The Road to Delano by John DeSimone

Author:John DeSimone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2020-01-27T19:31:57+00:00

Chapter 21

Long Night

Jack took his time in the locker room, shaking hands with teammates and their fathers, taking his time dressing, letting the players filter out until Coach called him into his office. Kish wanted updated transcripts. If everything checked out, the offer would come in the mail—a full ride.

Coach cracked a broad smile, rehashing the highlights of the game. Jack let the conversation drag on as Coach rehearsed his pitches, pointing out the good and the bad. He nodded, encouraging the man to give a full blow-by-blow analysis. He wanted to cross an empty lot to Adrian’s truck.

He would deal with his mother and her disappointment when he got home. Right now, even Sheriff Grant and his threats existed in another world. Jack was going to LA in a few months, and nothing would change that.

As far as he could see, arresting him for beating Chuey Lopez was something that wouldn’t stick. Local courts rarely convicted white guys of assaulting Mexicans. It just didn’t happen. All the witnesses to the beating were in the country illegally. They wouldn’t dare testify against him. Grant and Kauffman’s threats were nothing but a big bluff.

By the time Coach had finished scrutinizing his game and congratulating him, a couple of hours had passed. Adrian would be sitting in his truck waiting. When Jack crossed the empty lot, he spotted Adrian by the front bumper talking to a girl. Was that Darcy? What was she doing here? Right after the game, in the crush of excitement, Ella had found him and invited him and Adrian to her house for dinner. She and Darcy would be home now getting ready.

“Hey, what’s up?” He called to her, but the girl didn’t turn. He dropped his gym bag and moved beside Adrian.

“Hey,” he said. Her face was hidden in shadows so he didn’t recognize her. In the tick of silence that followed, she raised her eyes. He stood speechless in the twilight.

“I didn’t think you would remember me.” She wore the same jeans and blouse as the day he met her in the fields. The hard edge of her voice brought everything back. “Sabrina.” Her tight smile reminded him of the girl who defied Lopez.

“You are looking for me, muchacho?”

“We brought some medicine for your mother the other day, and they said you’d gone away.”

“That sheriff made me lie. That I see another man, a UFW hombre, beat Lopez,” she said, standing beside him with her hands in her pockets.

“That was Adrian’s father.” Jack nodded toward his friend.

“Sí, I know that now.”

“Why did you do that?” Adrian asked.

“He tells me we’d get medicine if I say things. So I did. Then they moved us to another ranch. The place is worse than a pigsty.”

“He knows where you’re staying?”

“He knows since the day you nearly killed that cholo.”

“What did you tell the sheriff?”

“That Lopez attacks me, and you come over and hit him. He said I’m lying and need to go back to Mexico. But I tell him my mother will die if we have to get on that bus.

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