a la chacra, a trabajar

It was about 8 pm and there would still be another 2 hours of light but it was cool now and good for working out in the fields. About 8 of the Colques, all kids between the ages of about 7 and 12 were walking past the house including Brisa and Noel. The one adult with them was one of the aunts (I haven’t learned who they all are yet), in her early to mid twenties. She had had a short-handled shovel and a couple long knives.

Where are you going? I asked.

“A la chacra,” she said, (to the farm). “A trabajar,” (to work).

I watched them duck through the fence wires one by one and then walk out into the fields.

It’s almost impossible to describe the way that she’d said “a la chacra.” But somehow it brings to mind this kid about 15 (or maybe younger) I kept seeing in Florida this summer. His job was to stand at the corner of Hwy 41 and Central Sarasota Pkwy and hold a sign that said DOMINOES CHEESE PIZZA – Large $5.99. It would be 100 degrees out with 100% humidity and he stood there holding the sign, sometimes shifting it so that it would give him shade. He had this facial expression like this whole scenario couldn’t quite exist and so he was imagining being somewhere else (and why the fuck not?)

I think the woman who said she was going out to work had the exact opposite expression, and that’s why I thought of the kid (my mind works like that). She was going to the chacra to work. She wasn’t proud of that fact or unhappy about it. But by her expression it was like she couldn’t imagine there being anywhere else to go.