Seeing Off the Johns by Rene S Perez II Read Free Book Online Page A

“he flipped me off.” She stood there, looking at the dust kicked up by the brother and his sister and the car that would carry them to their loving home three towns over. “We’re out of Bud Light tall boys and Miller Lite caguamas,” she said. “And four of the microwave burritos were cut into. I think Rocha did it when he openedup the box. I bagged them, they’re in the cooler, leave a note for Sammy so he can write them off and order more beer.”
    â€œOkay, Ana. Thanks,” Chon said.
    Ana turned around and looked at him.
    â€œSometimes I just want to fucking scream. Hell, sometimes I do. I get home and I call detectives and call Bill and I cry. And then I get two days off, and I’m too sad to even go to Flojo’s so I sit at home and drink and cry and, sometimes, I scream.” She gave a laugh. She always laughed at awkward moments. “I’ll see you Wednesday,” she said.
    â€œWell, I’ll be here if you want to drop in,” Chon said. A month ago, she might have taken him up on the offer—showed up on her day off with leftovers and helped him mop the store or stock the cooler.
    â€œI’ll see you Wednesday, Chon-Chon,” she said walking out of the store.
    She stood in the doorway trying to light her cigarette. When the wind wouldn’t let her, she crouched down in the corner made by the ice machine and the storefront. Small as she was, she disappeared from Chon’s sight. She could have been crying or curling up in a ball to give up on life or crawling away in the thirty seconds she was down there.
    She popped up, cigarette lit, waved goodbye to Chon, and walked around the side of The Pachanga to get to her car. In the drive-thru window, Chon saw a woman tired and alone and who, in a bigger city, would fit right in pushing around a shopping cart and screaming at traffic passing by. She honked her horn when she pulled onto Main, waving at Chon with the back of her hand.

The John stars were Ms. Salinas’ idea. The Mejias were left with some debt after the funeral. Keeping up with the Robison’s arrangements was no easy task. Andres refused any of Arn’s offered money to bridge the gap. Julie had life insurance policies on herself and Andres and had even taken one out on John, but it was a minimal thing—who can ever foresee having to pay for the funeral of your youngest son? Who would want to? Everyone in town knew of the Mejia’s financial problems, so Ms. Salinas took action. What better way for the boys’ teacher to get over her own grief than by helping out?
    Ms. Salinas brought up the idea of selling car magnets—stars, like the Johns were and would have been—to raise funds to erase the Mejias’ debt. They agreed—so long as the money made from such a venture would be split evenly with the Robisons. Arn had reservations about accepting any such money but didn’t object because he knew his agreement on the matter would be the only way he and Angie could help Andres and Julie.
    The magnets were bought at a discount from Ms. Salinas’ cousin, the owner of a copy shop in Laredo, who informed her of the fact that the color burnt orange is trademarked by the University of Texas and, as such, could not be used commercially. So it was decided that Greenton High’s spearmint green would do as the color for the stars, which read “JOHNS 3:16.”
    Art Alba was the only storeowner in town who initially agreed to sell the stars profit-free. When the other stores caught wind of his offer and changed theirs to match, Andres Mejia told them they could all fuck themselves and made The Pachanga the exclusive handler of the stars.
    The funeral costs were recouped after a week. The Mejias and Robisons, when they saw that the sale of the stars was not likely to soon die down, decided that all the proceeds would go to a charity.
    They had discussed giving the money to UT, but what for? The school