Work had slowed down in Brownsville and the two compadres, construction workers, were waiting for a job that had been promised them as soon as the customer – a guy who wanted to build a house for his family – lined up the finances from his bank.
Things dragged on for a few weeks that threatened to turn into months and Jose, one of the compadres, told Arnulfo, the other one, that he had to have some work to get by. He had lined up a job putting roof tile in an apartment complex that was being built in Houston. He told his compadre Arnulfo that he had to go, but to send word through his wife, Arnulfo's comadre Andrea, when the job materialized.
And so Jose took off to Houston and started working. At the end of two weeks, when he sent his wife money from his first paycheck, he asked her whether his compadre had told her anything about the house.
"Yeah, Arnulfo stopped by yesterday to tell me that the guy is almost done with the paperwork at the bank but still needs to close the deal," said his wife Andrea. "He sounded like it could be soon. He said he'd let us know."
The weeks turned into a month and a half, then two. Jose had latched on to the roof tile contractor who had a lot of work and the pay was good. After two months, he asked his wife whether Arnulfo had said anything about the house.
"Si," Andrea responded. "He came by last night and said the guy had finally got the loan and for you to come back because it should start next week."
"Ok, good," siad Jose. "Let me finish the week and pick up the last check. I should be there before Monday."
Jose had actually picked up his check the day before, but he had other plans. Friday came around and he got paid again and headed south. He got on Highway 59, turned south on Highway 77 at the Victoria exit and headed for the Corpus Christi and the Valley. But before he got to Brownsville he turned south on the Highway 100 exit that split off to Port Isabel and South Padre Island.
He had a movida at Port Isabel he hadn't seen in months and he had called her that he would be spending Saturday night with her. Tencha readily agreed and was waiting for him on Saturday when he drove up.
"Me llevas al baile, mi amor?," Tencha asked him as she hugged him.
"Of course," he said. "Te pones bien chula," he told her and patted her behind as she went into the house.
They spent the night dancing and drinking at Ernie's Roundup until the wee hours when they went to a motel and spent the night. In the morning they had breakfast at El Papas, and then spent the afternoon laying around the house.
Toward evening Jose said his goodbyes and headed out of town. At the intersection of Highway 100 and Highway 48 he turned left and headed toward the port. As he was getting into town he stopped at a Stripes convenience store on Central Avenue and Highway 48 to clean himself up a bit and wash off some of Tencha's perfume.
When he was washing his face he looked and saw that he had a large hickey just above his collar line. Unbeknown to him, Tencha – in the heat of passion – had kissed and sucked him in the neck. He tried to use soap and water but it was still there. He tried to pull his shirt to cover it, but that it would slide down.
"Ni modo," he said. "I'll have to think of something."
He pulled into his driveway of his house and as he alighted from his truck, his two kids raced toward him and he knelt down to hug them as they climbed over him. Their mother watched from the porch as they hugged him.
Suddenly, he pulled off the boy and pushed him away.
"What are you doing?," asked his wife. "He's glad to see you."
"Yeah, but look what he did," Jose said, showing her the hickey.
"Oh, my!" said his wife. "Well, while you're scolding him for doing that, scold him for these, too," she said pulling up the hem of her dress and showing him a number of hickeys on her legs and thighs.
"Mira como me tiene de chupones. Guerco malcriado."
1 comment:
Ta buena
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