The Replacement Child - By Christine Barber Page 0,65

four thirty that afternoon at Oñate Park. You drive a purple ‘eighty-six Dodge Reliant, right?”

“Yeah, that’s what I drive, but they’re lying. What day was that? Monday? Hell, I was in district court all day. And you can check on that shit. I was up for my DWI hearing before that lady judge—that Padilla woman—in Española.”

Judge Janet Padilla’s magistrate court was a half-hour drive from Santa Fe.

“And your car was with you at your hearing?”

“Hell yeah, man. With the alarm set and all that shit. My car was there, and I was there.”

“How do you know no one took your car? Do you know where it was at four thirty that afternoon?”

“Yeah, I know where it was. I was in it. The court was out for a, whatddaya call it—recess?—for an hour from like three thirty to four thirty, and I went outside to smoke a cigarette, man. I smoked in the car ‘cause it was cold as a bitch that day, you know? I was only going to stay outside for one smoke but the asshole parking-lot guard was watching me the whole time like I was going to steal a sign or some shit. So I sat there for the whole hour just watching him. I wasn’t gonna let that asshole intimidate me, you know, man?”

It would be easy enough to check. Morales and his car were pretty hard to forget.

“What happened at your hearing?” Gil asked.

“They let me off, man,” Morales said with a sly smile, “‘cause it’s my first offense for drinking and driving.”

“Good for you, Hector.” Gil backed away, allowing Morales room to get by.

Morales started to leave but stopped after a few steps.

“Melissa didn’t do that shit. Whoever said she did, you look at them. She’d of died first before doing that shit.”

And maybe that’s what happened, Gil thought.

Maxine Baca knew only that it was past midnight. She sat in Melissa’s bedroom with the lights turned off. She was holding one of Melissa’s old shirts, one she had worn in high school. Maxine had given it to her as a birthday present. It was dark red with gold buttons. Maxine had given her gold earrings and black pants to match. Maxine and Ernesto had fought about it. “You spoil her too much,” he’d said. “You shouldn’t get her presents that we can’t afford.” But Ernesto hadn’t understood.

After Daniel died, Maxine knew she had to do penance for the sin that had caused Daniel’s death. Her sin of gluttony. One of the seven deadly sins. She had been selfish. Her mother had warned her, but she hadn’t listened. When Daniel was born, her mother had told her to follow the dieta. The curandera had warned her, too. But Maxine hadn’t wanted the priest to eat alone, so she ate a whole plate of enchiladas and green-chile stew. She knew right away that she had sinned. The food had gotten her sick. But she had hoped that the coral would stop the sin. But it hadn’t been enough. Maxine had been too selfish. It had been a test from God. God was trying to see if she would give up everything for her child. But she hadn’t. She couldn’t go even a day without eating a full meal—her child meant that little to her. And God had punished her for her selfishness by taking the thing she loved most in the world.

After Daniel died, Maxine had been worried that her sin would cause him to go to limbo, the place where God sends all the unbaptized, since she had committed the sin before he was baptized. Her sin had undone the protection of his baptism. She prayed the rosary three times a day. The only food she would eat was the host and the wine at Mass every day on her way to visit Daniel’s grave. Ernesto ate mostly frozen foods and Ron didn’t come home for dinner. Ron stayed at Manny Cordova’s house down the street. Veronica Cordova would bring over a casserole every few days for Ernesto to eat. For two years she prayed to God the Almighty to forgive her and not to punish Daniel, but God hadn’t listened. Maxine knew this because her pain over his death had never healed. She found a curandera to go to in Española. Most of the other curanderas had died because no one went to them anymore. But the one in Española told her she had the Anger Sickness over Daniel’s death and sent her home