Page 31 of Pride High 3: Yellow
His eyes darted to the hall, perhaps hoping to see his wife there, but she was still in the bedroom with Hugo.
“Did the hospital find you?”she asked.“Is that what’s going on?”
Miguel shook his head.“No. Raul came by the other day.”A friend and coworker of her father who was also undocumented.“They let him go. A lot of the others too.”
“They fired him?”Silvia shook her head.“Why? Does it have something to do with your accident?”
Miguel hesitated.“I’m not sure. A woman who works in the office told Raul that men in suits have been coming around.”
Which wouldn’t raise any alarms at an accounting firm, but her father worked for a roofing company. Or used to.“Did they fire you too?”she asked.
“I don’t know,”Miguel answered after a pause.“I called and told them I’d have my cast off soon, but the boss said there wasn’t enough work at the moment.”
That smelled fishy. Spring was just around the corner and marked the beginning of the busy season for roofing companies.
Her father was watching her expression carefully.“Raul thinks it’s a tax audit instead of immigration. Please don’t worry about any of this.”
“Okay,” Silvia said, if only to set his mind at ease. She was going to worry about it no matter what. An audit could attract the attention of immigration agents, if they caught wind of undocumented workers.
Hugo tromped into the room, meaning that Elena wouldn’t be far behind, so Silvia stood and returned the list of towns to where she had found it. She silently finished getting ready and remained quiet when driving her mother and brother into town, her mind preoccupied with one concern after another. If the IRS was poking around her father’s former workplace, would they find anything with their address on it? What if the owner was offered a plea deal to trade the names of his off-the-book employees in exchange for leniency?
She waited until after they had dropped Hugo off at school before broaching the subject.
“Dad told me,”she said.
“Told you what?”her mother asked innocently.
Silvia merely raised an eyebrow in response.
Elena sighed.“We didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily.”
“I’m an adult now,”Silvia said.“You should include me in everything!”
Her mother smiled gently.“You’re a teenager. And our child. Let us take care of you.”
Silvia shook her head, and as much as she tried not to burden them, she couldn’t help herself.“I wouldn’t know anyone at my new school.”Which was such a trivial problem compared to the sacrifices her parents had made to start a new life in this country that she was embarrassed for speaking it aloud.
Her mother didn’t seem to mind. She reached over and patted her leg. “I know, sweetheart. But your father is worried he won’t be able to find work here.”
“Okay, but… Chicago? Do we have to go so far?”
“They have a large Latino community, so we won’t stand out as much. And we’ll be even farther away from the border, which can’t hurt. But we won’t leave unless it becomes necessary. We have friends here too.”
Of course they did. They would each be saying goodbye to familiar faces and places. Silvia had no right to feel sorry for herself. When they reached Pride High, she pulled over and went around to the back of the truck to take out her ten-speed bike. Her mother helped and remained standing there, even when Silvia handed her the keys.
“Everything is going to be okay,”Elena said.“I promise.”
Silvia hugged her mother and kissed her on the cheek. Then she rolled her bike over to the rack to lock it up. She felt the prickly sweat and thudding palpitations of anxiety, which were all-too-familiar, despite being mostly absent over the past month. She had felt empowered when rescuing her dad from the hospital. And when shutting Ricky down after he'd seen what he shouldn’t have. In both instances, Silvia hadn’t let fear cripple her. She had taken action to protect the people she loved.
Now she felt powerless again. There had to be something she could do! Or someone who could help. She thought of Omar and his wealthy family, Mindy and her compassionate heart, Anthony and his thoughtful sensitivity. Each was a source of comfort in a crisis, but she didn’t see how any of her friends could help. With one exception.
Keisha.
Silvia thought of her obsessively during her first three classes, which she hadn’t allowed herself to do recently. Not if she could help it. There were still too many messy feelings. She tried not to focus on them, choosing instead to remember the Christmas they had spent together, when she volunteered on the farm owned by Keisha’s family to help provide a happy holiday for struggling families. Silvia had experienced that kindness from the other side when younger. But no matter how generous and sympathetic the Hart family might be, she couldn’t ask them to stick their necks out for her father.
And yet, she felt compelled to try. Especially when she met Mindy for lunch. Silvia saw her from across the cafeteria and imagined having to say goodbye. They would stay in touch, of course, but they wouldn’t share a meal each day, or graduate from high school together, and would probably lose touch when beginning their adult lives in different states.
“How’s the new play going?” Silvia asked casually toward the end of their lunch break.
