She Had No Choice by Debra Burroughs

Author:Debra Burroughs [Debra Burroughs]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 0983859019
Amazon: B005MEKR20
Published: 2011-09-09T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13: Carlos’s Mean Trick

It was summer, 1948. There was a lot of work to be done in the fields, picking tomatoes, harvesting onions, and picking apricots in the orchard. Carlos had decided to move the family to the farm camp near Tres Pinos for more than just the summer. He had found a farmer to hire him on his large farm to work full time, and he gave them another rundown, old house to live in. At least, this one was a little larger than the last.

Carlos thought moving the family to the farm was a great idea because then it would be easy to have the older kids help him work the farm on the weekends and school breaks, not just the summers. This meant the children would be working more, would be isolated, and they would have to ride the school bus from Tres Pinos to Hollister when school resumed in the fall.

It was August, which was an especially hot part of the summer. Eva had just turned sixteen. She and some of the older brothers had worked hard all week in the fields. Carlos told them he would take them to the movie theater in Hollister on Saturday because they had worked so hard and brought a good week’s pay into the house.

“Really? Are you really going to take them to the movies, Carlos?” Mama asked.

Mama was surprised by the offer, but she was glad to see her older children would have a break from the work for awhile. She wanted them to simply be happy kids, if only for a few hours.

“I said I was, didn’t I?” Carlos replied, acting irritated that she questioned him.

Eva and her brothers spent the morning getting ready and looking forward to going to town for some fun. It wasn’t often they were allowed to spend the family’s hard-earned money on such “foolishness”, as Carlos would say. Of course, he never described his drinking as “foolishness”, but he thought there was no need for the kids to spend money on anything fun. However, for some unknown reason, he offered to reward them for their hard work.

The movies started at noon on Saturday, and they would be showing some news reels and cartoons before the double feature. Eva and the boys excitedly looked forward to this day off.

About eleven o’clock on Saturday morning, they piled into Carlos’s pickup truck, with Eva and Carlos in the cab and the five brothers in the back. Mama stayed home to watch the younger children. It was about half an hour’s ride to Hollister from Tres Pinos.

On the outskirts of Hollister was an old bar called “Johnny’s.” This was one of Carlos’s favorite hangouts after a long week in the fields. Unexpectedly, instead of driving past the bar, Carlos pulled over to the side of the road. The kids were surprised that he stopped here since the plan was to get to the movie theater before the show started. That’s what Papa had promised them.

“No, we can’t stop here,” Eva said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.