Chapter Thirty-Two, Part One

That evening Sophie helped her father fill out an order form for the Santa Fe Provision Company. At her father’s urging, she totaled the amount of her order and correctly calculated the sales tax and delivery fees. She suspected he was making her do this so he could test her math skills, but Sophie didn’t mind doing math that served a practical purpose. What she detested was the seemingly endless rows of pointless equations in her schoolbooks, and word problems that asked her to find solutions to questions she saw no reason to solve, such as when Train A would overtake Train B. How much she would have to pay to have a new coat delivered was a different matter, though, and no hardship at all to figure out.

“That’s very good,” Robert said, after checking her work. “I wish you were this accurate in your classes.”

Sophie sighed and tried to change the subject. Remembering Mateo’s words that afternoon, she asked him where the money was going to come from for all her new things.

“We have a little bit of savings.” Robert got up to take his and Sophie’s order forms to the letter box where he kept the things he intended to take to the town’s messenger.

“That’s what all people do, right?” Sophie sought reassurance. “Mateo said his family doesn’t have any savings, but he might just not know.”

Robert sat down. “Some people are too poor to save money. They want to. They often try. But then something breaks or someone gets sick and they have to spend their savings.”

“But that’s what it’s for, right?”

“It’s complicated. Just trust me when I say that it’s very hard for a family like Mateo’s to do better. For us, buying a winter coat just means we have a little less savings until we can put more away next month or the month after that. For Mateo’s family to buy him a new coat, they’d probably have to go without dinner for a while.”

“Oh. Let’s buy Mateo a coat, then. Do we have enough savings?”

“Well, yes…”

“Then let’s do it.” Sophie reached for the Santa Fe Provisions catalog and began searching for the boys section.

“Not so fast,” Robert cautioned her. “I didn’t say yes yet. It might make his parents feel uncomfortable if we bought him something. They might take it as a sign that we don’t feel like they can care for him properly.”

Sophie was unconcerned. “We’ll say it’s a gift, then. Maybe he has a birthday coming up. Or maybe it’s for Christmas.”

“Sophie, I really don’t think—”

“Here.” The girl pointed to a wool jacket with a zipper and striped elastic cuffs and hem. “Some of the boys at Northwind had jackets like this, so I bet it’s the style.”

Robert leaned over and took a closer look. “It costs $60 southwesterns.”

“That’s not so much, is it?”

“Not compared to your coat,” he admitted. “But for that family, it’s a very expensive present. You’d be better off giving them the $60 southwesterns. They could eat for two weeks or more on that.”

“And Mateo wouldn’t be any warmer while he makes his deliveries.” Sophie turned pleading eyes on him. “Please? He’s my only real friend here, and I want to do something nice for him.”

How could Robert resist? His defenses hijacked, he nodded assent and reached for another order form.