original position, making him saw his right thumb, this produced a big hemorrhage, he immediately gave a very big scream:
"Daughter, call for help!"
I was in my room, watching the preparations for the party, suddenly I ran out, when I saw my father with his hand bathed in blood, I said to him:
"What happened to you?".
He, very desperate, says to me:
"Please call your mother who is next door, tell her to come urgently, I have to go to the hospital".
I ran barefoot, to where my mother was, I told her what happened, she came home with me, took her bag, went out to the avenue with my father, took a cab straight to the hospital, while I was left alone at home taking care of my siblings. The hours passed, they came back a little late from the hospital, my father received twenty stitches and a tourniquet with adhesive tape and gauze. On December 24 we all got up to finish the last preparations for the party, receive the party agency, arrange the tables, chairs and tablecloths. The night of the party arrived, my mother received the guests, while at my maternal grandmother's house, who lived in the back street, my cousin Eunice, in her grandmother's room, did my hair and make-up. When it was time to put the tiara in my hair, we did not get it, we looked until we despaired and we did not get it, so she had to improvise a flower with decorative ribbons. My uncle Hermes Padilla, who was my cousin Eunice's father, had a Monte Carlos car, he started his car and waited for me to get in it to take me to my house where my father was waiting for me. When I got out to get into the car, all the neighbors on the street came out to see when I got into the car, they said:
"How beautiful she looks, she looks like she came out of an enchanted castle".
I went out in the car with my uncle Hermes, when I arrived at the house I had to wait a moment for the waltz music to play. After a few minutes, the music started to play. My father arrived to the car, he took my hand with his hand where he had the injured thumb, he took me to the living room where he started to dance with me, he said in my ear:
"My chiquitita, you did better than expected, you look like a princess out of a fairy tale".
So I waltzed with my father, each of my siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, uncles and friends. Although the guests left early because they had to celebrate the Nativity of the Child God, it was an unforgettable and incomparable night. After that day, every night I dreamed of celebrating my fifteenth birthday, but better and better.
This is a non-fiction story
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the drawing is my property.