Desert Passage (3 page)

Connie took a deep breath and finished her coffee.

Now the boys were finished with middle school and about to enter their first year in high school. Both Rodrigo and Connie wanted their sons to succeed but the pressures of the modern world seemed overwhelming. They knew that the boys were at a critical point in their lives. Rodrigo had always been a strict father but he had never taken the time to raise the children. He left all family matters to his wife. He thought that a mother could handle all the responsibilities of raising two sons as long as he worked hard and provided for the family.

Connie knew that things at home couldn't stay the same. Her husband was growing angrier every day and becoming less tolerant of the boys' bad behavior. She knew the boys needed a drastic change and that her husband needed to see the boys as young men but she felt powerless to do anything.

“I'm leaving plenty of food in the refrigerator and Abuelita Rosa will take good care of you,” Connie said soothingly. She then took her wallet from the tote bag on the counter and opened it.

“Here is $100 in case you need money. Miguel, put it in your pocket before your father comes back.”

Miguel took the five twenty-dollar bills and put them in his front pocket quickly when he heard his father open the door.

“The car's packed and started. Let's get going.” Rodrigo had packed the SUV himself, in spite of his earlier demands that the boys help. He picked up the box filled with the boys' belongings and took one last look at them.

“I don't want to hear anything from either of you while we are gone, and don't expect phone calls from us. We'll call before we start heading back home.”

With those last words to the boys, Rodrigo kissed his mother on the cheek and motioned for his wife to follow him out to the waiting car.

Connie kissed Miguel and Ramón on their foreheads, “We'll be back soon, we love you,” she said.

Marisol was packing her pink backpack in the living room while listening to the conversation from the kitchen. She stuffed one last DVD into the side pocket and ran to her grandmother for a hug goodbye.

She looked at the boys as she readjusted her jacket and braids and said, “I'm going to have fun at Tio's party, I'll ride horses, swim, everything, and you're going to be stuck here in the middle of nowhere!” She laughed, picked up her backpack, and lifted her nose in the air as she skipped to the car.

Manuel and Ramón slumped in their seats and glanced out the kitchen window as their family drove off for a summer vacation without them.

 
Chapter 4
 

T
he morning air was warm and dry. June was always a hot but tolerable month in northern Arizona. The trees along the side of the house provided shade for the side yard and some of the backyard as well. The old shed was located behind the house alongside the carport. It was a weatherworn shade of green and, despite the lack of water, small weeds were accumulating in the dirt along the walls. The door to the shed was bolted shut with a lock and looked as if it hadn't been opened in years.

“Are you sure this is on the list?” Miguel asked, shaking the lock, then wiping his hands on his pants.

“Yeah, it is.” Ramón took the list out of his back pocket and read the fateful words aloud to his cousin: “Organize the shed contents in a manner which behooves a decent individual.”

“What does that mean?” Miguel asked.

“It means, no fooling around, we have to empty this thing out.”

The boys looked down the list to see if there was another chore to do that was less disagreeable. To the boys' horror, the list included washing windows and screens, repainting the side of the car port, scrubbing the two bathrooms, and clearing the yard of weeds. After carefully evaluating the list, they decided that the shed was not as bad as the other awful chores. They unlocked the shed door in dreaded anticipation of what it held inside.

The shed was packed to the ceiling with junk.

“You've got to be kidding me,” Miguel said with a moan.

“This is no joke.” Ramón stared into the shed and put on his work gloves, motioning for Miguel to do the same. “We better get started. I'll pull out the stuff on the top and hand it to you to put over there.” Ramón pointed to the open grassy area that was a few feet away.

The morning hours passed as the boys slowly unraveled and untangled all the contents of the shed. Piece by piece each object was pulled out. Rusty metal objects, sports equipment, and Christmas decorations made big piles on the lawn.

“What are we going to do with this junk when we pull it all out?” questioned Miguel, exhausted from the lifting.

“Abuelita Rosa said she was going to call someone at her church to pick it up so they can sell it for charity,” Ramón answered, while pulling out items from the entrance of the shed.

Underneath stacks of old blankets wrapped in plastic bags was an object that looked promising. Ramón carefully lifted the plastic bundles and moved the golf clubs from the floor around the newfound treasure.

“Hey, Miguel, I think I found something here!” said Ramón. He slowly pulled the object out of the shed onto the grass.

“No way. What is that?” Miguel stood over the two wheel contraption covered with spiderwebs and dust.

“It's a Vespa!”

Ramón's eyes were wide with excitement, and he grabbed an old towel and began to wipe away the spiderwebs.

“Does it run?”

“Who knows, but maybe … ” replied Ramón.

The motor scooter leaned on its sturdy metal stand and resonated with adventures of a bygone youth. The blue paint was still smooth and the metal framework had not rusted
despite years of neglect. The seat was made of black leather and had enough room for two. A small luggage rack was fitted on the back of the seat and the two tires were worn slightly but still in good condition.

“It's a sign from God!” said Ramón, reverently inspired by the new treasure.

“You're crazy,” Miguel laughed. “It's a sign we have more work to do.”

Miguel went back to the shed and began to remove more useless objects.

“No, seriously, if we can get this thing to run, we have transportation for the summer!”

“What's the use of transportation? We have no where to go. Remember where we are?” Miguel pointed to the dirt road leading out onto a desolate street. “There's nothing out here, man.”

Ramón didn't hear Miguel's negative words. He kept cleaning off the scooter and dreaming of an open road leading to somewhere.

 
Chapter 5
 

T
he kitchen smelled of roasted chicken and
mole
. Abuelita Rosa was a great cook and nothing made her happier than to feed her darling grandsons. They had often spent the summer with her and their grandfather, Esteban, while he had been alive. Abuelita Rosa reflected on those summer days when Esteban would take the boys on fishing and camping trips in the mountains. She missed her husband but looking after her grandsons kept her mind busy.

Squeezing the lime juice into the fresh salsa she thought about how Enrique's features were in the face of Ramón. He resembled his father more as the days passed.

“
Mi pobre hijo
, he was so young to die.”

Tears came to her eyes for a moment, then she shook her head and remembered not to cry. She still had a lifetime to cry, but for the moment she had to fix dinner for her hungry grandsons.

That evening, the three family members sat at the kitchen table. The boys ate hungrily. They swallowed glasses of sweet iced tea and sopped up all the
mole
sauce off their plates with tortillas.

“I don't want you to work so hard tomorrow,” Abuelita Rosa said, looking with pity at the tired boys. “You don't have to do all that work right away. I want you to have fun, too.” She realized that her small town wasn't interesting for boys their age and felt sorry for them. They would have to spend four weeks doing nothing but chores.

“It's okay, Abuelita,” said Miguel. “The work will keep us busy. Besides, my dad took all our stuff anyway.”

Ramón nodded in agreement as he stuffed his mouth with one more helping of chicken.

“Well, we still have the television. You know that I go to bed early so you'll have the living room to yourselves every night,” she consoled them.

Both boys considered the thought. The television only received local channels, six to be exact. It was hardly something to get excited about.

The boys helped clear the dishes then plopped onto the sofa to watch the local news program, hoping that an old movie might be on later.

“Grandma, do you have a VCR or DVD player?” Ramón asked.

“
Sí, mijo,
I have one in my bedroom. You can connect it to the living room television, I never use it.”

Ramón raised his eyebrows in surprise and thought that maybe the situation wasn't completely hopeless. Then he considered the fact that the nearest video rental store was two miles down the road. He reconciled the matter with the happy thought of the scooter. Maybe that would be its purpose for the summer.

“Goodnight, Abuelita,” the boys said in unison staring at the local weather report on the television.

“
Buenas noches,
” Abuelita Rosa replied, walking slowly to her bedroom.

Miguel and Ramón stayed on the sofa and stared at the television for the rest of the night.

 
Chapter 6