Soldiers and Kings by Jason De León

Author:Jason De León [De León, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Controlando la Bestia

For the next several weeks, my phone fills up with videos of Flaco’s exploits. Grainy footage of bucolic country that he films while sitting atop and between speeding boxcars.

Village after village blows by.

Armed guards with masked faces patrol the tops of trains.

The ever-present sound of grinding metal.

Flaco stands on the tracks as a locomotive passes him at sixty miles an hour. He’s close enough to kiss it. His other phone buzzes in the background. ¡Mira, Yason! ¡La maldita bestia!

Acid lies on a cardboard mat, puffing on a blunt and waving at the camera.

Brown-skinned men with backpacks chase the train. Fingers grab hold of metal handles greasy with thousands of fingerprints. ¡Mira, Yason, es la banda luchando con la bestia!

A chubby brown baby in a Minions T-shirt takes nervous barefoot steps. The hands of an anonymous woman follow behind, ready to catch him. This is my kid in Honduras, bro. I love my kid. God bless you, hermano.

A video from Guadalajara shows Flaco shirtless and dancing for the camera. He waves buds of marijuana twice the length of his hands. Children in the background stare in wonderment at this bare-chested ogre wiggling for the camera. We are making some salad for lunch! Check out the size of this lettuce! Three days later he sends a video pleading for help. I’m hungry, foo. I got no money. Send me some money for food, hermano. Somewhere near Tepic, Nayarit, the crew parties in a train’s caboose. Flaco narrates a video tour of their steel abode. Check out our casa, bro. It’s got two levels and even has Wi-Fi! The camera pans over a toilet, several chairs, and a plate of fried chicken. Hey, Pirate, say high to the gringo! Pirate looks up from his phone, a joint dangling from his mouth. Acid shows the camera an enormous pile of broken-up marijuana on a paper plate. Jorge, the shy kid from Olancho, pops his head up from one of the beds and gives a thumbs-up. There are several new people in the group that I don’t recognize. They smile and wave.

In a video from northern Mexico, Acid, Flaco, and Jorge surf on top of a speeding train. They hold on to their hats to keep them from flying off. Flaco and Acid scream at the camera to be heard over the wind. ¡Estamos controlando la bestia! God bless you, bro! God willing, we will see you in Mexicali! Jorge smiles in the background and gives another thumbs-up. His other hand nervously grips the speeding train. It appears he has lost a lot of weight since I last saw him at La Cementera. He looks weary.

In the final video, the Sonoran Desert passes outside the train car’s window. Flaco stands in the middle of the frame, smiling and eating a cookie.

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.