CHAPTER 1
APIRL 18
He was surprised to hear a bird singing because this place was better suited to lizards and snakes with its dry brush and tangled bushes and water-starved trees. But there it was, a little bird's happy song floating across the air right to him. The sound of it made him want to smile, but he didn't. It hurt to smile, not to mention that this wasn't the time. It was a workday and he wanted to finish before dark because his sight wasn't so good, the one eye being pretty much blind and all. Still, he could see well enough to spy a bird if it moved but nothing did, so he looked up at the giant house sitting atop the hill like a castle. There was a lot of money in Los Angeles. Lot of money. Lot of freeloaders. Lot of scum too. Lot of crazies. Sometimes the people with the money were freeloaders and scum and crazy too, but most people only noticed the money. Not him. No, no, not him. He noticed the bottom feeders and the filth. He got people's numbers. He knew about people. Oh, yes he did.
The man looked away from the castle and ran the back of his arm across his forehead to wipe away the sweat. He listened to the bird sing and it reminded him of the way the girl had talked, chirping in a language he couldn't really understand. He thought she understood him, though, because he had the basics down pat when he was a good lookin' young buck. He figured that was all you needed. The basics.
Hola.
Bonita.
Ven conmigo.
No llores.
No llores!
No! Don't cry!
He said that last part in English because it was clear she didn't understand, or he wasn't saying it right, or something. Maybe he had misunderstood what she wanted, but that was all it had been. A misunderstanding. If she had just friggin' spoken English things would have gone better and turned out a whole lot different. All that was a long time ago and it wasn't the girl that weighed on his mind; it was what came after the girl. Awake or asleep, what came after the girl played out like a movie behind that damn bad eye of his.
When the memories made him tired he let his head fall back so that the sun could shine smack dab on his face. That felt good. The same way the air felt good and the smells smelled good: eucalyptus and wild honeysuckle and the scrub and the dust and the dirt. Most people never took the time to appreciate the outside, but he did because he knew what being inside too long could do to a man.
"Es esto sufficiente?"
The man opened his eyes; he swung his head. The day was so pleasant, moving into evening as it was, that he had almost forgotten the boy who was doing the heavy lifting. It was dusty, mean work but it had to be done and he didn't really have the strength to do it himself anymore. Besides, it was more satisfying to watch.
The man tried to look friendly even though he couldn't smile. He put on his hat. It was a floppy brimmed thing made for camping. It wasn't the most handsome hat but he wasn't the most handsome man, so it seemed that he and the hat were well suited. His companion, the one wielding the shovel, was quite handsome. Then again, weren't they all at that age? This one was a border man, just shy of a teenager but not quite the solid stock of real manhood. He stood so straight and looked so hopeful: hopeful that the backbreaking work would please the man who employed him, hopeful that he had dug long enough and deep enough, hopeful that he might even go home with more money in his pocket than promised, hopeful that he would be paid at all.
The man took a short hop off the truck gate where he'd been sitting. The little truck bounced some as it let go of his weight but not much because he wasn't a heavy man. He wasn't a slight man either. He simply was a man who moved through the world easily because he was neither this nor that. There had been a time when it was different. He had been a cocky cuss, full of himself, getting by, taking his pleasures. He could barely remember the pleasures of youth now. Pity. He might be a different sort if he could remember that.
Eyes hidden by the brim of the hat, he shuffled to the edge of the trench. Slowly he paced the length and breadth of it, surveying the project as if concerned that it was not exactly to his specifications, but it was perfect. He had to give the young man credit. He knew how to work hard. It was the only good thing he could say about people like him.
The worker stepped back as best he could, considering the trench was narrow. He raised a hand, inviting scrutiny, proud of what he had accomplished. The little wooden stakes with the yellow flags fluttered in the now-and-again breeze, but the twine strung between the stakes to mark out the work site were still taut. There was even a pyramid of pipe laid out just so. The man had a drawing that he had shown to his helper. The young man pretended to be interested in what looked like the sketch of a house. A forest house. A canyon house. A house far away from the hectic city traffic. The worker nodded as if he understood the drawing, but he didn't. He didn't care if this place was hidden from the main road and so deep in the canyon that the king in the castle on the hill would not be able to see it even if he deigned to look down. All he knew was that the drawing meant work and work meant money.
"Bueno," the man said.
The worker grinned, showing his perfect white teeth. The man hated those teeth. Why was God so generous when he made these people with their thick black hair and beautiful brown skin? Then to bless them with goddamn pearly whites to boot? It just wasn't right. The man shook his head in disgust. Good looking they might be, hardworking if you got the right ones, but in the long run all that virtue and all those good looks meant nothing. These people could turn on a dime. They were wily that way. They were the lowest of the low hiding behind those pretty smiles and shining eyes. Barbaric. Cruel. Even while the man thought this, he smiled without showing his own teeth, without hurting his scarred face and said:
"Muy bueno."
He reached for the shovel. The young man gave it to him and then the man in the hat dug into his pocket. He took out money, counted it off and gave the young man thirty dollars.
"Gracias," the worker said.
The man peeled off another twenty and gratitude spilled out of the young man like candy out of a piñata. The man waved away such effusive thanks as if it were a little thing he had done, as if the boy deserved the tip.
While the young man put on his shirt, the older one took up the little stakes with the yellow plastic flags attached. He gathered them together, wrapped the twine around them and put the bundle in the back of the truck. He put the shovel in, too. He looked back at his helper. The young man was tucking in his shirt so the older man went back for the pipe. He picked up two and into the truck they went. He had just retrieved the last pipe when the young man pushed out of the trench and started for the truck. He was a quick one and the man in the hat was disappointed that his own timing was off. Still, all was not lost. It wasn't as if this hadn't happened before. He followed after the worker knowing there would be one more chance to do what must be done. The chance came quickly.
The boy put a knee up on the tailgate and grasped the side of the truck to haul himself in. That was when the older man gripped the pipe and swung, splitting the boy's head clean open on contact. The crack of his skull disturbed the canyon peace. That little singing bird, startled by the sound, flew out of the brush. That bird had been closer than the man thought but he was not distracted by its flight; he only had eyes for the work. The boy had been thrown forward so that his chin hit the truck bed and his arms were flung out. For a moment he was suspended like he was crucified, and in the next moment the boy slid slowly, quite gracefully, off the bed and crumpled on the ground.
There was a lot of blood but that didn't surprise the older man. The young man's head, after all, was almost cracked in two and the side that had taken the brunt of the blow was quite a mess. The cheekbone was crushed, the eye nearest the split was knocked out and the young man's handsome nose was pushed sideways. The good thing was that most of the blood fell on the ground and not in the truck. That's what made the older man so good at his work. He planned everything, including the optimum time to swing, striking just as the boy started to lift himself up. If he had a knee up at the time of impact, he would have fallen further in and the blood would have flooded the truck bed. Or, worst-case scenario, the man wouldn't have had the right leverage and would have only wounded him. That wouldn't be good, but it didn't matter. He had hit the young man correctly and the splatter of blood in the truck could be easily cleaned. The man preferred things as neat as possible because extra work didn't set well with him. That was really the bottom line; he wasn't the man he used to be.
He stood for a moment, just looking at his handiwork, before bending over and touching the boy's neck. He was a goner. The man went to the cab and fetched a water bottle. He drank half of it, and when he was done he took the rest of the water and washed the blood off the truck. Some of the bloody water fell on the man with the split skull. When the man with the hat finished cleaning he took off his hat, rolled up his sleeves and considered how to handle the next part so that he did not hurt himself. There was no telling when this appendage or that might go out on him, when breath would be hard to come by, so he had to be careful.
The boy was not too tall nor was he fat, but he was muscular in that sinewy way people like him could be. The man paused and looked over his shoulder at the trench. Perhaps the job wasn't as good as he had initially thought. From this angle the trench looked a bit too long. They could have cut off a half hour if he had been paying more attention. No matter now. It was time to finish up.
He took the body by the feet to keep the blood off his clothes. It was very hard to get blood out of fabric. He'd washed enough of his own blood out of shirts and pants and underwear to know that. Even though there was no one to hear him, the man was careful not to make any sound as he dragged the body to the hole and dumped it in. When that was done he recovered his breath, rubbed his shoulders and quieted his mind.
The body had fallen into the trench face down and that was not the way it should be. He had been so sure that the slope at the lip would allow for a slide and not a tumble, but there it was. The body had tumbled. The man climbed in and turned the boy so he was face up. He squared the corpse's shoulders, leaned back and checked his work. He bent down again and this time he straightened the broken nose, wiped the blood from beneath it and then cleaned his hands in the dirt so blood wouldn't get on his clothes. There was nothing he could do about the cheek but from where he stood it was hardly noticeable. He stepped back again and surveyed his handiwork.
In the dappled sunlight the boy looked like he was asleep which, of course, he wasn't. Any fool would know that if they looked close. Any fool would see the dry dirt under his head was now dark with blood. And if they walked to the other side of the trench they would see the crushed cheek and the dangling eyeball. But a fool just glancing at him might mistake him for napping.
In a hole.
In the ground.
Well and good.
Almost done.
Only the observance was left. In a way, that was the most important part of his work. He was not, after all, a monster. He had known monsters and he was not one. The man took the corpse's hands and folded them over the chest. He leaned back again. The edge of the trench hit his calves. He took a deep breath. He was tired. His left arm ached but he soldiered on.
Doubling over, the man dug in the boy's pockets and came up with a cell phone. The man snorted. The boy probably lived like a peasant but he had a fancy phone. It would be of no use to him now but the man could get a hundred for it easy. He dug in again and soon he had checked each pocket. He found no ID, but that was no surprise. He took back the fifty bucks that he had given the young man. He buttoned the top button of the boy's shirt and patted the collar into place before sidestepping to the end of the trench. He fixed the feet so the toes pointed up. He thought to take the shoes but he didn't need them and it was hard to get boots off a corpse, even a fresh one, so he left them.
Once everything was as it should be, he went back to the cab and took a box of cards out of the glove box. Only two left. He chose one, got back into the hole and tucked the card under the boy's hands. They were already starting to cool. He patted those brown hands, looked into the boy's face and said the Act of Contrition. He did not hurry. He gave God his due. He said every word for the boy who could not say the words himself.
The man got himself out of the trench and swiped at his knees because he disliked dirt on his trousers. He went to the truck and got the shovel. When he returned, he filled in the trench. The feet were covered first. He filled in around the body next and then tamped some dirt down over the torso. He was careful around the young man's head, adding the dirt slowly. When that was done he held the last shovelful of dirt, stared down at that dead face and said:
"You're on the ledger, my friend."
With that, he tipped the shovel. At the precise moment, when the last bit of soil and twigs and stone covered the young man's face, a breeze kicked up and the bird chirped once more. The man planted the shovel, leaned on the handle, lifted his face and listened. The world could be so beautiful, so peaceful. He appreciated it all so much, and he knew the beauty and the peace was the good Lord blessing the work he had done that day.
Then he looked at the spot where the young man lay buried. He looked for a long while and thought, as he often did, that he should leave a marker but then he heard a rustle and he saw a blur as the bird flew off to another bush. He took that as a sign, too. He would leave no marker. He never had. It was just his age and emotion making him second-guess what he had done.
He swung the shovel over his shoulder and walked away from the grave. For that's what it was, that's what it had always been. As he walked, he heard a cheery little tune whistling in his head. It was still there when he put the shovel in the truck bed next to the pipes and the little bundle of wooden stakes. He closed the tailgate and went around to the driver side and got in. The man started his truck, stepped on the gas, put both hands on the wheel and began to drive down the narrow, pitted road. The old truck shuddered and shook and by the time he reached the main road that cut through the canyon and connected the city with the valley, he was done in and he needed to rest and regain his strength if he was to finish the season. Sometimes, though, it seemed the task he set for himself was impossible.
He was, after all, only one man and these people? These people were like cockroaches.
They were everywhere.
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