Oh were we. He didn’t like me talking back to him. I was supposed to go along with his little performance, play stupid, take one for the team. Well, I wasn’t in the mood. The yucca had given me a few good cuts, even through my clothes, and they stung, and the heat had turned up a few notches since we first got here. And Rick was a little too into the whole thing, kicking the girl around just to show he could, and now we were expected to get the damned yucca out of the ground, with the rude old man gloating.

I turned and walked back to the truck, removed a couple of tarps and a hose, property of Rick, and laid them on the ground. I saw Rick take a few steps toward me, then stop. I got in the truck and drove off. The rearview mirror showed the three of them standing around the yucca, like kids with a disappointing Christmas tree. I made a turn and didn’t see them anymore.

Ruben was going to have to help Rick dig the yucca out again, and I felt a little bad about that but not much. It wasn’t as if he’d demonstrated any actual worker solidarity.

I drove around for a while, got on the highway, then got off again. I didn’t have anywhere to go. And I wouldn’t have anywhere to go tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.

I suppose it was possible that Rick would call me to apologize. Or that I could show up for work tomorrow as usual and hash things out with him. But that was getting less likely by the second.

I wound up at home, two hours earlier than usual. Batman at least was happy to see me. I took a shower and dabbed antiseptic on the yucca scratches. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I cranked up the air conditioning and lay down and fell asleep until I heard Aaron come home from work.

I knew all the sounds he made: greeting the dog, unloading his pockets, retrieving the mail. The refrigerator door opening as he surveyed the options. He turned the music on, as he always did. Everything was the same except me.

After a while he wandered back to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the mattress. “Hey Garden Girl.” He’d been calling me that lately, like it was funny. He must have seen something in my face.

“What?”

“I walked off the job today.” I told him everything that happened. I tried to keep it matter of fact and not sound like a weepy, blubbering female, though I did show him the places where the yucca had torn me up, and made him feel sorry for me. “You should have seen this old guy. If you sent a kid to school dressed like that, he’d get beat up.”