When Abel got home from school on Tuesday, Penelope was just coming in too. She flopped down in front of the television set and reached into her backpack for a huge apple fritter. The fritter was on its way toward her mouth when Mom came into the room.
“Penelope Ruiz!” Mom screamed. “What are you doing? We’re having dinner in a couple of hours, and you’re stuffing yourself with some unhealthy, greasy apple fritter!” Mom’s wrath quickly refocused on Abel.
“Abel, shame on you, bringing that junk home when you know your sister shouldn’t be eating that stuff!”
“Mom,” Abel explained patiently, “I didn’t bring the apple fritter home. I don’t bring anything home from that place. It makes me sick just looking at it.”
Mom grabbed Penelope’s backpack and cried, “This is full of disgusting greasy pastries, bear claws, hideous glazed donuts. Penelope, what is going on? You know you’re putting on too much weight and this garbage isn’t good for you. Where did you get all this stuff? Did you spend your whole week’s allowance in one day?”
“I didn’t buy any of it,” Penelope answered. “A girl at school was passing them all out. She was giving stuff to all the girls. And I am not putting on weight. Stop saying that, Mom. You want me to be one of those horrible skinny girls who don’t eat anything?”
Mom snatched all the pastries and dumped them into the garbage bag in the kitchen. Both kids heard her comment from the kitchen. “These are going out where they belong, in the trash.”
“Mommm,” Penelope wailed. “You could at least give them to the poor at that Father Joe’s Village.”
“The poor don’t deserve this kind of greasy garbage either,” Mom declared, coming back to the living room, backpack in hand. “Shame on that girl passing out stuff like this. She shouldn’t be giving junk food away to the children. Doesn’t she realize the obesity problem in this country—in the barrio! Does she want to give all the kids diabetes and heart trouble? Who is this girl anyway? Is she one of your friends, Penelope?”
“No,” Penelope sighed. “Her mom owns the donut shop where Abel works.”
“Sarah?” Abel commented. “She’s kinda weird.”
“Yeah,” Penelope agreed. “She doesn’t have many friends ’cause she acts older than everybody else. I guess she thought we’d like her better if she gave us all this stuff.”
Abel grimaced. “Know what, Mom? Elena Suarez, Sarah’s mother, she’s kind of a scatterbrain. It’s no wonder the kid is weird.”
Abel was dying to tell his mother the whole sad story. He wanted to talk about how Elena accused him and Paul of stealing her sixty dollars, how she made them give her their wallets and empty their pockets. He wanted to talk to his mother, but he didn’t dare. She’d get so upset she’d demand that he quit his job at once. And he didn’t want to do that. Making money was too good. Mom was pretty stingy with the money she gave Abel. Before he got his job, he wouldn’t have even been able to pay for Claudia’s frozen yogurt. So Abel didn’t dare talk about what happened at the donut shop.
Mom then sat down at her work area in the living room. She wanted to finish the scarves she was working on before making dinner.
Penelope walked over to where Abel was working on the computer and whispered, “Sarah uses weed, Abel.”
Abel looked up. “You sure?” he asked her in a very quiet tone.
“Yeah, she had this weird little cigarette. She offered us all a drag on it,” Penelope explained. They were speaking in hushed voices, like convicts in prison.
“You didn’t try it, did you?” Abel asked. Penelope often annoyed Abel, but she was his little sister and he loved her. He didn’t want her to get into trouble.
“No, I was scared to,” Penelope answered. “I was scared Mom would find out and kill me. I mean, not really kill me. But you know what I mean. You’re kind of scared of Mom too, aren’t you? I know Dad is.”
“Yeah,” Abel admitted, “we’re all a little scared of Mom. She’s a real strong woman. But she loves us, and she wants what’s best for us. And smoking dope isn’t good for anybody. You smoke dope, and the next thing you know, you’re in bigger trouble.”
Abel wanted to drive the point home with his sister. “The other night I saw cop cars at the Costa house down the street. Their kids been smoking dope. Now I saw the cops take one of them away in handcuffs. The mom and dad were standing there crying. I don’t know what the dude did. But I’ve seen him at Chavez smoking dope. Maybe they caught him dealing. The kid’s a sophomore. It looked weird seeing him in handcuffs, Penelope. I think the kid was crying too. His hair was all messy, like the cops just got him out of bed.”
Apparently, Penelope was only half listening. She asked, “Abel, tell me the truth. Am I fat?”
Abel laughed. “No, you’re not fat, Penny. But you could be if you keep eating too many apple fritters.”
On Wednesday, Abel and Claudia were working the counter with a new kid Elena had just hired. His name was Zeno. Abel couldn’t believe he was breaking Zeno in, just as Paul broke him in a few weeks ago. Zeno seemed to be a nice kid and catching on quickly. Abel didn’t know whether he should feel sorry for the kid. Would Elena pounce on him eventually with one of her accusations? Abel didn’t have to wait long to find out.
Elena came from the back room with a concerned look on her face. “Zeno, when I hired you, I made it clear, didn’t I. You were not free to take any of the merchandise without paying for it.”
“What?” Zeno asked.
“You can’t take donuts home free,” Elena explained. “You know employees aren’t allowed to do that. I thought I’d explained that, but maybe I didn’t.”
“Uh, no ma’am, you didn’t say anything about that,” Zeno responded. “But I knew that already. I worked at a hamburger place, and I never took no hamburgers home without paying for them. Why would anybody do that?”
“Well, there was a tray of donuts and bear claws and apple fritters in the back, waiting to go into the display case,” Elena explained. “Now they’ve disappeared. I thought perhaps you took them yesterday and put them in your car to take home.”
“No ma’am, I didn’t,” a deeply perplexed Zeno asserted. “I wouldn’t think of doing that. He glanced at Abel and Claudia who shrugged sympathetically.
“Well, they didn’t walk off by themselves,” Elena snapped.
The explanation then dawned on Abel. He remembered Penelope bringing home all those sweets from school yesterday.
“Elena,” Abel spoke up. “I think I know what happened to that tray of sweets.”
“Oh my goodness, Abel,” Elena exclaimed, “did you take them? But you didn’t even work yesterday, and it was Zeno’s first day. I don’t understand.”
“My sister, Penelope,” Abel explained, “she goes to middle school with your daughter, Sarah. Yesterday Penny brought home an apple fritter and other stuff, and Mom got mad. Penny said Sarah brought a whole bunch of bakery stuff to school and was passing it out to all the girls. So, what I think happened is, Sarah came in here yesterday on her way to school and sorta made off with the tray.”
“Sarah would never—” Elena stammered. “She knows better than to take bakery goods from here. She did it once before. And I’m not ashamed to tell you that I took the hair brush to that girl, and she couldn’t sit down comfortably for a few days. Well, I’ll just see about this. I am really disappointed if Sarah took the tray.” Elena disappeared into the back room, flushed with embarrassment.
“Wow!” Zeno said. “She had me going for a minute there.”
“Elena is always accusing the employees of stuff, Zeno,” Claudia warned him. “That’s why we gotta watch out for each other. Nobody goes in that back room alone, and we all stick together.”
Zeno nodded. “Thanks Claudia,” he acknowledged.
After work, Claudia and Abel walked home together again. Abel just walked Claudia to Wren Street and then kept going to Sparrow, where he lived. The walk gave Abel a wonderful opportunity to get to know Claudia better, to get closer to her.
“I’ve got about a thousand dollars in the bank now,” Abel announced. “Ernie and me, we’re huntin’ on the Internet for bargains. I don’t care what kind of a car it is, as long as it runs good like Ernie’s Volvo. I won’t be able to afford repair bills. I’m real antsy for a car now.”
“I think you could get something pretty good for a thousand,” Claudia noted. “Probably wouldn’t look like much, but it’d run.”
“Mom doesn’t want me to get a car,” Abel commented. “She thinks I’m too dumb to drive good. She thinks I’ll have an accident and make trouble for the family. Mom thinks I can’t do much of anything, but she’s still pretty amazed by that Sunday dinner. I think she wonders if I used magic dust or something.”
“What about your dad?” Claudia asked. “I bet he’d like for you to have a car. Dads like to talk cars with their sons.”
“Dad just parrots what Mom wants,” Abel responded. “Dad likes peace, and you don’t have any peace in our house if you argue with Mom. But the thing is, I think about the car all the time. I wake up thinking about it, and I go to bed at night thinking about it. Sometimes I dream I bought it already and I’m driving it around town. Those are good dreams.”
As they walked down Tremayne, Abel and Claudia saw Paul Morales with some of his friends, his homies. Paul wore a white T-shirt and jeans, but the other boys were in baggy clothing. Paul had a nice head of curly black hair. But two of the homies had their heads shaved and tattoos on the sides of their heads. If a police cruiser came by, the cops would probably think this group of dudes was getting ready to rob a store or make a drug deal. But all they were doing was drinking beer.
Paul turned. “Hey man. Hey Claudia. The old bruja still accusing people?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Abel replied. “We got a new kid—Zeno. He started working yesterday. She was already accusing him of ripping off a tray of donuts and fritters. Luckily I knew what happened to the stuff. Sarah, her kid, stole it and was passing it out to the girls in the middle school.”
“We’re really sorry about what happened, Paul,” Claudia told him. “We miss you down there. It’s not the same without you. Abel and me would like to walk out too, but we need our jobs so bad.”
“Well, what goes around comes around,” Paul responded. “She’ll get hers. You can’t treat people like she does and get away with it forever. One of these days payback time will come.”
Claudia and Abel walked on, turning down Wren Street. They noticed a girl coming toward them in the dark.
“Oh no!” Abel groaned. “Oh brother! Is that Sarah Suarez?”
“I’m afraid it is,” Claudia confirmed. “And it’s too late to be going to the donut shop. Elena is closed. What’s she roaming around the streets for at this hour?”
“Do you know where she lives, Claudia?” Abel asked.
“Yeah, she and her mother live in a condo over on Cardinal Street,” Claudia answered.
“My Aunt Marla lives on that street,” Abel said. As they drew closer to the girl, Claudia called out, “Where are you going, Sarah?”
“None of your business, four-eyes,” Sarah snapped.
“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself, girl,” Abel advised.
“Your stupid sister ratted me out,” Sarah snarled bitterly. “I was trying to be nice to those girls. I gave them all those goodies. I don’t know what the big deal was. The stuff was kinda stale anyway. But Penny told you and you told my mom. Abel Ruiz, you’re a rat. Mom got all bent out of shape about it. She went on and on about me stealing her stupid apple fritters. I hate her. I hate her so much.”
Sarah’s voice trembled a little in spite of her bravado. “My dad was nice. He loves me a lot. But she doesn’t care about me. If you care about somebody, you don’t beat them with a hairbrush.”
“Sarah,” Claudia advised, “you need to go home now.”
“I don’t need to do anything I don’t want to do,” Sarah snapped back.
Claudia took out her cell phone. “I’m calling your mother to come get you. Cardinal Street is way down at the end of Tremayne, and it’s dark. It’s dangerous out here.”
“My boyfriend is meeting me,” Sarah objected. “He’ll take me home. He has a red Mustang.”
“What kind of a boyfriend does a thirteen-year-old girl have?” Abel asked her. “No guy old enough to drive a car is gonna want a middle schooler for a girlfriend. You’re lying again, Sarah. You’re making it up. You got no boyfriend.”
“I have Elena’s number,” Claudia said, waiting for her call to be answered.
“Hi,” Elena Suarez said in a slurred voice. “Who’s this?”
“Elena, this is Claudia. I’m out here on Tremayne Street, and Sarah is wandering around by herself. I think you need to come get her, okay?”
“Sarah isn’t on the street,” Elena asserted. Her voice sounded very thick. “She’s home in bed, Claudia. I made her go to bed early. I punished her for stealing the bakery goods. I punished her good. She was crying her eyes out, but now she’s in bed sleeping.”
As she listened to Elena, Claudia whispered to Abel, “She sounds buzzed.” Then Claudia spoke again to Elena. “You better go check Sarah’s room. You’ll see she’s not there.”
“I’m telling you,” Elena insisted, “she’s in her bed sleeping. I gotta go now. I got a headache. You woke me up for nothing, and now I’m going back to bed.” Elena hung up the phone.
“She’s been drinking all night,” Sarah declared. “She drinks a lot, and she takes pills too. That’s why she forgets stuff. She leaves money laying around. It drops to the floor, and the cat plays with it. My Uncle Hector, he set her up in that donut shop. But she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Abel noted that they were only a few houses from the Sandovals. “I’m gonna go get Ernie and his dad,” Abel said. “They’ll get Sarah home safely.”
Abel jogged down to the Sandoval house while Claudia waited with Sarah. When Ernesto came to the door, Abel explained what was happening. Ernesto’s mother, Maria Sandoval, came up behind her son. “Luis is at a late history department meeting. He won’t be home until around ten, but I can drive Sarah home, Abel.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Sandoval,” Abel said gratefully.
Maria Sandoval told Abel to stay with Ernesto in the driveway. She slipped on a sweater against the cool evening and drove to where Claudia and Sarah were standing. As she pulled up beside them. She got out of the car and told Claudia. “You can go home now. I’ll take Sarah home.” Claudia’s house was just a few doors down from the Sandovals.
“Thanks Mrs. Sandoval,” Claudia said. “This is real nice of you. Sarah and her mom’s condo is at 512 Cardinal Street.”
“Hello Sarah,” Mrs. Sandoval said. “Get in,” she offered, opening the door for her on the passenger side. “I’ll have you home in a couple of minutes.”
Sarah stood on the sidewalk next to the car. “You don’t need to be doing this,” Sarah insisted. “I often hang out at the twenty-four-seven store till ten or even later. And I walk home. My boyfriend walks with me. Mom doesn’t care.”
“Just get in, Sarah,” Ernesto’s mother ordered. “I’m sure your mom doesn’t want you on the street at night. Bad things can happen.”
Sarah Suarez got into the Sandovals’ minivan and pulled the door shut.
“Buckle up, Sarah,” Mrs. Sandoval said, as she walked around the front of the car. She checked for traffic, then opened the car door and got in.
Once inside the car, Mrs. Sandoval continued, “We always buckle up, even if we’re just going a few blocks.” The car pulled away from the curb.
“You got a daughter, Mrs. Sandoval?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, I have two daughters. Katalina is eight, and Juanita is six. You probably know that Abel is my son Ernie’s best friend. Abel told us that you go to middle school with Abel’s sister, Penny. Are you guys friends?”
“No,” Sarah replied. “She’s stuck-up. Most of the girls at middle school are snotty. I got a nice boyfriend, though. And maybe him and me’ll run away together. I hate my life so much. I need to get away from here.”
Maria Sandoval frowned. “Honey,” she said, “you’re just thirteen. Thirteen-year-old girls don’t run away with their boyfriends. You shouldn’t even have a serious boyfriend at your age. My goodness.”
“Abel Ruiz is pretty nice,” Sarah went on, ignoring Mrs. Sandoval. “But that creepy four-eyes who works with him at the donut shop has her claws in him. I told Abel he was cute, but he wouldn’t be friends with me. It’s because of that wicked witch of the west, that Claudia Villa. But I’m much prettier than she is.”
“Abel is sixteen years old, Sarah,” Mrs. Sandoval remarked. “You’re just a little kid to him. He’s way too old for you.”
Maria Sandoval pulled up in front of the condo at 512 Cardinal, and Sarah started to get out. “You can go now, Mrs. Sandoval,” she suggested. “I got a key to get in. I’ll just let myself in. Thanks for the ride.”
“I think I’ll just walk in for a minute and say ‘Hi’ to your mom,” Mrs. Sandoval said.
“She’ll be sleeping,” Sarah objected.
Mrs. Sandoval got out of the car and walked to the door with Sarah. As they both went in, Maria called out softly, “Mrs. Suarez?. . . Sarah’s home.” There was no answer. Mrs. Sandoval shrugged, said goodnight to Sarah, and drove home.
She was in her own driveway when she noticed her purse on the floor, the wallet was on the floor beside it. Maria Sandoval was startled.