by Nancy Rue
“Let God untie these knots,” Inez said. “You cannot.”
The knot in Lucy’s throat dissolved into hot tears. “You didn’t tell her about my book, did you?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I do not know. But I hope you have hidden it well.”
Lucy didn’t think anyplace was safe from Aunt Karen. But, swiping at the tears with the back of her hand, Lucy went to the underwear drawer and moved the Book of Lists to the last place Aunt Karen would stick her hand — in the bottom of the toy chest where Lollipop was even now meowing forlornly.
“She’s gone,” Lucy told her. “But I don’t think it’s for long.”
But when Dad came home early from the station so Inez could go to Alamogordo for Mora’s conference, Aunt Karen wasn’t with him. He seemed surprised that she wasn’t there waiting to take them out for sushi or something.
“She didn’t come find you?” Lucy said.
“No, last time I saw her, she was coming here after the conference — which went very well, by the way.” Dad poured sunshine on her with his smile. “Mr. Auggy had already told me you were doing better, but I had no idea how much better. He read us some of your papers.” Dad touched her face, his hand cupped under her chin. “You’re a writer like your mom, who, by the way, couldn’t spell either. So — did Aunt Karen go shopping or what?”
Lucy looked at Inez, but she was paying more attention to buttoning her coat than she needed to.
“We will talk later Senor Ted,” Inez said.
“I’m completely confused,” Dad said. “But, then, I’m surrounded by women.”
Not for long. Mr. Auggy came by later with chips and a jar of salsa, apologizing that they weren’t homemade like Inez’s. He also brought news.
“Sheriff Navarra says he has plenty of offenders who need to do community ser vice. He promises he’ll have the bleachers and the concession stand in shape before we even need them.”
“You really are a miracle worker,” Dad said.
Mr. Auggy shook his head. “It wasn’t me. It was Miss Lucy.”
“Me?”
“The sheriff was so impressed with the way you handled the team today — especially Gabe and Carla Rosa — he said he’s on board to help any way he can.”
“No way,” Lucy said.
“Way.”
There was one knot untied. But there was another one.
“What do we do about Januarie? I never saw her mad like that.”
“She comes by it honestly,” Dad said.
Mr. Auggy nodded sadly. “I’m working on Miss Januarie.”
But the next morning only J.J. showed up at the back gate to go to soccer practice, and Januarie didn’t come to soccer at recess. Lucy guessed Mr. Auggy hadn’t had a chance to work a miracle yet.
And Lucy was still worried about Aunt Karen. She wanted to tell Dad about what happened, but it seemed like Inez wanted to handle that one. Wow. Strange. She was actually happy to let her do it. And she was sure Inez could.
Until that night when Dad answered the phone and said, “Karen! What happened to you yesterday?”
Lucy considered hiding in the toy chest with Lollipop, but Dad said, “Oh — okay — she’s right here — ” and handed her the phone. Where was Inez to help with this double square knot? She hoped God was there.
Lucy took the phone, but before she could even say hello, Aunt Karen said, “Mr. Augustalientes said you needed a team to play.”
Lucy almost said, “Who?”
“Well, I have one.”
“One what?”
Aunt Karen sighed. “A team. The one my company sponsors. We have two, actually, and one of them is the same age group as yours. They can play you Saturday, March seven. Mark it on your calendar.”
They didn’t have a calendar, but Lucy didn’t say that. She could only stammer, “Okay — um — I’ll tell Mr. Auggy.”
“Who?” Aunt Karen said.
Lucy smiled.
“Let me talk to your dad again, and we’ll make all the arrangements.”
Silence. Lucy wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say.
“Um, thanks,” she said finally. “That’s cool, it really is. We need to show our town that we need a soccer field — ”
“No. You need to see what being in a real program could be like for you. By the way — do you have a good pair of cleats, some shin guards? They told me you need those.”
“No,” Lucy said.
“Hello! Is no one concerned about safety — never mind, I’m not going there. I’ll take care of it.”
“You don’t have to,” Lucy said.
“Who else is going to?” Lucy could almost see her pulling her fingers through her hair like a rake. “No, this is good. You’re just going to see, that’s all. Let me talk to your dad.”
Lucy handed him the phone and listened for signs that Aunt Karen was telling him about the Book of Lists, but it all seemed to be about dates and times and phone numbers. She was evidently going to call Mr. Auggy herself. Like Dad couldn’t handle it. Maybe she should make a list of reasons why Aunt Karen should move to Mars. Australia was too close.
But at least she had gotten them a team to play, and the news of that was, to Lucy’s amazement, like Dad’s smile: it spread sunshine all over town.
On Monday, Dad made the announcement on the radio. Lucy, Mora, and Inez listened and cheered in the kitchen and had special lavender tea to celebrate. Lucy decided her mom would have liked that. Mora put milk in hers and said it was like the Chai she’d had at Starbucks. Whatever.
When the team went to soccer practice the next Saturday, they could only stare in awe. The bleachers were sturdy and strong and had a fresh coat of blue paint. The concession stand was painted to match, with red letters above the window proclaiming REFRESHMENTS, with colorful drawings all over the walls of it. Some of those same drawings appeared on the repaired soccer field sign.
“They look like the pottery in Mr. Esparza’s museum,” Lucy said.
“Who do you think painted them up there?” Mr. Auggy said. “Evidently old Mr. Esparza ran up a big tab at Pasco’s, and Pasco was about to have the sheriff arrest him. This is how he paid it off.”
“There’s gonna be real refreshments in there?” Oscar said.
“I’m still working on that,” Mr. Auggy said.
So — he had his knots to untie too. Lucy decided it couldn’t hurt to ask God to untie his as well as hers.
She’d never seen him work so fast.
The next day at church, Reverend Servidio preached a sermon about the upcoming game — how people needed to support the youth. He read a story from the Bible about Jesus letting the kids sit on his lap when the disciples were telling them to go away.
“He said the children were important,” the reverend said, “and so they are. Let us follow the gospel!”
For once, Lucy didn’t mind Jesus so much.
Even though Pasco didn’t go to church, he somehow seemed to have gotten the message. When Lucy and Dad and Mr. Auggy went to the café for lunch, he pulled up a chair at their table, said the chicken nachos were on the house, and announced that he was going to provide all the refreshments to sell at the game. The money would go to support the team’s future needs.
Evidently Mr. Benitez couldn’t let Felix Pasco look better than him. Wednesday, he called the radio station and told Dad to announce that he was paying for uniforms for the team. And could he announce it three times a day?
“What color do you want?” Mr. Auggy asked the team Thursday.
“Anything but pink,” Lucy said.
“Ya think?” Gabe said.
Veronica raised a lanky arm. “Let us girls design them.”
“No way,” Oscar said. “I ain’t wearin’ no ruff les.”
“Oscar, are you new?” Lucy pointed both thumbs to her chest. “You think I’m gonna put myself in ruff les?”
“Trust us,” Dusty said.
And
Lucy knew just who to ask for help.
Mora was all over it. She did drawings of possibilities and pulled a 164-piece marker set out of her backpack for color samples. The red, white, and blue ensemble they came up with — complete with warm-ups — was, as Mora put it, “fabulous.”
Dad and Mr. Auggy held a meeting of the team parents and all the possible sponsors at Pasco’s Café, and Lucy was allowed to attend, since she was team captain. It was a lot like listening to the team argue — before they all grew up.
When Mr. Benitez started to sputter about how much the uniforms were going to cost, Gloria said she’d kick in some money if they’d put CASA BONITA on the backs of the shirts too. Lucy was relieved when Mr. Benitez said, no, he would pay whatever it cost as long as his grocery was the only name on the shirts. She didn’t think the boys would want to play for a hair salon.
Gloria sniffed, until Mr. Auggy told her the team still needed cleats and shin guards. She said she’d pay for half of that amount if the parents would pay the rest. They all agreed, except for J.J.’s parents, who weren’t there.
Carla Rosa’s dad — Guess what? He was the mayor — declared Saturday, March 7th, as Los Suenos Pride Day and urged the business owners to spruce up their establishments for all the visitors who were coming from El Paso. Claudia said she’d provide f lower arrangements for their display windows at a discount. When eyebrows raised, she said okay, she’d do it for free. The mayor mentioned banners, and Veronica and Dusty’s mothers waved their hands — like Dusty and Veronica always did — and said they were graphic designers and would make that happen. No wonder the Gigglers had such neat-looking notebooks.
“Nothin’ too girly,” Emanuel’s father said.
“Shut up,” his mother said. “They know what they’re doing.”
Lucy half-expected Mr. Auggy to buzz them. But mostly the results of the meeting were ding-ding-ding worthy.
“You’ve brought this town together,” Dad said when he and Lucy and Mr. Auggy were walking home amid the leafy shadows of the cottonwoods.
“Not just me,” Mr. Auggy said. “And I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.”
Dad talked about that on the radio. And about how soccer had eased racial tensions among the kids. Dusty and Veronica were at Lucy’s that day, eating quesadillas before they went off to soccer practice. Mr. Auggy had them playing after school too, and Inez let Lucy go as long as she ate something first.
“Racial tensions?” Veronica said. Her lip hung. “What does that mean?”
Lucy tore off a piece of her quesadilla, but she didn’t eat it. Her mouth had gone dry.
“Isn’t that like white people hating black people?” Dusty said. “We don’t have any black kids at our school.”
Everyone seemed to be waiting for Lucy to explain it. Even Inez.
She let her chunk of quesadilla drop to the plate. “He’s talking about Hispanic people not liking anybody who isn’t Hispanic.”
“Huh?” Dusty said. “I think it’s the other way around. At least it used to be.”
“We don’t do that at our school,” Mora piped up. “ ’Course, most of the kids where I go are white, but I’m pretty popular, so it doesn’t affect me.”
“Who does it affect?” Dusty said, but she was looking at Lucy.
“Well,” Lucy said slowly, “me.”
“You?” Veronica and Dusty said together.
Dusty scrunched up her nose. “What are you talking about?”
The toy chest in the bedroom was feeling pretty attractive. Lucy looked at Inez. She was nodding. There were knots to be untied. Okay, God — here we go.
Lucy picked her words out before she opened her mouth. “You guys used to act like I wasn’t even there because I was white.”
“This is a joke, right?” Dusty said, only she wasn’t laughing. “We never talked to you because you were always a snob to us.”
“You acted like you were better than us.” Veronica’s lip was at an all-time low.
“Nuh-uh,” Lucy said.
“Yuh-huh.”
“It was like nobody else knew how to play soccer. You wouldn’t answer questions when we tried to be friendly — ”
“She was snotty to me too, when I first came here,” Mora said. “Now we’re totally like sisters — we fight and everything — but it was like she thought she was it on a stick.” She snapped her fingers over her head.
Lucy stared at Dusty and Veronica. “But you were out to get me when you started playing soccer with us. You kept making me fall down.”
They both shook their heads.
“Gabe was hateful to J.J. though — you can’t deny that.”
“Gabe is hateful to everybody,” Dusty said.
Veronica gaped at her. “Not me!”
“Whatever.”
Lucy got up on one leg on the chair.
“Uh-oh,” Mora said. “She means business now.”
“What about you telling Januarie that I said she’s too fat to play soccer?”
“What?” Dusty looked as if Lucy had slapped her. “Why would I do that?”
“Because — ”
Lucy stopped. She couldn’t think of a single reason. Not anymore. But she frowned. “Then who told her that?”
“One of the boys?” Veronica said.
Mora sprang her talking fingers into action. “Boys so don’t say stuff like that. If they want to hurt you, they just say it to your face. They’re not as smart as we are.”
“Or as stupid.”
They all looked at Inez. She appeared to be simply washing potatoes, but Lucy knew better.
“Women — they can be mean,” she said. “They forget they need each other so much.”
Lucy felt something in her throat, but it wasn’t a knot. It was something thick that made her want to hug somebody.
“Okay, so, this was all like this major misunderstanding.” Dusty said. She tightened her ponytail as if she were putting a period at the end of a sentence.
“Well, yeah,” Lucy said. She could already see the list she was going to make tonight: Things I Didn’t Used to Understand but Now I Do.
“We better get to practice,” she said.
“You’re leaving me?” Mora said.
She actually looked sad. Go figure.
But her mood had changed by the time Lucy got home, just before dark. She was standing in the middle of the kitchen, shrieking and waving her electronic diary around.
“I trusted you!” she said before Lucy could even ask what was going on.
“Mora,” Inez said sharply.
“Abuela — ” Mora’s free hand came up like an exclamation point. “Not that many people know I even have this — and nobody else could have gotten into my backpack — ”
“What are you talking about?” Lucy said. Mora’s eyes were so big she was afraid they’d pop out of her head.
“Intruders.” Mora held the device out like it was Exhibit A on Law and Order. “Somebody tried to get in — only they messed up the password.” The pop-eyes shrunk to slits. “You know my password.”
“Right,” Lucy said. “So if I wanted to get in, I could have.”
Mora shook her head, so hard her ponytail snapped into her eye.
“You can’t say it exactly like I do.”
“I didn’t even try!” Lucy put her hands to the sides of her face so she wouldn’t yell. Mora was doing enough yelling for both of them. “Look — I didn’t try to get into your diary. I know what it’s like when somebody tries to put their nose in your private stuff. I just had it happen to me the other day. Ask your abuela.”
Mora looked at Inez, who nodded.
“Then who was it? Veronica and what’s-her-name?”
“Dusty? No way!”
“I am just so annoyed.”
The fingers went crazy as Mora shoved the diary into her backpack and muttered to herself in Spanish.
Lucy felt three knots replace the ones she’d thought were untied. She wrote about t
hem in her Book of Lists that night.
Lucy stopped writing and scratched behind Lollipop’s ear with the tip of her pen.
Not having to do so many chores did mean she had more time for soccer and friends — confusing as they were — and even doing homework. But it was still hard, not feeling like Dad needed her anymore. She even wondered if he talked to Mr. Auggy about things he used to talk to her about. A sadness knot tied itself around her throat again.
But she was careful to tuck the Book of Lists in with the kitty before she said, “What’s up, Dad?”
“Luce?”
Lollipop leaped from the bed and into the toy chest.
“It’s just Dad, silly,” Lucy said.
But she was careful to tuck the Book of Lists in with the kitty before she said, “What’s up, Dad?”
He poked his head in. “Did you remember to feed Mudge tonight?”
“Aw man — no.” Lucy scrambled for her sweatshirt. She’d been so wrapped up in her knots she’d forgotten the best cat ever. “I’ll do it now,” she said.
Dad chuckled. “Better now than at three in the morning when he comes to my window yowling. You know how he hates to miss a meal.”
Feeling needed by Dad again, Lucy found her shoes and went to the backyard.
“Sorry, Mudge,” she said into the darkness. “I’ll give you some tuna — come on.”
Only silence answered her.
“Mudge? Kitty-kitty? Tuna!”
Nothing. Lucy hurried across the yard to the shed, opened the door, promised tuna — still no grumbling from the big brown tabby.
She slipped out the gate and peered behind the century plant, but only its leaves threatened to bite, not Mudge.
“Kitty-kitty-kitty!”
“Luce — what’s going on?” Dad called from the back step.
“I can’t find him, Dad.” Lucy could hear the worry in her own voice. “He always comes for tuna.”
“Try taking a can out there with you. He might be playing hard to get because you’re late.”
With yet another knot tying itself inside her, Lucy ran to the house, got a can of StarKist and was still pulling the top off as she took the steps in one jump.
