Finally having eaten, after hours of starving due to Johnny's
high school Spanish being very shallow so not understanding the dining car was
going to be left behind ten minutes before he and his wife Linda Ann would get
to the place where the bell had been ringing and then being sidetracked for ten
hours. They had to wait to see if the Mexican president's train was really
going north to negotiate with the Great Decider on what parts of his country he
was going to sell to his southern neighbor for their sending their
dying-of-hunger poor to be exploited by his rich contributors as cheap labor,
resurrecting antebellum times in his great democracy that by his definition did
not torture. This train was on the same tracks as they were on, and with all
the vending machines out of order matching the not see-through compartment
window that made for a twilight zone feeling to pervade everything since they
had left Nuevo Laredo.
Johnny decided to go look for accommodations in San Miguel
Allende - having told the travel agent that if she did it would have stifled a
doing of a tourist thing. He told his wife that she would be comfortable in the
park beneath lovely trees watching their luggage and by the time he was back
she would be feeling better; resenting her a bit that she had devoured his
hot-hot spicy meal saying it was hers and he sort of delighted in the fact that
she was feeling the effects of the never before eating anything more spicy than
a tiny dash of black pepper.
A half hour Johnny returned drenched with sweat suggesting it
wasn't going to be as easy as he thought; mentioning the three places that had
seen his desperation and had jacked up their prices a third and then when he
said his wife was with him the sleeping price went up to double - way over the
thirty-five dollars he had budgeted for each nights sleep in San Miguel
Allende.
Within five minutes he was up again and the look on Linda Ann's
face as he left was the same one on her face when he tried to take his meal
from her and she had waved her fork at him - missing his forehead by inches.
They would go through another eating
experience in a few days after leaving Allende ... the bus
terminal in San Luis Potosi was huge with several stores still opened which
made them very happy - for here they would eat a hearty supper - not having
eaten many hours before due to having to bus through rural areas called Viva
Zapata. The very first place they walked into was a large cafeteria that had
its food displayed somewhat like USA style.
"Don't get pastry, Linda Ann. We'll get that later at the train
station," Johnny said eyeing the succulent foods.
Would he have the sausages sprawled serenely among potato chunks
encompassed by what looked like broccoli or the chunks of chicken heaped on top
of big mounds of yellow rice being invaded by little red peppers? he wondered
as his mouth watered.
"Don't you think maybe you'd better ask if they take traveler's
checks before we take their food?" Linda Ann said interrupting his final
decision.
"Blessed Bahaism, Jesus Christ and Buddha - this is a city of
three mill-"
"OK. OK. I just thought I'd ask".
He hated that! He hated when she left a hint he might be wrong.
After all, he thought, he was born in The East Bronx. Didn't all
guys from there have moxie going back to when Poe, after leaving West Point and
with his new young wife, his sister-cousin, Annabelllee and had run upon
cobblestone streets of old Fordham Village trying to get away from his inner
demons in the form of ravens? Hadn't Johnny fought all frightened up inside
against guys from "aroun da cawna" as a four year old whom his older brother
Leny One N had made sure were bigger and older than he so getting big odds from
guys like Jules Garfinkle, who grow up to become John Garfield, a guy would
become the godfather of all godfathers, Jakala, the guy who would bull his way
to the Middleweight championship who was going out with Johnny's sister for six
months, Steve Mauriello who would take his older brother's name Tami so he
could begin fighting as a fifteen year old professional fighter and would one
day fight the great Joe Louis and would stagger the champ in the very first
seconds of the first round but to having had a foot that had been run over by a
truck on Arthur Avenue that was avoiding traffic on Fordam Road to make better
time and more money could not retreat from the champs onslaught which had Tami
on the canvas hearing the number ten.
Johnny put his empty tray down and walked up to a burly man who
could have played a Pancho Villa in movies when cheap labor was not welcomed
but would be again in the twenties and then cheap labor would be sent back to
where they came from since the dying of hunger had grown to encompass many
other hyphenated Americans due to the Great Depression.
"Por favor. You the manager?"
"Si"
"Do you take these? We're going to eat and-"
"What is those?"
"It's money. They're trav-"
"No sorry."
"Come on Linda! There's other damn places we can eat!" Johnny
said in his most arrogant tone to convey his American contempt for people who
didn't talk good English.
After three more eateries, two grocery stores and a semi-opened
bank - all saying they never saw such things - making Johnny believe that they
were all taking revenge on him for those nasty Texacans stealing a part of
Mexico from them.
Johnny told Linda Ann they would eat at the train station for
there they would have seen "these things" - what with tourists traveling the
national trains and all.
He was wrong again: "We're here to get the midnight tren,"
Johnny said thinking he was pronouncing train as a Mexican would but only a
large grin and no reply came back at him which made an anxiousness begin to
engulf him from toe to temple.
"Habla Ingles?" Johnny said trying to keep a USA accent out of
the words.
The grin reappeared but this time words spilled out from behind
it: "Habla Espanol?"
"Poco poco," Johnny said holding his thumb and forefinger
slightly apart.
After exchanging these very same words three times with the
complimentary grins, the man extended his hand for the tickets Johnny was
holding tightly.
"De primera classe!" the man said pointing over Johnny's head.
Johnny's heart began to beat faster still while Linda Ann walked
away for a place to sit and catch a quick nap.
Johnny thought the bastard cabby - who could have passed for
Jack Palance - had brought them to the wrong train station!
After Johnny calmed down, he was instructed with five vehement
points of an index finger to go across the park and implicit in the sign was
the information that that was where they would find the train station they
wanted.
"Perdon. Does the midnight train to Nuevo Laredo stop here? We
just came a hundred miles busing from San Mig-"
"Si! Si! Come in!" the man at the big station said warmly.
Suddenly the whole building lit up like a soccer stadium.
Johnny began to tell the man to save the lights as they would
wait on the platform but they were told to sit in comfort inside the spacious
lobby.
It was now nearing eleven and they would have to wait till
morning to eat - wishing he had had two servings of breakfast that morning at
the eatery where several workers waved at them at they strolled from three
blocks away. Johnny thought it was because they were such a handsome couple and
only days later would he realize it was due to his inability at figuring out
the difference between moneys as he was leaving a tip as large as what the
whole meal cost.
The man left. They were alone.
Johnny took another swig from the tequila bottle and whispered,
"Jesus, are we the only ones going north?"
Linda Ann did not hear him; having escaped into a deep sleep.
Johnny decided to step outside to see if others were coming.
About a hundreds yards away he could make out four uniformed guys carrying
rifles walking briskly toward where he was standing; he could have sworn they
were wearing fierce expressions.
"Christ, they're taking back Texas and the the US of A!" he
whispered as he retreated backward; yet, keeping them in his sights.
When they came within a hundred feet, they stopped and cocked
their guns - making the ugly sound bite into Johnny's stomach. Now he fully
retreated to wake up his wife saying: :"Don't panic! We got to look like
tourists! Four soldiers with big guns are coming our way!"
Linda Ann stirred just a bit. He repeated himself though a bit
louder - drawing the word gun out to its fullest emphasis. This made her
blue-green eyes widen to begin a stare at the front entrance while her
strawberry blonde hair moved nervously.
Johnny took the Mexican hat off that he bought at the old Indian
market in San Miguel Allende - so his curly hair would be more visible. He
placed his shoulder bag under the bench; fearing they might think he had a gun
inside and begin shooting before asking questions as was done in some USA
cities, towns and villages. He pretended a sedate conversation with Linda Ann
that lasted a full ten minutes with much head nodding and hand movements
shaping a meaning from words not being heard nor making much sense.
"Linda, I'm going to see what's happening," he said now wishing
he had ordered six breakfasts - fearing he was never going to eat again; seeing
his body shuddering from the effects of a thousand bullets entering it from all
kinds of directions; something like Bonny and Clyde had gone through.
He peeked out to the side and not ten feet away was a soldier
standing at attention holding his rifle against his chest.
"The train will be coming soon, Linda. Midnight!" he said more
to the soldier than to his wife. Then nonchalantly, he went back to sit. After
five minutes of starring at the entrance: imagining all kinds of charging
positions - with machetes twirling around heads, Johnny decided he would go see
what was keeping them. He swore he felt Zapata and Pancho nearby.
"Nobody out here! They're gone! Let's go stand on the platform,"
he said regaining his macho composure.
The train came promptly.
Their toilet was broken but this trip back they could see out of
their compartment window and once again they missed their complimentary meal
when Johnny insisted on this train they would most likely have two sittings
since it was much bigger than the one they had come down on and so finished
shaving as the bell continued to toll for them and when they came out they were
told the dining car with all the different vending machines was left back at
the last stop.
For the rest of the fifteen hour trip north the rumbling of
their stomachs matched that of the train's ....
As he walked in this old section of town he felt as if he had
returned a hundred years in the past where the once free proud Indian-Mexicans
had dwelled in new building. When the furtive whistles began after his so many
steps he flashed back to an eleven year old kid staring at a picture depicting
Custer's Last Stand and now he realized what the guy was thinking when viewing
the eighty million Indians looking down at him from a hundred ridges: Look at
all those fucking Indians! He was sort of glad only whistles accompanied his
walk and stopped when he left the old neighborhood and just before the park
entrance he spotted a guy wearing blond hair and he hoped it was the guy's;
rushing up to him nearly out of control with eyes glazed surrounded by sweat
and in a trembling Custer like voice he asked the guy if he were a USA person.
Johnny jumped with excitement when the man replied: "I'm a bloody Englishman,
sir."
"You were once our mother country! And because you taxed us for
past services-"
"Are you quite all right?" the blond man said.
Johnny got a grip on himself literally as he often did talk
around a point he was trying to make and he finally asked him if he knew of any
reasonable accommodations in the area.
When the man told him of one about two miles out of town, Johnny
almost kissed him but his culture rivaled the macho shit of the conquistadors
and so he just pumped his hand for a minute and then began a big run to Linda
Ann who was still wearing the same expression; only now it had an added
ingredients of anger and disdain.
Within minutes they were in a cab and so excited he was he
didn't realize his front seat tilted so much that he was leaning so far
backward that he could see Linda Ann from ankle to head.
Getting out of the cab just in front of the very nice looking
hotel, Johnny bent to get the suitcases but up on the upswing he could not
manage to get back into an erect position. He whispered painfully to her to get
a room and not to worry about the price.
Linda Ann came back in five minutes telling him it was
thirty-five dollars. He nodded and smiled and began his hunch back of Notre
Dame walk; not able to see the smile on Linda Ann's face.
15th July '08