Authors: Juan Pastor
But
here we are, pulling into Nogales with a covered wagon
that is really an old Ford cattle truck, and a steel horse that is
really a military vehicle. Those that are still strong enough
push, and those that are too weak to push straggle behind like
tired dusty Jews leaving Egypt.
There
is GPS in the HumVee, and thankfully it brings us
to a highway. Once both vehicles are on firm surface, it is
much easier to tow it.
Maria’s
Bar & Grill is unlike anything you are likely to
see in the states. It is as close to the highway as a building can
get without actually being on the road surface. It is sheathed
in what would be called board and batten, if there were any
batten. With board and batten, the boards are nailed vertically
to the support members of the building, and the batten is
nailed vertically at the cracks between the boards to make the
siding more airtight. Of course, the boards are roughcut, and
they were installed green, so some of the cracks are almost an
inch wide.
There
are hitching posts, or, more accurately, hitching
post and rails, which are two posts with a horizontal rail
straddling the top. There are two horses and one burro tied up
to the rail. There are dusty motorcycles, dusty trucks, one
large tractor trailer truck, and one dusty jeep which looks like
Sin’s but it isn’t Sin’s because Sin has my Tahoe, and there it is,
parked on the shoulder of the road like all the other vehicles.
A
very heated discussion is going on inside the bar. I,
John D, Bo, and almost two dozen pilgrims make our way onto
the porch of the cantina. At least it is in the shade under the
roof of the cantina. Many of the people just collapse on the
porch, thankful to finally be out of the sun. Some are dipping
their empty water bottles, or collapsible tins that they carry
with them always, into a large water tank near the horses and
burro.
As
I step through the swinging doors I see one man
holding Sin and two other delivering punch after punch to his
face and body. He falls, and the man who has been holding
him begins to kick him while the other two rub their bruised
fists.
Bo
and John D immediately walk toward the action to
even things up. Maria steps in front of them.
“This isn’t your concern.” She says.
A young girl who most likely is the “Rosie” the two
men
spoke about steps from behind the bar. John D doesn’t
take his eyes off her. He seems entranced.
“I’m not going to tell you again,” Maria says to Rosie,
“stay behind the bar.”
“Isn’t anyone going to help him?" I ask.
This isn’t real. Sin’s face is unrecognizable. The Rosie
behind the bar is Rosaria. And the old grey‐haired woman who
won’t let anyone help Sin is the Virgen Maria.
“The question is, Pequeña, are you going to help him?”
The Virgen Maria says.
One of the three coyotes flashes a menacing smile, and
kicks Sin again in the ribs. Sin doesn’t even flinch. He is
unconscious.
“Why don’t you say a prayer to your God, Pequeña?”
The Virgen Maria says. “Maybe he’ll come down from heaven
and save Sin, and then give all the people outside some
manna, milk, and honey. He didn’t save my Son when my son
asked why he’d been forsaken. But you go ahead. And, oh
yeah, while your world is unraveling, you want to know a
secret? See the blonde‐haired blue‐eyed god you see over
there? The one you secretly call John D? The one you want to
take your panties off for? His real name is Scott Wilson. Does
the name sound familiar. You once cleaned up after him when
he was a student in Guatemala. He was a lot skinnier and
pimple faced then. He was starting a beard to hid that fact.”
I am swimming. It is getting dark in the room.
“Did you know that many years ago he was guarding
the border?" Virgen Maria says. “He saw two harmless little
girls. He wanted to feel like a man, so he put crosshairs on one
and pulled the trigger.”
John D, Scott Wilson, whatever his name really is,
begins to tremble, he drops to his knees and puts his face in
his hands. He begins to violently sob. Bo steps quietly away
from him as if he is about to be contaminated by him.
“And then he puts the crosshairs on you.”
Bo takes a step toward the coyote standing over Sin.
Rosie goes over to him, takes his wrist, and shakes her head at
him.
“It’s up to you, Dear.” The Virgen Maria says. “There
are people outside waiting to be taken care of. Scott will want
to go to church, and then to the authorities, and confess his
sins. Sin may already be in shock, he may pass into a coma
soon. You recently mentioned wanting to start the NTYSAM
Revolution. You can start by crushing the serpent. You see,
the serpent knows you are kind. He counts on your kindness.”
I really don’t know what is expected of me. I don’t
know why no‐one will help. I don’t know why the Virgen Maria
insists I get violent. But I don’t like the state Sin is in, and
honestly, I don’t even know if he is alive. I was raised Catholic,
but it seems that none of the Catholic teachings are helping
me right now. I have a quick flash from one of Sin’s books
called,
The Bhagavad Gita
. It is Hindi. There is a section where
Prince Arjuna is asking why he must wage war. And Krishna
tells him that sometimes the distinction between good and
evil blurs, and it is necessary not to allow one’s self not to be
annihilated, in order to continue fighting evil. Does this mean
that it is okay to become evil, as long as I am fighting evil?
I am so confused and dazed. I know I have to do
something soon. I rise out of my body and watch my body
walk over to the pool cue rack. I pick out one, and I’m not
even really sure why my body picks that particular one. It looks
pretty, nice workmanship, and it feels right in my hands. I walk
to the pool table. I walk by the pool table. My body does all
these things, and I just hover above it all, watching.
I watch myself start to walk over to the horrible men
who are standing over Sin, laughing. Outside the window a
fancy black car has pulled in front of the cantina. It has an “L”
on the grill.
“This can’t be good!” I am thinking.
“Perra loca…” I hear one of the horrible men say as my
body walks toward him, holding the pool cue.
I notice that I have turned it around, and I am now
holding it by the narrow end, because I want it to be the fat
end that first crashes into each of the bad men’s skulls. If the
stick should break, I will use the end I hold as a dagger. I am
amazed, because I am hoping my body will damage each of
the bad men’s bodies so badly he will die. But I want them all
to hurt badly for a long time before they die.
The smiles have gone from the bad men’s faces. They
look as if they wear hideous masks.
One rushes toward me, and a round dark red spot the
color of burnt blood appears on his forehead, and a puff of red
mist expands just behind his head and spatters the wall.
“Fall down.” I hear a woman’s voice behind me say.
And I say behind because my mind has now rejoined my body,
and I am no longer looking down on myself.
I fall down, next to Sin. His face is in blood on the floor,
and I can see a few of his teeth are loose on the floor, and
there is blood on those teeth. Blood is running out of his
mouth, but there is dry blood smeared all over his face.
There is one more shot, and another body falls.
“Stay down.” The woman’s voice says. There is another
report, and a third body thuds to the floor.
From where I lay I see black stiletto heels, long brown
legs, and at the top of the legs a very short skirt. A perfect
brown hand holds a still smoking gun at her side. She isn’t
wearing panties, or if she is, they are the color of her skin. No,
she isn’t wearing any. And why am I even thinking this as if it
matters? This woman has very quickly settled matters that no‐
one else wanted to deal with.
“I decided if one of us had to go to hell…” The sultry
Hispanic voice says, “it may as well be me.”
The voice is familiar. Can it be? I look up. She is movie
star beautiful. She has dark curly hair, and some of it hangs in
ringlets onto her face. She takes some of the ringlets in her
fingers and tucks them behind one ear. She exudes such
sexuality, I feel like I’m falling in love with her. Her eyes are
black and fiery. I’ve seen those eyes before. They belong to El
Presidente’s wife.
Tejana kneels in the blood next to Sin.
“Is he still alive?” I ask.
“There’s one way to find out.” Tejana says.
“Feel his pulse.” I say.
“That’s one way of putting it.” Tejana says.
Tejana bends over Sin. She grasps his cock firmly,
through the pants with one hand. She feels it respond.
“He lives.” She says, smiling over her shoulder.
I remember thinking Tejana could make a dead man get
a hard on. So how does she know. And apparently she
doesn’t. She puts her lips next to Sin’s ear, the one not laying
in blood. She talks softly but I pick out certain words.
Like “chupar (suck)”, “drenar el (drain the)”, “secar
(dry)”, “bolas (balls)”.
Tejana puts her lips on Sin”s bloody and swollen lips.
She leaves them there a moment. Then she pulls her face
away.
“Pervertido!” She exclaims.
Sin wags his tongue back and forth between his
swollen bloody lips as if imitating a zombie rock star. He seems
gleeful that he has just had it as deep in Tejana’s mouth as he
could get it. Then he opens his mouth wide. I think about how
gross Sin’s mouth used to look with his crooked yellow teeth.
The good news is – most of those teeth are gone, and on the
floor of the cantina.
“Te ves bien (you look good).” Tejana says, and
stretches herself across him.
parents
gave her. Not Schuyler, but Skyler. Across from her
sits Tejana. Tejana has been thinking long and hard about this.
Tejana sits in the black stained wood chair with the padded
red leather seat and backrest. Her long brown legs are
crossed, and her short skirt hides very little of them and that is
the way Tejana likes it. She has her high heels on. There is
blood all over everything she wears. Sin’s blood. It is on her
legs. But she doesn’t care because she has Sin back, and that’s
all that really matters. To her. Now.
Skyler
is the widow of the recently assassinated U.S.
President. Nobody calls her Skyler, because she hates the
name Skyler. Even she hates the pretentiousness of it. She
insists her friends call her Sky. Tejana does not call her Sky
because Sky does not consider Tejana a friend. And the feeling
is mutual. The news of the assassination has not left the
immediate circle of power. Skyler can’t quite believe what she
is hearing. Tejana shows Skyler an assortment of pictures of
both the now dead President and Sin.
“It is pretty amazing isn’t it?” Skyler asks.
“It’s uncanny.” Tejana says. “He’s going to need
reconstructive
surgery anyway.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it.” Skyler says.
“When would you have noticed it?” Tejana says.
“When you were making love to the back of his hand
with
your fingertips?” Skyler says, never blinking.
Tejana returns the not blinking look for several
minutes.
Then she takes some of her curly hair in her fingers,
and tucks it behind her ears. There is the slightest twitch of
the corners of Sky’s mouth, like she wants to say something,
but she does not say something.
“He can just have the few remaining teeth pulled.”
Tejana says. “We’ll get him full prosthodontics. The one on
fours. Where they put four implant screws in both the upper
and lower gumlines, and give him permanent dentures. That
eliminates a positive tooth ID.”
“It’s going to have to go way beyond that.” Skyler says.
“Almon was a very vain man. He had perfect hair and perfect
skin. Everything about him was perfect. Except for his ethics,
that is.”
“That’s easily taken care of.” Tejana said.
“What about fingerprints?” Skyler asks.
“We remove the fingertip skins from your husband,
and graft them onto Sin’s fingers.” Tejana says.
“What about his cock?” Skyler says.
“What
about
Almon’s
cock.”
Are
we
going
to
transplant that onto Sin also?”
“I don’t think we need to go that far.” Tejana says, one
side of her mouth starting to smile, the other side remaining
reserved enough to reverse the smile, if need be.
“Sin has a pretty big one.” Sky says. “And it seems
pretty responsive to your touch.”
Tejana says nothing.
“My husband now, he doesn’t have much of one
anyhow.” Sky says. “He liked screwing me over as much as he
liked screwing everyone else, but not with his cock.”
“You do realize, if this plan succeeds, Sin will be acting
as your husband.” Tejana says.
“Oooh!” Sky says. “I wonder if he’ll like sticking it in
me. I’m going to let him stick it in any hole he wants, any time
he wants. You know, I haven’t had sex with a man in I can’t
remember how many years.”
“Well, God have mercy on Sin then, huh?” Says Tejana.
“Do you think he’ll stay faithful to me?” Sky asks with a
deep laugh. It is the first time Tejana has heard her laugh
throughout this entire discussion. “I hear he really loves the
hot Latinas.”
“Sin loves anyone that is hot.” Tejana says.
“Are you hot?” Sky asks.
“Hot enough.”
“Well.” Sky says. “Between the two of us, we ought to