The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

In Corcoran, heavy rains keep the family in their cabin instead of picking cotton. Papá chain-smokes and worries about not working. The kids tell ghost stories and play guessing games. Francisco and Mamá enjoy looking through the windows and watching their neighbor’s beautiful goldfish swim in its bowl. She calls the fish el Angel de Oro or “golden angel.” Francisco starts third grade in November. An older boy named Miguelito, who Francisco knows from the labor camp, helps Francisco get oriented. The two meet after school and walk home together, playing in rain puddles. He wonders if the goldfish gets lonely. He meets Miguelito later and they watch small gray fish swimming in the creek behind the cabin. Miguelito suggests they make fishing poles from branches. He promises to bring the rest of the materials they need tomorrow.

Francisco does not see Miguelito after school or by the creek the next day. He discovers, sadly, that Miguelito’s cabin is empty. It rains heavily for days and the creek floods into the camp streets. When the rain stops, the streets are full of puddles. Francisco is horrified to see that little gray fish are trapped in the muddy, receding puddles, dying.