The Cocalero Novels Bundle by Deborah Ellis

Author:Deborah Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV000000
Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd
Published: 2016-09-29T16:11:43+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

Diego woke up with a start, breathing heavily and sweating as if he’d been running. He thought he had screamed, but maybe he hadn’t. Around him the Ricardo family slept undisturbed on their pallets. The scream must have been contained inside his head.

Gently he slid out from the blanket he shared with Martino and Santo, crossed the small one-room hut and unlatched the door. He heard the guinea pigs shuffling around in their new pen.

If only everything were that easy to fix.

Diego stepped outside into the Bolivian night full of the sounds of insects and night birds. He wasn’t afraid of the dark. Bad things could just as easily happen when the sun shone. The sun had been shining when his parents were arrested. The sun had been shining when Mando was killed.

The cool air calmed him. He walked to the animal pen. The llama turned away, but the donkey trotted up to say hello. Diego ran his hands through its mane and blew gently in its ears.

He was fine now. He was alive and, thanks to the Ricardos, he was getting strong again. He’d find a way soon to make money — maybe in the village — and he would find some way to get home, with money in his pockets.

With a final rub of the donkey’s ears, Diego turned around to go back to bed.

Bonita was standing in his way.

“Tell me now,” she said. “What trouble are you bringing to my family?”

Diego looked down and saw she was pointing that old rusty rifle of hers at him. She’d found it in the bush, dropped by some forgotten soldier during some forgotten war. Even if it could shoot, the family had no bullets.

“What have you done?” she said again. “What are you running from?”

“I killed a man,” Diego said, before he even knew he was going to say anything. “He was a gringo, responsible for the death of my friend. I left him to die alone in the jungle.”

As he spoke the simple words of the awful story, Diego felt calm, as if he was giving a report in school.

He didn’t tell her how frightened he’d been. He didn’t talk about how sad he felt whenever he thought of Mando. Bonita was smart. She’d know.

She kept looking at him. “Is anyone after you now?”

“I didn’t see anyone else. His men probably think we’re both dead.”

“More money for them,” Bonita said. Diego was right. She was smart. She lowered the rifle, then raised it again. “What about the police? Or the army? Will they come after you?”

“They were after Smith,” Diego said. “I don’t think they’d care if they found out he’s dead.”

“So, no reward for turning you in,” Bonita said, lowering the rifle again and keeping it lowered this time. “I’m just thinking of my family. I don’t know you.”

“You could get to know me,” Diego suggested.

“You won’t be here that long,” said Bonita, as she turned away. “I’m going back to bed. Some of us have to work in the morning.

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