Second in a series
Re “Harassed Family Vows to Stand Its Ground Against Eviction”
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Mirsa Lopez, with her son, her daughter and her husband’s wheelchair.
Dateline East Los Angeles – Before resuming the narrative of the Sebastian Lopez family and an unrelieved two-year fight with the corporate owners of their apartment complex, it would be instructive to understand one of the family’s core moral values.
The interview was conducted at a popular coffee shop suggested by the family.
While the father and reporter led the way to a sunny corner where there would be a measure of privacy, Mirsa Lopez, her 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter trailed.
The presumption was they would order a round of libations.
None ever arrived.
But in the bustle and excitement of the interview, underpinned by an avalanche of spilling-out information of their distressing confrontations with the ownership of the Wyvernwood garden apartments, the reporter belatedly noticed the table was bare.
Where were the drinks?
He quizzed the children on the whereabouts of their juice drinks?
With impressive, well-honed discipline, they demurred. Convincingly.
Now what child visits a restaurant and says “no, thanks” to victuals of any form?
The reporter was insistent that the dry spell be broken. The children, in return, continued to decline with matching firmness.
Neither side was going to bend until both parents looked lovingly at their family and assured Aeylias and Amalay that it would be polite to accept.
The reporter stepped to the counter and ordered four drinks for the Lopez family, decaf for the grownups.
After a suitable interim, the libations were ready, juices for the children and two tall coffees.
The interview proceeded apace, and now it was near the end.
The only occasionally alert journalist, who might have missed a bomb flying through the nearby large picture window, finally noticed that one of the coffees had remained undrunk.
Why?
“That is yours,” Mrs. Lopez said naturally to her non-coffee-drinking interviewer.
Undetected by the fifth wheel at the table, Mr. and Mrs. Lopez, accustomed to sharing food while living with utter modesty, had been sharing the single cup.
With reluctance, this family with an intimate knowledge of and acceptance of moral values, took the second cup with them when it came time to depart.
This scene was more revealing of the Lopezes than any story he could have related.
(To be continued)
