A Vision Quest

The border crossing at Sonoyta

"Oh, that there is a shame." Mike pours us some coffee as we sit in the huge motorhome. This isn't a dinette, but a dining room table with chairs and everything. "You know, I lost my car keys once... took me two days to find them. You know where I found them? Do ya? In the pocket of my dress pants. Never where the damn things except for special occasions."
"Theo, they didn't lose anything."
"Why sure they did there, Andy. Lou here says he lost that little pouch that was on his neck yesterday."
"No, Theo, it wasn't lost... it was stolen."
Mike gasps, like this is news. He looks over at Lou, who has that thousand yard stare I had seen before that last bloodbath.
"Gee, Lou... I'm sorry you had your pouch stolen." He looks back at Andy, "Who do you suppose would do such a thing?"
Andy stares at him for a beat, then rather than roll his eyes he just tisks. "That would be the other guy. The guy we don't see here this morning."
Mike grabs his chin with the palm of his hand, like this might take some time to deduce.
"Justin, Theo, Justin is the one that took the pouch." Andy takes his coffee mug in both hands and takes a sip.

"Are you sure there, Andy? Why would that little guy take that pouch? Could be it just fell off and he picked it up." He looks at Lou, "He might not know it's yours there, Lou. Might be he is out looking for the rightful owner as we speak."

"Doubtful." Andy says, straightening out his ball cap. This one says that he is an "Official Belly Skin Inspector".

"Well, I just hate to think the worst of people that we don't even really know, you know?" He looks back at Lou, hoping to see a nod or a wink or something other than that unnerving stare.

"What was it you had in that there little pouch, Lou. Was it your valuables? Not much for room in that little thing." He pulls out a wallet made out of some kind of exotic hide. "Andy and I bought us a couple of these here wallets up around Tuscon at the border town there. I keep everything in here."

He starts to show Lou, but I interrupt. I don't think he will be deserving of what comes out of Lou's mouth when he is in one of these moods.

"He had something valuable in there, Mike... just not cash. That was in his other pocket." I take a deep breath. The aroma coming from the kithenette is like no other. "Breakfast smells awesome, Mike." Better to change the subject.

Lou is silent most of the way through breakfast. The meal is spectacular. Not just eggs, sausage, and hashbrowns. The sausage was handmade by Mike before the trip ever began, infused with mango salsa and smoked over applewood and hickory. The eggs are a scramble with vidalia sweet onions, smoked gouda cheese, spinach, and sharp cheddar. His hashbrowns are of the shredded variety, cooked in a special garlic oil that he makes, with fried onion and some kind of mild green pepper cooked to crispy bits in the mix of Yukon Gold potatoes.
It is enough, in the end, to bring Lou back to us.
"Jesus... where the hell did you come from, Mike? You can cook better than anyone I have ever met."
Mike blushes and can't help but smile, "It's my gift, I guess. Some people can sing songs, some people play instruments, I cook."
"No shit."

We break camp in a matter of minutes, which consists of cranking the awning down and folding the lawn chairs. Andy speaks with one of his neighbors to tell them he will be back. I take the moment to go down to the marina and have a word with Garcia the Harbor Master. I pay for Naomi's mooring for the next month or so. He will have her looked at by is nephew, who is an aircraft mechanic for Mexicana Air. I write a short note to him to let him know what happened and what I would like him to do in my absence. I then write a note for Garcia to relay over the short-wave to Nogales and eventually Jerry back at El Corazon. I tell him that "we are all right, Naomi is down for the count, proceeding to border with new found friends... will contact you when we are in the states."

I hear a toot from Andy on the airhorns and realize that I am holding up the show.
"You friend, the little guy, he not go with you?" Garcia says as I start to walk out.
I stop and turn to look at him, "No... he left without us."
"He catch a ride with my wife Norita. She makes the supply run every other morning to Sonoyta. We get many things from Lukeville on the other side of the border."
"He went with her? Does she have a cell phone? Can you call her?"
The horns blast a little longer this time. I lean out of the Marina office doorway and give a wave, then hold a finger up... just a second.
"No, Senior, she has no cell phone. Is everything okay?"
I pause for a moment, enough to make Garcia visibly nervous. "Yeah, everything will be fine. I didn't mean to make you worry."

I load up and the door to the coach closes on my ass before I am up the steps. I have obviously put Andy out by not being ready. He tisks as he looks in his mirrors to back out.
"I guess our little friend hopped a ride with Garcia's wife up to Sonoyta."
Andy nods, shooting a glance at the road over his shoulder before pulling the rig onto the asphalt.
"Norita makes that ride a few times a week. Her sister lives over the border and they do a pretty good trade for supplies. I am suprised that she took Justin with her. She is a timid thing, and not much for conversation."
I look at Lou, who is running some plan... I can see it in his eyes.
"Well, you boys just relax. We should be there in a little more than an hour if traffic isn't too bad."

We get to the border town of Sonoyta about an hour and fifteen minutes after we started, travelling in a long line of motorhomes, campers, and cars with trailers.
Lou comes back from using the bathroom and pulls out a roll of cash.
"Andy, do you think we might buy those water packs you have in the crapper?"
Andy pulls up and out of line, stopping in a dirt parking lot behind the main street.
"Those are my special order "Camelbacks". It took me two months to get those."
Lou knows that money doesn't do the talking with this guy. Oh, he will want to get paid for them, but a little finesse is what will make the deal.
"I realize that you went to some great lengths to order those. But me and Jake, we lost our passports and I.D. when our boat sank out from under us in the Caribbean. We can't wait for replacements, we can't leave his cousin to die without doing our best to get there. So, please, let me pay you for your trouble taking us here... and those Camelbacks. We have to make the border on foot."
"That is going to get you boys arrested for sure." Andy sounds like the father I never had.
"We have to take that chance. But to go into the desert with nothing is going to kill us for sure."
"Geez, fellas... " Mikes starts emptying food into a couple of plastic Ziplock bags. "You'll starve out there with nothin' to eat."
"Mike, we are getting across that border tonight. We'll be fine."
Andy points to the roll of bills, "Sixty bucks each for the Camelbacks, and forty for gas." He looks at Theo, who shakes his head. "That's what I paid for them."

Mike set us up with a couple of sandwiches, some fish from the night before, and what is left of the breakfast wrapped in a couple of huge flour tortillas.

We fill the Camelbacks from the shower head and can see the pain in Andy's expression at the fact we are sapping his fresh water supply. Mike can see the discomfort.

"Geez, Andy, you don't want them to have to drink the water here. That'll make 'em sick for sure."

Andy tisks, "We'll have to fill up at that retirement community that has the treatment center. That will take the better part of the afternoon."

"So we go out tonight and do a little night fishing. It'll be fine. At least these guys have that there fresh water on their backs."

We step out of the motorhome and say our good-byes. These are a couple of good guys. Along the lines of Loco and Blanco. It would be nice to find a way to thank them. Hopefully our paths will cross again. With a quick handshake from Andy, and a hearty two hander from Mike, we walk off down the ally and turn toward the border crossing.

"We could try to cross, tell them what happened." I re-adjust the straps of the water bladder on my back.

"What happened?"

"We tell them that we lost our identification when our boat went down, and that we are on our way up to California to help my cousin."

"First of all, they probably hear stories like that all morning, afternoon, and night. Second of all, I don't need to put myself up for inspection to these bastards. Third of all, we are going to cross like all of these other wetbacks."

"What, do you have unpaid parking tickets?"

"Something like that."

"Well, I have news for you. If they catch us, you will be explaining it all anyway."

"I'll take that chance."

"What, do you have a warrant out for you or something."

"More like the Or Something."

"Okay, don't tell me."

"Let's just say that I am taking a big chance to be here with you, and that should be enough for you to stop asking so many FUCKING QUESTIONS."

"Wow, touchy today."

Lou starts walking and I follow. With the purpose in his steps, and the speed he is taking them, it seems like he knows where he is going... what he is doing.

We buy a couple of wide brimmed hats that keep the sun off our heads and necks. Lou takes a moment with the guy that sells us the hats. I assume he is getting some sort of directions. He finishes his conversation and off we go. Taking small ticks off the water, we head out of town, keeping the border to our right and about a thousand yards off. It is about two hours later that we get passed most of the heavy fortification and the patrols don't seem to be as often. We stop and take a little shade under an outcropping of rock.

The desert out here is quite beautiful... and deadly. Lou kicks a scorpion off of his boot. Ten minutes later a tarantula crawls between us. I go to kill it, but Lou stops me.

"Leave him alone and he will leave us alone."

"That hairy motherfucker will crawl on your face tonight and bite the living hell out of you."

"No... he won't. You have to look at things like the ancients did. Kharma, man, nature is full of it."

"What the hell is in that Camelback, vodka? Your not making much sense."

Behind us a helicopter flies the fenceline, or what there is of it, at about two hundred feet. They don't have too much concern for what is on the Mexican side of the border, so we are safe for the moment.

"Tonight... " Lou trails off as he pulls a crumpled pack of Marlboros out of his pocket, "we will make a vision quest."

"Since when do you smoke cigarettes?"

"Not cigarettes."

He tips the pack and a handful of nasty looking... dried, leathery pieces about the size of a nickel fall into his palm.

"What the hell is that?"

"You ever read any Carlos Castenada?"

"Peyote?"

"Yep." Lou turns and looks at the border behind us as a Border Patrol vehicle bounces along the fenceline. He follows its progress for a moment, then looks at his watch. "The best time to cross is going to be tonight. "That gives us quite a bit of time to blow."

"So you want to trip on peyote? What if something happens. What if you go crazy and snap my neck? What if we get so fucked up that we walk the wrong way into the desert and get lost?"

Lou holds a finger up.

"Wait. Don't say another thing, man. I have made this communion with Mother Earth before under similar circumstances. Yes, we will trip our balls off, but we will also gain a sense of direction... figuratively and literally. In the end, the desert will guide us through to safety on the other side."

I grab the mouth-piece off his Camelback and take a sip.

"Water... just water. Have you lost your mind?"

"No." He takes a small handful of the peyote, half of what is there, and puts it in his mouth. He chews for a moment, then chases it with a long pull off the water.

"Oh shit."

Lou holds out the remaining peyote. When I don't take it, he shakes it in his palm.

"Either you take this, or I will. Then where will you be."

"Oh for Christ's sake, give it to me." I take the vile looking peyote buttons and put them in my mouth. Just a couple of chews is all I can take before washing them down. They taste awful. Worse than mushrooms which I have tripped on in the past. I drink a couple of swallows of water and then dip into my food bag to get the taste out of my mouth.

"Now what?" I say through a bite of breakfast burrito.

"We wait."