“I am not afraid, Ignacio.”
“Then there are snakes and scorpions.”
“I am not afraid,” I said more firmly.
He nodded.
I extended my arm. “Here is the bracelet.”
He shook his head. “This is all happening because I have done a terrible thing, me and my temper,” he muttered. “Come inside. I am not even confident that the driver that my father’s friend is sending will show up. He might have gotten frightened. If he is caught transporting me, he could go to jail.”
We entered the small house through the kitchen. He had prepared two knapsacks for us. They were both filled with jugs of water.
“This is sweto,” he said, “water mixed with electrolytes to help us fight off dehydration.” He had some energy bars as well.
I nodded and smiled, but he did not smile. “Don’t think of this as an adventure or a walk in the park, Delia. Many, many people die crossing this way. Some are not found until they are nothing but bones. They don’t have identification, so their families never know they have died and wait forever to hear from them. Real coyotes eat them.”
“Stop trying to scare me, Ignacio.”
“I’m not trying to scare you. I am telling you this so you will not be surprised at anything and you understand the risks, Delia.”
“I want to go home, to Mexico,” I insisted.
He looked at my determined face and nodded. “When my father finds out I have taken you with me, he will be so angry the sun won’t need to come out. He’ll burn bright enough to light the day,” he said.
“And when I’m back home, my grandmother and I will write to him, and he will cool down so much it will snow here.”
Ignacio finally laughed.
Then I heard the sound of a baby’s cry. Surprised, I looked through the doorway into the living room and saw a woman holding an infant. She gazed at me and looked very upset.
“That’s my father’s friend’s wife, Silvia. She was not in favor of her husband hiding me, and now with you here, she is very annoyed. Don’t try to talk to her,” he warned. “Come with me.”
He led me through another door to a small room, where there was a cot on which he had obviously been sleeping.
“We’ll wait here,” he said, looking out the window. He checked his watch. “He should be here within the hour if he comes.”
“What if he doesn’t come?”
“Then you’ll go back, and I’ll take my chances walking and hitching.”
Finally, I knew I looked frightened.
He smiled at me.
“What?”
“When I first saw you, met you, and you told me who you were and where you were living, I thought you were just one of those spoiled rich girls, or if you weren’t, you would be one soon, and you would not look my way. And now here you are, willing to risk your life with me to get back to what?”
“Happiness,” I said.
He laughed. “Happiness? Expect to see dozens and dozens of people heading in the opposite direction and looking at the two of us as if we were crazy. They might think we are mules.”
“Mules?”
“People who carry drugs for drug pushers returning to Mexico to get a new delivery.”
“How do you know so much about this sort of thing, Ignacio?”