I landed gently, smiling. My body was still, tense, balanced, and alert. A perfect spin, just as usual. As I flew back, spinning twice in a leisurely way, I mentally critiqued myself. I still had to beat my own record of six. Anyway, I was getting a little tired of swinging; I had been at it for fifteen minutes and maybe Mama wanted help with Lazuli.
Lazuli was kind of a rascally little baby, seeing that you couldn't lay her down at all without her screaming. And I mean SCREAMING. We nicknamed her "Nazgul". And we couldn't let her scream because the neighbors (yes, even there) were not used to little babies and thought something terrible must be happening. Furthermore she was a light sleeper. Just as I was about to do a lazy little single spin ending up inside the gap between the pine and the eucalyptus, Mama called my name as she stepped out onto the porch.
"Havilah, can you go get some velas for tonight?"
She called them velas because a lot of the time now, we substituted Spanish words for English. It was just because the only people we spoke English to was each other, and we all knew that vela meant candle.
"Okay, can Asaph go?"
"Sure."
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