Drought Read Online Free PDF Page A

was starting to flow into the Hilux from outside. He had to stay on the parkway until the next exit, but then he turned off and headed for North E Street. It was a scruffy blue-collar neighborhood, but at the intersection with West 33rd Street there was a Thrifty gas station and a tattoo parlor and a small grocery store called Dan’s Food & Liquor. Tyler’s mother never shopped there, but Tyler regularly dropped by on the pretext of buying gum or sodas because Maria Alvarez often served behind the counter after school.
    Maria was in Tyler’s class at Arrowhead High and he was hopelessly in love with her. Tyler thought that she was amazingly beautiful, but he had never asked her out on a date. This was partly because he had never managed to summon up the nerve, and partly because she already had a boyfriend, Ken Rigsby, who played tight end on the Arrowhead football team. Ken Rigsby was highly possessive and aggressive and probably would have beaten up on him if he had taken Maria out. In fact he probably would have beaten up on him if he had known that he visited the store so frequently to talk to her.
    When he pulled into the parking area in front of the store, however, Tyler saw that the folding security grilles had been closed, and there was a sign in the window saying SORRY CLOSED. The Thrifty gas station was closed up, too, and there were padlocks on all of the pumps.
    He was about to back out of the parking area when he caught sight of Maria’s father inside the store. He climbed out of the truck and went up and knocked on the window. Maria was inside the store, too, emptying out the cash register and counting out change.
    Maria’s father waved his hand dismissively and shook his head, but Maria came up and shouted through the window, ‘Sorry, Tyler! We’re closed! We had some trouble in here this morning! We’re going to stay closed until the water comes back on!’
    Tyler spread his arms wide and pulled an appealing homeless-puppy face. ‘I just need a few bottles of water, that’s all!’
    Maria turned to her father, although Tyler couldn’t hear what she was saying. He flapped his hand again, as if to say that no, he wasn’t going to open up for anybody. Maria looked back through the grille at Tyler and shrugged and shook her head
    â€˜My sister’s real sick!’ Tyler shouted. ‘I have to find some water for her!’
    Maria turned to her father again. Tyler could tell that he wasn’t very happy about it, but he came over to the front of the store with his keys and unlocked the front door. Then he reached through the grille and unlocked the padlocks that fastened that, too, and slid it back just enough for Tyler to be able to squeeze inside.
    â€˜Totally, thank you,’ said Tyler. ‘I went to Ralph’s first but it was all closed off because they had customers fighting over water.’
    Maria’s father was a short, stocky man with a bald nut-brown head and a heavy gray moustache like a yardbroom. He was wearing a red polo shirt with Dan’s Food & Liquor
printed on it, in white, and a blue apron around his waist. Tyler saw that his left cheekbone was bruised crimson and his eye was beginning to close.
    â€˜I’m just doing you a favor here, son, because of Maria. We had some nasty business here this morning, kids trying to take water without paying for it, and other stuff, too. I chased them off with a baseball bat and then I called the cops but the cops said they was too busy, on account of the water being off.’
    â€˜I totally appreciate this, sir. I mean it.’
    â€˜Well, fill up a couple of baskets quick as you can. Maria – help your friend, will you?’
    The store was very cramped, with narrow aisles, but its shelves were crowded with everything from cans of catfood to bug repellent to dried lima beans. Packets of nuts and beef jerky and dishwashing brushes hung down everywhere, so that it was like