He found him walking alone between the dunes and the road. This is how lost miracles should look, she said, battered, fucked up, and lame. And it is that he came chuequeando of the left leg.
He parked the truck next to him, took off his Ray-Bans, told him his name was Víctor, that he was going north, and gave him a smile.
“Get in, compare, the way you’re going, the fuck is going to take you,” he yelled through the window.
He reached to the other side of the booth to open the door for her. Standing up, the brunette lowered his head and looked at him in silence. Then he looked down at the floor and raised his hands.
– What happened, compare? Not that she was assaulting him. I know he doesn’t even believe me, but if he doesn’t come with me, he’s going to die here alone anyway. Throw him out, I’m not going to charge him.
He looked up at the sun at noon. She pursed her swollen lips. She touched her bloodstained pants. She nodded her head several times. She gave an awkward jump to get to the seat. She stayed as close to the edge as he could without letting go of the handle with her right hand.
Víctor started the truck and turned on the radio. Alfredo Olivas’s accordion blared on the driver’s horn and he accelerated. The speedometer needle did not move from zero.
– It happens that it is broken. If it’s already rattling around, the truth is,” he explained to his companion and pointed with his index finger. Going from sixty, sixty-five, the entire bodywork begins to vibrate. But the damned is still strong. She is a warrior, the puny one.
The odometer exceeded 100 thousand. Victor noticed it and said:
-An hour or so is Cienegas. I detour past Is it okay to leave it there, listen?
The passenger glanced sideways at the driver. With a quick nod, he said yes.
There is a train station nearby. It’s what you’re looking for, isn’t it? she asked.
Then he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his checked shirt. The passenger’s lips moved, but the loud engine of the F-250 kept him from hearing his response.
-If it doesn’t work for you, just tell me. Know that there is no anger. Total, the same if we manage, even I could pass it to the other side, how does he see?
The stranger repeated yes with a more pronounced movement.
Minutes later, Víctor lowered the volume of the music and suddenly crouched down, hindered by his belly. He reached under the seat and groaned in his throat. The man who had just gotten into the Ford leaned against the torn leather lining of the door and turned wide-eyed. After several tugs, Victor pulled out a small cooler and held out a can.
–Fuck one so as not to resent the heat and gain confidence.
Still squeezing his injured leg, the passenger released the door handle, scratched the back of his neck, and accepted the beer. The first drink was short. In the second he gave her background.
–Mucha’gracia’, sir, Dio’ bless you so much –pronounced with a singing tone.
-What, compare, it’s good to know that you do talk. I was already thinking ‘this bastard is not going to be dumb’.
–Everything I’m like I have, but I wouldn’t believe it, I tell him, I wouldn’t believe how bad what we have is happening. I tell him it’s not safe for us to ‘talk’ to anyone. My name is Elmer, sir.
Víctor also opened a beer and began to tell him that everything was very screwed up in the north. That the desert was very fucking because no water, no food, no work. That the old ones weren’t so cool, but they fucked tasty and they were good whores. That everyone here wants to kill you to knock you down as little as you bring, and that’s why you learn to take care of yourself. Elmer made a sound in his throat. A laugh. Maybe a complaint.
–And what about that wound, compare? It looks good bastard! How did she do it?
Elmer narrowed his mouth and looked at him for several seconds. He let go of her leg and saw his bloody hand. He tried to cover the tattoos and scars on his forearm with a discreet movement, but they were still noticeable. He straightened up and saw that a small wooden rosary dangled from the mirror. He tried to reach it; a shout interrupted him.
– To the shot, compa! The blood does not come off easily. The Cross of the Lord will not stain me.
He wiped on his shirt. She glanced to the side over the landscape of dry land and thorny scrub. A metallic sound distracted him. He came from behind, from the box. He looked over his shoulder. He saw a pair of shovels, a saw, black plastic bags, and a steel drum.
“Look straight ahead,” Víctor’s voice pulled. You come as a co-pilot. Don’t be distracted. And he didn’t answer the question I asked him. How was that wound made? It looks like a plumb.
Elmer picked up another can and drank it in silence. Outside, the flat desert ended as a row of hills loomed. Forty minutes later, Víctor’s cell phone rang as he passed the junction to Boquillas. He raised the volume of the radio and answered:
-Yes tell me. AHA. AHA. I fuck it up, then. I’ll take it now. Don’t worry, boss, we’re here very close.
hung up He slammed on the brakes. He put the auto safety on and pulled a pistol from his vest. Elmer pulled the handle several times. He filled her with blood. He didn’t open.
It’s nothing personal, compare. It’s my pull. I have no other –Víctor blurted out.
He aimed at her head. She stroked the trigger slowly and brought the gun to his temple. She searched his shirt; nothing. The pockets of his pants; an ID and a piece of paper with a phone on it.
-Whose is it? Victor said as he waved the paper. Who gave you?
-I don’t…
-Don’t go too far! Who were you going to talk to?
–He gave it to me when I passed through Tenosique before getting on the Beast. Someone there speaks to him and tells him to help him cross the border and he has someone who pays a lot of money, I tell him. That’s what he told me’, I tell him, but I don’t know the person.
With his eyes, the driver pointed to the shoes. Elmer took them off. Socks too, he rushed. Nothing hidden.
“Now drop your pants.” Elmer’s eyes trembled like a child’s. –Take off your fucking panties!
His fingers slid her clothing down until it was just under the seat.
“You’re not bringing anything, bastard. So you can’t prick yourself. Do you have family?
Elmer shook as if his body were an earthquake. He clenched his fists. He ran his tongue over his lips.
–Family, dude, friends. Someone who wants you alive?
Did not answer. With a smooth movement, Victor struck him with the muzzle of the pistol on the forehead.
– No way, bastard. You know that I wanted to help you, but you didn’t let yourself.
Out of the corner of his eye, Elmer caught a glimpse of the rosary dangling from the rearview mirror.
–If you are going to kill me, I ask you for God’s sake to grant me one last thing. I ask you on my knees, look.
Victor laughed while still aiming at him and grabbed another beer.
-Just don’t go out with your things.
“Let me tell you who I am, sir.” That’s what I ask. Look: I come from Choluteca, a district of Apacila…
Victor hit the steering wheel three times with the hand that was holding the beer.
-No! No! No! I warned you not to go out with your assholes! My boss just called me on the phone. Do you know what he told me? He told me that in the morning there was a fart at Shaggy’s house. And that they are looking for the fucking migrant who started all the chaos and then escaped. And what do you think? The guy escaped with a gunshot wound to the leg. And he had a mole on his nose just like yours. Does that ring a bell, asshole? ring a bell?
Elmer’s breath hitched. He then began to cry. Victor threw the beer against the windshield and yelled:
-Why are you doing this? Why… do you…
He stopped aiming at it. He clenched his mouth. She looked at him in silence for several seconds.
-Get off, bastard. Orale, get down to hell –her voice changed to a dry tone.
Victor unlocked. He got off almost running. He came around the truck from the front. He opened Elmer’s door and yanked him down onto the asphalt. Hurriedly, he opened his vest, took out a small plastic packet, and inserted another pass of coke with his little finger. He shook his head as fast as he could. He opened and closed his eyes several times. He took a long breath and calmed down. He reached for the glove compartment. He pulled out a gun. He checked her quickly. He laughed. He tossed it at Elmer’s feet.
“Stop,” he ordered. Grab it and stand up!
He rose to his feet with jerky movements.
–I’m going to give you another chance, so you can see that I’m a good guy. The first one to shoot…
Elmer pulled the trigger; three, four, five times. Victor laughed. He doubled over with laughter and clutched his belly as if it were going to fall off.
–No, well you did all that mess. You do have eggs, dude, but no way. It’s my pull.
Victor shot him in the chest. He approached to finish it off with three more plummets to the head. He took the gun from her hands. He moved with his right foot so that his body was on one side. He let the blood drain from the corpse for a few minutes. He grabbed one of the bags that he was carrying behind the truck. By force and pulling, he inserted the body full of earth. He tied a knot with a rope. The veins on his face and arms stood out with the effort he made to lift him onto the box.
He returned to the cabin. She adjusted the rearview. She saw the sweat trickle down his forehead. She narrowed her eyes to make out what was on her right cheek: three red spots. The corner of her mouth turned up. She reached across the board, dipped the tip of her index finger into the spilled beer, and wiped her face. She checked herself in the mirror again. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a shadow in the box. Startled, he spun around his shoulder. He saw only a black bird hopping over his body and slowed his breath. He looked back at the wheel. He clasped his hands over his forehead for a few seconds and then rubbed his eyes. He crossed himself once. He lowered the sunshade with a slap of his hand. He closed the door with a yank. He lit a cigarette, put on his Ray-Bans, and started the truck.
*This story was published in the Anthology “Estos son mis papales” of the Francisco José Amparán Literature Seminar” and received an honorable mention in the “Beatriz Espejo National Short Story Award”.
