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

looks from Jack to Maria.
    "Where did you get this money?" she asks. "Is it stolen?"
    Maria knows many old women like this. The neighbourhood is full of them. Their brown skin is wrinkled, they move slowly and their once glossy dark hair is grey. They balance on the sharp edge of the poverty line, but they have their pride and are honest to a fault.
    "We took it from a bad man, señora ," Jack says. "You deserve it more than he does."
    The woman shakes her head. "The devil has sent you. Do not tempt me."
    Maria takes out the silver cross she wears on a chain under her dress.
    "My friend is a good man," she says. She lifts the cross to her lips and kisses the silver. "I swear by Our Lady and los santos ."
    "Please, señora ," Jack says. "Let us help you. We know you are alone in the world. Let us do what your children would if they were still here to look after you."
    "My children…it was joining the gangs that killed them both."
    "We have nothing to do with the bandas," Jack says. "We—"
    His cell phone rings.
    " Pardon ," he says as he pulls it out of a pocket.
    His eyes go dark as he listens to the voice on the other end.
    "I'll be right there," he says before he cuts the connection.
    "What is it?" Maria asks.
    He shrugs. "Nothing, really. Just a little trouble—coincidentally, with the 66 Bandas. Will you wait for me here while I straighten it out?"
    "But—"
    "This is not the same as what we did earlier in the evening," he tells her. "That was like a game. In this, your inexperience will get you hurt."
    "I'm not afraid."
    "I know," he says. "But I'm afraid for you and I need all my wits about me. Don't worry. I won't be long."
    He kisses her on the cheek, nods to the old woman, then slips out the door.
    "I knew this had to do with gangs," the old woman says. "Everything bad in the barrio comes from their drugs and killing."
    "We aren't with the gangs," Maria says. "We stand against them."
    She can hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth. Before tonight, she would have been no different from the old woman standing in front of her. She would have believed that it was always better that the gangs didn't even know you existed.
    But now she understands that ordinary people have to take matters into their own hands to help themselves. The police are corrupt and the government does nothing. The church can't keep up. And all the while, the rich hide behind the walls of their gated communities.
    "Then you are doomed," the woman says. She makes the sign of the cross. "And you have brought them and their dirty money to my house."
    "For that I apologize," Maria says.
    Before the old woman can say any more, Maria opens the door and steps outside. She's surprised by the change in the light. The sun is rising above the Hierro Maderas. It's much brighter now than it was fifteen minutes earlier.
    She remembers what Jack said about staying out of his way and slips through the old woman's dusty yard to the corner of the next house. Peering around its adobe wall she sees Jack and Ti Jean in the middle of the street. Jack's swinging something in one hand—she can't quite see what it is. A necklace perhaps. It's a blur, swinging too fast for her to see. Ti Jean is holding a length of saguaro rib as tall as he is.
    Facing them are a four men wearing the colours of the 66 Bandas. Coming down the street behind the bandas she sees Will approaching at a run. She can't spot either of the Glimmer Twins.
    This is bad. Two of the bandas are carrying guns. The others have a machete and a tire iron. So far as she knows, her friends have no weapons—unless you could call Ti Jean's staff a weapon. But a saguaro rib is nothing against a gun or a machete, or even a tire iron.
    Maria wants to hide her eyes, but she can't look away.
    She looks around for something to use as a weapon. If the boys are going to fight, she will too.
    But then she sees them. Three more bandas sneaking up through an alley behind Jack and Ti Jean. The buildings hide them