Free But the Children Survived by A. L. Jambor Page B

her in after lunchtime for a little while.”
    "That sounds very reasonable.” 
    Pat led her down to the end of the field.  They met Calvin watering the rows of potatoes. 
    "Morning, lady and gentleman,” Calvin said as he tipped his hat to them.
    "Morning, Calvin.  This here is Mindy.  She's going to help me tighten the sprinklers.”
    "Now you know how I feel about slave labor, Patrick.”  Calvin had one eyebrow raised as he looked at Pat.
    "Well, I ah, I thought maybe I could, well, we don’t get paid!  How am I going to pay her?”  Pat looked genuinely perplexed.  What could he give her in return for her work? 
    "I don’t want anything,” Mindy said.  “I just want to be in here.”  Pat smiled at Calvin.
    "Okay Patrick, that’s fine, but the rules are she gets a break every hour and you make sure she eats.  And if she decides she's had enough, you let her go.  Understood?”
    "No problem.  Now, Miss Mindy, let’s get started.” 
    They left Calvin to water and went into the back were they kept the tools.  Mindy noticed that there was another set of doors here that must lead to the outside.  She made a mental note of that and followed Pat back out to the field.  Pat bent down and held a sprinkler.
    "All you have to do is check the connection.  See, this little nut down here.  You have to make sure it's on good and tight so the water flies out the ends of the spokes.  If there's any play in the nut, you take this wrench and tighten it like this.”  He placed the wrench over the nut and moved it to tighten the nut.  “What do you think?”  Pat was watching Mindy.
    "I think I can do this.” 
    She started down one row and Pat went down the next.  While they worked Pat told Mindy his life story of growing up in Brooklyn and working in his mother’s beauty shop from the time he was eleven until he turned eighteen.  He would wash the ladies' hair, and they would pinch his cheek and give him a dollar.  He loved working in the shop, especially watching his mother cut hair.  She was a true artist. 
    When he turned eighteen, his dad told him it was time to join the Plumber’s Union, and as soon as he graduated high school, he was apprenticed with his father’s employer.  He liked being a plumber.  The money was good and he could work alone. 
    "How did you end up here?”  Mindy asked.
    "My dad died.  I just kind of got sad, you know?  My mom told me to take a vacation.  I came down here and liked it.  Then I saw an ad for plumbers at Wilmer and March, and I applied.  They hired me.”  That was all he would say. 
    At noon, Mindy and Pat went to the cafeteria for lunch.  The girls asked Mindy where she had been and she said she was helping Pat.  Pat had joined them for lunch.  They all stopped talking when Mark walked in and actually sat down to eat at a table - by himself of course.
    "What’s up?” asked Pat.
    "That’s Mark,” Katie said.  “He's a snob.”
    "He’s mean,” Mindy elaborated.
    "He’s just quiet,” Maria Elena said.
    Alyssa, as usual, said nothing, and just gazed dreamily in Mark’s direction.
    "So, we have a handsome, quiet snob with mean tendencies who has the power to stop a conversation in mid-sentence,” said Pat.  “He wasn't happy when we picked him up either.”
    "Where did you find him?”  Mindy looked at Pat expectantly. 
    "Down by the beach near St. Pete.  He had a really nice house.  Ang, I mean Andrew, wanted to leave him there, but you never know.  I mean, we really don’t know how long you kids can survive out there all alone.  So in the end, Andrew gave in and we took him.  But the kid wasn't happy.  He fought us all the way.” 
    Mindy pondered what Pat had said.  If she hadn't been knocked out, she would have fought too.
    "Why didn’t you just knock him out?”  Mindy had a hard look on her face.
    "We ran out of chloroform.”  Pat looked at his food and wouldn’t look at Mindy.  He remembered the day they