Treasure of the World by Tara Sullivan (best romantic books to read txt) 📗

I walk inside and slump onto the floor. Mami hands me a bowl of stew and a spoon. Abuelita hasn’t spoken to me since I walked in. Disapproval radiates off her like steam rising off boiling water.

Daniel’s still not well enough to join us, and soon after we finish our tense dinner, Papi heads out. Now that I’m working for the money he’s drinking through, I feel mad all over again, but I force myself to let that go.

We’re washing the dishes together when Mami notices my cut palm.

“What’s that?” she asks, grabbing my hand and examining the wound.

“I cut my hand today,” I say, stating the obvious.

“You can’t let that get infected!”

Not satisfied with my cleaning job, she scrubs at my palm with the hard block of soap until tears sting my eyes and then she pats it dry and wraps it in a clean cloth. I think she’s done, and I move to pull my hand away, but she holds on for a second. We stand there as she stares at my hand, clasped between us.

“Promise me you’ll stop,” she finally says, squeezing my fingers gently. “We’ll find another way. You can’t keep doing this.”

I glance at where Daniel is tossing fitfully on our shared bed and then at the door where Papi has vanished.

“I have to,” I answer softly.

Mami follows my gaze. She lets me go without another word.

That night, my dream changes.

In the washed-out light of dreams, I stand outside the mine. But this time when the mine inhales, it sucks me into it. I’m pulled, screaming, into the darkness, only to be met by a grinning devil. Two cigarettes are smashed in his broken-glass teeth; one is burning, the other gone out. The strings of drool slathering his jaws stink of alcohol. I press myself against the wall opposite him, but the sides of the mine are hard and offer no escape. My movement calls his attention and the devil’s glowing eyes meet mine.

So, you think you’re a miner now? he asks, his voice a death of snakes and a rending of metal.

I shake my head, but as I do, I feel the heavy bob of the lantern on my forehead, the uncomfortable press of the belt at my waist.

The devil laughs.

I wake up.

For a moment I lie there, gasping, bathed in sweat and a terror so complete I don’t know if it has a bottom or edges. Then I force myself to get out of my blankets and go outside to the latrine.

The freezing night air cuts like a knife through my clothes, but the misery returns me to my body. When I climb into my covers, I push a fold of the blanket between my teeth so that their chattering won’t wake Abuelita or Daniel. I force the air in and out of my lungs around the blanket. Slowly my body relaxes. If only I could do the same for my mind. Because the truth is more frightening than the dream.

The truth is that tomorrow I’m going to have to go back and do it all again.

I stare at the ribbed sheet of tin over my head and let the tears creep out of my eyes. It takes me a long time to fall asleep, and when I do, the devil’s laughter echoes through my dreams.

6

Next morning, Mami can’t meet my eyes and Abuelita still isn’t talking to me. I try once to start a conversation, but she holds up a bony hand and walks out of the house. I pull my hair into double braids again and let my eyes wander around the room. At the end of my bed, one of them has laid out my nicest skirt and favorite top, clean and folded, a gentle option to Daniel’s filth-encrusted miner’s suit hanging across the room on the hook. But Papi is waiting for me, and Daniel’s thin breaths wheeze through his half-parted lips. As usual, there isn’t a good choice.

When I step out of the house with Papi, Mami’s eyes snap up from her washing, but when she sees what I’m wearing, her lips thin and she bends her head again. Abuelita is nowhere in sight. Everything aching, I head up the road toward the mine, the weight of their disapproval heavier than the mountain itself.

I didn’t think there could be anything harder than going into the mine when I had no idea what to expect.

I was wrong.

Standing in front of the entrance to El Rosario in the milky predawn light, I know exactly what lies ahead of me. And that makes it so much worse.

Papi leaves me at the edge of the lot to find his work crew without a backward glance. I hesitate there until a shoulder bumps mine. I flinch, but then I see Victor’s infectious grin and I relax.

“Hey, Ana,” he says.

“Hi, Victor.”

“Where are you working today?”

“I don’t know.”

“César’s right over there.” He points. “Let’s go find out.”

With Victor beside me I find I can brave the walk across the open space. Even the stares and the whispers of the other miners, though they still unsettle me, don’t frighten me as much as they did before.

We catch up to César at the edge of the mine, talking with a crew of men who are working the slag heaps.

“Puangi,” I call, and his eyes meet mine. I can tell he’s not exactly happy to see me, but I don’t offer an apology. I worked hard yesterday. “Where do you want us today?” I ask. “Same place?”

César scowls slightly. “We’re not blasting today. Victor, you’re in zone two with your papi. I already gave him instructions.”

“Got it,” says Victor. “Catch you later, Ana.” He lights his helmet and waves to me, then jogs off to find his father.

César turns to me.

“You’ll be hauling ore out of the mine for the breakers to work on.” I can tell, from