Linh and Octavio had been hanging out at the Green Meadows swimming pool for a couple of weeks when Linh invited Octavio to come meet her pet hedgehog, Spike. Linh had told Octavio about Spike the first day they met, right after she accidentally jumped on his head from the side of the pool. As if knowing how to do a double flip off the diving board wasn’t cool enough!

Octavio was a little nervous when he arrived at Linh’s front door. Spike was called Spike for a reason. . . Would Linh expect Octavio to play with Spike, and would it hurt? Would Octavio embarrass himself by crying out, or―worse yet―be afraid to even touch Spike?

As soon as Linh opened the door and invited Octavio in, he forgot all about Spike. That’s because the inside of Linh’s house took his breath away. It looked so different from his own home, which seemed dull and plain by comparison.

Linh’s home even smelled different―a warm, smokey, spicy smell. As Linh led Octavio through the family’s living room, the source of the smell became clear. On a wide table along one wall, a wisp of spoke curled from a thin stick stuck in a bowl of sand.

“Cool!” shouted Octavio, and rushed over to the table. “What is this? Can I light one?” He picked up the smoking stick and examined it more closely, then waved it around, which caused the smoke to move in fragrant patterns.

As soon as Octavio looked at Linh, he knew he had messed up. Linh looked surprised and upset. “It’s just incense,” she said quickly. “Come on―Spike is back here, in the sunroom.” Confused and worried, Octavio set the stick carefully back in the bowl of sand.

The rest of Octavio’s visit felt pretty awkward. Linh was quieter than she had ever been at the pool, and she didn’t even offer to let Octavio hold Spike. They just looked at him through the walls of his cage. After twenty minutes of mostly silence, Octavio told Linh that he had to go―that his mom was expecting him to help with dinner. It was a lie of course, but it made it easier for Octavio to leave in a hurry.

On his way home, Octavio realized that there was a lot about Linh that he didn’t understand. It made him curious and a little bit nervous. But it also made him really want to stay friends with Linh, even after the pool closed and they were both back in school.

Then Octavio remembered that he had everything he needed, perhaps, to fix this problem. He hurried home and pulled out the tablet his parents had bought him the year before. He hadn’t used it much since school let out, so he had to charge it first. But then the screen popped back up, with the search feature right at the top where he’d left it. Octavio slipped outside and down the street with his tablet.

Octavio knew that both of Linh’s grandparents were born in Vietnam. He decided to see what he could find out about Vietnamese family traditions.

Octavio learned that millions of Americans―like his own parents, who had immigrated from Mexico as children―maintain two layers of family traditions. There are the ones they share with other Americans, such as fireworks on the 4th of July, and traditions that are unique to their family, or their family’s place of origin. Octavio learned that some cultures―including both Octavio’s and Linh’s―consider it a sacred duty to honor one’s ancestors.

Octavio loved the annual celebrations for Dia de los Muertes―Day of the Dead in English. It was a happy and fun time for his family but also sometimes sad because they were remembering loved ones they had lost and wanted never to forget.

Suddenly Octavio recalled seeing two photographs above the beautiful table in Linh’s living room. The table wasn’t just a table―it was probably an altar for Linh’s grandparents! And the incense was like the candles that Octavio’s parents lit for their abuelos, who had died before Octavio was born.

Octavio knew he had to talk to Linh, apologize for his rudeness, and explain what he hadn’t know before. But first, he had a lot of reading to do.