Pueblito and Dreams

1…

“No! Please!” Rome cried out, barely thinking straight after the beating.

This can’t be real. He had seen guns before, you don’t grow up in Atoyatlepeque without being close to many, but never this close. Kids like him and Rafa had to thread carefully in a small town in rural El Salvador. They tried to stay out of trouble and yet trouble found them as it did everyone.

What a pleasant Saturday it was. Around this time of summer, days were too hot but today was just right, perfect day for a walk in the woods. Rome was sitting on a root where the trees started and the grass field ended, they had met up here a thousand times but he still felt his stomach twisting and turning. He looked up and could see Rafa across the field waving at him as he got closer, he could see fresh bruises on his face and a new cut on his lip.

“Hi Rafael” greeted Rome very politely.

Rafa looked confused, he was not used to Rome calling him by his full name.

“What? You never know who’s around!”

“If there were anyone around, Romero, they’d probably be more suspicious because you’re using my full name.”

“Anyways, who were you defending this time?”

“Does it really matter?”

Rome just shook his head, typical Rafa, big heart, small brain “wish anyone in this town fought as hard for you as you do for them.”

“Anyways, you okay? You look like you’re gonna be sick.”

“I’m fine!” He lied.

“Relax, you’re always so crazy when we walk up to these woods but you always feel better after we’ve hiked for a few minutes.”

The gun was on Rafa’s face and Daniel was just looking down, smiling as if this were just another day in school and he turned his head to look Rome straight in the eye with that sardonic grin of his.

“Rome, I’m not feeling patient tonight…”

2…

“Dany, I swear to God we know nothing about a black book.”

“I’m not talking to you, Rafa!” He shouted as he smacked him on the head with the gun.

Rome wished more than anything that they had left that steel barrel where they found it.

They had been walking deep into the woods for about 30 minutes, Rome felt more at ease knowing that with every step it was less likely there was anyone around, just as Rafa predicted. That town of theirs was little so there was always somebody around, it was nice being somewhere where they knew there was no one for at least a couple miles.

“Hey what’s that?” Rafa pointed at a patch of soil that had clearly just been shovelled over.

“Oh no…” Rome immediately knew. Too small for an adult, maybe a child?

“Come on help me!” Rafa was already in action, digging out the dirt with his hands.

“What are you doing?! This is none of our business! You know what can happen!”

“Hey this could be someone’s kid! We can’t leave them in the middle of nowhere. Besides you know how dumb these gangbangers are, they could still be alive.”

“Ugh!” Groaned Rome as he started digging too, typical Rafa.

They hadn’t been at it for more than 15 minutes when they hit something solid. They continued unearthing carefully and there it was, the steel barrel.

“Dany…” begged Rome, “Rafa is not lying, we have no idea about any book!”

“Bullshit! We might not be as good at Science as you are but we know our business and the only way those cops caught us in that deal was if they had the book and the only way they had it, is if somebody found it and gave it to them.”

“D-D-D-D-any I swear we don’t know anything about a barrel or a book” quivered Rafa as he was trying to get up.

“I told you I’m not talking to you!” Danny shot Rafa in the leg.

3…

“God, no, please!” Begged Rome.

“Oh stop whining”

Rafa was on the ground again holding his leg. Rome could see blood.

“As I was saying… that’s the only way they could have caught us, and only you two could have found the barrel and only he would be stupid enough to hand the book to the cops”

It was a miracle that no one had been at Rome’s when they brought the barrel in. Rome was completely freaking out at this point.

“Rafa, what the hell are we doing?!”

“Romeo, you’ve seen the news, these keep on popping up everywhere, the gangs use them to move and hide their money.”

“Exactly, so why would we want to steal money from the gangs?!”

“Because they are not going look for it for a long time! You saw that it had just been buried, they usually leave them there for months, and it’s always a few thousands of dollars, you know they’re not gonna care, this could be our ticket out of here!”

That’s what initially enticed Rome. If they could just get out of Ateyotlepeque he knew they could make a life for themselves.

“You know, the funniest thing is… you could have kept the $20,000 in the barrel” said Dany, still smiling, mocking them “I would have gladly considered it the price of riding this town from people like you, but you had to mess with our business”

4…

“Please Dany we didn’t do anything like that” Rome was fully crying at this point, Rafa was just lying on the ground holding his leg.

“Hey” whispered Rafa from the bushes behind the log Rome was sitting on during their school lunch break.

“Jesus! You almost gave me a heart attack” Rome hadn’t been sleeping well since they found the money.

“You gotta relax” Rafa sat next to him, he took a deep breath and signalled Rome to do the same

“Whatever” Rome looked away “okay everything is arranged, the coyote charged us 5,000 each to take us to LA. I have some family that can take us in. The rest should help us survive the trip and get started there.”

“What about the book?”

“What about it?”

“Did you send it to the police?”

“I told you I’m not going to do that!”

“Rome, this could help them clean up the town! Besides wouldn’t you like to see that asshole Dany go to jail?”

That did sound appealing to Rome “Dany… thinking he is so cool, just cause he scored a couple goals in this whole season.”

“With his whole lucky number 7 routine!” Rafa chuckled, but then got serious “All those times he was messing with us and people just…”

“I mean, everyone suspected.”

“Yes, but now we have evidence!”

“Rafa, we never know who’s in their pocket! And if whatever they get him for doesn’t stick then we’re dead!”

“Oh please how could they know? Besides we’re leaving!”

“Rafa, we are not doing this, end of discussion! We are burning the book before we head out of town!”

“So you just want to leave these bastards to run the town?”

“What has this town ever done for us?!”the bell rang and they just stared at each other for a few seconds “we are almost out of here, for once, don’t be stupid and just focus on what’s best for you.”

Rafa felt defeated but understood he couldn’t push further without hurting Rome so he put his hand on his leg “okay.”

“We burned the book” Rafa groaned from the floor “as soon as we realized what it was…”

Danny chuckled a second and started savagely kicking Rafa.

5…

“DANY STOP!!” Rome barely felt the next punch, everything just went dark and all of the sudden he was on the floor, his jaw ached, Dany was still kicking Rafa.

“Do you think I’m stupid?!” He finished, composed himself, pointed his gun at Rafa again and continued talking to Rome “this idiot is too much of a wannabe hero to do that and you are too smart.”

The urgent knocking on his window almost made Rome fall from his bed.

“Rome! Let me in!” Rafa sounded terrified. Rome leaned over and noticed he was sweaty and had a bag with him.

“Rafa?! What the hell are you doing?! If my dad sees you…”

“Rome, we gotta go now!!!”

“What? Why? We’re not leaving til tomorrow morning.”

“Rome!” They locked eyes and Rome felt a chill run down his spine “we HAVE to leave now.”

“What did you do?”

“The cops had the whole book! I thought it would be enough, I really did, we only had three days to go, even if it wasn’t enough, there was no way they would get out in three days!”

“You idiot! You said you were okay to get rid of it!” He pulled Rafa into his room “Help me pack quickly! Message your mom, tell her it’s okay to tell them you are at my place, that way they won’t hurt her.”

“But… your dad…”

“If we leave quickly, they’ll be here before he even realizes I am gone. If they beat him trying to get information, that’s just an added bonus.”

There was no way out…

6…

The soil was cold on Rome’s side, he was barely holding on to consciousness, he could see Rafa a few feet away. If Dany found out Rafa had given the book to the police, they would kill them, if he didn’t say anything…

They ran into the woods for as long as they could, hoping to hold out until the next morning.

“I’m so sorry, Romeo…” Rafa could barely catch is breath as they crouched behind a tree.

Rome wanted to snap at him but he couldn’t right now “it’s okay” he put his hand on Rafa’s face “you’ve always had more heart than brains, Angel, it’s why I love you” he chuckled.

Rafa held Rome’s hand “what did I do to deserve you?”

A shot hit the branches just over their heads, they turned around and saw Dany and his friends.

“Hello there…”

They started running but Dany’s guys quickly tackled them, gave them a quick beating and restrained them.

“Nice try” Dany started “ but we run our whole operation through these woods, we know them better than anyone!”

“Dany! Dany!” Groaned Rome “we were just…”

“What?” Dany cut him off “out here in the woods at night getting some alone time? Having sex maybe? Normally I’d believe that, but that’s exactly how I know it was you two that found our barrel.”

“Dany, come on man, we…” Dany knocked the wind out of Rafa.

“Don’t interrupt me…” Dany leaned close to Rafa “I’ve tried to be lenient with you freaks but you particularly just get on my nerves, always jumping into everybody’ business. Who else would be in such a desolate part of the woods? Who else except a couple trying to be alone. Who else in this town all of the sudden had money to afford stuff they couldn’t before, like a coyote?”

“Dany” interjected Rome “what are you talking about? What barrel?”

Dany sighed “You know, I figured at least you’d know better than to lie to me” Dany made a gesture and his friends proceeded to beat them again. When they were done they knelt Rafa in front of Dany and held Rome to watch.

Dany took out his gun and put it against Rafa’s head “now, you know me, lucky number 7, so I’m going to count til 7 and if you don’t tell me where the black book is, I’ll kill your boyfriend and then you, okay?”

Rome mustered what little strength he had to crawl towards Rafa. He expected the thugs to stop him but they didn’t, maybe they were just amused by his bruised, broken body trying to crawl away. Rafa saw him, he turned and reached out his hand to him, Rome reached out his.

…7.