A Little Orange in the Big Apple

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  7: “Germans in the Back Yard”

  Ali and Reynolds came running through the front door of their house. They stopped and listened for their mother. The sound of the lawn mower clicking away in the back yard could be heard. She was mowing the lawn.

  “Don’t you tell her anything,” Reynolds said threateningly to his little sister. Ali was out of breath and just shook her head up and down in agreement with her brother’s demand. They both disappeared into their separate rooms.

  Once in her room Ali started thinking about what to do. She wanted to hide the coins she received for the stolen bottles for two reasons. She didn’t want Reynolds to find the money, and she also knew there was something bad about the money, the way she got it and all. She put it in one of the pockets of her bathrobe in her closet. Her clothes and hands were dirty from all the digging for the bottles, so she dusted off her clothes and went down the hall to wash her hands in the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and saw that her face was still a little flushed, but at least it was clean. She quietly inched up to Reynolds’ door which was open a crack. He was calmly sitting on his bed looking through a “Boy’s Life” magazine without a care in the world.

  Ali decided to go see her mother in the back yard. Maybe she could help her a little. She remembered earlier when her mother was reading the letter from her father and how her mother told her how hard it was to do everything with him gone so much of the time.

  “Hi,” said Ali as she waved at her mother who was still pushing the old, noisy lawn mower around the back yard. Her mother gave a quick wave and continued cutting the grass. Ali surveyed their little yard. There really wasn’t much there to mow, patches of brown grass with occasional clumps of green grass. Her mother planted a few flowers near the windows called “Germans” which was funny because her mother said her family were Germans and came to America from a country called Germany a long time ago. It was confusing sometimes which is why her mother would point to the globe in the living room and show Ali where different countries were located.

  “Yes”, her mother once told her, “here is where Grandpa came from. This is where the Germans live.”

  “Mother, can I water the Germans for you?” Ali piped up.

  “What?”

  “Can I water the Germans by the window?” Ali’s mother stopped mowing, wiped her forehead with her bandana, and smiled at her daughter.

  “Honey, those are called geraniums, not Germans----Germans are people from Germany, like Grandpa, and yes, you can water them for me.” Ali turned on the hose and watered the geraniums. A new word to know. It seemed like everyday there was something new to learn about.

  “So how come our last name is Spain---are we from Spain---the place Christopher Columbus went to get money to come here to California?” Ali asked curiously. She knew these things from school and also from Uncle Mack who was always telling her stories about things that happened a long time ago.

  By now, Ali’s mother was sitting on the stoop leading to the back door of the house and surveying her lawn mowing efforts while answering Ali’s questions.

  “Christopher Columbus didn’t come to California, but you are right that he went to Spain to ask for money to sail to America. Your father’s last name of Spain might mean his family came from Spain, but we don’t really know, since that was so long ago.”

  Ali thought about everything her mother told her.

  Just then Reynolds who had been listening to his mother and Ali from his open window, yelled, “You’re so stupid, Ali. Watering Germans in the back yard. Give me a break!” He began laughing at Ali and taunting her.

  “Enough, Reynolds,” said their mother “leave your sister alone”.