Ruby drowsed in the back of the truck, wishing she could plunge into a body of water. A warm gulf, vast ocean, becalmed sea, river. Specifically the Salmon River, where her aunt had a house. Her happiest memories were on the river.
But Ruby’s fate was landlocked. Dry dusty ground, scrubby plants, monotonous blue skies, and panoramic vistas of the same shit in all directions. A desert prison, emblematic of thirst, filled with brown barren mountains, brown dirt fields, brown adobe houses.
“Water,” she smacked her lips. A reminder it was time to go home. She zipped her jeans, stuffed her bra in a back pocket, grabbed her boots, and headed down the dusty road.
“Hey, you!” Kate called from the garden.
Ruby sauntered across the yard, her breasts high and firm on her statuesque torso. Her sturdy curvaceous rump swinging side to side. At sixteen, she was four inches taller than her mother and outweighed her by twenty pounds. She wasn’t as dark as other hippy kids who weren’t all gringo. They were regarded as Hispanic, Latino, Indian, Native, but not Ruby. Mulatto used to be the word but no one said that anymore.
“Where you been, Ruby Ryan?” Kate’s voice trilled. As usual, she was trying too hard.
Ruby hated when her mother made their encounters seem like normal happy events. Kate’s cheerfulness in the ruins of their existence was an insult to common sense.
“In my penthouse, n’est-ce pas?” Ruby sneered, ambling to her mother’s side and planting a desultory kiss on her cheek. A loveless gesture that passed as affection in Kate’s mind.
“How about breakfast?” Kate cooed. She was coddling but she’d be delighted to make huevos rancheros with tortillas, homemade green chile, fresh-squeezed juice for her girl.
“I’d puke,” Ruby said.
Kate swallowed her words. A critique would run Ruby into her room or back to the truck. Instead, she turned to the mountains and sky. Zamora was a place for gods if there were gods.
“Been drinking?” Kate couldn’t resist.
Sucking the ends of her hair, Ruby stumbled around the chickens and flats of seedlings, entered the door, and slouched to her room, avoiding the toxic dump site called Troy Mason.