Read Online 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis - Free Book Online Page B

“That’s it right?”
    Angelita crosses her wrists over her eyes. “You don’t get it! They’re not just playing.”
    There is something funny about the way they’re playing. I look a little closer, trying to compare this to all the other playgrounds and baseball fields that I remember. The first thing I notice is that I can’t hear anybody laughing and the argument on the baseball diamond is still going on. We used to have huge arguments but only for a minute or two, then someone would yell, “Let’s play ball!” and we’d start up again. Soon we would be laughing and joking around. Here everybody seems to be concentrating and playing so hard that they’re not having fun.
    â€œIt’s like they’re playing too hard,” I say.
    â€œBingo!” Angelita shouts and throws her arm around me. “That’s one of the first things I noticed when I got here. It took me a little while to figure out why everybody plays so hard.”
    â€œSo what. We played just as hard at home,” Gordo says.
    â€œThis is different, you’ll see. When they concentratereal hard on baseball or weaving their hats they can’t think about how much they miss their parents, where they are, or where they might end up.”
    â€œEnd up?” I ask.
    â€œNo one stays here for long.”
    â€œThat’s not what our mother said. She said we would wait here until they can get out, too,” I say and stick my finger in the black tar. I knew there was something they weren’t telling me!
    Angelita leans in close to Gordo and Alquilino. “Didn’t you tell him?”
    They’re all looking at me, shaking their heads.
    â€œTell me what?” I ask, feeling like I’ve been left out of the joke again. It’s embarrassing, even Pepe seems to know the punch line.
    â€œWhere are they going to send us?” I ask as I draw a shape like a raindrop with the tar.
    Angelita looks at Alquilino then at me. “This is just where you wait until they find a place for you. If you’re lucky, you go live with a foster family. If not, they send you to an orphanage. Sometimes they can send two together but three . . .” She shakes her head.
    Gordo looks at me with his I-told-you-so eyebrow rising.
    â€œYou were the only one that told me the truth,” I say.
    Gordo just shrugs and then says to Angelita, “They’re going to send us to live in an orphanage?”
    Angelita stands up. “I don’t want to scare you, but you should know how things work here.”
    â€œThat doesn’t scare us, right Alquilino?” Gordo says.
    Alquilino doesn’t answer. He’s watching the older kids who had been playing cards stroll out to the baseball field. They grab the ball and bat, and then force the younger kids off. When one of the younger boys complains, an older kid pushes him down and then stands over him. Not one of the boy’s friends dares push back. They help the boy up and then skulk off to a pocket of open space by the fence.
    â€œI guess you’re right, Angelita. The big fish do eat the small here,” Alquilino says.
    â€œCaballo and the older boys are going to eat us up like minnows if we don’t stick together.”
    Gordo sticks his chin out. “No one is going to boss us around, right Alquilino?”
    Again Alquilino doesn’t answer Gordo. “What else don’t we know about this place?” he asks Angelita.
    Angelita tucks her hair back into her cap and pulls Pepe up by the collar of his shirt. “We have lunch at twelve and dinner at six.” Then she looks at Gordo like she’s annoyed at him. “By the way, everybody is talking about how you pushed Caballo,” she says, and Gordo smiles.
    â€œThat’s not good, Gordo. The most important thing you should know is that nobody pushes El Caballo. He’s the boss. He’ll get you back, he has