Читать книгу BORDER JUSTICE - Aubrey Smith - Страница 7

Today’s special election had been called by the Commissioners to fill the vacancy caused when Sheriff Red Smart had been killed by a Texas diamondback rattler. Both candidates were running as Democrats. Tommy Causy had been a deputy for Smart. Rey Garza was the local favorite. Most thought the race would be very close with heavy voter turnout.

They went door to door handing out Vote for Rey cards and, while they smiled and shook hands with everyone that came to the door, the tension between Sierra and her mama and dad seemed to grow. They hardly spoke to each other as they walked the blocks, house to house on the west side of Magic Valley.

Around eleven, Sierra thought she might faint. She was tired and her feet hurt. Her mouth was dry and still sore from the tongue kissing. Her breasts were burning from Randy’s rough handling. How could I have been so stupid, she wondered as they passed Randy’s house. Her father held his head high and walked on by Randy’s old pickup truck. Sierra thought she would die when she saw Randy had written in the dust on the tailgate, I scored!!!

“That’s all for today, let’s go home,” Tony Lara said. Sierra thought, Oh Daddy, if you only knew how sorry and ashamed I am right now.

No one talked as they walked home. As soon as they arrived back at the house, Tony turned to his daughter. “Sierra, we’ll never talk about last night again,” he said. “Just let me tell you this, I love you and I always will, but, for sure, I’ve never been more surprised and embarrassed by you than I was this morning when I saw you drag yourself out of that clunker looking like a puta that even the dogs run from.”

Tony looked as if he might cry. Then he added in a soft, almost indistinguishable voice, “I’m going to the restaurant.”

“Go to your room Sierra and get ready for work,” her mother said. Then she also turned and walked away from her daughter toward the kitchen. “You’ve made your bed. Now you’ve got to lie in it no matter what happens from this mess.”

When Sierra arrived at the cafe, she instantly felt a wave of excitement that filled the small building. There were eight tables and thirty-eight chairs in the eating area. All of them were full with people talking and drinking coffee or iced tea. Sandra had a look of determination as she rushed about, filling glasses and cups and taking lunch orders. Electricity and energy danced around the room from table to table as each person tried to tell how they had voted for Rey Garza. They all hoped Rey would be the next Sheriff of Rio County. Sierra was tying on a white apron when she heard someone at the table nearest the kitchen door say that there had already been over seven thousand votes cast and that the turnout in Magic Valley might set an all-time record. She was too young to vote this year, and she had other things to think about as she hurried to help in the kitchen. There were customers to take care of now.

Last year when the new Tec-Cal plant had opened its new modern building on the edge of town, her dad had bought a small piece of property directly across the street that the bank had repossessed from the Miller family. He then borrowed fifty-thousand dollars from the Magic Valley State Bank and built the small restaurant, hoping that the workers at Tec-Cal would eat their lunches there. When Tec-Cal hired only a couple of yardmen, Tony had told the family that he was in deep trouble. Since then he had struggled every month just to make his payments. She was aware that their savings were now completely gone and to see this many people in the cafe gave her a sense of hope, even if it was just for today.

The possibility that her dad’s friend Rey Garza would win the election was slim. There had never been a Hispanic elected to a countywide position in Rio County, although the ethnic population was about eighty percent Mexican. Our people just don’t vote, she thought.

Sierra wished she could just lie down for a while. She still felt a little sick from last night’s wine, but as she looked around, she knew that as soon as she could, she needed to get out of the kitchen and help Sandra wait on the tables. Scooping out a basket of French fries, she tried to put Randy out of her mind. She thought about Rey and how he had become a candidate for Sheriff. He’s kind of cute, she thought.

She recalled stories of the years of terror from Red Smart, first as a city policeman, then Chief of Police in Magic Valley and finally Sheriff of Rio County. There were rumors that Rey’s sister Maria had killed Sheriff Smart with a rattlesnake when the sheriff tried to rape her, but no one knew for sure.