Chapter Thirty-Six, Part One

Sophie wasn’t completely mollified by her father’s attempts to make up for being angry with her, and she sulked the next afternoon at the store. Robert had given Norma the afternoon off and was managing the shop, leaving Sophie to do her homework in the back. But the girl had other ideas. “It’s boring without Mateo here,” she said.

Robert had just gotten rid of Ms. Beall from the north side of town, who had insisted that the flour she had bought earlier in the week was rancid. It smelled and tasted fine to Robert, but he gave her a refund and endured her unfavorable comparisons to his brother. He was in no mood for more whining from his daughter. “If Mateo had come, I’d have sent him out on a delivery, so it would be no different.”

“That’s not the point.” Sophie slumped against the counter and pouted.

“Didn’t Ms. Garduño assign you any good books to read?”

“No.”

“Well, work on your math, then.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to.”

“I want to go ride Bandera.”

Robert finished noting the refund in his account book and looked down at her. “You can go riding on Saturday.”

“That’s too far away. Please? I can’t stop thinking about Mateo.”

It sounded like an excuse, but just then the door opened and Mrs. De Leon walked in, stern and obviously on a mission. “Fine,” he said. “Go ride Bandera. But stay close, wear your watch, and be home by 5:00 or you’ll have no Saturday riding privileges.”

Sophie scampered off before he could reconsider. She ran almost all the way home, but once she was inside, breathless, she dumped her books on the table and went to the space in the wall where she had seen her father get the money. She located the tiny key and opened the safe. Inside were several heavy black bags which she took out and set on the kitchen table. To her astonishment, they were full of gold and silver. What the other kids said was true. They really were rich!

Without knowing why she did it, she grabbed a few silver coins and two gold ones and slipped them into her pocket. Then she put everything away and locked it up again, just like she had found it. Then she went up to her room and hid the coins under her mattress. She paused for a long moment, looking around as if maybe the shadows had seen what she had done and would tell on her. But of course no one had seen. She changed into her riding clothes and hurried downstairs and out to the stable.

#

When Mateo finally returned to school, still with faint reddish-purple marks around his eye, Sophie took him aside. “I have an idea,” she said. “Let’s you and me go to Kentucky.”

Mateo looked at her like she had lost her mind. “Why would we do that?”

“To get away from here, of course.” She counted the reasons on her fingers. “Your father beats you up, I hate it here, neither one of us likes school, and it’ll be easy. We can take the train most of the way.”

“Riding a train costs money.”

“I’ve got money.”

Mateo’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you said your father didn’t have any.”

“It’s not his,” Sophie said quickly. “I get an allowance, and I save it. And I get birthday money from my grandmother.”

“That’s your money. I don’t have anything to pay my way. I get tips from grocery deliveries, but my parents take it all.”

“That’s okay. I have enough to pay for us both. You can pay me back later, when we’re in Kentucky and you have a job. You can work on the horse farm with me. Maybe they’ll let you be a jockey and ride horses at the big races.”

“I can’t ride a horse. I’ve only ridden Baltazar.”

Sophie had a solution for everything. “Riding a horse isn’t much different. I’ll teach you to ride Bandera, and then you’ll be ready.”

Mateo shook his head. “It’s a nice idea, but not very realistic. If we run away, we should go someplace like Santa Fe. It’s closer and there are plenty of jobs, even for kids.”

Sophie looked at the ground and tried to think. This wasn’t going according to plan.

“But anyway, we can’t run away. Our parents would worry about us.”

“We’ll send letters.”

“And how would we get to the train? I’ve never been, but I’ve heard it takes several days, and that’s if you have a horse.”

“I have a horse. And you have Baltazar.”

Mateo looked at her like she wasn’t very smart. “Baltazar belongs to my parents. I can’t just steal him.”

“We’ll buy him, then. Just leave the money on the kitchen counter…”

At that moment Ms. Garduño came outside to ring her hand bell, calling the students in for class.

“Let’s talk about this some more at recess,” Sophie said.

Mateo waited until her back was turned to roll his eyes. “Sure,” he said. “We’ll talk at recess.”