Under the Same Sky (17 page)

We were shorthanded the next week, and the crew—what was left of it—and I busted our tails. As I worked, I wondered if the I.N.S. would come back, and one day one of them did. He came to the house, not out to the fields, and talked to Mom and Dad.

The guy told them he didn't make a practice of coming onto people's land and looking for trouble. But in this case, a couple of Mexicans he described as “bad apples” had been involved in a fight at a bar. Somebody had tried to break it up and had gotten badly hurt. The Mexicans had fled, and the I.N.S. was looking for them. It was suspected they'd found work on a local farm in order to stay out of sight for a while. That was why the I.N.S. had first stopped at our place and others, too, hoping to catch them unaware.

Then, when the “bad apples” weren't found, the I.N.S. was under pressure to follow up on every possibility, which was why they came back.

Mom told the officer she was sure Luisa, Rafael, and Frank weren't the ones involved, but that they'd been so scared they'd run away, too. Mom and Dad both were able to look the guy in the eye and say they didn't know where Luisa, Frank, and Rafael were now, because I had never told them.

We hoped we'd seen the last of the I.N.S. for a while.

On the following Sunday, some new workers arrived. Manuel arranged it, don't ask me how. A guy named Silvino came with his wife, Carmen, and her sister, Teresa. A couple weeks later, Hector, Victor, and a guy whose name really was José showed up for the apple harvest.

All of them had papers to show to Mom and Dad. Maybe they were legal papers, maybe not. Maybe they had left another farm the same way Luisa and Frank and Rafael had left ours. Who knew? In the meantime, the fruit and the vegetables ripened and had to be picked.

Mom and Dad and I went to family court, where I promised to be good and they promised to keep an eye on me. I paid the hundred-dollar fine out of my wages.

Not too long ago, forking over that much money would have really bummed me out. I'd have sat down and figured out how many more days I was going to have to work before I could order the Streaker, and how many days that would leave me to ride it.

But the funny thing was, I didn't think about the Streaker anymore. I didn't even want it. The
X-treme Sportz
catalog sat on my bureau for a while, but finally I threw it out. I knew I wouldn't be riding with Randy and Jason and, anyway, I had other stuff on my mind.

I got a raise to $5.50 an hour, which was pretty cool. Dad said Manuel told him that my work had improved and I deserved it. Knowing that was almost as good as having the extra money. I didn't know what I was going to do with it all, but I liked knowing it was in the bank and that I'd earned it.

I thought about Luisa all the time. I spent the long working hours trying to picture her in her new life. I imagined her up on a ladder picking apples, or playing tetherball with the milk jug that hung from the pole in the yard of her new home, wisps of hair falling in her eyes and her long braid flying.

Once, I looked up Alderman Farms in the phone book and dialed the number. When a lady answered, I hung up, feeling foolish.

One evening near the end of July, I was cutting the grass when I saw Manuel walking across the yard toward me. I shut off the mower.

“I thought you like to know,” he said, “I have heard from Luisa.”

“Really?” I said eagerly. “She called?”

He shook his head. “No, I hear from Ginny. She saw them—Luisa, and Frank, and Rafael.”

“So how are they? Are they okay?”

“Yes, Ginny says so. She says their new bosses are nice. Luisa and Frank and Rafael will stay for apples, until the middle of November. They send their greetings to everyone here.”

I waited. “That's it?” I asked, wanting to hear more, wanting to hear
anything
about Luisa.

“That's it,” Manuel said, and started to go. Then he turned back. “Oh, yes, I almost forgot. There is a message from Luisa for you, also.”

“
What?
” I said.

Manuel started to laugh, and I saw that he had been teasing me by holding the news from Luisa until last. “But it doesn't make sense,” he said apologetically. “Maybe you no want to hear.”

“Just tell me!”

“You sure you want to hear?”

“Tell me!”

“Okay. She said”—he drew his words out slowly, tantalizingly—“to say to you that she is looking at the same sky.” He gave me a puzzled frown and shrugged. “But you see? I told you. It makes no sense.”

I didn't tell Manuel that to me it made perfect, beautiful, wonderful sense. I couldn't have spoken right then, even if I'd wanted to, because my heart felt as if it had risen right up to fill my throat. Instead, I looked at the sky, at the sun that was also shining on Luisa in Sodus. I closed my eyes and let it warm my face.

Later that night, I sat under the maple tree and watched the stars come out, and then the moon, and felt Luisa watching them, too.

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The Ghost and Mrs. Hobbs

Nowhere to Call Home

The Ghost of Cutler Creek

The Missing Manatee

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The Real, True Dulcie Campbell
, a picture book illustrated by R. W. Alley

Old Granny and the Bean Thief
, a picture book illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith