The man lay there listening to the soft breathing of Marisa, his 2 year old daughter. He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to take care of her if anything were to go wrong. He looked at the beautiful woman lying next to him. He didn’t know what he would do without her. He looked farther, lying in the corner of their 2 room hut. Next to the fire, lay his other 2 children, beautiful in every way. Sofia was 5, with long black hair, and the most beautiful brown eyes. Next to her, lay her brother Jose. His 8 year old arms were wrapped protectively around his younger sister, whom he adored. Looking around he confirmed that they were all asleep. Slowly, he stood up and tiptoed out to the other room. It was cold in here, as the fire had gone out hours ago. He slowly scanned around the room for his satchel, where he had placed the letter. Finding it by the few pots his family owned, he opened it, and searched for the letter. With trembling hands, he ripped the letter open, and moved over to the door so he could read it with the light from the moon.
Hola Andres,
I am writing to you from America, land of money! There is so many jobs here, it is unbelievable! My new wife Sarita and I are having the time of our lives here! I met her on my way over here, and married her at a small little church in a town, just before we crossed into America.
I cannot believe that you don’t want to come over here! Sarita and I have a wonderful house, with many rooms for our children. I have found a wonderful job working during the day at a school, cleaning! A school! The school here is bigger than anything you have ever seen before! It is as big as our village at home, with more people than Melochar Ocampo! It is not a very hard job, and it pays well. 9 dollars an hour! That is more than you or I could make selling wood in town in a week! I try to talk to the children there, but they don’t talk back. They push through these long rooms, to rush into other rooms. I have to sweep all of the classrooms after the children leave, and then do something called mopping. I use this broom, and dip it in water, and clean that way. It sounds silly, but it cleans the floor! They have real floors in this school, like Sarita and I do in our house. There are windows and doors, and books, and teachers, and classrooms, more classrooms than all of the surrounding villages put together. The silly thing about these children, is that during lunch, they never seem to eat their food! They throw it at each other, like monkeys! And then they dump the stuff they don’t throw at each other into large buckets!
Sarita got a job working cleaning clothes. She washes clothes, but not by hand! They have these wonderful machines that spin the clothes around! She says it is the most amazing thing to watch!
You need to come here! America is more than you or Dad could ever imagine! Dad always thought that America was a silly place, and that it was really just like Mexico, but it is better that Mexico! It is better than fairy tales! America is where we should all live. Come and join me here! We have room in our house, and you need to get out of that silly little town you love so much. Forget about Mexico! Forget about your silly wife, who hates even the thought of America! Leave them behind, find a new life here. She can raise the kids on her own, she doesn’t need you. There are so many of us Mexicans living here, that you could just move here, and forget about them! Please, actually consider my offer this time.
Your brother,
Emmanuel

Andres stared at the letter. He wanted to move to America. But not for the same reason that his brother did. He loved his children. He loved his wife. Emmanuel had deserted his wife Liliana, and his gorgeous 14 year old daughter Vivianna. Vivianna was 8 when her father left, the same age as Jose. He couldn’t imagine leaving his children, just to get new ones. As he sat there, shivering in the cold night air, a plan started forming in his mind. An ingenious plan. One that would change the course of his life, forever.

Faith woke up the next morning, feeling groggy as she had gone to bed much later than usual. She stretched and yawned, and then rolled over, hiding under the blankets, trying to get a few more hours of sleep. After all, today was Saturday. But when she remembered what day it was, she jolted out of bed. Today was her birthday! She dashed downstairs. Her father was bustling around the kitchen, in a mad dash to finish the pancakes.
“Mornin’ Dad!” Faith exclaimed!
“Morning Sweety” her dad sleepy said. He had been up since 5, finishing up the things that he had not been able to do this past week. He had been too busy with other things.
“Where’s Mom? She said she would be home for my birthday.” Faith asked her father.
“Oh, she went to work this morning. I think some experiment went wrong in the lab, and she had to fix it”
“Oh. So it’s just you and me? Again? I think I am going to go outside and read.”
Faith grabbed the first book she saw, and stomped out to the swing outside. She wanted to throw the book after tearing it up into thousands of tiny pieces. Why did Mom always have to be so involved with her work, but never involved in her only daughter? Faith tried to relax and read the words on the page, but her eyes were brimming with tears, the words swimming around the page like fishes in a fish bowl. Her dad stared at her out the window. he knew something was wrong, but what could he do? He didn’t want to upset her more by telling her the other news.
“Don’t worry honey. She will be home soon. Why don’t you go out to the mailbox and get the mail. Maybe that will cheer you up.”
“Fine.” Faith slammed down the book and stomped down the driveway. “It’s not like there will be anything interesting. No one cares about me or my birthday.”
She yanked the mail out, and quickly flipped through them, hoping for a letter from her aunt, or her grandma, or her boyfriend.
“Bills, bills, letter for mom, bills...”
Slowly, a letter drifted down on the driveway. She reached down to pick it up. But when she saw who it was from, she fell to her knees. Her life was about to change. Forever.

Andres knew he had to put his plan in action soon. The weather would turn bad in 3 months, and if he wasn’t ready now, than he would never make it before the cold weather up in the United States. After he had read the letter he had carefully hidden it in his satchel, underneath the wood he was bringing to the market tomorrow. He had carefully gotten back into bed without waking his wife, knowing that there would be questions if she found out he was up at such an early time in the morning. He was going to leave. He had to. He just had to get to America. His family was too poor. And there were schools over there. Real schools, that Marissa and Jose and Sofia could go to, all the way till they were 18 years old. Andres had had to leave school when he was 9 to take care of the family farm, and to take care of his mother after his father died. He hated the thought of leaving them alone, but he had to. His plan was when he went out tomorrow to go and sell wood that he would just keep on walking. He spent the day, instead of gathering wood, but gathering food. He went and talked to Señor Garzia, the pastor at the small little chapel on the hill, to get the blessings he needed. Lastly, he went to his sisters cottage. She was alone because her son and husband were out sweating in the sun working on the fields.
“Paloma? Tu estatas aqui? Are you here?”
“Si brother. Estoy Aqui. I am here. What brings you to mi casa, my house?”
“I am going to America. Following Emmanuel. Por favor Paloma, please Paloma, watch my family. I am worried about them. Emmanuel, he left his family. He doesn’t care about them. But I want to care about them. I could never leave these people who I love so much. But I can’t bear the thought if making Jose leave school, just to have to work in the field with me. Please Paloma, you are my only hope.
Paloma looked at her older brother. He had never begged her to do something this important, never asked her permission to do something. He had always gone to Emmanuel.
“Yes Andres. I will. I will watch them. But you know your sister hates me.”
“Si, I do. But you are my only choice. My only hope. If you don’t help me, than I will never be able to go through with this.”
“I will watch your family, don’t worry hermano. When do you leave?”
“I leave tomorrow. I am all ready. I hope to arrive there soon. I will stay with Emmanuel, until I can find a job and a house. Then, I will send for them. Every one of my children. I will not abandon them like my brother did. I love them too much. “
“Go brother. I will take care of them. I will watch them, and make sure that nothing happens.”
Andres ran home, until he remembered something. He reached into his satchel, and pulled out a single piece of paper and a pen.
Dear Emmanuel,
I am coming. I leave tomorrow. I will arrive as soon as I can.
Andres

Faith rushed into the house, clutching the letters to her chest. She threw them down on the table and ran up to her room, slamming the door behind her closed. Surprised to see the letter she still clenched in her hand, she threw it as hard as should could into the trash, sobbing as she did so. Yanking her diary out from under the bed, she tried to write, tear drops falling from her eyes.

August 18th

I hate him. Hate him. How could he do this to me? On my birthday? How could a father do something like this to his daughter! I hate him. HATE him. Is that why he hasn’t been around this week? To let me adjust to the pain of him leaving. And... if, he doesn’t come back, then what will I do? I can’t live with my mother. Not without Daddy. She doesn’t even care about me. She doesn’t love me. And now, daddy doesn’t either! How could this happen to me? HOW? How could he hav

Faith jumped at the loud knocking on the door.

“GO AWAY” she screamed at the door.

“Honey, please. We need to talk. Please. Let me in.”

“NO. I don’t want to ever see your face ever again. I hope that when you go away, that you won’t come back!”

There was a silence as both of them were silent, each waiting for the other to make the next move.

“Honey.....”

“NO!”

“Faith. Listen to me. I need you to tell me what you saw. Please. Please Faith. I want to help you. Please, tell me what’s wrong...”

“You know what’s wrong. You are a horrible father, pretending not to know what is going on. YOU know!” She yanked the letter out of the trash, and slid it under the door. Faith’s father stared at it, trying to make out what the sweaty tear dropped envelope said. He reached down to pick it up, and when he saw what the return address was, he understood why his daughter was so upset. The return address was the Military Office.