BooksBarbecue
Back Passage West
Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. Cast of Characters
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. Letters
  14. Part Two
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. Letters
  26. Part Three
  27. 18
  28. 19
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. 23
  33. Letters
  34. Part Four
  35. 24
  36. 25
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. Letters
  41. Part Five
  42. 29
  43. 30
  44. 31
  45. 32
  46. 33
  47. 34
  48. 35
  49. 36
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. Epilogue
  56. Acknowledgments
  57. About the Author
  58. Also by Rishi Reddi
  59. About the Publisher

The next Sunday he went back to the seamstress shop. Standing on the dry earth, he tapped his knuckles against the wooden door, but no one answered. He did the same the following Sunday. Then a great emptiness overtook him, and for a half hour he wandered about the town, not knowing where he walked, not caring if he was on the west side of the railroad tracks or the east. He hated her for not understanding his duty, for not understanding that he was not free. He asked himself, over and over: In a few months he would return to his real life in Punjab, as if he had never existed in this place, so what did it matter? And yet, he could not escape the feeling—there was something of real life here too.

HE AND KARAK PLANTED BOTH FIELDS in orderly rows of lettuce seed, fertilized with chicken manure, irrigated with care. They hired Alejandro’s team to weed, to thin the seedlings so the roots could go deep, but whenever the crew came, Adela was not with them.

Clive and Hitchcock came to visit as the plants turned bright green and glistened in the sunlight, as the crucial days approached for the lettuce to be harvested and packed into crates and loaded onto iced boxcars. Standing on Jivan’s farmland, gazing out at Moriyama’s field, Ram felt at peace. It was his last work in California and it was beautiful. Ram knew Karak thought so too. A week before the harvest, he woke to find Karak sitting on the jackrabbit stone with an expression Ram had never seen before—something between hope and fear. If all went well, the field could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. After giving Hitchcock and Clive their share, after paying back loans, they would once again have money to spare, money to buy things, money to win back a wife and family, money to say enough was enough, money to go home, dragging a treasure chest.

32

April 1924

AS AN OLD MAN, RAM WOULD BELIEVE THAT IF DIFFERENT WORKERS HAD harvested that season’s lettuce, on that day marking Karak’s official birthday, Ram’s life would have been different. For his journey was no different than any other; one small choice led to another and another, until the large thing was decided, the one that could not be avoided, a moment that determines a life.

The lettuce from Moriyama’s field grew ripe first. Alejandro’s crew of twelve workers arrived on Tuesday evening. A woman was with them. When Ram saw Adela, he felt a hand clutch his heart. She did not look at him. Perhaps she would cook for them, perhaps she would pick lettuce too. He promised himself that he would not approach her.