Cinderella in Overalls Read Free Page B

I got here.” She pressed her lips together. “I should have known. You bankers have an answer for everything. And the answer is always no.”
    Josh watched helplessly while she blinked back tears and walked to the door.
    “Wait a minute,” he said, following her across the roam. “That’s not a fair assessment.”
    She grasped the doorknob tightly. “That’s not fair? I’ll tell you what’s not fair. Foreclosing on a family farm after a lifetime of planting and living and—” She pushed the door open without finishing her sentence and walked out through the reception area to the elevator while he watched.
    He stared at the open door. What had set her off like that? He could understand why she would be disappointed, but to cry over the plight of the family farm seemed like an overreaction. But she wasn’t the only one to overreact. Why did he feel such a sense of loss as he stared out the window into the street below, trying to catch a glimpse of a bowler hat and a tear-streaked face?
    Dusk fell over the city and lights began to appear across town. The telephone finally stopped ringing. If he hadn’t turned the Logan woman down, she would still be sitting in the chair across from his desk, her dark eyes brimming with warmth instead of tears. She would have leaned back and told him in her lilting voice why she had joined the Peace Corps and how she had learned to speak perfect Spanish.
    But he’d had no choice. The Aruacan economy was in terrible shape. He was there to tell the people to tighten their belts, not to buy new equipment. But if he couldn’t even explain it to a woman with a degree in agriculture, how could he get it across to the man in the street, the people down there hurrying home from work to a meager dinner of beans and rice?
    Actually beans and rice didn’t sound so bad, he thought, if you had someone to share it with. He wondered where Catherine Logan was right now. How would she get back to Palomar at this time of day? Or was she still down there in the city alone somewhere, carrying a grudge against him as she carried the ahuayo on her back?
    There was a knock on his door, and his secretary stuck her head in to remind him he had a meeting at 5:00. He walked down the hall to the conference room, and soon he was describing his plan to reduce imports. But his mind continued down another track, a track that led to a farm in a valley where a woman grew potatoes but had no way to get them to town.
    There was enough money represented in that room to fund a whole fleet of trucks. If he asked, they would probably agree to make a charitable donation to the agricultural sector. He wouldn’t ask them until he asked her if she’d take a truck as a gift. He could picture the look on her face. Joy, wonder, gratitude. He smiled with satisfaction, and the meeting was adjourned.
     
* * *
 
    Catherine didn’t tell the women of the village she didn’t get the loan. They didn’t even know she had gone to ask for it. That way they wouldn’t have to share her disappointment. Or her anger. Or her humiliation at being turned down.
    Doña Jacinda took her aside one day as they walked in from the fields, the golden sunshine at their backs, baskets of parsley on their heads, Jacinda’s grandchildren trailing behind, munching on carrots. ‘“Tell me, chiquita, what is troubling you? You have not been yourself since you returned from La Luz last week.”
    Catherine steadied the basket on her head. “I’m a country girl,” she said. “The city doesn’t agree with me. And...” She sighed. “I must go again next week for a meeting and a party to celebrate our Independence Day.”
    Doña Jacinda clapped her hands together. “A party is just what you need to cheer you up. On our Independence Day there is dancing in the streets. When I was your age, I could dance all night and still work in the fields all day.”
    Catherine turned to look at the older woman.” How did you manage to do that? When you were