Stuck in Janos

I was awoken by the sun beaming down directly onto my face. For a minute I had forgotten where I was which was stuck in an uncomfortable car freezing my ass off. For a minute, I wasn’t at the mercy of the elements which found it just to have the road ahead closed. But soon enough, I recalled the night before and the events that led up to us being stuck here in Janos.

I stepped out of the car to stretch and found Helio sitting on the curb, smoking a cigarette. I sat down next to him and asked him for one. He quickly pulled out his pack of cigs and lighter from his jacket and handed them to me. I hastily lit a cigarette and took a long, deep inhale. I had fought off my urge to smoke all night since I didn’t want to step out into the piercing cold and this first morning smoke felt like heaven on Earth. Surveying my surroundings I found most people had gotten off their vehicles, most likely to try to warm up now that the sun was out. So many people, most covered from head to toe in winter garments.  A few feet away from us stood a whale of a woman, wrapped in a red fleece blanket, eating something out of a crumpled up piece of foil that she held in her ashy, pudgy hands. I felt my stomach rumble from hunger. I hadn’t eaten anything since the afternoon before. I found myself wishing I hadn’t acknowledged this, because as soon as I did I felt that horrible void in my stomach, that emptiness that you feel will never again be satisfied.

“I’m hungry. We should go find something to eat.” I proposed to Helio.

“I was just thinking the same thing. Besides, I have to go put funds on my cell phone to call my mom and let her know we’re still in Janos. She’ll be worried if we don’t show at the time we were expected to arrive.”

He stomped out his cigarette and we made our way towards the soldiers to inquire about the conditions of the road up ahead. Apparently, a cleaning crew had been sent up a few hours ago and would be reporting soon enough. They were assuming the road would reopen around noon. It was only 8:00 now. That meant four more hours of nothing but waiting. With this new information we got back into the car and drove into the little town of Janos. We drove past establishment after establishment, all closed due to it being Christmas Eve. We finally found a burrito stand called “Burritos Janos.” A little white shack, with the name painted in bold, red letters. A sign taped to the window read Los Mejores En La Region, The best in the region. We made our way inside to the tiny room which consisted of a counter dividing the kitchen from the dining area. There were two metal tables with benches, all with their fair amount of rust. And in one corner of the room stood a small, blue, plastic condiment table, set up with two kinds of salsas, diced onions, and of course your chopped cilantro. The wall across from the entrance had a warped, wooden sign with the menu painted onto it in a nasty moss-like green and the yellow tiled floor was streaked with muddy footprints. We stood by the register and waited for the woman who ran the place to take our order. She however seemed oblivious to the fact we had walked in as she was preoccupied at the stove singing some Spanish love ballad while making flour tortillas.

“Buenos dias” I cooed trying to catch her attention.

She turned around, appearing embarrassed that we had caught her one woman show. She waddled over to the register and smiled a toothless grin.

“Buenos días, que gustan?” she mumbled.

We started placing our order, only to be interrupted halfway through by the beefy woman. She started explaining to us that the kid who delivers her groceries hadn’t come in yet so she didn’t have everything on the menu. From what she usually served she had only four items available: Chile Colorado, Chile Verde, chicharron, and frijoles. Great, everything I usually stay away from when ordering burritos. But the persistent hunger I felt didn’t seem to care and we proceeded to order four burritos and two coffees from the options we had available. She handed us two Styrofoam cups filled with hot water and a baggie each of instant coffee grounds. We took a seat at a table and started preparing our coffees, if you could call them that. The cups were tiny as fuck, they reminded me of the toy dishes my sister used to play with as a child. But none the less, it was cold, and any hot coffee was better than none at all.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting the woman, who looked like a Josephina to me, finally brought us our order. She slammed two plastic plates onto the table and without a word scurried back into the kitchen. I just about laughed when I saw the burritos Josephina placed before us. Each plate contained two pencil thin, greasy burritos in burned tortillas. Believe me, I am not exaggerating when I say pencil thin. These were poor excuses for burritos, the best in the region my ass! But given that everything else was closed, I showered them in salt and salsa and devoured the damn things. We finished up our breakfast of champions and I went up to the counter once again to pay our bill. Turns out these lanky burritos made for anorexics were priced just like a bulging burrito would be as the total came out to 150 pesos. I slammed a 200 bill on the counter top and waited for Josephina to hand me my change.  She tried convincing me to take some burritos for the road, but I kindly refused. No way in hell I would ever eat another of those nasty burritos! I would rather starve.

I decided to use the restroom before leaving and asked Josephina where they were located. She pointed towards the back of the room to a doorway covered with a bed sheet. She was quick to let me know it was 10 pesos to use the facilities, 20 if I needed toilet paper. CUNT. I handed her money and made my way through the “curtain”. On the other side I found a minuscule cement room with a dirty, pink toilet with no seat cover and two faucets sticking out of the wall. I’m assuming the faucets were used to wash your hands, at least that’s what I used them for after I had taken a leak. Of course the toilet didn’t flush, why was I not surprised? I exited Burritos Janos and found Helio standing next to the car smoking another cigarette.

“I’m going across the street to purchase time for my phone. You want anything?” he asked.

“Um, yeah. Bring me some gum, I need to get this horrible taste out of my mouth!”

He walked across the dirt road and disappeared into the local pharmacy. I opened the car to look for my cigarettes and lit one once I located them. At this point a red Ford Ranger pulled up and four Vaqueros got down. The driver, a tall and lean man of about 30 years, with piercing blue eyes and a smile to die for, noticed I was smoking and walked up to me.

“Hey Compa you got an extra cigarette I can have?” he asked coolly.

I handed him a cigarette and my lighter. How could I say no to those beautiful eyes?

“You think I can get a couple for my friends?” he continued.

All it took was those sparkling eyes and a flash of his pearly whites and I was out four cigarettes. He started going on about how he was trying to get through the mountain but was turned away so his friends and he were staying with an acquaintance here in Janos. I shared I was stuck here also and had spend the night in the car.

“You from these parts?” he asked me.

“I’m from the states” I answered, not once taking my gaze off those hypnotic eyes. “Visiting friend’s in Mexico.”

“Too bad you had to stay in the cold. If they don’t open up the road soon, you’re more than welcomed to stay with us” he stated while licking his lips.

Oh, I knew what that gesture meant. I have seen it one time to many back home. My head was suddenly filled with images you would find in an adult film as I imagined what “staying” with him and his three friends would possibly consist of. Just then Helio popped out of nowhere and snapped me back into my senses.

“You ready to go?” he asked me stepping in between me and my blue eyed companion.

“Um, yeah. You get what you needed?” I asked him finally able to tear my eyes away from the handsome stranger.  Helio handed me the gum I had requested and a bottled water. The Vaquero realizing the obvious, that I was with Helio, said his goodbyes and walked back to his friends who were already seated inside the burrito joint. Perhaps in another life my friend.

“What did he want?” Helio asked me while staring into Burritos Janos.

“Nothing. He just bummed off some cigarettes from me, that’s all. You ready to go?” I stated, walking towards the passenger side of the car.

Helio followed my lead and jumped into the car. We pulled off and headed back to the road block to see if there had been any change. There hadn’t. In fact there seemed to be twice as many cars as when we left earlier. We found an empty spot to park in and continued the never ending wait. I looked around and noticed most vehicles had license plates from Chihuahua, but there were a few from the states of Louisiana and Utah scattered throughout the masses. Just then, I was startled by a dark skinned Cholito on a bike as he knocked on my window. I rolled my window down to see what he wanted.

“You want to buy some coffee?” he asked.

“No thanks, I already had some.”

“You want to buy some cigarettes?”

“No thanks, I already have some.”

“You want to buy some agua?”

“No thanks, we’re set. But you might want to try the car next to us. They look thirsty.”

“Ok. I clean your windows? Only 10 pesos.”

Without answering, I rolled up my window. He got the message and went to go bother some other traveler with his sales pitch.  I looked at the clock set on the dashboard- 9:30. Time was crawling by and I was already bored out of my mind. I switched on the radio to see if there were any local stations, nothing but static with the exception of one station playing rancheras. Somebody please shoot me now!

We were lost amongst dozens upon dozens of vehicles all parked with no place to go. Impatiently waiting for some good news. Some news that the road had been opened and we could forge on into the beautiful lands of Mexico.  But it looked as if nothing of that sort would happen anytime soon. Each time I turned my inquiring eyes towards the road block the soldier would sign the road was still closed. FUCK!  It looked like we had no choice other than to sit and wait in this bitter cold. Sit and wait, and smoke cigarette after cigarette.