Free Pipeline by Brenda Adcock Page B

more about his story. I have to have a
starting point."
    "I
can tell you what the story is. If you know that, will you help him?"
    "Go
ahead," I said as I poured tea into a glass and took a drink.
    She
glanced at Lena and then back at me.
    "Would
you prefer to go into my office?" I asked.
    "It
don't matter none, honey. She gonna tell me everthin' after you gone
anyhow," Lena said with a chuckle.
    Sarita
blushed slightly and followed me to my office.
    "Does
Kyle know you're here?" I asked.
    "No.
I called in sick today after he left for work."
    "If
he finds out he might not be too happy that you came here."
    "But
he'd still be alive."
    "You
know that Kyle and I aren't on speaking terms, and I assume you know why,"
I said.
    "Cate
explained it to me, and I've seen pictures of the three of you together when he
was a child."
    "Have
you ever asked him about them?"
    "He
doesn't discuss his past with me."
    "All
right," I said with a shrug, "tell me what you know."
    "Before
I moved to San Antonio and met Kyle, I taught school not far from here, in
Mountain View, for a couple of years. It was a nice little town until ABP moved
in."
    "ABP?"
    "American
Beef and Pork. They bought the old meatpacking plant in Mountain View and
expanded it. Almost as soon as they bought the plant, ABP started bringing in
workers from someplace else and laying off the local workers who were in the
union. The new workers are earning half what the union workers were."
    I
looked at her and shrugged again.
    "Anyway,"
she continued, "the whole town changed almost overnight. Most of the
workers hired by ABP were Hispanic and spoke virtually no English. In fact, the
Hispanic population of Mountain View grew by nearly four hundred percent in the
time I was there. Hispanic children flooded the schools, and the school
district couldn't afford to fund a bigger bilingual program. They asked ABP for
more tax money, but the company only made a one-time payment and refused to pay
more."
    "Is
that why you left?"
    "The
workload became intolerable. I was the only Hispanic teacher in the school.
Over time, in addition to my teaching duties, I was spending more and more time
acting as a translator for administration as well as other teachers. It wasn't
the money, and I don't mind hard work, but the town was becoming unsafe. There
were a lot of assaults and burglaries. So eventually I decided to apply to one
of the San Antonio school districts."
    "Do
you think these new employees are illegals?"
    "They
had to be, but most of the ones I spoke to about their children were eager to
show me their papers. If they were fakes, there's no way I would have
known."
    "Did
anyone report any of this to INS?"
    "Of
course, but when they finally came, they didn't find more than two or three
illegals. Another teacher told me she had heard that most of the ABP employees
didn't go to work that day. They may have been warned."
    "Did
the children stay in school all year?"
    "No,
there was a very large turnover of students."
    "Do
you know who does the hiring for ABP?"
    "I
think they use employment agencies. At least that's what I heard."
    "I'd
bet twenty bucks all the employment agencies are located in Eagle Pass or Del
Rio with convenient branch offices in San Antonio." I smiled.
    "I
don't know anything about that."
    "And
this is what you told Kyle?"
    "Yes."
    "So
where's the story? Just illegals is nothing, Sarita."
    "They
be buyin' them employees," Lena jumped in.
    I
hadn't noticed her standing at the door until she spoke.
    "Eavesdropping
again, Lena?" I asked with a smile.
    "Some
of my people worked for ABP two, three years ago. They the ones what got laid
off to make room for them fuckin' illegals."
    "If
they've got papers, guess what, ladies, they're not illegals," I said.
    "Shit,
Jo, they ain't got no real papers. I can buy you papers today. How many you
want?"
    "And
where would you get them?"
    "San
Antone. Cost you 'bout five hundred. There a woman who buys Social Security
numbers from real people