Read Online Jack In The Green by Charles De Lint - Free Book Online

You're a martyr now. The woman the cartels and the bandas can't kill because she'll just come back. You can be the symbol of hope we need to stand against them."
    "What if I don't want that? What if I just want to be an ordinary girl?"
    "Oh Maria," Luz says. "You were never an ordinary girl."
    "I still don't see how that brings me back."
    "I think it's a matter of wanting to go back. You have to want it."
    "If that's all it takes," Maria says, "pretty much everybody who ever died would go back."
    "Maybe they do want to. But they don't have a magic cigarette tin like we do. When I was studying with Abuela she told me that magic depends mostly on our will. It's almost like, for it to work, you just have to believe that it will. Everything else—charms and spells and potions—those are just there to help us focus."
    "Do you believe it?"
    Luz breaks into a huge smile. " Oh, I know I'm going to bring you back," she says, holding out her hand.
    Maria meets her gaze for a long moment before she stands up and takes Luz's hand. Their vision swims, the forest spins, and then the green is gone.

    Luz opens her eyes to find herself back in San Miguel Cemetery, lying with her head in Jack's lap. She grins up at him.
    "I did it," she says, sitting up.
    But then she sees that it's just her and the boys here at the graveside. Ti Jean offers her a hand and she lets him pull her to her feet. All her giddy good humour is gone. She turns to Jack.
    "I thought…I was sure…" she begins, but her voice trails off.
    She thinks she can still hear an echo of the birdsong from the green wood. She can almost feel the damp air. If she closes her eyes, she sees the green against the backs of her eyelids.
    But the green wood is gone. She's back and Maria is still over there.
    Maria is still dead.

    Espinoza Amate attended the funeral service at Santa Margarita Maria. It was there that she learned the full name of the young woman who died almost on her doorstep.
    Maria Ana Martinez Reuda.
    The newspapers had only referred to her as Maria Martinez, leader of Los Murrietas.
    Espinoza doesn't agree with what the banditos were doing. Yes, they helped those in need, but it was with stolen money. Stealing is wrong, no matter what the excuse.
    Espinoza still needs to pay her electric bill. The money the banditos left behind in her house she put in the collection box at Santa Margarita Maria. But she makes no judgment concerning the poor young woman. It isn't hers to make. Only God has the final word on such matters and Maria Ana Martinez Reuda is with Him now. It is to Him she must make her explanations.
    Espinoza hopes the girl doesn't argue. She hopes she accepts that she has sinned. Only then will God forgive her.
    After the service she lights a candle for the girl. She doesn't go out to the cemetery. It is too far to walk and she doesn't have the money for bus fare. She has always been frugal, but these days, especially, every penny counts.
    Instead she goes back to her little house on Calle Adelanto and sits in a lawn chair on her front stoop. There she rests, rosary in hand, its beads moving through her fingers, her lips moving silently. She prays for the soul of Maria Ana Martinez Reuda.
    Such a senseless death.
    Espinoza prays for herself, as well. For forgiveness. She should never have let the girl go out into the dawn. She should have called her back, but fear stopped her. Fear of the 66 Bandas—what they would do if she interfered. And now because of her cowardice, the poor girl is dead.
    The day is hot. There is dust in the air, as there always is in the barrio, and Espinoza is thirsty. She wishes she had lemons to make lemonade. She wishes—
    Her mind goes still. She stands up and stares at the corner of her neighbour's house where the young girl died, her eyes widening with shock. She crosses herself.
    The ghost of the dead girl has appeared there.
    " Madre de Dios ."
    Espinoza doesn't realize she spoke the words aloud until the dead girl turns