Hard Red Spring by Kelly Kerney

lizards,” he told her.
    â€œI tried that!”
    â€œBut it’s no use. He won’t eat. He’s killing himself. He’s decided not to live.”
    Evie stopped. “Why’s he killing himself? Why would he do that?”
    â€œ
Saber.
” He smiled secretly, ducked under a vine, then cut it down so Evie would not have to duck. Yes, he was just Indian enough to be maddening at times, too.
    Evie stomped a foot. “When you say
saber
, I know it means you know!”
    He shrugged, turning them back onto an old path.
    â€œIf you tell me, I’ll write you a note for the Frenchman’s shop.” Amazingly, a note from any white person, even an eight-year-old, even with misspellings, could gain admittance for an Indian to browse. “A note to look at anything you want.”
    Judas paused to consider, sucking the bread from his teeth and studying his machete for nicks. “Okay. Fine, I will tell you. Magellan is killing himself because he cannot kill you.” He seemed very pleased with this statement and swallowed.
    â€œWhat?” But Judas continued walking. “Why would he want to kill me? My father saved him from the woods!” she yelled at his back, running to keep up. She felt disoriented, had no idea how far they’d gone until she was startled by the appearance of the cave. She had thought they were somewhere else completely, and the shock of seeing the stone jaws, the blackened cavern filmed with smoke, almost made her heart stop. Forgetting herself, she nearly walked into one of Judas’s wild machete swings.
    â€œWhy would he want to kill me?” she asked again, weakly.
    She felt the temperature drop as they neared, and the hair on her arms stood up in fright. She kept close to Judas, holding his belt now, to keep clear of his machete as he cleared the path. Evie hoped that Mother had finally heeded her warnings about the cave and had ordered Judas to burn it. But no, they passed by. And that was when she saw the most startling thing. A gift left for the dead ancestors, nicer than all the others. Among the coins and paper trash, the doll and bottles, she spied a silver glint.
    They did not lose speed, coming off a trail and cutting directly through the brush. In front of them, branches shook, a flash of bright colors there and gone. An Indian. The jungle fell away from Judas’s sharp blade, finally revealing an altar, a portal to Indian ancestors. The hanging gourds looked like heads knocking together in the wind, the twisted saplings like limbs.
    Judas doused the pagan altar with kerosene, then tipped the lantern and lit it all up in a big bright whoosh that sounded like a flock of birds taking off.
    Evie took no joy from this fire, which would ordinarily make her believe they could win the battle with the ghosts and Indians. Because now sherealized these fires did nothing. They were losing. The piano, its crescendo in the distance, provided no solace. They hadn’t even the safe space of their own home. They’d passed so quickly, but she knew exactly what it was: the shape, the size, the glint. What she had seen there in the cave and what she couldn’t bring herself to stop and retrieve was her mother’s missing mirror.
    â€”
    They burned three altars and dug up four corn plots that day, the communal land reclaimed in the name of civilization. When they returned from the forest, stinking of kerosene, smoke, and black mud, Evie could see her parents from afar, standing on the porch with a newspaper. Evie approached carefully, watching them. They hadn’t noticed her skirting the cactus field, still costumed in their clothes and providing camouflage.
    Mother closed the paper. “Now we’ve lost our workers and our money. I told you not to throw money at the problem right away. Now they need all the Indians, no matter if they’re in debt. If you’d just waited a few days—”
    â€œNot all of it,” Father