An American Surprise (Carla)
- Papi is finally home from his business trip to the United States. And he brought presents.
- But the girls have to wait until after dinner to open them. Aw, man...
- So Carla hangs out with Gladys, the pantry maid. Gladys is super cool. She has a nice singing voice, and she lets Carla hang out in the maids' room.
- Gladys prays every night to an American Virgin to give her the opportunity to go to New York.
- Nivea, another maid, interrupts to tell Gladys about all the amazing presents Don Carlos has brought his daughters back from New York over the years. Lucky ducks.
- Nivea grumbles. They work night and day, and do they get any surprises from New York City? (She has a point here.)
- Finally. Dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs.
- Papi asks Gladys, to go get his briefcase from the study.
- Mami gets a bottle of perfume. She never did find the old empty bottle...
- And the girls each get a weird-looking iron statue. What are these things? They look like an old man in a fishing boat, a little girl with a jump rope, and a little girl in a nightgown.
- Each little statue is actually a bank. You put a coin in, and the little statues move. The little girl takes a skip over the jump rope. The old sailor turns a wheel, and the penny is swallowed by a whale. And the little girl in her pjs (who has a halo, come to think of it) rises up into the clouds.
- Gladys is amazed by the bank, and Papi lets her give it a try. She seems to think it's holy.
- The girls take the banks to school, where the nuns let the kids put pennies into them as an offering. Carla is suddenly super popular.
- Gladys puts all of her pennies into the Virgin Mary bank. It's her favorite.
- Soon the girls get bored with the banks. Onto the shelves they go. Christmas is just around the corner, after all. They're going to get a ton of new toys.
- Everyone's getting into the Christmas preparations.
- On Christmas morning, Carla gets the baby doll she wanted so much. And a whole pile of other presents, besides.
- Each servant gets a gift, too: a wallet with money inside.
- That night, Carla can't sleep. Gladys stops by for a chat around midnight. She tells Carla that the party next door is getting insane. We're talking uncles dancing on tables and aunts throwing themselves into the swimming pool with all their clothes on. Sounds like a good time to us.
- Then Gladys does something kind of daring: she takes the ten pesos out of the new wallet Mr. García gave her, and offers to buy Carla's Virgin Mary bank.
- Carla knows the bank isn't worth ten pesos. It's all rusty. She says no.
- Carla is confused about how to be good in this situation. She knows she's not supposed to give away presents that were given to her, but she also knows how happy the bank would make Gladys.
- So she gives it to her for free.
- Carla figures she'll get in trouble for this, so she asks Gladys not to tell.
- But guess what? Mami notices. Where's your Mary bank, Carla?
- Carla has to pretend to look for it. Mami definitely knows something is up.
- Later on, when the maids are at Mass, Mami searches their rooms. Afterwards, Carla hears Mami and Papi conferring in the study.
- Mami and Papi interview each of the maids, one by one. Gladys goes last, and it does not end well.
- Gladys runs out of the study in tears.
- Carla figures she might as well confess. She walks into the study and sees the mechanical bank on the desk. "It was a present! I gave it to her!" she says.
- Carla begs her father not to send Gladys away, but it looks like she's still fired. Papi says they "can't trust her."
- And anyway, she's the one who wanted to leave. Maybe now she can finally go to New York.
- This doesn't seem right. Carla is not convinced.
- Papi tries to cheer Carla up by giving her a penny for the bank.
- Carla's not really in the mood, but maybe it'll cheer her father up. He looks sad.
- So she gives it a try, but the lever on the bank jams. The little figure of the Virgin gets stuck, halfway up and halfway down.