Peaches

window and stuck one hand out.
    “The clutch wouldn’t keep it from starting,” Rex said evenly, with steely calm.
    “I think I know my car better than you do, Dad.”
    Leeda sat curled up next to Rex. “I know it’s crazy,” she interjected, “but I’ll be damn happy to see the orchard after sitting here with you two.”
    Rex seemed to soften as he drove, but he didn’t say anything else. Everyone sat silently, even Honey Babe and Majestic, whose eyes were wide and mournful, as if they sensed the tension in the cab.
    When Rex dropped them off, the air had just turned gray. There was a stripe of light right along the horizon of the orchard, and the first birds were just beginning to chirp. The rumble of the car wheels at the bottom of the drive, though quiet, seemed to stand out.
    Rex dropped them off without another word. They all stood looking across the grass. The lights of the Darlington house were still dim, and this drew a relieved breath from Birdie, who leaned her shoulder against Murphy’s.
    Leeda looked at them. Bits of their hair had stuck together and dried against their foreheads and the sides of their faces.Birdie had a sweat stain right down the middle of her top. Leeda knew she must look equally bad.
    She wanted to initiate a talk about what a great night it had been, all in all. Already, now that it was getting light, Mertie Creek seemed like it had happened years ago, and it made her sad. But maybe she was just tired. In any case, she got the sense she shouldn’t say anything. It was better not said.
    They straggled into the dorms for a precious half hour of sleep without a word.

Chapter Fifteen
    O n Sundays, if there hadn’t been much rain to ripen the peaches, the workers harvested until eleven and had the rest of the day off. Each week for Murphy’s first three weeks Poopie pulled a beat-up white van to the front of the dorms and everybody who wanted to pile in for a trip to Wal-Mart did. Murphy never went because she wasn’t allowed off the premises. Still, she looked forward to Sundays because it allowed her to have the orchard mostly to herself, and because it was fun to watch the workers return.
    She’d learned last week to make it a point to be back at the dorms around the time they were supposed to come back so she could watch them piling off the bus. Inevitably, the workers would go crazy buying things to bring back to Mexico at the end of the summer—clothes, candy, but also inflatable pools, board games, toys. Murphy didn’t know how they were going to carry it all. But everybody was so thrilled when they poured off the bus, laughing and chatting, showing off their purchases, that Murphy never wanted to miss it.
    The bus had left at about ten A.M . Leeda and Birdie had goneto Leeda’s house to see Leeda’s parents and have lunch. Though she knew it was silly, that she wouldn’t have been allowed off the orchard anyway, Murphy felt slightly left out and slightly pathetic for feeling slightly left out. It felt weird to have Birdie and Leeda go off without her.
    She spent the morning lying in her bed reading, then ate cereal for lunch, then trailed out to the garden and weeded, clearing away the areas surrounding the first buds, which were popping up everywhere like wildfire. Yesterday, she’d discovered a nectarine, but it was filled with bugs, just like Birdie had predicted. No miracle yet.
    When she got hungry, she walked into the orchard and picked a couple of Rubyprince peaches, which had just ripened this week. She was already able to tell the difference in taste between these and the other varieties of peaches that they’d harvested. Candor was her favorite so far. She now kept a peach in her pocket at all times to snack on, the juice soaking into the fabric of her shorts.
    With time to relax her muscles, Murphy was bored. She wasn’t even sore anymore, except for the very dull, satisfying ache that she went to bed with each night. She thought about calling her mom, but the thought gave her such a heavy feeling in her gut that she immediately tried to forget it. She peered around, wondering where Rex might be. With so much of the orchard equipment falling apart he was always somewhere, fiddling with something. Murphy started looking for him without really noticing she was looking. She found him with one of the rusty green tractors by the barn.
    “I think you’re right. I think it’s the starter.”
    Rex stood up and turned. He was all sweaty and an oil