The Saddle Maker's Son (18 page)

The glee on Caleb's face said it all. Rebekah hid her smile as she watched her brother lovingly finger the display of fireworks that included firecrackers, bottle rockets, and smoke balls. Mudder had looked grim when Mordecai broached the topic of taking Rebekah along. He seemed determined to keep her busy. The fireworks stand set up in a tent outside the Walmart surely held no group of Englisch boys looking for Amish girls to corrupt. If only they knew. Kisses under a full moon had sealed her fate. She would never look beyond her tiny community for that special someone. Tobias still had wounds that needed healing, but his touch said he yearned to find peace. With her. In time he would. She prayed he would.

She breathed and worked to find herself in the here and now. In a fireworks tent that might be more of a danger to Caleb. Her brother would be a pyromaniac, given half a chance. All the boys would.

Sweat beaded on her forehead. She patted it with her sleeve and hobbled farther under the tent to escape the fierce July sun. Her ankle throbbed less and less every day, which only reminded
her of the passage of time since Lupe and Diego's disappearance. It was July Fourth already and they hadn't heard anything about them. They were gone. For good. Time to accept that and move on.

Diego would love the firecrackers, she was sure of it. Lupe would like the Roman candles the way Rebekah did.

“Do you think we can afford bottle rockets and Roman candles?” Caleb tried to mask his eagerness. Lately Rebekah had noticed he was trying to act more mature, leaving little-boy ways behind. She would miss the little boy. “How much do we have?”

He'd asked that question four times on the ride into town. Mordecai, who stood perusing the smoke balls and fountains, smiled at Caleb and shook his head. “Pick one, suh.”

The money from one day of baked-good sales in town had been set aside for their Fourth of July celebration. “Get some snakes, some poppers, and some bang snaps for the little ones.” She picked up a box of punks. “We'll need these too.”

“Those are all for babies.” Caleb snorted and held up a package of firecrackers as long as his arm. “Look at this, one thousand firecrackers. We could light the fuse and let them all go at once. The horses would bolt.”

“So would the little kinner.” Rebekah chuckled. “You don't want to waste them all at once. The idea is to make them last.”

“Nee, the idea is to make a lot of noise and light up the sky.”

“Still, we need to get something for the kinner.”

A woman strode into the tent, backlit by the sun. At first Rebekah couldn't see her face in the shadows, but she recognized the high-pitched East Texas twang going on and on, something about a fireworks display sponsored by the Lions Club. Bobbie McGregor.

Bobbie swung her long braid over her shoulder. Her black cowboy hat teetered back on her head. “We need bottle rockets, lots of bottle rockets. I wonder if they have M-80s.”

Her gaze met Rebekah's. Her fair skin darkened under a deep tan. “Hey, what's up, Rebekah.”

David Byler stopped behind her. He didn't have time to tug his hand from Bobbie's before Rebekah saw how their fingers were entwined. He ducked his head, his face as red as radishes.

“Not much.” Rebekah sidestepped toward Mordecai. He would know how to handle this. She didn't have a clue. David was new to their community, but holding hands with an Englisch girl didn't likely find acceptance in his former district either. “Just getting a few things for Friday's picnic.”

Mordecai turned to stare at the two. His expression didn't change. He handed Rebekah a package of snakes. “The little ones will like these. You keep a running total of our picks so we don't go over our budget.” He turned to Bobbie. “How is the horse? Cracker Jack is his name, right?”

“Tobias is training him, little by little. He's a patient man. I think he'll find a way to tame him.” If she squirmed any more, she'd squirm out of her skin. “David was just filling me in on his daddy's condition. I'm so glad he's home in time for the holiday. David and I ran into each other in the parking lot.”

Running on at the mouth was a clear sign of lying. Besides, how did David get to the parking lot? He hadn't arrived with them. In fact, Rebekah clearly remembered discussion at the supper table last night about the Byler men helping to pour a new concrete floor for another milk house today. After which Tobias had to work on the saddle he was making for Bobbie.

“Is that right, David?”

The glint of amusement in Mordecai's eyes was a dangerous thing. That and his tone drew Rebekah grudgingly from her thoughts of Tobias. Mordecai might be the kindest, most gregarious man around, but he did not take lightly the transgressions of folks in his district. As deacon he had to investigate and assist with meting out punishment, something he did with a fair and even hand. “You met up with Miss Bobbie just now in the parking lot?”

“Nee, Bobbie was nice enough to give me a ride into town.” David apparently hadn't been paying attention to the discussion after church Sunday about the Kings coming in to buy fireworks for everyone for the Fourth of July picnic. If he had, he wouldn't be in this predicament. “I thought I'd buy a few things for our kinner. They've been down since Lupe and Diego left.”

Using Diego and Lupe as an excuse. Nee. “We're taking care of that.” Rebekah let her irritation bleed into the words as she held up the snakes and the poppers. “Liam and Hazel will have plenty of fun with these.”

Mordecai gave her the look. The Look. She closed her mouth and slid closer to the counter where the cashier entertained himself with a magazine about automatic weapons.

“We'd be happy to give you a ride back to the farm.” Mordecai's tone indicated it wasn't an offer David would be smart to refuse. “We need to finish the ramps at your house. It'll be easier for your daed to get in and out if he doesn't have to use the steps on the front porch.”

“He's so ornery, he doesn't want us doing anything special.” The space between David and Bobbie grew. “He says he can manage fine. He's been mighty cantankerous since he got home.”

“A man used to working hard doesn't like the idea of sitting
around.” Mordecai picked up a package of sparklers and held them out. “Liam will like these.”

A reminder that David had kinner who looked up to him. Rebekah admired Mordecai's simple ways of getting to the truth of the matter. Where she tended to go in like a bull in a too-small stall, he knew how to get under a person's skin without raising his voice. “He'll like these too.” She held up a package of worms. “Hazel still giggles over them and she's six too.”

“I better get going.” Bobbie sidled toward the tent opening with its flaps knocking in the humid breeze. “I need to practice for the barrel racing at the county fair.”

Suddenly she had practicing to do. She should practice keeping her mitts off a susceptible young Plain man whose world had been turned upside down by a move to a new community and a daed with severe injuries. “Y'all should come watch me ride. It's fun. You'll like it.”

“That would be—”

Mordecai shook his head. David closed his mouth. “We appreciate the invitation. We have much work to do this summer.”

Her cheeks rosy with heat—or embarrassment—Bobbie nodded and slipped away. Mordecai turned his back on David and approached Rebekah. “We better get going. Supper will be on the table and you know how your mudder hates to keep it waiting.”

Rebekah scooped up Caleb's growing pile and marched over to the counter. “Jah, we better get out of here before someone gets burned.”

“There's nothing going on.”

David's tone held a note of belligerence. Mordecai's smile had died. His frown etched lines around his eyes and mouth. Her stepfather could look fierce indeed. “Your rumspringa is yours
and yours alone.” He pulled a wad of bills from the band inside his straw hat and handed it to Rebekah. “But holding hands with an Englisch girl in public is not nothing. You'll get more than burned. You'll lose everything.”

“Like you said, that's the point of rumspringa.” David didn't seem at all fazed by the fierce Mordecai look. “To make your own choice.”

Mordecai turned his back on David. “Pay up so we can go.”

Rebekah signaled to Caleb, who groaned and marched across the tent, his arms full of a pile of fireworks, surely more than they could afford.

No one would leave the fireworks tent happy this day.

This had been a mistake. Tobias sideswiped a glance at Jesse. The man seemed perfectly at ease cruising the streets in his minivan, a Plain man alongside him in the front seat. The tepid air radiating from the van's AC did nothing to cool Tobias's face. When he'd asked Mr. Cramer to give him a ride into town to Jesse's church, he'd been buoyed with the hope that they would find Lupe and Diego at a bus stop or on the steps of the church itself. Then they'd have even more reason to celebrate the holiday.

Maybe they were in one of the humanitarian refugee centers he'd read about in the
Beeville Times-Picayune
. He couldn't bear the sad faces at the supper table the last two weeks. Or the way Rebekah stared at her hands during church service, her thoughts written all over her pretty face. If he found them, she would smile again.

In only a few months these two little ones had earned themselves a place in the hearts of his community. In his heart. Even if they couldn't stay forever, he wanted to make sure they were all right, that they weren't victims of the evil that permeated the world, dead on the side of the road. Uncomfortable with his thoughts, he shifted in his seat, the belt tight against his broad chest.

Jesse glanced his way. “They're fine.”

“How can you know that?”

“I have faith.”

No doubt he did, but Jesse had been all too ready to jump in and try to find the kinner. He, too, knew that a person didn't stand aside and wait for God to do what he should do himself. “I have faith, too, but I also know what a dangerous place this world is.”

“This world of mine?”

“I didn't say that.”

“It's written all over your face.” Jesse turned on the blinker and made a left in front of a taco house behind a line of traffic headed out to the county's Fourth of July celebration. He chuckled. “I know you think they're safer with you, but they navigated a much more dangerous world back home. And they survived the coyotes in Mexico that would've taken advantage of them.”

“Coyotes?”

“The human smugglers.”

“Barely. Lupe is afraid of any man who comes near her. What will scars like that do to her when she's older and ready to become a fraa and a mudder?”

Wanting to put a damper on his anger at the thought, Tobias swiveled to look out the passenger window, searching the nooks and crannies made by the doorways and awnings of the stores that lined the street. He didn't see any children who should be at home, getting ready to shoot fireworks and eat hot dogs before taking baths and going to bed in nice, clean sheets. Like the bath he'd given Diego on that first night. Tobias had ended up as wet as Diego. And how was Pedro the ratoncito? Still hiding in the backpack? Tobias wanted to know. He snorted.

“What?”

“I find myself wondering how a mouse is doing. What has the world come to?”

“Diego cares about the mouse. So you care. It says something about you.”

Tobias adjusted the vents so the cool air blew on his warm face. “Hogwash.”

“It's the truth. I know you want to help them, but I suspect you're also concerned with how Rebekah is taking this.” Jesse honked at a gaggle of giggling teenage girls who stopped in the middle of the crosswalk, apparently intent on taking pictures of themselves with an overabundance of cell phones. “She's tougher than she looks. She's like Leila, only mouthier.”

Not a topic Tobias intended to discuss with anyone, least of all a Plain-turned-Englisch man. “I'm concerned with Diego and Lupe getting safely to their final destination.”

Jesse snorted. “I saw the way you looked at her.”

“That's a private matter.”

“She feels the same way.”

Despite himself, Tobias glanced at Jesse. He stared at the road, but he was grinning. Pleased with himself as if he'd done something grand. If he only knew about the ride down by the pond after the singing, he wouldn't be so pleased with himself. “What do you know about it?”

“She has an open face, just like Leila. I know Leila's moods and all her thoughts because they pass across her sweet face. Rebekah is the same way.”

“Rebekah is worried about these kinner the same as I am. I want to find them.”

“I think we just did.”

Tobias followed the finger Jesse pointed toward the window.
Lupe stood with her back to them. She had Diego on her shoulders, boosting him over the side of a Dumpster outside a Dairy Queen restaurant. The little boy scaled the wall like a monkey and disappeared over the side. Jesse pulled up to the curb and turned off the engine. Lupe looked back, her hair a tangled mess in her eyes. Her mouth opened, but Tobias couldn't hear her words. He shoved open the door. “Lupe, are you all right?”

“Diego!”

A string of Spanish words followed the boy's name. His face reappeared over the top of the Dumpster wall. He waved a fast-food wrapper in one hand.
“¡Hamburguesa!”

Panic on her face, the girl waved at him.
“¡Vamos!”

“Don't run, please don't run. Rebekah misses you.” Tobias hurled himself from the van and ran across the littered parking lot. “Liam and Hazel miss you.”

Lupe planted herself in front of her brother, her arms behind her as if shielding him from danger. “We go.”

“Stay. Let us help you. Jesse can help you.”

She shook her head. “We go.”

“You haven't yet.” Jesse stopped next to Tobias. “Because you don't know how to go north on the road to San Antonio without getting caught. Let us help you.”

“Como?”

“There's a place called the Humanitarian Respite Center.” Jesse edged closer, both hands out as if offering her something tangible. “They take refugees and help them find places to stay until their immigration hearings.”

Jesse spoke as if Lupe would understand these Englisch words. Tobias held out his hand, praying Lupe would trust him enough
to take it. Trust him more than Jesse, whom she had never met. “Let them come see Rebekah first. She can talk to them.”

Jesse nodded. “We can do that.”

“Come with us. To Rebekah and Liam and Ida and Hazel.” Tobias cocked his head toward the van. “It's Fourth of July. We're having hot dogs and ice cream.”

“Ice cream.” Apparently this was a word Diego understood. He still had the half-eaten hamburger from the Dumpster in one dirty hand. “Hot dog.”

Tobias fought the urge to grab the greasy wrapper and toss it back in the trash. “Let us help you.”

Diego scaled the Dumpster and balanced himself on the edge, one dirty leg dangling over it. The knees of his pants were torn. He had skinned his knees at some point. Scabs showed through. He tossed the hamburger to Lupe, who caught it without taking her gaze from Jesse. Diego dropped to the ground, dodged his sister, and trotted toward Tobias. “Liam?”

“Liam and the others are waiting to shoot their fireworks with you.”

“He no like.” Lupe slid the hamburger into her knapsack. “Sound like gun, bang-bang.”

“But he's safe with us.”

“No safe anywhere.”

Such a world-weary voice for such a young girl. Tobias's heart wrenched. “Not true. We can keep you safe. Diego, where's Pedro?”

Diego's face crumpled. He wiped at his dirty face with a dirtier hand. “He gone.”

“Gone?”

“Run away.”

Diego buried his head in Tobias's leg. He smelled of sweat, garbage, and dirt, just as he had that first night. “It's fine . . . you're fine.” He rubbed the boy's thin shoulders and matted hair. “We'll take you home, give you a bath, and feed you.”

Food that didn't come from a Dumpster.

A siren whooped and screamed, cutting the thick, humid air. Red and blue lights whirled, reflected against the restaurant glass in a wild, dizzying pattern. Lupe's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “La migra!”

She shot toward the street. Tobias unfurled his other arm and grabbed her as she passed him. She struggled like a scrappy alley cat, fierce and angry, but she didn't have the strength to break free. “No, no.”

Her teeth bit into his wrist. Pain shot up his arm. “Hey, hey.” He managed to hang on. “Don't do that!”

“Me go, me go.”

“Stay.” Diego's weak, barefooted kicks banged against his shins. “It's okay, it's okay, I promise.”

“Let me have him.” Jesse knelt next to Tobias and laid a hand on the boy. “Tobias is right. We'll help you. We won't abandon you.”

“No, no!” Lupe shrieked. “They take us!”

A man so rotund his uniform buttons looked as if they were in danger of shooting across the parking lot shoved open his door and hoisted himself from the sheriff's car with an audible grunt. He had a face as smooth and white as a baby's bottom. When he finally unfolded himself, he stood well above Tobias and Jesse. A mammoth man with all manner of armaments on his heavy black belt—a gun, a baton, a stun gun of some sort, and a radio that cackled with static, the microphone attached to a strap on
his shoulder. Just the sort to scare young children who had an understandable fear of uniforms.

“What's going on here?” His meaty hand rested on the butt of his revolver. “A little Dumpster diving?”

“Wally?”

“Pastor?”

“You know you're not supposed to call me that!” Jesse stood. He picked up Diego and settled him on his hip as if the boy weighed nothing. “I just give the message when Pastor Dan can't. This here is Diego, and that's my friend Tobias and Diego's sister, Lupe.”

Wally's head seemed to bob from person to person as he took in the introductions. His hat looked too tight and his wrinkled forehead suggested it hurt. “You do a fine job behind the pulpit.”

Still stuck back on how he knew Jesse. The man took his time digesting situations, apparently.

Lupe tried to wiggle free of his grasp. Tobias hugged her against his chest. “It's okay. He's a friend of Jesse's.”

“Policía.”

“Yes, but police aren't bad.” Not most of the time. Not in America. “We'll explain and he'll understand.”

Tobias had almost no experience with police. He hoped he wasn't telling the girl a tall tale.

“So are these
chiquitos
runaways?” Wally leaned against the bumper of his car. It groaned and sank under his weight.

Tobias let Jesse give the man an abbreviated version of the events that had led them to this moment outside a Dumpster in a fast-food restaurant parking lot. When Jesse paused for breath, Tobias jumped in. “My family's willing to care for them until
their hearing. We want to get something set up so we can get it resolved, so they're not running around alone out on the street.”

He stopped and waited. The sheriff's deputy frowned and chewed on his thumbnail. He studied his boots and shifted his weight. The car's suspension sounded as if it were crying. Lupe fidgeted. Tobias patted her arm, aware of the throbbing where her bite had left marks on his wrist.

“I don't know, Pastor Jesse. We have strict orders to turn any illegals over to ICE posthaste.” He shifted. The car groaned again. “They pay us overtime. Operation Border Star from the feds. We get money to do this. You're not supposed to help these kids. You're supposed to turn them in. Don't you read the paper? Sheriff says they could be terrorists.”

“These are children. And they're alone and they're hungry and tired and they don't have a place to lay their heads at night.” Jesse patted Diego's dirty hair. “Does this look like the face of a terrorist? I reckon he's about the age of your Matthew, don't you think?”

“Maybe. But Sheriff says we have to take care of ourselves. He says these kids coming across the border are a way to clog things up in the US.” Wally fidgeted in much the same way as Lupe. He wrinkled his nose and studied the ground some more. “We had a meeting with folks here in town the other day, and they was real concerned because their barns are getting broken into and stuff stolen. Fences broken.”

“We no steal.” Lupe drew herself up tall, her face fierce. “We no steal from no one.”

“No offense.” Wally held up a hand. “But the sheriff tells the folks here to take care of themselves. That's the number-one priority.”

“Is that what Jesus would say?” Jesse's tone was kind. He settled onto the edge of the car next to the deputy and tucked Diego on his lap. “Look at this little boy and then tell me what Jesus would do.”

Wally's expression was troubled. He lifted his hat and scratched his forehead. His bald head shone in the setting sun. “Oh man, Pastor, you got to lay that one on me?”

“We don't learn Scripture in the church in Sunday school and then leave it there, do we?”

Wally ducked his head and plucked at a thread on his pant leg. “No, sir, we don't.”

“Don't sir me. You know better. Just like you know the story about when the disciples wanted to take the children away and Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me.' You know that story, Wally.”

“I do, I do.”

“Well then?”

Wally sighed, a mournful sigh. Tobias had to hand it to Jesse Glick. He knew his stuff and he knew people. Wally hoisted himself up and slapped his hat back on his head. “What did you have in mind?”

“Take us out to Tobias's place. Let the kinner stay there for a day or two. Tomorrow I'll try to get through to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Valley. I'll take it from there, I promise.”

The big man sighed.

“After you get off shift tonight, you should come by the house. Leila made her famous lemon meringue pie today. The crust melts in your mouth.”

“Are you trying to bribe a law enforcement official, Pastor Jesse?” Wally patted his potbelly, which hung over his belt to an alarming degree. “I'm surprised you didn't offer a dozen donuts.”