come back home. I wasn’t leaving you!”
        “Maya, you lie. You were on the Sanchez float. Sanchez is evil!”
        Maya had heard this message from her mother before, but never knew the reason for it. “Why is Sanchez evil?”
        “Maya! You no defy me!”
        With that, Simpática tossed a match onto the pile and it burst into flame.
        “Mom! Those clothes belong to the rec center! We’ll have to pay for them!”
        Simpática watched the rising flames as the material shriveled, melted, and turned to ash, then Maya snatched the shoes from the edge of the fire.
        “At least not the shoes, Mom,” but Simpática yanked them from her.
        When the clothing was reduced to embers, Simpática stomped out the flames, spread the ashes with her foot, and headed back to the stairs. Inside again, she pulled a knife from a drawer and began cutting one of the flamenco shoes.
        “Mom! Don’t do that! Those aren’t mine either!”
        Simpática was unmoved. Fending Maya off, she cut each shoe open in several places until they were ruined.  
        “That you throw these in the garbage!” she shouted in Spanish.
        Maya was distraught. “Mom!”
        “Maya, no more dancing! Is evil! You stay with me!”
        Maya wilted. Her mother had always been volatile and irrational, but she thought they had an agreement on flamenco dancing this year.
        “No more dance lessons!”
        Defeated again, Maya retreated to her room and flopped onto the bed.

END