As Trino walked home from Mr. Epifaño’s store, he felt the changes around him. Not just the thought of losing his job and extra spending money, but something in the weather, too. What had been a sticky day was turning cooler. He could smell rain in the breeze that rustled the tree branches along the street. He never paid much attention to the seasons, until they forced him to hope his mom could find a cheap, but warm jacket at a thrift store. It could be a bad winter for all of them if his mother didn’t find a job.
Trino came home to a locked door. He looked around to be sure no one watched him. Then he lifted the trash can and took out the key his mother left under there whenever she worked late. As he opened the door, he wondered where she was, and where his brothers were.
He saw the note on the table, scribbled on a torn sheet of notebook paper.
I go to coleg for a job
Get boys at Mala hows
She had gone to the college after all. He felt relieved, especially since his job with Mr. Epifaño would probably end soon. He was surprised she hadn’t said anything about going to the college this week. Of course, Trino had been too busy. If he wasn’t working after school for Mr. Epifaño, he was reading over his history report or recopying it in his best handwriting. But as he stopped to think about it, he realized that she had seemed extra quiet the last few days.
He felt the first drops of rain as he walked the short distance to Mala’s house, a small duplex across an empty lot behind the trailer park. The old woman had been taking care of Gus and Beto while their mother worked since Trino’s family had moved into the neighborhood.
“I fed the boys a can of soup, so your mamá doesn’t have to rush with supper,” Mala told Trino as she pushed Gus and Beto out the door. “I gotta go. My telenovela just started.”
It took him longer to walk home because Gus and Beto kept stopping and staring up at the drizzle that fell upon them.
“Rain, rain, come and play. Rain, rain, go away.” Beto sang his words as he stomped his feet into the dry grass.
“Wet head,” Gus said, patting his black hair with his hand. He stopped to look up and then waved his hand in front of his eyes when the rain fell in them. “Wet, wet. I’m wet.”
“Come on, guys! It’s gonna start pouring, and you two walk too slow,” he said.
He finally picked up Gus and carried him. They had to get home before the dark skies around them burst open with heavy rain.
By the time Trino got Beto and Gus back to the trailer, Félix’s bus had just dropped him off. Steady rain began just as Trino unlocked the door and let his brothers inside.
“We lucked out, man,” Félix said as Trino went to the refrigerator to look for something to eat. “The rain’s really coming down now.”
He knew they had truly “lucked out” when he saw the packages of lunch meat and sliced cheese on the middle shelf. There were two loaves of bread on the counter and a package of cookies, the white creme kind that they all loved, but were just too expensive to buy.
For a second Trino wondered, Did I walk into the wrong trailer?
Trino and Félix made themselves two sandwiches each. Trino wanted to drink the last dented soda can, but he didn’t want to share it four ways. He hid it behind the mustard jar, and hoped he could sneak it out later. When his brothers wanted to eat cookies, Trino gave Félix, Beto, Gus, and himself only three cookies apiece.
“We can’t eat the whole package today,” Trino said when Gus and Beto asked for two more cookies. “We got to save some for tomorrow.”
Suddenly, he realized he sounded like his mother. Too weird, he thought.
Things got boring. They were stuck inside together because of the rain, and their television set was still broken. Gus and Beto started whining like cats. They wanted more cookies; they wanted to go back to Mala’s house and watch her TV. They wanted to go outside and play in the rain.
“You can’t go outside. Stop bugging me. It’s not my fault it’s raining. Go find something to do,” Trino said in a grouchy way. He was lying on the sofa, trying to fall asleep, despite his brothers’ noise and the steady sounds of the rain on the trailer house roof.
A loud crack of thunder sent the two little boys squealing. They both jumped on top of Trino.
“Hey!” Trino yelled as Beto’s bony knees jabbed into his stomach at the same time Gus body-slammed his legs. He nearly fell off the sofa as he tried to get up and throw his brothers off of him.
There was another burst of thunder before Félix yelled, “Dog pile!” and jumped on top of the squirming bodies on the sofa. Trino groaned at the sudden extra weight. He grabbed whatever brother or limbs that he could. Everybody pulled arms and pushed legs. Soon they were a bundle of arms and legs, laughing and screeching. They rolled off the sofa like a tangle of webworms and wrestled together on the worn red carpet.
“Hey! No biting!” Trino yelled when he felt little teeth on his wrist.
But he had to laugh at Beto’s squinted eyes and gritted teeth as the little boy tried to push himself out of Félix’s head lock. Trino tried to flip Félix over to help Beto out.
Suddenly, the door to the trailer house flew open, and the damp wind made everyone let go and scramble away.
Trino saw his mother first. Her soaked clothes and wet, stringy hair dripped water all over the doorway, but it didn’t matter because rain coming through the open door had soaked the carpet quickly. She struggled against the wind to get the door closed, and Trino jumped up to help her.
“Ay, ay, ay, look at all this water! Go get some towels. Get me a towel!”
Another loud burst of thunder made Beto and Gus squeal again, especially when the lights started to flicker. They ran towards their mother, but she pushed them away. Her wet hands slid over the boys, but she kept them as far away from her body as she could.
“Get away from me! I’m soaking wet.” She kicked off her black shoes by the door. “I’ve ruined my good shoes for sure. And look at this dress—it’s only good for rags now. Félix! Don’t just stand there with your mouth open. Take care of your brothers so I can change out of these clothes. And get some towels for the floor—did you hear me?” She walked across the carpet, her stocking feet squishing with every step.
Trino knew that their thin towels wouldn’t help dry the carpet much, but he and Félix put them down anyway as their mother changed. Beto and Gus laughed as they stomped on the towels and got their feet wet.
As the lights flickered again, Trino looked out the small front window. He could barely see the rain since it had grown darker. But he could hear it pelting the roof like falling stones. The wind whistled through the trailer park, making Trino glad he was inside watching and not outside walking.
“Let me see, Trino,” Beto said, pulling on his big brother’s T-shirt. “I want to see the rain.”
“There’s nothing to see. It’s too dark.” He dropped the thin curtain and looked down at Beto.
“Can we fight some more? That was fun.” The little boy smiled at Trino.
“Maybe later.” He noticed the lights flicker again. “I need to find some candles and matches just in case the lights go out. Félix, you still got that flashlight that Oscar gave you?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“If the lights go out, we’ll need it. Go find it.”
“It’s my flashlight. Nobody else can use it but me,” he answered, then left the living room with Beto and Gus trailing after him.
“I haven’t seen it rain like this in years,” Trino’s mom said as she came back into the room. She wore faded blue sweatpants and a T-shirt, and was still towel-drying her long black hair. “And of course it got worse when I got off the bus to walk home. At least I didn’t have to talk to Mr. Escobedo looking like a drowned cat.”
“Who’s Mr. Escobedo?” Trino asked.
“He’s in charge of Housekeeping at the college. He’s very nice.” She laid the damp towel over the back of a kitchen chair and walked towards the refrigerator. “I hope you boys left me something to make a sandwich with. Did you eat up all the cookies?”
“Where did the food come from?” Trino asked her. “Did Nick come over or something?” Lately, when they ate well, it was because of him.
“I bought the food. I had a little left over after I gave Mrs. Cummins the rent money.” She gave Trino a crooked smile. “I just couldn’t eat any more eggs, you know?”
Trino nodded. He had been thinking the same thing for weeks.
She opened up the refrigerator door. As she pulled out the package of sandwich meat, a loud crash of thunder made the trailer shake.
Beto and Gus squealed loudly from the bedroom, then came running towards their mother. “Mamá! Mamá!” they cried over and over again.
Beto tried to scramble up his mother’s body as Gus hugged her legs tightly.
The lights flickered again, then completely went out. Both little boys start to cry loudly. A dim stream of light came from the direction of the bedrooms.
“I found this just in time.” Félix’s voice came from behind the beam.
“It won’t last long,” Trino said. “The batteries must be old.”
“Cálmense, niños.” Their mother’s gentle voice seemed strangely out of place. “Don’t be scared. We’re all together. We’re safe and dry. Félix, go to my bedroom. Bring me the two veladoras on the back shelf. We’ll light the holy candles to bring us light, and to thank La Virgen that your mamá found a job today.”
Despite the darkness around him, despite his little brothers’ crying and the sounds of a storm raging around them, Trino felt lighthearted.
He took a step forward and bumped his leg into a kitchen chair. “Ouch!” A flash of lightning came through the small windows in the trailer, giving a thin outline to his mother’s body hunched over to hug the two frightened boys beside her.
“Hey, Félix, hurry up with the candles!” Trino yelled. He put his hands out, feeling for the other chairs, and the edge of the table. His knee hit another chair leg before he managed to get around the table. He used the sounds of his brothers’ crying to guide his steps.
He felt his mother’s back, and gently patted it. “I’m glad you got the job, Mom,” he said.
Following her arms, he found one of two little shaking bodies. He thought about his friend, Hector, trembling in the janitor’s closet, and remembered what he did to help Hector stay calm. He also remembered the way Hector did funny voices to make them laugh.
“Hey, whose body is this?” Trino said in a squeaky voice. “Who is this?” He felt Beto’s soft hair and gave it a little pull. “What is this? Is this a little dog? I can’t tell in the dark.”
“It’s me—Beto,” said an unsteady little voice. “I’m not a dog.”
“Are you a horse?”
Beto’s voice grew stronger. “I’m not a horse. I’m a boy.”
Trino got his hands around Beto’s body and firmly pulled him from his mother’s arms. “I just can’t tell in the dark. Let me hold you so I can feel that you’re a little boy. Let’s see. I feel two skinny arms. Oh, and there’s two skinny legs. Is there a tail? No, no tail. Okay, I guess you’re a little boy named Beto.” Trino tickled Beto and poked him. Wrapping one arm across Beto’s chest, he reached out to Gus. “And you? Are you a horse?” As quickly as they had started crying, both boys began to laugh.
“I found the candles,” Félix said as the dim beam of light reappeared in the room. “Do we have any matches?”
In a minute, two candles burned on the table. Like moths, both little boys came to the light. Beto climbed onto the chair, and Gus climbed up to sit on the table.
“Lights!” Gus said, pointing a small hand towards the kitchen walls.
One of the holy candles had a colorful image of La Virgen de Guadalupe painted on the tall glass. The flame made red, green, and yellow spots flicker on the walls. The other candle had diamonds of blue, yellow, white, and purple on it, like a colorful window at a church.
“We should tell ghost stories,” Félix said, and put the flashlight under his chin. The light made his chin, lips, and nose look as if they glowed. His voice deepened. “I could tell you the story of three boys who went into a cave and turned into goats.”
Trino stood behind Beto’s chair. “Were the goats’ names Félix, Nacho, and Frank?”
“Shut up,” Félix said, and then cleared his throat. His voice deepened again. “The story begins on a stormy night—just—like—this—one. Three boys went in search of this secret cave where evil spirits make noises like screaming women. They said the devil lived in this—ow!”
Félix’s head jerked forward, like he had just gotten a knock in the head.
“What’s wrong with you?” Their mother’s sharp voice sounded even madder in the darkness. “Telling a story about evil spirits with veladoras burning on our table. If you’re going to tell a story to your brothers, make it a story that has some goodness in it.”
“That’s no fun,” Félix said, lowering the flashlight.
“We don’t need evil spirits in this house. Even though the storm’s bad, a good thing happened today. I got a job. I don’t want your talk of the devil to bring us bad luck,” she said, shaking a finger at Félix.
Their mom sat down to eat a sandwich, only to give half of it to Gus and Beto. They asked for more cookies, and their mom put the package on the table and divided the rest among them. The two extras, she ate herself.
Félix made shadow animals on the wall until the flashlight beam went out. They all sat in the silence of the burning candles. No cookies to eat, no flashlight to play with, no ghost stories to tell.
A loud burst of thunder shook the trailer again. Gus climbed into his mother’s lap. Beto put his arms around her shoulders.
“I wish Nick was here,” Félix said. “He could tell us a funny story or something.”
“Well, he’s not here, so think of something else,” his mom said, then suddenly stood up, pushing poor Beto away, and setting Gus on the floor. “You two let me go. I got to go to the bathroom.”
She didn’t even take a candle with her, she just stomped into the darkness.
Gus and Beto moved over towards Trino’s chair. Their eyes were round with fear.
Trino found himself wishing that Nick was with them, too. Not for a funny story, but for someone to talk to. There was so much Trino could tell him: about Mr. Epifaño, about his new friends, about his school project.
That’s when Trino raised his head and looked at Beto and Gus. “I could tell you a story about a man I learned about. It won’t be a funny story like Nick tells, but I thought his life was pretty interesting. His name was José Antonio—”
Bam! Something hard and heavy landed on top of the trailer. The force knocked the candles over. One went out, as the other rolled down the table. Trino caught the candle before it fell off. He stared at the image of La Virgen for only a second before he heard his mother’s screaming.
“Trino! Félix! Help me!”
But Trino couldn’t move. Beto and Gus had screamed for their mother, and clamped their arms around Trino. They jumped on his feet, pulling at his clothes. He heard weird metallic sounds. Was something bending or breaking above them?
“Félix, we got to get out of here,” he said, peeling Beto off of his legs and pushing him towards Félix. “I think whatever fell on the trailer might come through the roof.”
Félix’s body shook like crazy, his black eyes were wide open and filling with tears.
“Félix, you gotta take Beto and Gus. Get out of here. I got to help Mom.” When Félix didn’t move to take Beto or Gus, Trino screamed, “Félix! Get the kids out of here!”
Trino grabbed Gus and lifted him into Félix’s arms. Beto screamed and kicked, but Félix managed to drag him by one arm towards the door. A wet burst of wind hit all of them. The last candle on the table blew out. All the boys screamed louder, but Trino couldn’t help them. He had to find his mother.
His only consolation was that she was still screaming out Trino’s name. He tripped on something, fell onto the sofa, then managed to stand up again. He stretched his arms in front of him as he walked. His hands hit the walls, then a metal fuse box on the wall, a light switch that didn’t work. The hall had never seemed so long. Finally, he felt the door frame of the bathroom. As he stepped into it, a steady rain came at him from all sides.
“Mom!” he yelled. “Where are you?” He saw a large curved black thing above his head, but it was the spread of wet leaves and small branches that stopped him. “Mom!”
“Trino, I’m stuck. I can’t get through.”
He reached his hands through the leaves, ignoring the scratches and scrapes. “Mom! Mom! Can you find my hand?”
He tried not to let the darkness frustrate him, or the rain falling on his face keep him from getting to her. There were so many little branches in his way. Then he remembered the way that Nick had used his legs and feet to crack branches before they put them into the truck.
Trino stomped down on the branches, using his feet to break them, get them out of his way. The wet wood didn’t break easily, but he didn’t stop. His body was soaked by the time he caught sight of his mother’s white T-shirt. She grabbed his hand, pushing herself through the branches as he pulled her forward. He heard her sounds of pain as the branches scratched her as much as they scratched him. But they both worked together stepping on branches, pushing away the leaves, and cracking sticks with their hands. Finally, she stepped through the last of the tree branches. She was free.
“Ay, Trino—” She took a deep breath, and released it quickly. “Gracias.”
His hands still gripped her trembling ones. Then he realized he hadn’t held his mom’s hand in a long time.