Читать книгу Seeing Off the Johns - Rene S Perez II - Страница 13

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 had more money than it needed and hadn’t regarded with wonder and awe the Johns the way the Johns had regarded UT. Then there was the Bee County hospital that had treated the boys. But it was agreed by all four parents, without being said by any of them, that the hospital that couldn’t save their boys could burn to the ground for all they cared—and this was also their sentiment regarding the rural ambulance company that responded to the accident. Angie Robison suggested Greenton High and they all agreed. The dirty business of wiping their hands clean of the profits made by the memory of their dead sons was complete. The money would buy new uniforms for the baseball team.

Fake stars were popping up in the surrounding counties, one or two actually surfacing in Greenton. They were shoddy replications. Ms. Salinas’ cousin in Laredo had made a simple but distinguishing augmentation to the shade of Greenton’s spearmint green, which lightened it a bit. The counterfeiters couldn’t seem to duplicate this. Some people were even coming into The Pachanga and purchasing scores of stars to sell at a marked-up price in counties farther away to people who were sympathetic to Greenton’s loss. The Mejias and Robisons, it would seem, were alone in their compunction regarding profiting from the deaths of two teenagers.