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Show -10- down her face and her T-shirt clung wetly to her skin. The sun crawled across the sky. Graciela knelt beside her, working the pulp vigorously with her hands. Her broad, flat-nosed face was as serene as a madonna's. When she leaned back on her heels to rest, the loose, cotton blouse fell back against the round outline of her body. "Do you think I could get a job in Phoenix? After I'm out of school, I mean." Rosa wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. "Sure. It's not that hard if you know somebody. I can give you some names." "Maybe next summer even. I could work instead of coming back here." "You can't serve liquor if you're under eighteen. That makes it harder. Don't be in such a hurry, Rosa." "Maybe I could even save enough to buy a car." Rosa peeled the sticky red mess from her fingers and examined the palms of her hands. "Yuck! I'll never get this off! I'll have red under-my nails forever!" "I know," said Graciela. "It goes right into your skin. You can't get it off, even when you wash and wash." "You could have stayed in Phoenix and gone on welfare when you couldn't work any more," said Rosa. "You could be having your baby in a nice hospital with doctors and nurses. I just can't figure you out, Graciela. Why would anybody come back here when they didn't have to?" Graciela looked at her red hands for a long time. "I just wanted to. That's all. Maybe you'll understand someday when you've been on your own for a while. I'll never understand a thing like that!" Rosa stood up and stretched her cramped legs. She raised her arras over her head and arched |