Without a Country by J. Malcolm Garcia

Author:J. Malcolm Garcia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hot Books
Published: 2017-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

Lopez returned to El Paso after the Kansas judge let him off. He vowed to himself to stay straight. He worked a legit job making Mr. Potato Head molds. He enrolled in Western Technical College. He was turning his life around but not completely. Mr. Potato Head didn’t pay as well as hauling dope, and Lopez and his wife bumped heads over money. They divorced in 1999 and shared custody of their daughters.

Divorce added to his financial problems. Child support, rent, it adds up. He was in trouble with money again. Friends told the Juarez drug dealer, Nazario, that Lopez was back in town. Nazario offered him work. Same thing, hauling pot. He took it to finish school. Then, he swore to himself he’d be done. He carried 30 to 50 pounds. Las Cruces, Amarillo, within the area.

He graduated in 2000 with an associate degree in computer science and quit transporting pot. Got a job at Intel Corporation and made a lot of money. Then in 2012, Rudy, his best friend in college, got in a jam, falling behind on his student loans.

I need you, Rudy told him. Help me out with your dope connections.

No, Lopez said.

Rudy was too submissive and nervous to get into the drug game, a little white dude who freaked out about everything. A parking ticket. And you would think that he had been charged with armed robbery. But he was a persistent little prick. Lopez finally agreed to introduce him to his contacts and no more. Nazario hired Rudy to transport forty pounds of marijuana.

Come with me, he asked Lopez.

Lopez was like, Shit, all right. I’ll do it this once. Just to help him out. Shouldn’t have. Should have kept saying no. The highway patrol nailed them speeding on I-40 west to Amarillo. One hour away from the drop house. Snowing, cold. Rudy shaking.

You look nervous, the cop said.

The cop got a search warrant for the car. Lopez took the rap. Rudy had no priors. He was crying and they hadn’t even been booked yet. He wouldn’t make it in jail. One more felony won’t hurt me, Lopez thought.

Funny thing is, he didn’t do a day in jail. He cooperated with the DA and informed on the dealer. In return, he received a one-year deferred sentence. He moved to Las Vegas to be with his mother and sister. Texas was just trouble. He never heard from Rudy again.

From 2003 to 2005, he worked construction. He’d show up at job sites and the foreman would ask, what do you know how to do? Forklift, throw bricks, carry, Lopez said. He worked from site to site. From Las Vegas to New Mexico to Colorado to Wyoming to California to Arizona to Las Vegas again.

But he got tired of the traveling. Back in Las Vegas, he took a course installing air conditioning units. He volunteered with Help of Southern Nevada, a social service agency, after a cop ticketed him for speeding and he was sentenced to 120 hours of community service.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.