Clap When You Land(48)
might have gone.
“I sent her money.
A few days ago.”
Mami gasps
but is otherwise silent.
“Would she have
left for the capital?” I ask Tía.
But Tía dismisses that with a hand.
“We have no family there.”
Although I feel like I’m betraying her I offer, “My passport is missing.”
At this, Mami pushes up to her feet.
“She would pass herself off as you.
Solana, we need to go to the airport.”
But Tía shakes her head again.
“It doesn’t open until four a.m.
The girl is impetuous, but she wouldn’t walk the roads at this time of night; she would wait for the sun.
Maybe her friend Carline.
She might go to her.”
But this time it’s me
who is disbelieving.
“She loves on her best friend like a favorite doll. Treats her fragile-like.
She wouldn’t wake her.
She wouldn’t make her complicit.”
The three of us stare at one another.
Until we hear the whine right outside the door.
The dog must have found his way underneath the fence.
Tía & I catch eyes at the exact same time.
There is only one place Camino would go.
Mami pulls the car up as far as she can but I am out the door before she even stops; running through the trees toward the water, I hear a low moan like someone in pain.
As the trees clear,
I see Camino on the ground thrashing against a man who kneels above her;
she’s kicking him in the stomach as he tries to hold her still.
The sky has opened up;
rain drips down her face.
They have not seen me yet.
It is the first time I am glad to be taller & thicker than Camino as I rush out &
run up behind them, shoving the man hard so that he falls into the sand.
He angles his shoulder, & I can tell he wants to bum-rush me.
I crouch down to cover Camino’s hunched & trembling body. She clumsily clings to my waist.
Her blouse is ripped open.
& like the dog frantically barking beside us, I bare my teeth at the man.
“You’ve been her sister for what, two days?
You’re going to want to mind your business.”
I ball my fists the way Papi taught me, thumbs outside.
“You’ll want to leave Camino alone from now on.”
His face contorts in anger.
He charges at me, but headlights flood the darkness.
My mother’s face peeks from the trees as Tía Solana jumps out into the clearing, her huge machete glinting in her hand.
I trust she knows exactly how to swing it.
The man takes a step back,
tries to fix his face into something more innocent.
He’s going to try to lie his way out of this, I can tell.
Even with the rain, the distant sound of lightning, I can hear Tía praying, her soft voice undercutting all the noise.
She comes & stands by my side,
murmuring under her breath.
I bend down to help Camino to her feet.
Hold her to me with an arm around her waist.
Camino is uncharacteristically quiet.
I want to whisper in her ear,
“I know, I know. I know this fear. You’re okay.
I’m here. I got you.”
& the feeling is so clear it chokes me up so much I can’t actually say the words.
The lights cut out from the car, & Mami steps from the vehicle.
She doesn’t carry a single weapon,
nothing but her cell phone & the rolitos in her hair.
But you would think she was armed to the teeth the way she pulls her shoulders back, & there in her bearing, you see
she is a general’s daughter.
She looks this man straight in the face.
“This girl does not exist for you anymore.
She doesn’t live here. You won’t be able to reach her.”
Tía’s praying gets louder, & she smacks the machete hard against her open palm. Behind me Camino whimpers.
Off the ocean air, wind is starting to churn faster.
It smacks at the collar of the man’s shirt.
Tía’s praying is now at full volume, words I don’t know, but I do know. I feel them in my chest.
It’s as if she’s silenced the night, everything but the wind, & the wind has its own voice, & it has joined with ours. It buffets at the man’s hair & clothing. & we are here: Tía like a bishop, slashing her long machete. Mami, the knight with rims. My body in front of my sister’s body: queens.
Papi, who I know is here too. He did
build that castle he always promised.
Even the wind, & rain, & night: even the light: has come to our side.
We stand for her. For each other.
With clenched fists & hard jaw—
We will protect Camino at all costs.
We will protect one another.
The man reaches into his back pocket,
& I feel the fear in Camino’s body.
But Mami cuts through it with her hard words.
“You don’t want to mess with me.