Manny’s heart was racing a mile a minute. He couldn’t believe where he was. San Juan was exactly as he remembered it, except some new buildings had popped up. He’d been able to retrieve his horse and was given a hundred dollars plus transportation back to Mexico with the strict exception that he would soon return and follow up with a deal he had made with McClintock.
The mine owner had turned out to be a big advocate of the Mexicans, encouraging them to seek freedom and land in America. He’d given several plots to families who had immigrated.
Manny’s family was going to be the next. It was Manny’s job to convince them to come back with him to America to be given the gifts from his employer.
He didn’t think it would be too hard. Who didn’t want to come to America?
His family worked a corn farm in San Juan. The farm was nine acres of corn fields, and the family resided in a house on the very edge of the cornfield, far away from the main house on the other side.
Manny’s mother and father lived there with his two brothers and three sisters. They’d all thought he was crazy when he said he was going to seek fortune in America. But they’d been supportive, gathering all their funds to pay the head tax. That had been Manny’s biggest worry.
He dismounted in front of the house, smelling the familiar scents of his mother’s cooking. It made his stomach rumble. One thing his mother never failed to do was keep the family eating good food.
He went to the door and put his hand on the knob. He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer of thanks before opening the door.
“Hola! Anybody here? Hola!”
He burst out laughing when his mother’s small head popped out from the doorway to the kitchen with a look of utter shock on her round face.
“Mi hijo?” She said it as a question.
Manny laughed again. “Sí! Mama! It is so good to see you! Mama!”
He dropped his bags and held out his arms to her. She came out of the kitchen so fast he thought she might trip. She was wearing a housecoat that hid how small her frame really was. How she had managed with all the children she had amazed Manny.
“Mama! Mama!”
“Mi hijo! My son! My chico! Look at you. Awwww, my bebé!” She moved into his arms, cupping his cheeks and kissing them just above her hands. He leaned so she could reach him.
His family began to come out of their rooms, out of the woodwork, it seemed, swarming around him. He had cousins staying with his family, as well. The sudden company after being alone and isolated for so long was almost overwhelming to Manny, but he wouldn’t have traded it for the world. He greeted all his family members with hugs and kisses.
Before he knew it, his mother had swept him into the kitchen, where a twenty-four-person table took up space on one side of the room and the kitchen made up the other. Manny sat in the chair his cousin, also Manuel pulled out for him. Both the boys were named after their paternal grandfather and were distinguished because Manuel didn’t want to be called Manny.
“Gracias, mi primo, appreciated. How is your English coming along?”
Manuel grinned wide. He was seventeen years old and as smart as a whip. “Very good!” he answered proudly. “I will be ready to go to America very soon!”
“How about real soon?” Manny asked, sweeping his eyes over the other members of his family. “I am talking in a month or two?”
“What?” It was his father who spoke now, from the doorway, catching everyone’s attention. Manny’s father, Ricardo, was one of the strongest people Manny had ever met. He had weathered many bad storms in his life, both personally and literally. He was Manny’s most ardent supporter. “What is this you say?”
Manny grinned at the older man, standing up, as everyone else did when his father entered the room. “It is a grand opportunity for the family, Papa. I cannot wait to tell you about it. Will you interpret for those who don’t understand?”
“I will do that,” Manuel said. “Please, continue to tell us what you mean.”
Manny sat back down as soon as his father had taken his normal chair, sitting diagonally from Manny at the head of the table. Manny leaned slightly toward the man. He couldn’t believe how good it felt to see his father’s face again, to gaze into the eyes of the man who had nearly given his life for his family to live comfortably and together.
“Papa, it is such good news. I have been given the opportunity to buy land. It is not the land I originally wanted, but it is twenty acres of prime California land. The soil is rich with nutrients that will help our crops grow. There is a mine on the property that I will own and work. My brothers and cousins can work it, too, and be paid well for it.”
“We would work for you, Manny?” asked one of his cousins. He looked over at the young man, nodding.
“Sí. I would treat you well. You know this.”
The young man nodded. “This I know. I would like this opportunity. How did this happen?”
Manny told them about McClintock’s offer to help finance it, saying that he didn’t want a percentage of the land. He asked Manny to sign a contract that would give him ten percent of any earnings they got from working the land and the mine. Manny had never heard of such an incredible offer.
His father narrowed his eyes and brought his dark eyebrows together. “This does not make sense, mi hijo. No man in his right mind gives away land and a mine and these things he has given you. There must be some other motive. What does he really want from us?”
Manny shook his head. “You have to trust sometimes, Papa. I feel I can trust this man. I have good intuition. I see how people really feel. I understand them.”
His father nodded. “Sí. You do have a way about that, do you not? Tell us more about this offer. Why did you get it if not the others in your camp who are Mexican? What about Tito?”
“I have not seen Tito in some time,” Manny admitted, sadness filling his heart and his voice.
Several family members, including his mother, looked alarmed.
His sister, Sophia, said, “What has happened to Tito?”
Manny swept his eyes around them all, swallowing. He would have to tell them the whole story. Everything from first meeting Imogen to everything that came after.
“My stomach is rumbling, Mama,” he said, rubbing his stomach for effect. “Please, may I eat?”
Rosa gasped. “You are hungry? Mi chico will not go hungry. No. Come. I will give you something to eat. I have been cooking all day. You will love this.”
He bit his bottom lip, catching the eyes of several different relatives before he spoke again. “I want to tell you all everything that has happened. But I would like to clean myself up before eating. Perhaps we can all have dinner together, and I can tell you all the stories of what has happened to me.”
He saw nods all around the room, and many of them got up, saying they, too, would need to clean up. They were going to the creek, however, since Manny would take up their one bathhouse.
Before he left the room to clean up, Sophia caught his arm and pulled him to the side.
“Tito,” she said urgently. “You must tell me what’s happened with him.”
Manny raised his eyebrows. “Mi hermana, do you have feelings for Tito?”
Sophia dropped her eyes, and her cheeks colored. He thought how pretty she was and wasn’t sure Tito deserved such a fine woman. But that was only a joke in his mind, and he kept it to himself, not wanting to insult his friend around his sister. “Sí.”
“So you will want to come to America with me, then.” He didn’t form the sentence as a question. He knew she would benefit by coming back with him. “I will tell you why I have not seen Tito at dinner along with everyone else. But do not worry, sister, he is alive and well. He is still working in the mine and drinking a lot of tequila.”
Sophia giggled, covering her mouth with one hand. He grinned.
“Why do you laugh, mi hermana?” he asked.
Sophia looked up at him with only her eyes, keeping her head down. “He told me he would drink tequila whenever he thought of me.”
Manny let out an amused laugh. “Well, then he thinks of you very, very often.”
She laughed with him.