Excerpt from Tribunal by Nancy Hersage, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Another twenty minutes passed. Finally, Doctor Rey arrived and examined Letty. She agreed with the nurse. Letty was in no condition to be exposed to the vaccination and the doctor refused to give it.

"Your child has a fever, Mrs Pangil. And she's listless."

Nita was struggling with the English again. "Listless?"

"Tired. Sleepy. You know?"

Yes, Nita knew. She shook her head.

"Is she eating?"

"Not much."

"Are you living at the dump?"

Nita nodded.

"This won't work, Mrs Pangil. You need to keep her dry, out of the rain and that mud. She needs a regular diet. Do you have relatives you can stay with for a short while?"

"We're from the mountains. We have no one here."

"This child is going to die if you don't get her a dry place to stay and change her diet. Fresh vegetables. Fish. Clean water. Do you understand?"

Nita understood. "But won't you give her the vaccination?"

"In this condition, Mrs Pangil, it could kill her."

The doctor gave Nita several bottles of water and told her to come back in a week. The nurse wrote down the name of a housing clinic, but everyone knew those lists were as long as the line on the sidewalk. Dalia tried to cheer up Nita on the way home, saying Letty was sure to get better.

None of it mattered. Nita suspected that her daughter was only trying to escape the life they were living. The little girl was choosing death over misery. Who could blame her? The blame, Nita knew, belonged to the mother who did not have more to offer.

As they turned into the rutted roadway leading to the dump, Nita heard Carlos calling to her from atop a hill of refuse. He waved his arms in some great signal, but she could not bring herself to wave back. His childish good cheer only made her feel worse.

"Come home, come home!" he kept calling, "Papa has a story. Papa has a job."

Nita looked up. Enrique was squatting in front of their billboard shanty, pounding the ground anxiously with a stick. He stood up as she neared him.

"Carlos says you have a job."

"Carlos has a big mouth. And he says I have a story."

"Guess who we saw!" Carlos bubbled. "Guess who we saw at the cockfight?" He pulled out a little paper bag from his pocket and popped a candy into his mouth. "Do you see what he gave me? Would you like one, Letty?"

Letty reached out her hand and Carlos tried to fill it with candy.

"Just one," said Nita. "What is this, Enrique? Who did you see?"

"Carlos saw him," Enrique answered. "He was all dressed up like a big man. He says you have been writing him letters."

"Martin?" said Nita, astonished. "You saw Martin?"

"He has a job at one of the clubs in the tourist belt. Exactly what, who knows? He thinks he is a big man now."

"He bought me candy. Want some, Mama?" Carlos said, parading in a circle around his mother and sister.

"Is he a big man, Enrique?"

"I guess so. He says you wrote to him and said I needed work."

"Can he find you a job, Enrique?"

"He says he sent you a letter two weeks ago."

"He did? What did he say?"

"He knows of nothing for me. There are men wanting work all over the tourist district. If he weren't such a wonderful fellow, why even he wouldn't have a job, I guess," Enrique said sarcastically.

"So he has nothing?"

"Nothing for me. But there is a job for you."

Carlos was teasing Letty with the candy, dangling the bag in front of her, then pulling it away. Nita shifted the girl to her other hip and brushed Carlos away. She wasn't sure what Enrique was saying. "For me?"

"A man from his club is looking for folk dancers."

"I don't understand."

"Girls from the mountains. Like you. To do the traditional dances. He wants you to talk to this man."

Copyright Nancy Hersage 2000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher or author.