Jack In The Green Read Free

stopped Blair from picking on Perlita?"
    "Of course not," she says. She taps her index finger against Maria's forehead. "Think about it. This just reminds us that if you're rich and white, you can do whatever you want. You're always in the right. It's the brown-skinned girls like us who are always wrong."
    "I hate this," Maria says.
    Luz doesn't respond. She doesn't have to.
    Maria points to some pebbles laid out in a line on the bedspread in between them.
    "What are you doing with those?" she asks.
    "It's something Abuela taught me."
    By now Maria knows Luz doesn't mean either of her real grandmothers. She's talking about the old woman who lives in the small adobe building at the end of the block. Her yard is always full of stray dogs. She has the desert on one side of her, the headquarters of the 66 Bandas on the other, but the gangbangers never bother her or her clients. They wouldn’t dare.
    That's because she's a brujá . She's like the bottle tree man, except her magic is in potions and the silver milagros she makes and sells. People use them to ask favours of the Saints. They're simple compared to the commercial kind in the stores, and they cost more, but everybody believes they work better so she has no lack of customers.
    "They're magic stones?" Maria asks.
    "Not yet. But she told me if you choose right, and if you carry that pebble around for a long time and fill it with the intent that it become magic, one day it will actually happen. And then you will be able to use that magic."
    " Verdad ?"
    Luz nods.
    "What are you going to do with it?" Maria asks.
    "I don't know yet. Abuela says your intent has to be pure. I can't make my mind up yet, but I can focus on the pebble so that when it's ready, I'll be ready, too."
    Maria's not sure what to think. Luz is always talking about brujería and the spirits. She says hawks are actually old men who have been drinking mescal tea to free their wings, and that some people walk around with animals under their skin. Maria believed the stories when she was younger. Now she's pretty sure that's all they are. Stories.
    But still…
    She points to a small black pebble that seems to hold the night just under its surface.
    "That one," she says.
    Luz smiles. "I thought so, too."

    Maria's with her girls at the San Pedro Skating Center. She met Consuela through work. Veronica used to go out with Maria's brother and they stayed friends after the break-up, much to Pablo's annoyance. The girls sit on metal chairs, plastic cups of beer in hand, cheering for their team.
    It's loud in the center. The wheels of the girls' skates on the wooden track compete with the shouting of the crowd and the band playing on the small stage on the far side of the center. The VVers are skating hard, but Los Vampiros' new jammer is in the zone and she's racking up the points. The girls should be unhappy that their team is losing, but like everyone else, they're entranced by the poetry of Baby Luna's movements as she darts and bobs in amongst the other girls on the track.
    When the current jam is over the whole center erupts in spontaneous applause. It's the end of the second period. Baby Luna pumps a fist in the air, grinning at the crowd before she joins the rest of her team exiting the track.
    "Man," Connie says. "Can that girl move."
    Maria nods.
    Veronica nudges her. "Hey. Check out the cute gringo checking you out."
    Maria looks across the track and sees him immediately. It's the boy who was with Luz and the rest of the gang that robbed the house in Desert View. He's still wearing his green hoodie, but the hood's down, letting his red gold curls spill out to frame his face. He's even better looking than she remembers.
    He grins and there's a knowing look in his eyes when he catches her gaze. She ducks her head. She has the oddest feeling that he can read her mind.
    Veronica gives her another nudge.
    "You should talk to him," she says. "Just go over and say hello."
    "Yeah," Connie adds. "What've you got to