Fatima put on the last of the mascara she had found a few days back. She told herself to remember to ask Cecilia about getting some later. Afterward, the two of them went to the lunch tables. Mateo sat with Sarah, Ana, and Estefanía, as well as Lucero from the clinic, with the girls telling Mateo and Sarah about what they learned; Manuel sat with Gustavo and Natalia, with Gustavo telling his dad about what he did during recess while Natalia ate without speaking; Deon, Marcus, Julie, and little Andrea from the clinic sat together, with Andrea climbing all over Julie; Cecilia sat with the remaining students: Sebastian, Andrew, and Juan from the clinic, Andrew and Juan carefully negotiating Pokemon card trades with Sebastian as the mediator. Ehsan and Fatima decided to sit with Mateo, Sarah, Ana, Estefanía, and Lucero.
“So, what was something you learned about today?” Mateo asked Ana and Estefanía as Ehsan and Fatima approached.
“States!” replied Ana. “All fifty of them!”
“It was cool learning about them, right?” Sarah asked the girls. They nodded in response, and Estefanía stood up and did a cartwheel.
“What about you, Lucero? What did the olders do?”
“We learned about other countries,” she answered. “All the better for when I plan my world tour.”
Sarah chuckled. She then turned to see Ehsan and Fatima approaching. “Hey you two. How was your rest?”
“It was nice, thank you,” Fatima answered. She glanced at the girls to make sure they weren’t listening, then turned to Mateo. “I’m still worried about you-know-what, though. We are ready to help out with whatever we can after lunch.”
A mischievous grin spread across Mateo’s face. “Good, ‘cause we need your help for something incredibly important.”
“What would that be?” Fatima asked, suddenly alert.
“A game of soccer,” Mateo replied, his grin growing. He motioned toward the empty field in the back. “We always play a game of soccer after lunch whenever the clinic kids are over.”
Ehsan smiled. “Sounds like fun.”
“Yeah, you boys have fun with that,” Fatima said dismissively.
“Boys?” Sarah asked with a grin. “I’m the best player here, next to Manuel.”
“Yeah, Miss Sarah is amazing!” Estefanía added with an overly enthusiastic nod of her head.
“Good point,” Fatima conceded, blushing slightly.
“Looks like you’ll have to play too, Sis,” Ehsan teased.
“You can be on our team,” Ana offered sweetly to Fatima.
Fatima smiled. “Okay. I’m not very good, but I will play if I can be on your team.”
Ana smiled in response. Estefanía cheered. The time to play soccer had arrived. Sarah and Manuel, the consensus two best players, chose the teams. Josue joined the game while Cecilia went to help Ryan with lookout duty. Marcus, who usually played, couldn’t because of his ankle. Every kid played except for Lucero and Andrea, who watched from the sidelines.
Ehsan and Fatima ended up on Sarah’s team. Of everything that happened during the game, Sarah and Manuel’s skills with the ball blew him away. Sarah had the agility and reflexes of a lioness while Manuel, who lacked Sarah’s athletic conditioning, handled the ball with the same control and efficiency of movement he handled his gardening equipment. He made even Mateo look like a beginner with how he used jukes and feints to get the ball past him, almost making Mateo trip at one point.
The kids, meanwhile, had a blast. Ana, Estefanía, and Juan barely kept up, though they had fun whenever the ball came their way. The biggest stars of the group, though, were Manuel’s kids. Gustavo and Natalia both played well and scored most of the goals for their father’s team, as Manuel spent most of his time on defense.
The game lasted for almost an hour, finishing with a tie at three points apiece. Josue and Gustavo wanted to play one more round to determine a winner. Everyone else felt tired, though, especially the adults. Ehsan and Fatima could barely move. They decided to end the game at a draw, and went back to the tables to get water.
“That was a great game,” Ehsan told Manuel as they strolled back, covered in sweat. “You’re really good.”
“Thanks,” Manuel replied in his heavy accent. He smiled, but his smile didn’t have the usual nervousness it held when Ehsan talked to him. It spread from ear to ear, radiating charisma. Ehsan could suddenly see where Gustavo got his confidence from. “I used to, ehh, be a soccer player en Mexico. I was a captain. Pero, when I was, ehh, young, I come here.”
“That’s awesome. How long did you play?”
“I played, ehh, ever since I was a boy. Este…” He trailed off, trying to translate his thoughts into English. “In my pueblo I play with everyone there. When I got, ehh, more old, like a teen-ager, I play on a team.”
“Awesome,” Ehsan jokingly struck an arrogant pose. “Next time I won’t go easy on you, then.”
Manuel laughed and grinned. “Okay, we see about that. I go harder, too.”
The group went to the lunch tables, and Josue went to go trade places with Cecilia. As Cecilia came back, however, she was even more stone faced than usual. She looked like she wanted to use her judo to toss everyone through a table. Ehsan got nervous just looking at her.
“Kids,” she told her students as she approached. “Can you go with Miss Julie to the classroom? Youngers, I shall be there in a moment to continue class.” The kids did as they were told and went with Julie. Cecilia looked to Manuel and said something to him in Spanish. He grimaced and walked off. She then turned to Marcus. “Marcus, if you do not mind, I would like a moment alone with these five.”
“Ryan filled me in on what happened while we were on guard duty,” Cecilia told the group. “I am glad you made it back alright. But why the hell did you go back after what happened? What were you thinking?”
“We went to go see who was watching us,” Mateo answered, rubbing the back of his head.
“What if it had been a trap? What if they had gotten one of you, or all of you?”
“They didn’t,” Deon replied without backing down. “And I ain’t gonna sit here and be lectured like this, neither. If we didn’t go and check, we coulda let an innocent person die.”
“This is not a lecture,” Cecilia shot back. “But you all put the group at serious risk by going out there. These kids need us. Think about what might have happened if none of you returned.”
“I get that, Cecilia. I’m sorry we took that risk,” Mateo replied diplomatically. “But we had to. Besides, think about what we found. If we hadn’t gone, we wouldn’t know about that weird map. Now we know someone’s out there, whatever their intentions are.”
“A fair point,” she admitted. “But you were lucky there was nothing worse. We cannot afford to take risks. All it takes is a single backfire for lives to be lost.”
“We can make our own decisions,” Sarah argued. “You’re not the boss of us, we’re all adults here. We made a choice and we came out okay, there’s no need for this pointless lecture.”
Cecilia’s face somehow became even more stone-like. “This is not a lecture. I am trying to make you see how dangerous this ‘adult’ decision was. If this were a lecture, you would know it was a lecture.”
“To be fair,” Fatima added, “it was a little reckless on our part.”
“Yeah, it was,” Mateo admitted. “But it was the best thing to do. If it were an innocent person, we could’ve saved ‘em. If it was a trap, better out there than in here.”
“This school is the safest place to be,” Cecilia countered. “As long as we maintain the barriers and remain vigilant, we are safe. That simply is not the case out there. Acting without thinking of the consequences is how people get killed.”
“We can take care of ourselves,” Sarah snapped. “We don’t need anyone telling us what to do.”
Cecilia opened her mouth to say something, but Mateo gently put his hand on her shoulder. He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry Cecilia. I don’t regret it, but I’m sorry we worried you. I
promise you we weighed the possibilities beforehand. And, if it makes you feel better, not everyone wanted to go. But we stuck together like a team, and got back okay.”
“I got a lot of respect for you, Cecilia,” Deon added. “You do a damn good job of keeping this group together. But you gotta understand, we all got our own way of doing things.”
Cecilia sighed. Her look softened considerably. “I understand that. A part of me respects that you all went to go look, knowing the risks. But we need every person here. Everyone is important to this place.” She cleared her throat. “I know Mateo knows this, but I do not believe anyone else does. My parents…” She paused. “They came here from El Salvador as refugees. They were escaping the military dictatorship that was in power during the civil war. When they were younger, before they had me, they had been liberation fighters. But when I was born, it changed them. They could not stand the thought of something happening to them because of what that meant for me. So, they came here.” Her eyes lost focus, her mind wandering back to memories of her childhood. “They left behind more than just their friends and family when they came here. They gave up that idealistic part of themselves that led them to join the FMLN in the first place. Having to take care of children… you cannot just think about what you want. Your number one priority is their safety.”
“I see what you mean,” Fatima agreed with a nod. “We should not have gone.”
“But what if your folks had stayed?” Deon countered. “What if they stayed and helped beat the military government? You’d be safe and in your homeland.”
“That would have been the ideal outcome, yes,” Cecilia admitted. “But they could not afford to think only about the ideal outcome. Not with kids. My parents could not back then, and we cannot right now, either.”
Everyone remained silent. Ehsan looked to Cecilia who, for the first time since he’d met her, looked at the ground. Mateo, Deon, Sarah, and Fatima all looked at the ground, too.
Ehsan cleared his throat and spoke. “So your parents were fighting a messed up dictatorship oppressing its own people?” Ehsan asked Cecilia. She nodded uncertainly in response and Ehsan cracked a smile. “So your parents were basically the rebellion fighting against the empire in Star Wars. How does it feel to be part jedi?”
Cecilia cracked an amused smile, another first. “I suppose it feels nice. I just wish they had taught me how to use the force.” Everyone else smiled in response, eager to help dissolve- or at least blunt- the tension.
“If only we had light sabers to fight these zombies,” Mateo remarked. His expression became more serious. “But for real though, we do need to figure out if we should do anything about what we saw. What do you think, Cecilia?”
Cecilia’s normal composure returned to her almost instantly, as if she’d just pressed a button. “I think we need to focus on defending this place. Like I said, we are far safer here. Especially together. Whatever happens next, sharpening our defenses is the priority.”
Mateo nodded. “Makes sense. What do you think, Deon?”
“I’m with Cecilia on this one. We didn’t find a damn thing out there other than that crayon drawing, so we got nothing to go on. There ain’t much we can do unless someone pops up at our gates, or on our route to the clinic.” He turned to Ehsan and Fatima. “Speaking of which, y’all good with joining us regularly from now on to get the clinic kids? You two can handle yourselves nicely. With whoever the hell made that map running around, I wanna make sure we got backup.”
“Absolutely,” answered Fatima. “It is the least we can do.”
“Plus, other than guard duty, I’ll have a lot of time on my hands,” Ehsan added. “Gotta stay busy, right?”
“That was my mom’s motto,” Sarah said. “Then she got pregnant with me at seventeen,” she added with a grin.
“Are you saying I’ll get pregnant?” Ehsan asked with feigned worry.
“I’m just saying you should find a good birth control, just in case,” Sarah joked.
Ehsan, Fatima, and Mateo laughed. Mateo turned to her. “What do you think about everything, Sarah?”
Sarah hesitated. “Well, I agree with Deon about bringing Ehsan and Sarah along with us. Other than that, I dunno… just remain vigilant, I guess. It’s possible that whoever’s out there isn’t trying to hurt us, but it’d be good to keep an eye out either way.”
Mateo smiled and nodded in agreement. He turned to Deon. “On that note, we should probably get back to gardening,” he suggested. Deon nodded in return.
“And I should get back to the children,” Cecilia declared. “Be vigilant, everyone.” She got up and walked toward her classroom. Deon went to join Manuel while Mateo and Sarah stayed with Ehsan and Fatima.
“Sorry you two had to get mixed up in that,” Mateo apologized.
“It’s okay,” Ehsan replied.
“She did bring up some good points,” Fatima commented.
Mateo nodded. “I still don’t regret going back, but it’s hard to call her wrong, too. I dunno, hopefully we don’t have to worry about something like that happening again anytime soon. I’m still kinda worried about whoever drew that map, but we have no idea who did it, or if they even meant us any harm. Even if they did, though, I’m pretty confident in our team,” he finished with a cheesy grin.
Ehsan smiled in return. “So are we going to rebuild that walkway?”
“Yeah,” Sarah answered. “Though I’m not sure when. On one hand, we should repair it as soon as possible. On the other hand, we need to make sure we’re good here. We’ll probably fix it sometime tomorrow, since we’ll need it fixed by Thursday when we go get the clinic kids again.”
“Makes sense,” Ehsan said.
“Well, I gotta go back to gardening soon,” Mateo declared. He turned to Sarah. “You wanna hangout in the garden when I’m done?” A smile spread across Sarah’s face and she nodded in agreement. Ehsan started to grin, but then saw his sister’s expression stiffen ever so slightly, a response of hers whenever she was disappointed but didn’t want to show it.
“Why don’t you two go join Marcus and check out the medicine stash?” Sarah suggested to Ehsan and Fatima. “He’s probably organizing it for the hundredth time since his ankle got hurt. He could use the company. Our pharmacy is in Room 11. It’s on the other side of the school, near the kindergarten area.”
The two of them walked toward the classrooms near the garden and kindergarten area. He turned to his sister. “Man, Miss Torres is intense.”
“Agreed. Though I understand what she was saying.”
Ehsan hesitated. Not because he disagreed, but because he wasn’t quite sure how we felt. “She did bring up some good points.”
The two of them reached a row of classrooms facing the garden. Rooms 10 through 14, though without a Room 13. They walked over to Room 11 and knocked.
“What’s up?” asked Marcus’s voice from the other side.
“Mind if we come in?” Ehsan asked.
“Sure.”
Ehsan opened the door and the two of them walked in. The room had small classroom desks, each labeled with taped-on pieces of paper saying what medicines were inside the cubbyholes. Some were so full that they overflowed with small boxes and bottles. Ryan sat at one of the chairs toward the front of the room, coughing, while Marcus went through his medicine supply. He held an orange bottle of pills in his left hand, but seemed to be looking for something else.
“You have a neat system here,” Fatima commented as she looked around the classroom.
“Thanks,” Marcus replied as he continued to sift through each desk. Marcus reminded Ehsan of one of his friends from before the zombie outbreak. This friend was quiet and awkward, the kind of person who didn’t like excessive communication, but who tried to act aloof to trick others into thinking he had more confidence than he actually did. Ehsan remembered the first time he had met this friend, Jonathan, in class. Ehsan didn’t like Jonathan initially because he’d thought Jonathan to be distant and rude. Onl
y later did he figure out that it was who Jonathan was, someone unskilled with social interactions trying his best to mask it. Ehsan could tell now he would have to recognize the same thing in Marcus.
“What brings you here, Ryan?” Fatima asked before Ehsan could say anything to Marcus.
“Been feeling sick for a couple days now,” Ryan responded. “Figured Marcus could hook me up with something stronger than Nyquil, which hasn’t been helping with whatever I got.”
“I hope whatever Marcus gives you works,” Ehsan replied. “If you get sick, who’s gonna keep Josue in check?”
Ryan chuckled and shook his head. “Yeah, that fella is nuttier than squirrel shit sometimes. But he’s a good guy deep down, y’all. You’ll see it.”
“I’m not sure how many good guys throw around that many racist and sexist comments, though,” Fatima countered.
Ryan blushed. “I dunno, I don’t see color. But I know that crazy ass devil dog would go to hell and back to keep this group safe, even if he is thicker than molasses sometimes.”
Fatima looked like she wanted to say something, but decided against it. Ehsan spoke up instead. “He’s probably seen a lot. He mentioned serving in Iraq earlier.”
“Yeah, he served more tours in there than I did,” Ryan replied, relieved by Ehsan’s olive branch. “Saw a lot of shit over there. It’s done a number on his head.”
“Did you know Josue before the outbreak?” Ehsan asked.
“Yeah. We got stationed at Camp Pendleton together a couple years back. He helped my Florida country ass get to know Southern California.”
“He ever have any problems?” Fatima asked point blank.
Ryan blushed. “Sorta, but I probably shouldn’t be talking about ‘em.” He turned to Marcus. “Anyways, I told him I’d only be gone for a couple of minutes to get some medicine. You grab the stuff already, Marcus?”
“Yeah,” Marcus replied. He handed him the pill bottle he’d been holding before, as well as a small rectangular box. “Take the pills from the bottle once every three hours. Take the other pills only once a day.”
The Human Spring Page 9