Chapter Nineteen

Maricruz and Amanda had waited about a mile away.  When the guys finally showed up, they decided as a group that they’d head straight into downtown to Maricruz’s apartment upstairs from the restaurant.  Maricruz and Amanda would stay there so Maricruz could draw Amanda a hot bath, get her some clean clothes, and get started on breakfast.   When Maricruz started working through the plan out loud, Amanda finally spoke up, allowing Maricruz to hear the youth in her voice for the first time.  “A bath?” Amanda asked in disbelief, almost looking like she might cry.  “Like a real hot bath in an actual tub?”  Maricruz thought that Amanda’s voice sounded like she’d just found out she’d won a trip to Disney World.  She’d later learn why Amanda had been so excited about the bath when Amanda would tell her that she hadn’t been able to clean herself with anything but wet wipes (when at all) for three years, ever since that first bastard tricked her into the hotel in Chicago.  When she heard Amanda’s reaction that morning as they worked through the logistics, Maricruz couldn’t help but think of how she had been taught from birth by her own parents and by Abuelita about the importance of hospitality to strangers.  “You might be entertaining angels unawares,” Abuelita always said.  If Amanda was an angel, Maricruz thought as she listened to the battered and tired girl in the oversized Wyoming Cowboys sweatshirt, she must have been traveling through on her way back to heaven from a lengthy sojourn in the fires of hell.

They also decided that Umberto and Lyle would drive the snowmobiles over to Maricruz’s parents’ house, hurrying as fast as they could to get there before the plows started clearing all the streets between downtown and their neighborhood, leaving the snowmobiles stranded.  Lyle would try to help deflect some of the blame from Umberto and paint him and Maricruz not as thieves bent on giving their parents high blood pressure and heart attacks but as heroes who’d risked their own safety to save Lyle, and unknowingly to save a lost, abandoned, and abused girl.  Lyle would figure out how to get back to the apartment, bringing Benny home with him.  They’d eat breakfast, get a little sleep, and then they’d decide how to handle the police in regard to the stolen car.  That was the plan anyway.  Everyone agreed and they headed east, riding side-by-side as they finally passed the “Melon Capital of the World” sign and approached Rocky Ford’s snow-buried main drag.

While some towns might have looked abandoned the morning after a blizzard, the folks in southeastern Colorado aren’t the kind of folks who sit around waiting for the snow to melt.  Wheat doesn’t cut itself and watermelons don’t pick themselves either.  You don’t live in Rocky Ford, Colorado if you’re looking for an easy life.  Maricruz knew that from experience, but it was home after all.  As they made their way through town a couple of high school kids, who were earning money by digging out the doors of the Grand Theater, waved to the four of them.  Most of the buildings downtown, however, were merely vacant monuments to a prosperous past that almost no one alive had ever experienced.  As Maricruz and Umberto made the final turn onto Main Street they both came to a stop when they saw the plow heading in the opposite direction, clearing the street of more than a foot of snow.  They’d have to come up from behind the restaurant through the still buried alley.  They did just that, but as they approached the rear of the restaurant, Maricruz’s face went flush and her heart began to race.  She motioned to Umberto, but she knew he’d already seen him standing there, huffing and puffing over a snow shovel, clearing a path from the back door to the dumpster.  Their father, Fernando, turned around, turned off the mariachi music he was listening to on the boombox he'd brought out from the kitchen, and then leaned against the handle of the shovel when he saw them coming. 

“That’s my dad,” Maricruz said, turning her head back toward Amanda, who still had her arms wrapped tightly around Maricruz’s waist as they slowed to a stop.  “He’s going to be super-pissed at us for taking the snowmobiles.  It might be better if you just hang back for a few minutes while Umberto and I calm him down.”

Maricruz and Umberto both parked their snowmobiles and turned off the engines, but both also took their time taking off their goggles and ski masks.  Maricruz made every movement as slowly as possible, hoping that Umberto might take the first steps toward their father, and only then would she follow closely behind.  Umberto, however, seemed to have the same strategy.  Their father, who was wearing khaki pants, a navy blue stocking cap that covered up his silver hair, and a bulky parka that covered up his belly that he always blamed on his responsibility to taste everything for “quality control,” started in on them immediately, letting the shovel fall into the snow so he could flail his arms around dramatically to make his point.

“Well if it isn’t my children, Bonnie and Clyde!” he said with his arms open and palms up like he was announcing the arrival of royalty.  “I hope you two had fun, because I have had a hell of a morning because of you.”

Maricruz swallowed hard before fulfilling her role as the older of the two siblings, approaching her father slowly.  “Hi Daddy,” she said with a smile that soon dissolved when her father continued.

“Do you want to know how I got here this morning?” he asked.  “Of course you don’t, because you don’t care, but I’m going to tell you anyway.  I walked.  I walked almost a mile in foot deep snow to come uncover our family’s restaurant, the same restaurant that pays your bills Maricruz.”  He pointed in her direction, before turning his finger toward Umberto, who had finally joined his sister.  “The same restaurant that keeps me from having to kick you out of my house, Umberto!”

Umberto started to say, “We’re sorry, Dad, but—”

“I’m not finished yet, Son,” Fernando barked, silencing Umberto immediately.  “Not only did you two force a sixty-three-year-old man to have to hike through the snow like some sort of Eskimo, but you two had your mother pacing in the kitchen all morning, and she even wanted to call the police to see if they could go find you so you didn’t get yourselves killed.”

Maricruz clinched her teeth and exchanged worried looks with Umberto when she heard of her mother calling the police.  She had no idea what the penalty might actually be for evading a police roadblock while on a snowmobile but she wasn’t interested in finding out either.

“Luckily for you two criminals,” her father continued, getting more and more worked up with each word, “I talked her out of that.”  Oh, thank God, Maricruz thought as her father said, “I told her that if you two think you’re so brave, so smart, we should let you find your own way out of it.”

Maricruz glanced back to the snowmobiles to see that Lyle had walked over and was standing by Amanda, leaning down whispering something in her ear.  He gave Maricruz a little wave and a smile that said, “I’m 100% with you, Honey, even though I’m standing way over here.”  Actually, she was glad he hadn’t come over.  Her father was not in the right frame of mind to speak to Lyle for the first time in ninety days since Lyle’s friends had trashed Los Tres Hermanos and Lyle had scared Maricruz and Benny, almost killing himself as he fell down the stairs.  They’d have plenty of time to patch things up in the coming days.  Maricruz just hoped that her father would quickly blow off the steam that had been building inside him as he shoveled the path from the back door to the dumpster.  But it seemed that he was just getting started.

Fernando didn’t slow down but kept digging in to Umberto, “You’ve already had your fun, Son.  There’s no way you’re going to spend the day riding around on that thing with your brothers.  No, what you’re going to do is go home and clean yourself up and then bring your butt back here to help me open this place up.  The highway’s being cleared as we speak and people who were stuck in Pueblo last night are going to drive by here today and they just might be in the mood for tacos and flautas.  You want to be a businessman, Umberto?  You want to make money off people who would rather lift weights than lift boxes at a real job then you need to know that this is what it looks like to own a business.”  Fernando pointed at the shovel.  “It looks like waking up early when you could sleep in, walking a mile in the deep snow would you could stay home, opening up when you could stay closed.”

“Take it easy on him, Dad,” Maricruz said as she reached out and put her arm around her brother, who was looking off to the side, avoiding his father’s gaze.

“That’s exactly the problem, Maricruz,” her father responded.  “He’s a grown man who works part-time selling vitamins and powder to make shakes that taste like wall putty, and he still lives in my house, eats my groceries, steals snowmobiles from my driveway, and you want me to take it easy on him?  I’ve been taking it easy on him.  His whole life is easy.”

Umberto pulled away from his sister and began to walk back to the snowmobile.  “Come on, Dad,” Maricruz pleaded.  “Take that back.”  Fernando didn’t say anything.  Maricruz turned to her brother and called out, “Please Umberto, don’t go yet.”  She felt horrible.  Her father wouldn’t have said any of that had Umberto not been helping her.  She watched as Umberto put his ski mask and goggles back on and started the engine, revving it as loud as he could as he took off at full throttle past the dumpsters and down the long alley that ran behind the row of brick building that had lined Main Street since the late 1800’s.

Maricruz turned to her father,  “Dad, did you really have to do that?”

“He needs to grow up, Mari, like I thought you had grown up years ago.  But sneaking off on rented snowmobiles?  I would have guessed he’d do it, but you too Mari?  Do you know that Benny was scared to death when he woke up and you weren’t there?  He kept going to the front window, looking to see if you were home yet, asking if he could go out to find you.  Plus, because of you and your brother’s little stunt, I called Father Carl this morning to cancel taking him around to see the widows and shut-ins this morning.  I couldn’t have him depending on me when I had no idea when you were coming home, if you would come home.  I let down the church, Maricruz.  The church.”

Maricruz knew better than to remind her father that she knew he had only volunteered to transport Father Carl to check on the elderly members of the congregation so he could write off the rental of the snowmobiles on his taxes as a donation to the church.  Her father, even in his religion, was always a businessman.

When Fernando, whose face seemed to pulse with the deep red hue of anger and disappointment, paused to catch his breath, Maricruz finally had a chance to try to convince her father that what they’d done was worthwhile.  “I know you’re mad, Daddy, but look, we did find Lyle and he’s okay.”  She motioned for Lyle to come up to join them.  “He earned his ninety-day coin.  He’s been sober for three months, Daddy, just like he promised he would be.  He’s had a horrible night.  He almost died trying to get here to see me and Benny, but he’s safe.  He’s safe because Umby and I were willing to take a risk to help him.  I know you’re upset but when you think about it later you’ll see that what we did wasn’t because we wanted to make you mad or because we didn’t care how it would affect you.”  She pulled one of her gloves off and placed her hand on her father’s shoulder and then on his cheek, bringing her face closer to his.  “Daddy,” she whispered.  “We did it because it was the right thing to do, and you raised us to do the right thing, to put others first.  That’s what I did, and that’s definitely what Umberto did.  You were too hard on him, Daddy.  The truth is that Umberto was brave.  What that looks like, Daddy, is riding into the face of a blizzard to try to find someone you don’t even care for—sorry, Lyle, you two will get along eventually—just because your sister loves him when you could have either gone back to bed or woken everyone in the house up to stop her.  I know we scared you and Mom and Benny but—”

Fernando looked down at the ground, appearing embarrassed by how irate he had become and remorseful for how he’d spoken to his youngest son.  “Don’t say anymore, Maricruz.  Don’t say anymore.  You are right.  I will make it up to him later, somehow.”  It was then that Fernando looked up toward Lyle who was six or seven inches taller than he and spoke to Lyle.  “Show me the coin.  I want to see it.”  Lyle unzipped his coveralls and dug down into his jeans pocket and produced it, handing the green coin over to Fernando, who looked at it closely on both sides and read the Serenity Prayer aloud from one of the sides.  “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  He handed it back to Lyle and then extended his hand to him, which Lyle shook immediately.  “I’m happy for you, Lyle.  I really am.  I think you were an idiot for driving out into that storm last night but at least you were a sober idiot who was willing to die rather than be away from Mari and Benny for one more night.  You have my respect, Lyle, and as long as you stay away from the bottle and treat my daughter and grandson with tenderness then you will have my friendship as well.”

Maricruz couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  Her father had always been an understanding and forgiving man—eventually—but after the wrath he’d unleashed on Umberto, Maricruz had figured Lyle wouldn’t fair much better, maybe even worse.  Lyle seemed to be at a loss for words too because all he could muster in response was, “Thank you, Sir.  I appreciate that,” which weren’t fancy words, Maricruz acknowledged, but they were probably the only words needed. 

Fernando still hadn’t let go of Lyle’s hand, however.  “But Lyle I want you to remember,” her father said sternly, “that the last time I saw you, your lot of drunken cowboys were tearing my dining room apart, and then I had to stand with my weeping daughter as we held towels against your head to stop the bleeding while we waited for the ambulance.  You don’t just owe Maricruz and Benny.  You owe me, and I will expect you to make your amends to me at some point.”

Lyle’s countenance dropped as he listened to Fernando, but he kept eye contact with him the entire time.  Finally a smile came to Lyle’s face when Fernando placed his other hand on Lyle’s, shaking Lyle’s hand with both hands, and saying, “All that being said, I can’t even imagine how difficult these past ninety days have been for you.  I want you to know that anything I can do to help you, I’ll do it.  If my daughter loves you, I love you.”  Maricruz wondered if her father might actually hug Lyle, but she wasn’t surprised when he didn’t.  He’d save that for a wedding someday, which Maricruz had wondered about for months but doubted during the ninety days of separation. 

Lyle gestured for Amanda to come join them, but he finally had to walk over and talk her into coming to meet Fernando.  Maricruz still didn’t know what to think of Amanda.  She had the demeanor of an animal that had been left chained up in the backyard for years and beaten with a stick.  The way that Lyle acted around her, treating her like a precious ceramic figurine, the stories she must have told must have been terrible.  Whatever it was that had happened to her, it had fully opened a door within Lyle’s heart that Maricruz had seen slowly opening in her relationship with him, in his relationship with Benny, and when he came back from meeting Savannah in Oklahoma. 

Amanda used her fingers to move her hair away from her face to tuck it behind her ears.  The way she looked at Fernando, it was like she expected to be scolded.  All that Lyle said to Fernando was that he had happened upon her curled up in the backseat of a stranded car, that she didn’t have a family, and that she’d be staying with Maricruz for the time being.  A lot of this very basic and vague information was still news to Maricruz too and as she heard it Maricruz felt compelled to stand beside Amanda as well, putting her arm around her, and saying something to accelerate the conversation with her father so she could take Amanda upstairs to her apartment to a quiet place where hopefully she’d know she was safe.

After a few more brief comments, Maricruz promised her father that after she took care of a few things upstairs that she’d come down to help out.  She gave him a kiss on the cheek and then turned to Lyle and gave him another long kiss, nuzzling her lips in to find his beneath his frozen bush of a beard.  She hugged him, not wanting to let him go but he finally pulled away slowly and said, “I’ll bring Benny back as soon as I can.  Maybe your brother’s truck can get me back here.  You take care of Amanda, okay?”  Lyle turned to look at the girl.  “You can trust, Maricruz, Amanda.  She’ll take good care of you.  I’ll be back in a little while and then at some point we’ll start figuring this whole thing out.”  Amanda gave Lyle a hug and held on even longer than Maricruz had, like a child who didn’t want her father to leave for a work trip, saying “Please don’t go,” with her arms, not with her words. 

Maricruz talked Amanda into coming with her, saying, “We’ll see you fellas later.  This girl deserves a soak in the tub.”  That word “tub” actually brought a little smile to Amanda’s face.  

As the two started to walk off, Maricruz heard her father, who had picked up his shovel again, yell out to Lyle as he was about to start the snowmobile.  "Don't forget to shave sometime today," Fernando called out. "You look like that sasquatch from Star Wars!"  Maricruz saw that Lyle was laughing as he drove off down the alley, following in the same tracks Umberto had left a few minutes earlier.