Page 70 of Sucker Punch Drunk Love

“Thank you. You didn't have to,” she wiggled back to her spot on the floor.

“I wanted to. The other ones are for the kid. It's just stuffed animals. I admit I'm not the best at buying things for kids,” I conceded.

“It's okay. I'm sure she'll love them anyway.Mónica,” she yelled out, as her daughter came running into the room. She resembled her, just darker. Only she had little barretts and balls in her hair that reminded me of the 90s.

For not really having a lot of time around girls, I could admit she was adorable. Probably could use some toughening up, but her mother had some beast in her. Let’s hope it got passed down.

“Baby, this is Josue. He used to be my teacher, but now he's my friend.” She brought her on her lap, and Mónica scrunched her nose, regarding me.

“Está jinchito?*,” she said, clueless that I understood her.

“Y qué si soy pá lido? Igual soy Cubano?*,” I replied, watching her eyes widen as she retreated to her mother’s chest.

“Yeah, yeah, didn't think I knew all that, huh?” I teased.

“She speaks a lot of Spanish because of her grandmother,” Sierra bragged. “But obviously not as much as I like, or wishIcould.”

“Well, I'm gonna speak English so I don't leave your mom out. Está bien?*?” Mónica nodded, shy at first, but I moved at her pace.

“Look at what your mother got me,” I beamed trying to keep the connection, reaching in for the stuffed animals.

“Those look scary,” she said, covering her eyes.

"They're nothing to be afraid of. You like Elmo, right?” Enthusiastically she nodded.

“Well, Elmo's a monster, and he's not scary, right?” She nodded again, agreeing.

“Just becausethey'remonsters, don't mean they don't get scared.”

“Baby, don't you remember likingMonsters Inc?” Sierra added.

“Here, look at what I got you,” I handed her a wrapped gift, debating on whether or not what I got was sexist. I figured I couldn’t go wrong just picking out every Black doll they had at the Disney store. The first gift was the mermaid stuff plush, her eyes eyeing it longingly.

"This looks like you, Mommy.”

“It does kind of look like me,” Sierra laughed.

“If mermaids were real, we'd probably look at them like monsters, and she's not scary, right?”

“No.” She pulled out the plush Shuri in her Black Panther get-up. I held it up to her.

“And for a while she was literally the Black Panther. Able to do things regular people couldn't do. She's not scary, right?” Taking a second, she finally agreed.

“What if I told you yourmotherused to be a monster?”

“Nooooo,” she dragged out, unable to believe it.

“Le decíamos la loba?*. She was fast, strong claws. She even had fangs,” I teased, as she looked at her mother and to her surprise, Sierra didn’t dispute it. “She would do all these amazing things. And we’d all howl at her. Like you howl at the moon to prove that we saw her. And I know you don't see your mother as scary, right?”

“Mmmumm” she shook her head.

“So now when you look at these, what about them are scary?” Bringing Ickis back to view, because admittedly, he was the least scary looking to me.

“I don't know. Because he's red.”

“Elmo’s red too. Right place and time, I get scared. Did you know this one—his name is Ickis, he gets scared too?”

“No,” she denied.