Departure

The phone rang abnormally loud and snapped me out of my stupor. I had been day dreaming for the last few minutes. The caller ID didn´t register a name or number.

“Hello?” 

“Hey, start getting the luggage ready, we’re leaving tonight.” It was Helio on the other end calling me from work.

“ But, it’s snowing. Is it safe to drive in these conditions?”  I asked him.

“They say it’s going to snow worse later in the night. I want to try to beat it. Get the things ready, I’ll swing by for you once I’m off. I’ll call you when I’m on my way. Bye.”

We had been looking forward to this day for awhile now. He was getting his vacation time from work and we had decided to go visit his family back in Sinaloa, Mexico.  But, you know the way the powers that be always plot against you. It had started snowing that morning. Which of course, living in this dust bowl, is a wonder in itself. Snow, in the desert, give me a fucken break. But, none the less, it was snowing, which meant it was possible the highway out of Ciudad Juarez would most likely be closed. But the enthusiast in me wanted to believe otherwise.

I got our bags ready and stood them by the front door. I looked out the window and noticed the snow was still going hard. I would definitely not be missing the cold weather once we were in Sinaloa. I was never one for cold weather, and days like this reminded me why exactly as I could feel the cold make its way into my body, engulfing my very bones. I decided to keep myself busy my going over my mental list of the items I needed to take with me and double checking the contents of the bags. Better safe than sorry.

8:00 o’clock came sooner than expected, and soon Helio and I were loading our belongings into the trunk and backseat of his car. Bag after bag went in as I laughed at the fact that this was obviously too much crap to take with us for a week! Yet we continued to stuff things into the vehicle.  After we placed the last item into the overcrowded car, we started doing a walkthrough of the house to make sure we didn’t forget anything. We decided to turn off the main water valve out on the street so that the pipes wouldn’t freeze and burst like they did the last time it snowed.  That was something we did not need, to come back and find that our home had become an aquatic park in our absence.

Once satisfied that the house was set, we piled into the car and drove off.  We ended up exiting Ciudad Juarez around 9:00 o’clock, only after stopping at a gas station to fill the tank up and buy some cigarettes.  The road immediately leaving town was not pleasant to say the least. We found the road to be littered in ice patches that caused the car to swerve on more than one occasion and the visibility was poor due to the swirling snow blasting against the windshield. I was starting to have second thoughts about leaving this night.  After all, we were going to drive through a mountain in a few hours during a snow storm, in the middle of the night. Obviously, this wasn’t the best of plans. But, it was the only plan we had so far, so we continued on our way. We drove right through the little town of Palomas without a hitch and only stopped a few miles outside of said town due to a military checkpoint. At this point, Helio instructed me on what to say to the soldiers in the case they questioned me.

“If they ask where we’re going, tell them we’re visiting family in Obregon, NOT Sinaloa. Sinaloa has a pretty bad rep in these parts and they might want to cut our trip short.”

I nodded in response as I soaked in this information, “Sinaloa, Bad, Obregon, Good. Gotcha!”

Luckily, the military was in no mood to interrogate us and they simply waved us through only after blinding us with their high beam lights. We soon reached the city of Ascencion, which up till this trip, had been the furthest into Mexico I had been. We sped on through, eager to put as much distance between us and Ciudad Juarez.

The scenery at this point consisted of dark masses that I assumed were shrubs, fighting for survival in the desert. Other than that, darkness, as there were no lights to illuminate our path. The only thing visible was the road that stretched out in front of us, lit by the vehicles headlights. About half an hour later, around one in the morning we reached Janos. A small town made up of crumbling homes with wires strung from wooden poles for fences. Janos stood at the foot of the mountain we needed to drive through, “La Sierra”. A quiet little town with nothing out of the ordinary worthy of my attention. That is until I noticed flashing lights on the path up ahead. We soon pulled up to another military road block set up in the middle of the road. Numerous vehicles including Semi trucks pulling cargo were gathered on both sides of the road. A short, pudgy soldier exited his truck as we slowed to a stop. Helio rolled down his window.

“Where are you all headed tonight?”  he inquired.

Helio was quick to respond with the story he gave me earlier. “We’re headed to Obregon to visit family, sir.”

“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen tonight. The road up ahead is closed due to the snow. I can’t let you go through the mountain; driving conditions are too hazardous at this time. We have multiple semis stuck up there as we speak.”

Just our fucking luck, the way through was closed. What to do now?

“Do you know what time they will possibly be reopening the road?” Helio asked.

“We don’t know much at this point, just that it’s closed to traffic.” the soldier stated while adjusting his pants underneath his swollen stomach.

“Would it be ok if we pulled off onto the side of the road to wait?”

“If you´re up for dealing with this cold, by all means.” He answered with a smug smile.

We pulled off the road, weaving through the other vehicles all lying in wait for news of the road opening, and finally parked the car in front of a tire shop. Helio turned off the engine and sank into his seat.

“Looks like we’re stuck here for a few hours” he stated with annoyance written all over his face.

“I told you this was going to happen” I replied without looking at him. He laughed. I laughed. Then silence.

I sat in the cold, looking out my window. Suddenly I realized just how uncomfortable the car really was, as I couldn´t find a position to rest in. I turned over to Helio who was already dosing off in the driver’s seat. Great, stuck here for a few hours, without anybody to talk to. I pulled out my cell phone and starting going through the games. Anything to make the time go by faster.  Eventually, even that became tiresome and I dosed off into nothingness. I would wake up every now and then at the thundering noise made by multiple semi trucks, blundering down from the mountain. One after the other all in line, like elephants walking trunk to tail. I would look towards the road block for any sign that the road had been opened. But to my dismay, cars were still being turned away from their destination. I realized that instead of just a few hours, we would be spending the night here. Shivering from the cold, I closed my eyes and dreamed of my warm bed back at home.