Karak still had not returned when Esperanza came to visit the next day. From Jivan’s porch, Ram saw Rosa and the children climb into Alejandro’s wagon. Rosa did not return for three days.

When Karak came back the morning after she left, Ram asked him where he had been. “At the lawyer’s office,” Karak said, refusing to acknowledge how long he had been away. Ram stared at him, but said nothing. After dinner that evening, Karak asked Jivan to buy his automobile. “For any amount—five dollars, ten dollars, one hundred dollars,” he said, ignoring Ram, who sat by silently, listening.

“I’m giving five,” Jivan said. “I am merely keeping the car safe for you, nothing else.” Jivan handed him the money without meeting Karak’s gaze. The men did not look at each other; their feeling was too great. Karak signed over the title and handed it to Jivan, along with a receipt. He drove the car behind Jivan’s house and tucked it away from view. It was important that the authorities not find the document or the automobile on the property that he leased, in his home. Everything must be kept with Jivan on Jivan’s property. That was how the automobile would be saved, though the refrigerator, the Victrola, and the piano were not.

The following morning, Karak met the lawyer at the courthouse and filed for bankruptcy.

STEPHEN EGGENBERGER BOARDED A TRAIN in Los Angeles to come visit them. Jivan, Karak, Ram, and Amarjeet sat on Eggenberger’s porch and the Swiss man broke his news: Times were very bad for everyone, and that was true even for him in the city. His business needed cash, his wife’s health was poor, and he greatly regretted it, but he needed to sell his land. He said the words so quickly that the other men seated around the table almost did not understand. “Consolidated Fruit Company is interested in it for purchase,” Eggenberger said. “The same company for which Clive has been working.”

“Clive is working now in Consolidated Fruit?” Jivan asked.

“For two months now. He added them as a large client.”

Jivan exchanged a glance with Karak, with Ram. “We did not know.”

“I have not yet an agreement with them, but they tell me that you would be kept on the long-term lease. Just like sharecropping: one-third to two-thirds. You will not have to go. You may stay in your homes. I wished that you know. For all these years the cost and the profits from this land we shared. You and Moriyama and Roubillard. I would like that you know first.”

“When you will be selling?” Karak asked.

But before Eggenberger could answer, Jivan said, “Sell to me eighty acres, Stephen.”