Read Online Ana of California by Andi Teran - Free Book Online

couldn’t help but smile, the workers nearby laughing along with him. “Pick the ripe berries carefully but firmly, and fill these—not all the way to the top or the weight will squish the ones at the bottom. Fill ’em a little more than halfway, okay? And then come see me at the station out in the field. We’ll sort ’em then pack before sending you back out. Oh, and we pay per container. You’ll be getting the same as everybody.”
    â€œI’m getting paid?” Ana asked, which seemed like a joke.
    â€œOf course! You sixteen?”
    â€œNo, sir, but I will be soon.”
    â€œWell, let me know, because we’ll save your wages and pay you then. Something to look forward to.”
    â€œYou’re serious?”
    â€œYou’re working for us, right?”
    â€œYes . . .”
    â€œWell, then you’re getting paid!”
    â€œIs this what I’ll be doing every day?”
    â€œ
Más o menos
, yes and no. We’ll try a few different crops this week and see how it goes, okay? Not to worry,” he added with encouragement. “You’ll be with Victor and Roberto, but you can call them Vic and Rolo. The bushes are just past the hoops near the woods.”
    â€œSo I’ll be out there with just the two of them?”
    â€œYep. Emmett will check on you, and I’m just over there,” he said, pointing to a large truck and a series of tables in the fields along the road. “There’s nothing to worry about, just keep busy. We’re all out here together.”
    Â â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢Â 
    A na Cortez didn’t need anyone to explain it to her; she understood the rhythm of repetitive work, knew all about aligning oneself to the synergy of tedium. She was aware of all of the orphan clichés—the Pips, Pollyannas, and Ponyboys whose optimism triumphed over difficult circumstances. She’d read all the books. That’s why standing in a thicket of tall bushes, with rolled-up sleeves, she found it easy to get lost in the process of plucking berries the way Manny instructed.
    She’d labored in laundry rooms, served time in backyards littered in animal feces. She was good with a sponge, and good with a brush too, be it for scrubbing, cleaning, or detangling—teeth or hair, hers or otherwise. And if the labor ever became rough, in that way where a bandage wouldn’t do, every inch of her, inside and out, knew the right way to callus, the secrets to hiding a bruise.
    If there was anything Ana had learned in all of the years she’d been put to work, it was—as Manny alluded to—tofocus and keep her thoughts to herself. Why this seemed a punishment for adults to dole out to young people continually confused her. Why wouldn’t anyone want to luxuriate in his or her own imagination all day?
    The first few hours flew as she softened her eyes and zeroed in on the dark berries, carefully pulling them from the branches, layering them delicately one by one into the cans around her waist. But it took everything not to pop one or two into her mouth. She watched as the man called Vic—the slimmer of the two—took care with his pickings in a similar way, how his thumb and forefinger reached up and pulled delicately from underneath the bush. Rolo plucked with rapid abandon, picking and holding a few in his hand before tossing them into his rusted cans. His eyes met hers from time to time, so she returned to her daydreams. Ana couldn’t believe how she had escaped the streets of L.A., literally, just the day before, how she’d ended up in Mrs. Saucedo’s office, then the airport, and now here, on the edge of a Northern California redwood forest with her fingers periodically squashing blackberries. “Wild,” she thought to herself. “Literally.”
    â€œ
¡
Ándale, chiquita!
” Rolo shouted.
    â€œ
Cállate
,” Vic responded, his back turned to both of them