BY GEORGE STRANAHAN
Jesus lived far out in the country where he tended to his father’s farm: his father was dying and also required tending to. There was no madre, she having died earlier, and as an only child, no hijos: his was lonely life of toil. He found simple joy, yes, in spreading the agua and watching the crops grow fuerte.
Another joy he purchased at the tienda where he also bought his staples and rare bottle of tequila: he bought those dreadful, movie-glam magazines like Us and People. Having no English was no barrier to his rapture over the glamorous and prurient photos of starlets. Jesus was particularly aroused by one beauty, Docio Durcal, the ingenue in the film ”Amor en el Aire.” Rapture became love; he rubbed his bacon and had fantasies about things that no one had ever told him about.
One Wednesday as crows were devouring the locusts his father died. Jesus washed and buried his. padre, packed all of his belongings into burlap bags, and set off to the city. Here he found things unfamiliar, hmTied. and loud. With all of his strength he could keep his belongings moving along with him as he explored his new environment: but man, it was weird for him.
And lo, one. day he recognized something familiar: the name of the movie that starred his very own true love, and even her own name too on the billboard! Jesus’s heart pounded as he begged the cashier for entrance. The lady quoted him a few pesos, which he had, and also demanded that his burlap bags remain outside. A Faustian bargain if ever: abandon all his belongings in exchange for an experience he knew nothing of, but 1t would be with his beloved.
He sat for a while at the edge of the pavement; he wanted to ask his father what to do. As I passed by he said, “Senor?” I didn’t understand what he said next, but his eyes told me his story. I nodded a yes, si, tiene que, you must do it, and smiled and shrugged, not knowing what, indeed, he must do.
