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They hired ency clause that in a pinch allowed people to teach without certification And of course I did have a world of education in the life sciences Also, I believeelse I put down inon that application could have impressed anyone too much

I du,the satisfactory sound of demolition I started in with Eed thes of Christ?" she asked

"Nervous"

"Well hell, Codi, you’re bound to be better than the last one John Tucker says she was scared of her shadow Soe with a fetal pig"

E

"Did I tell you JT called thisto make it home for the fiesta Him and Loyd Do you reht into the cru adobe "Sure," I said

"I didn’t know if you would I think you were the only girl in the whole high school that never fell for him"

It was humid and hot I’d tied a bandana aroundmy eyes

"I went out with Loyd a few tiood buddies He’s straightened out a lot He’s real sweet" She unburdened herself of the loops of vines, laying the her back "Loyd, I hed "Not JT He’s just the sa it out The dark drops on the hot brick dried up instantly, leaving behind a white lace of salt Just like the irrigation water on the alfalfa In just this way the fields get ruined, I thought to myself

Emelina kicked tentatively at the brick barbecue pit "You think this thing will stand up after we get the vines out of it?"

"I think they’re what’s holding it together," I said

She cocked her head and looked at it thoughtfully "Well, if it falls doe’ll just have us a roasted-goat disaster We’ll just have to get extra beer"

On theof the fiesta she sent John Tucker andextra beer, although the barbecue pit showed every sign of standing through another Labor Day fiesta I followed John Tucker down a path I didn’t know, a short cut through a different orchard "What kind of trees are those?" I asked John Tucker The branches were heavy hat looked like sranates

"Quince," he said, with a perfect short "i," not "queens" The Spanish-flavored accent of Old Grace was dying out, thanks to satellite TV, I suppose I watched the back of his shorn head; the path was narrow and alked single file At thirteen he was ht, a head taller than Emelina It must shift your liaison with a child when you have to look up to hih the trees, and knehere ere You could picture Grace as a house, with orchards for rooms To map it of course you’d have to be a botanist We left quince and entered pecan, where the ground was covered with tiny, i with these orchards?" I asked, kicking at a slew of green pecans the size of peach pits "I’ve been seeing this all over"

"Fruit drop"

John Tucker was already a man of feords

The Baptist Grocery was nondeno in Grace, including grocery stores, was still segregated This wasn’t recent, but ot verywith the arrival of the Gracela sisters By the ti, everyone in Grace had pretty ree Nowadays the Baptist Grocery peddled frozen fish sticks to Protestant and Catholic alike

John Tucker shopped like an autos of chips and jars of salsa Since he seeested we split up I would go to the liquor store andestablishments had proliferated in Grace since my day The mine had closed in the interim, of course; bars and economic duress are common fellow travelers I passed the Horny Toad Saloon and the Little Dipper plus the one I remembered, the State Line, which was no rocery was Baptist New Mexico lay thirty miles to the east I think the name referred to the days when Gracela County was dry and people had to drive to the border for beer