Read Online Illegal by Bettina Restrepo - Free Book Online Page A

that.”
    The woman stared at me venomously. “Do you want the papers or not?”
    â€œWe’re not stupid,” I shot back. “You don’t have to treat us like this.” Why did we need papers if no one cared if we were legal or not?
    She began folding up the papers and putting them in her purse. “I don’t need this. You’re still wet fromthe river. Everyone will know you just came over, and it isn’t my problem that you are so ignorant.”
    Mama reached out to her arm, pleading. “No, we need them. Please.”
    I pulled her back. “We don’t have to beg.”
    She folded our money and put it into her bra.
    I leaned forward as a warning that she wouldn’t be leaving with our money. “I suggest you get us those papers.” Her eyes moved from my face first. I had won. I fought the truck driver, and I wasn’t afraid to fight her, either.
    She clenched her jaw but pulled out the papers.
    â€œJust take our pictures and we can be finished,” I hissed at her.
    â€œWetbacks,” she muttered under her breath, as if we were low class.
    I let it go, because some people have to have the last word. Papa used to tell me, Know when the fight is finished.
    Outside, the crazy man parked himself on the corner. His sun-scarred face pointed into the traffic. I wondered when he stopped struggling and began sitting.
    No matter what happened, I would always fight.

C HAPTER 19
Pounding the Pavement
    â€œPapers. Cook. Clean?” It was hard to sleep with Mama mumbling all night long.
    I elbowed her, and she turned over for the millionth time. We would never get any sleep if she kept this up. I would have slept on the floor, but I was afraid the cockroaches would climb into my hair. What I needed was Grandma’s stink candle. Maybe it could scare away the huge flying bugs. But I had wasted it on the truck driver.
    When the sun rose, I had to shake Mama awake. “It’s time.”
    She rubbed her red puffy eyes. “ ¿Qué? What?”
    I stared out the window and noticed the girl from the restaurant trying to get out of a blue car. She shook her head no, and then the driver slapped her. She fell to the ground. I noticed a large tattoo of a red star on his bulging arm with 713 underneath.
    He got out of the car and as he was about to kick her, a scream escaped my lips. “No!”
    They both looked in our direction. Fear coated the girl’s face as she scrambled to her feet. The hulking boy moved in our direction, but the skinny girl held up her hands in surrender and picked up the green backpack. I saw a trickle of blood running down her nose.
    Mama pulled me in the opposite direction. “It’s not our business,” she said quietly.
    I turned away. But I felt even more horrible.
    I needed a secret manual of how to make it work in Texas. It felt like everything was upside down and backward, but someone had to lead our way to Papa.
    The furniture store appeared interesting. There was so much stuff, we could barely find the owner. Sofas smelled like the old men who played cards in the evening in Cedula. Papa and I would watch them and laugh as they told jokes and smoked. Grandma used to say they smelled like dust and farts. Eitherway, my heart ached as much as my feet.
    The bald owner pointed at me. “We’ll take you. But your sister, no.”
    Mama stammered, “I’m her mother.”
    â€œDo you speak English?” he asked me in Spanish.
    â€œI understand a lot. We could learn together,” I suggested.
    The man rubbed his head, and then his chin. “Try back next week.”
    He ran a chubby finger up my arm. “Unless you would like to do something today? Do you need some cash?”
    A shudder shook my body. The taste of lumpy sour milk filled my mouth. He didn’t want a worker for the store, and I wasn’t selling what he wanted to buy. Hopefully I would never have to resort to what he