Jack In The Green (2 page)

There's a cop standing in the hall—a black guy in a dark suit, white shirt, no tie, excellent hair. He shows her his badge. She doesn't look at it. She doesn't need to look at a badge to know he's a cop. Standing in the hall behind him is another one. This one's Hispanic. All she's wearing is an oversized T-shirt. He gives her an appreciative once-over but doesn't meet her gaze.

She leans against the doorframe, arms folded across her chest. She doesn't invite them in and they don't ask.

"Maria Martinez?" the black cop asks.

She nods.

"And you're an employee of Vado Viejo Maid Services?"

She nods again. She has an idea what this is about, but she's not going to make it easy for them.

"Your boss says you were working in the Anderson House in Desert View today."

"So?" she says.

She hopes nothing shows in her face.

"We were wondering if you saw anything unusual on the street while you were there."

She shakes her head. "Why? What happened?"

"The house next to where you were working was broken into this afternoon."

"If you saw anything,
chica
," the Hispanic cop adds, "now's the time to tell us. That way, maybe we won't put Immigration on your ass."

"Screw you," she tells him. "I was born here."

"Dial it down, Gonzales," the black cop says over his shoulder, then turns back to her, "And you, watch your mouth."

Maria gives him a cold look. "Are we done?"

"Almost. Are you sure you didn't see anything?"

"I was working. You don't exactly get time to daydream out a window if you're going to make your quota. Why are you pushing on this anyway? Since when does the law get all worked up about a simple break-in?"

"We take every crime seriously."

"And it's got nothing to do with it having happened in Desert View?"

"Of course not."

"So," she says, "let me get this straight. Last year my apartment got broken into and you guys did nothing.
Nada
. But a few weeks ago the cops shut down a party we were having and it wasn't even late. And now I'm supposed to give a crap about a bunch of rich gringos living in Desert View?"

The Hispanic cop frowns and takes a step forward, but his partner puts up a hand and he stops. The black cop sighs and hands her a business card.

"If you remember anything," he says, "call me."

Maria watches them until they turn into the stairwell. They're talking, but she only catches a bit of their conversation.

"…going to catch those bastards sooner or later."

She steps back inside her apartment. Closing the door, she tosses the business card in the trash.

When they are fifteen, Luz gets suspended from school for fighting, which is completely unfair since she'd only been standing up to a bully. Maria says as much when she comes by Luz's house after school, but Luz only laughs.

"Don't you get it yet?" she says. "This is a life lesson."

Maria shakes her head. "No, I don't get it. Do you mean you shouldn't have stopped Blair from picking on Perlita?"

"Of course not," she says. She taps her index finger against Maria's forehead. "Think about it. This just reminds us that if you're rich and white, you can do whatever you want. You're always in the right. It's the brown-skinned girls like us who are always wrong."

"I hate this," Maria says.

Luz doesn't respond. She doesn't have to.

Maria points to some pebbles laid out in a line on the bedspread in between them.

"What are you doing with those?" she asks.

"It's something Abuela taught me."

By now Maria knows Luz doesn't mean either of her real grandmothers. She's talking about the old woman who lives in the small adobe building at the end of the block. Her yard is always full of stray dogs. She has the desert on one side of her, the headquarters of the 66 Bandas on the other, but the gangbangers never bother her or her clients. They wouldn’t dare.

That's because she's a
brujá
. She's like the bottle tree man, except her magic is in potions and the silver
milagros
she makes and sells. People use them to ask favours of the Saints. They're simple compared to the commercial kind in the stores, and they cost more, but everybody believes they work better so she has no lack of customers.

"They're magic stones?" Maria asks.

"Not yet. But she told me if you choose right, and if you carry that pebble around for a long time and fill it with the intent that it become magic, one day it will actually happen. And then you will be able to use that magic."

"
Verdad
?"

Luz nods.

"What are you going to do with it?" Maria asks.

"I don't know yet. Abuela says your intent has to be pure. I can't make my mind up yet, but I can focus on the pebble so that when it's ready, I'll be ready, too."

Maria's not sure what to think. Luz is always talking about
brujería
and the spirits. She says hawks are actually old men who have been drinking mescal tea to free their wings, and that some people walk around with animals under their skin. Maria believed the stories when she was younger. Now she's pretty sure that's all they are. Stories.

But still…

She points to a small black pebble that seems to hold the night just under its surface.

"That one," she says.

Luz smiles. "I thought so, too."

Maria's with her girls at the San Pedro Skating Center. She met Consuela through work. Veronica used to go out with Maria's brother and they stayed friends after the break-up, much to Pablo's annoyance. The girls sit on metal chairs, plastic cups of beer in hand, cheering for their team.

It's loud in the center. The wheels of the girls' skates on the wooden track compete with the shouting of the crowd and the band playing on the small stage on the far side of the center. The VVers are skating hard, but Los Vampiros' new jammer is in the zone and she's racking up the points. The girls should be unhappy that their team is losing, but like everyone else, they're entranced by the poetry of Baby Luna's movements as she darts and bobs in amongst the other girls on the track.

When the current jam is over the whole center erupts in spontaneous applause. It's the end of the second period. Baby Luna pumps a fist in the air, grinning at the crowd before she joins the rest of her team exiting the track.

"Man," Connie says. "Can that girl move."

Maria nods.

Veronica nudges her. "Hey. Check out the cute gringo checking
you
out."

Maria looks across the track and sees him immediately. It's the boy who was with Luz and the rest of the gang that robbed the house in Desert View. He's still wearing his green hoodie, but the hood's down, letting his red gold curls spill out to frame his face. He's even better looking than she remembers.

He grins and there's a knowing look in his eyes when he catches her gaze. She ducks her head. She has the oddest feeling that he can read her mind.

Veronica gives her another nudge.

"You should talk to him," she says. "Just go over and say hello."

"Yeah," Connie adds. "What've you got to lose?"

Everything, Maria thinks. She has no idea why that seems possible. But she gets up from her chair.

"Sure," she says. "Why not?"

Before she can lose her nerve, she's circling the track, aiming for where the handsome red-haired boy is sitting. His gaze tracks her movement, but she's feeling more confident now. It helps that she's turning a few heads along the way. She knows she looks good—much better than she did in the sweats she was wearing this afternoon while working: white tank with a fringed black vest, jean mini-skirt, red cowboy boots. Her hair's up in a loose chignon, her makeup's light and fresh. A silver and turquoise Taxco bracelet that used to belong to her grandmother dangles on her wrist.

The red-haired boy has his crew sitting with him—there's a vibe that connects them all. It seems more like a brotherhood vibe than a gang thing, which is good because you don't bring a gang into 66 Bandas territory. To his right are two dark-haired barrio boys in skater shorts and oversized tees. To his left is the big black guy who kicked down the door of the place they robbed this afternoon. Dreadlocks frame his round face. On the next seat over is another red-haired white boy who could be the leader's brother or cousin. There's a family resemblance, but he's…prettier is the best way she can describe it. He doesn't have the same look of steel in his eyes that the leader does. The leader is the only one still wearing his green hoodie.

When she gets close enough, the black guy and the other red-haired boy move over a seat, leaving an empty chair beside the leader. The leader stands up, still smiling, but now he reaches out a hand. She takes it without thinking. He doesn't shake, he just holds her hand in his. His hand is warm and she doesn't want to take hers away. She feels like she might get lost in his hazel eyes.

"Great to see you again," he says, pulling her gently toward him.

She gets a little ping of worry. Are they going to spirit her away, use her up and then dump her in some arroyo so that she can't finger them to the cops? She wouldn't be the first.

But for some reason she trusts him.

"My name's Jack," he adds.

Then he introduces his crew. The barrio boys he calls the Glimmer Twins. She sees they're holding hands. She smiles at them. The black guy is Ti Jean and she can hear the Caribbean in his accent when he says hello.

"And that's my cousin Will," Jack adds, nodding to the other red-haired boy, who smiles back at her.

Maria can't quite place Jack's accent. It's British or Scottish, or some mix of the two. She imagines Will must sound like him.

"I'm Maria," she tells them.

She lets Jack steer her to the empty chair. She tugs at the hem of her skirt, but it's too short to make any difference. She presses her thighs close together.

"So how do you know Luz?" she says to Jack.

"Now that's a story," he says, "though it's not the easiest to tell. Lucia is a part of a lot of stories and they all kind of tangle into each other. Maybe we could go for a drink after the next bout and compare notes."

"What makes you think I'll go anywhere with five boys I don't know?"

"You could bring your friends," Ti Jean says.

Will nods. "Yes, you really ought to invite your friends," he says, his accent sounding like Jack's. "Why not call them over right now, so that we can meet them?"

"Maybe I will and maybe I won't," she says.

She's about to ask them where they're all from when she spots the person she's been looking for ever since Veronica pointed Jack out to her. Luz. She's standing at the front of the stage, just under a speaker. The band is rocking and Luz is grinning. She pumps a fist in the air to the infectious beat.

Maria leans closer to Jack and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"I need to see someone for a moment," she says. "Don't go away."

"Boy or girl?" Jack asks.

She looks at the Glimmer Twins, still holding hands.

"Does it matter?" she asks.

"Only to what could be," he tells her, looking right into her eyes.

She smiles.

"Hold that thought," she says.

She stands up and makes her way over to the stage.

When they are sixteen, Luz shows up at Maria's house while Maria is making dinner. She slouches in a chair at the kitchen table and watches Maria cook tortillas in an iron frying pan. When each one is done, Maria puts it in a small quilted-cotton pouch that she keeps in the oven. On the stovetop is a pot of
carne seca
. Another holds a spicy mixture of beans and rice. Chopped tomatoes and lettuce and a heap of grated cheese wait on a cutting board.

"I'm going away," Luz says.

Maria has known for a long time that this day was coming. The barrio has always been too small to contain the force of nature that is Luz. She just didn't think it would be so soon.

"When?" she asks.

"Tonight."

"Where will you go?"

Luz shrugs. "I don't know. L.A. for starters."

"But what will you do there?"

"What are the two things I care about the most?"

"You mean beside looking good and having fun?"

Luz grins. "Styling and having fun—those are just a given. There's no point in living without them."

She takes out the black pebble that she's carried with her for over a year and shows it to Maria, holding it between her thumb and forefinger.

"I'm talking about magic," she says. "And fighting injustice."

"You can't fight injustice with magic," Maria says.

"Maybe you're right," Luz tells her. "But maybe not. I think it's all we've got left."

"And you're going to find magic in L.A.?"

"Probably not. But I've got to start somewhere. And Adelita has a place in Venice Beach, so I can crash with her for a week or so."

Maria wants to beg her not to throw her life away for something that doesn't exist. Magic's only in stories and there is no justice for brown-skinned girls like them. But she knows Luz too well. She can't be talked out of something like this.

"Good luck," she says.

Maria doesn't see her again until Luz is robbing the banker's house in Desert View.

Maria's not sure what sort of a welcome she can expect from Luz. It's been a few years now and clearly their lives have gone in very different directions. She's a maid working in rich people's homes. Luz robs those same houses. They probably have nothing in common anymore.

But Luz's eyes light up as soon as she catches sight of Maria. She enfolds her in a tight embrace.

She says something, but Maria can't hear her over the band. Maria motions towards the door and mouths, "Let's go outside!"

Luz nods and they leave the center. The desert night is cool and the breeze coming in from the Hierro Madera Mountains feels good on their skin. It's quieter, too, though they can still hear the band. There are people all around, smoking and talking.

"You look amazing," Luz says.

"So do you."

And she does. She's sleek and trim, her hair twisted into a long braid that hangs halfway down her back. Her Capris ride low on shapely hips and a sleeveless T shows off muscular arms.