9. Frost on the fields
"Really?" Claudia said. She sat up beside Manny on the picnic blanket and tugged her ponytail over her shoulder. "That was really the first time you waded in the river?"
"I hardly ever saw the river when I was growing up," Manny said. He laid back with his hands behind his head and his bare feet dangling off the river bank. He watched through the canopy of yellow cottonwood leaves as a small flock of geese crossed just above the treetops. They splashed into the water, and settled down in a noisy chorus.
"See all you missed?" Claudia asked. "I wonder what they say to each other when they land. To me, it sounds like 'Aii! Are you OK? I'm OK!'"
"Really?" Manny said, and picked his head up to look at his sister. "To me it just sounds like 'Honk, honk, honk.'"
"Where's your imagination?" She threw her ponytail back and grinned at Manny. "Or do you just use it to think about suborbital space planes?"
Manny laughed, "I use it to picture you naked," he said, and that made her laugh.
Claudia scooped up a handful of newly-fallen leaves and watched Manny while she talked. "That's not imagination. It's just wishful thinking," she said, and let the leaves flutter down on his face.
Manny sat up sputtering and digging leaves out of his collar. He faked an angry glare when he looked up at Claudia, and her eyes got big. She pulled away when he reached for her, and she slipped off the bank, back into the shallow water.
Claudia watched Manny while she backed away from him then she splashed through the water to the nearest sandbar with Manny behind her. The startled geese launched themselves in unison and flew down-river just above the water while Manny chased Claudia across the sand and pumice.
Manny caught his little sister by the shoulder and wrapped his arm around her waist. She squealed "Manny, no!" when he picked her up off the sand and held her against his hip. She kicked and pushed on his arms, but she didn't struggle enough to stop him.
Claudia's squeals dissolved to laughter while Manny hauled her back across the sandbar, and then she fell quiet. "Manny, I can hardly breathe," she said.
Manny scooped her up and cradled her in his arms without letting her down. "Why do you always make me chase you?" he asked while he waded back to where they'd picnicked on the bank.
Claudia's body suddenly stiffened. "Something's wrong," she said, and craned her neck to peer through the dense undergrowth beside the river. "Angelito's here."
Manny stopped with knee-deep water flowing around his legs and sand sifting between his toes. "I don't see anyone," he said. "But I don't know what I'm looking for—could be an old Indian, could be something else."
"Look up," Claudia said, and pointed to a raven perched on a cottonwood branch high over the water. "I bet that's him."
Manny started walking toward the bank again. "We're lucky. I don't think he knows how to bring things like guns or big wrenches with him when he changes his skin."
The raven spread its wings and launched toward the west, and Manny set his sister down on the grassy bank. She laughed while they dried their feet and put their shoes on. "What could the big bird do? Poop on our picnic blanket?"
Manny scanned the picnic blanket just in case, and then he asked, "Is that the first time he's been around since last summer?"
Claudia shrugged and said, "I guess he decided to leave me alone after he got what he wanted." She picked up one corner of the blanket. "I think the guardians were right. We could crush his soul if we found him. Maybe he figured that out."
"I'm not sure how we'd find his puny soul," Manny said. He picked up another corner of the blanket and helped Claudia fold it. "I wonder why he'd come back now?"
"Eee, Manny. There has to be a reason," Claudia said, "and I don't feel good about it." She shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe he's just back for Halloween, so he can scare trick-or-treaters and take their candy."
Claudia laid the folded blanket over her arm. "You're going to come stay en mi casita tonight, si?"
Manny patted his sister's butt to move her up the trail to the parking lot, and from behind her he asked, "When did you get your own place?"
"It's that little house I showed you where Papa was born," Claudia said. "You know—where we got naked that first day we met. Papa had it fixed up to be a guest house, but then I took it over and Mama stopped him from complaining."
"How pink is it now?" Manny asked, and Claudia laughed.
"My bedroom has to be pink," she said. "The lintels, the frames on all the windows, and the doors are blue to keep las animas away, and the rest is all like, normal-colored."
Manny listened for a moment to the crunch of dried leaves under their feet and said, "We could stay at my folks place, too. I know my mom would love to have you there, and the whole bottom floor would be ours."
Claudia stopped and pressed her hands against Manny's chest. "I worry with Angelito around. Your folks are in town with close neighbors and police and all. I want us to be close to mi familia, just in case. I'll make up something to tell your mom."
* * *
Manny had his dinner in front of him before he knew what story Claudia would make up. The light from the chandelier over the table sparkled in Dolly Nielson's eyes while she quizzed Claudia about her classes, and about her dad's run for the House. "You're going to stay with us tonight and tell us more, aren't you?" she asked. "I have the spare bedroom downstairs all made up for you."
