In the Margin
I live in a nice suburb with lots of nice houses and fancy yards. Rich gringos always need
their lawns taken care of and that’s all we do. We do weekly mowing, trimming and
mulching. We also repair sprinkler systems, fix broken fences, clean chimneys and replace
blown shingles off the roofs. We’re a full service company called Green Yard Lawn. I started
my business three years ago and worked hard and long hours by myself to get where I am.
Now I run a successful business with two trucks and total of five employees, four cousins and
one nephew.
With two of my cousins I share a mobile home in a trailer park community, the cheapest
place to live in this city. The rent is seven hundred and fifty Dollars a month plus utilities. The
rent is high but not when you divide it by three. I’m the only one in the company who speaks
English and answers the phone. We manage more than thirty yards a day in summer. Most
of my customers are from the a few neighborhoods close to one another so we don’t have a
long drive from one customer to next otherwise with high price of gas it’d be difficult to
make money. In summer I can clear about two thousand dollars a month and send $500 to
my family in Vera Cruse. But in winter it’s more difficult to make good money. Grass does
not grow and my cousins go back to Mexico to have fun with senoritas. There are lots of
Mexican girls here too but they cost too much to maintain. In winter I do five to six yards a
day by myself and pay the full rent. I can’t save money in winter but by the way I mange my
finances I get by. I’m very frugal, I don’t waste money.
My major expense after rent is food. So I don’t do my grocery shopping in my
neighborhood. Stores are crowded full of gringos who look at me funny. Once every two
weeks I go grocery shopping close to downtown where I can buy meat, vegetables and
whatever I need to fill my pantry. In Fiesta I can buy five avocados for one dollar when here
in Tom Thumb they sell them for 60 cents each. Onions, tomatoes and jalapenos are three
times more expensive here than in Mexican Mercado. Although gas is expensive these days,
my total grocery savings justifies the high cost of gas, I just can’t afford being wasteful
especially in this economy.
Yesterday I had no yards scheduled to mow so I woke up late and around ten o’clock I
decided to go shopping. I drove twenty five minutes on highway to get to downtown. When
I reached under the huge mix master close to down town I normally make a U-turn and take
the service road to the Mexican Mercado to do a bulk of my groceries before I go to the
Fiesta. Vicente Fernandez was singing on the radio and I must have been daydreaming
because I missed to turn into the dedicated lane for U-turn so I drove to the intersection to
make the left turn under the bridge and come back to the north-bound service road. Under
three layers of highways I stopped at red light and waited for almost ten minutes and light
didn’t change.
I was the only one needlessly waiting for green and monitoring the U-turn lane ushering
cars to the same road I was trying to get to. I felt like this light was programmed to say red
for ever to punish me for my negligence. No other car shared my fate, I was alone. I waited
another five minutes and nothing happened, the red light was not going to turn green.
Something was wrong with the traffic light, it was not functioning. Impatiently I waited
another five minutes looking around to see if there were cameras installed on the traffic
light poles, there wasn’t any in sight. I didn’t want to break the law not only to avoid legal
troubles but because I couldn’t afford paying the fine. I had bad experiences with cops
before and learned my lesson.
One night I was stopped by a cop because I didn’t have the license plate on front
bumper. I never had one and was never pulled over for that reason but that night I was. The
officer said it was the law and he was right. After that night I paid attention to so many cars
on streets without the license plate on their front bumper. Then I realized there were so
many laws marinated in books waiting to be enforced on people like me. The smartest thing
is to keep a low profile and avoid unnecessary brush with the law especially if you’re
undocumented.
Yesterday under that damn bridge I didn’t know what else to do but to break the law. I
could not keep waiting the entire day behind a red light so I turned off the loud radio and
cautiously made the left turn hoping my felony had gone unnoticed. This traffic violation
would’ve cost me a minimum of one hundred and fifty dollars if I was caught. God knows in
winter time, I can’t make that kind of money in two days.
As soon as the traffic violation was committed I looked in the rear view mirror and saw
no cameras on traffic poles or flashing lights of a police car following me, I sighed in relief. I
turned the radio back on and made another right turn after a couple of miles to get on the
service road. There I noticed a few police cars blocking the service road. About ten other
cars were ahead of me stopped bumper to bumper waiting to be ordered to take the
alternate route. It took another ten minutes to slowly drive up closer and see what was
going on. An SUV was overturned on the road, two police cars blocked the road and one cop
stood in the middle of the road ordering incoming traffic to turn into the only ramp adjacent
to the service road. A fire truck with its lights flashing was parked on the side of the road
and a few firemen were doing their duties. One was sweeping the shattered windshield off
the road and other was guiding a huge tow truck to park close to the capsized vehicle. The
accident didn’t seem to be a serious one with fatalities.
It was now my turn to turn. I had no idea where this detour would lead to but I had no
choice but to obey the officer. So I lowered my gaze to avoid eye contact with the officer in
front as my truck was still missing the front bumper license plate and slowly made the turn
into the ramp. Then I noticed it was clearly marked for high occupancy vehicles only, a huge
diamond was painted on the road. I was the single occupant of the truck. I’d just broken
another traffic rule by obeying the lawman on foot.
At least this time I had a good excuse for breaking the law. But if a cop had stopped me
in the middle of the busy freeway I had a lot of explaining to do. I knew if I was caught, the
cope wouldn’t even listen to my story but gave me a ticket and advised me to go to court
and explain it to the judge. It would’ve meant one day of skipping the work and explaining
why the violation was not my fault in my broken English to a white judge.
As I was driving in HOV lane I kept looking for a way to go back to my original
destination. The damn lane was completely barricaded for protection and to expedite the
traffic flow. I kept looking for an exit lane with no luck. I ended up driving all the way back to
my own neighborhood before I could exit the HOV lane and finally got off the freeway. I was
forced to drive twenty miles back to my home wasting at least five dollars gas and two hours
of my only day off for nothing. I still had to do my grocery shopping.
As angry as I was about my entire morning, the event of today seemed weirdly funny. I
was hungry yet too frustrated to drive back to downtown to do my grocery and it seemed
senseless to go back to an empty refrigerator. As I was dwelling what to do next driving in
the neighborhood close to my mobile home park I noticed a Salvation Army store and turned
in the parking on a whim and parked the truck. Why would they build such a store in this
town? Rich people don’t need salvation they have money, no wonder the parking lot was
empty. I went inside just to browse for a few minutes as I had no money to spend on clothing
or furniture I didn’t need. Prices were all high for a store designed to sell used merchandise
to low income customers like myself. I walked out of the store hungrier than before
wondering what to do next.
Before I got to my truck I saw a man on the opposite side of the street in a deserted gas
station forced a little boy into his truck and hurriedly drove off and disappeared. I could not
believe what I saw. His truck was the same year and model as mine, an old white Ford F-
150. That was not good. What if someone saw him kidnapping the little boy and gave the
description of my truck to police? My God, what an awful day, nothing was going right for
me. The smartest thing was to get away from there before I was arrested for nothing. So I
jumped into my truck and rushed back home and forgot all about the damn grocery shopping.
This morning I heard the news reporter saying on television, “The first twenty four hours
after kidnapping is the most crucial time to recover the missing child. Police is urging citizens
who have any information about this crime to contact the law enforcement authorities or
FBI immediately.”
Hum, maybe I should sell my truck. I can be in a lot of trouble if one of these days cops
knock on my door asking question about the missing boy.
I live in a nice suburb with lots of nice houses and fancy yards. Rich gringos always need
their lawns taken care of and that’s all we do. We do weekly mowing, trimming and
mulching. We also repair sprinkler systems, fix broken fences, clean chimneys and replace
blown shingles off the roofs. We’re a full service company called Green Yard Lawn. I started
my business three years ago and worked hard and long hours by myself to get where I am.
Now I run a successful business with two trucks and total of five employees, four cousins and
one nephew.
With two of my cousins I share a mobile home in a trailer park community, the cheapest
place to live in this city. The rent is seven hundred and fifty Dollars a month plus utilities. The
rent is high but not when you divide it by three. I’m the only one in the company who speaks
English and answers the phone. We manage more than thirty yards a day in summer. Most
of my customers are from the a few neighborhoods close to one another so we don’t have a
long drive from one customer to next otherwise with high price of gas it’d be difficult to
make money. In summer I can clear about two thousand dollars a month and send $500 to
my family in Vera Cruse. But in winter it’s more difficult to make good money. Grass does
not grow and my cousins go back to Mexico to have fun with senoritas. There are lots of
Mexican girls here too but they cost too much to maintain. In winter I do five to six yards a
day by myself and pay the full rent. I can’t save money in winter but by the way I mange my
finances I get by. I’m very frugal, I don’t waste money.
My major expense after rent is food. So I don’t do my grocery shopping in my
neighborhood. Stores are crowded full of gringos who look at me funny. Once every two
weeks I go grocery shopping close to downtown where I can buy meat, vegetables and
whatever I need to fill my pantry. In Fiesta I can buy five avocados for one dollar when here
in Tom Thumb they sell them for 60 cents each. Onions, tomatoes and jalapenos are three
times more expensive here than in Mexican Mercado. Although gas is expensive these days,
my total grocery savings justifies the high cost of gas, I just can’t afford being wasteful
especially in this economy.
Yesterday I had no yards scheduled to mow so I woke up late and around ten o’clock I
decided to go shopping. I drove twenty five minutes on highway to get to downtown. When
I reached under the huge mix master close to down town I normally make a U-turn and take
the service road to the Mexican Mercado to do a bulk of my groceries before I go to the
Fiesta. Vicente Fernandez was singing on the radio and I must have been daydreaming
because I missed to turn into the dedicated lane for U-turn so I drove to the intersection to
make the left turn under the bridge and come back to the north-bound service road. Under
three layers of highways I stopped at red light and waited for almost ten minutes and light
didn’t change.
I was the only one needlessly waiting for green and monitoring the U-turn lane ushering
cars to the same road I was trying to get to. I felt like this light was programmed to say red
for ever to punish me for my negligence. No other car shared my fate, I was alone. I waited
another five minutes and nothing happened, the red light was not going to turn green.
Something was wrong with the traffic light, it was not functioning. Impatiently I waited
another five minutes looking around to see if there were cameras installed on the traffic
light poles, there wasn’t any in sight. I didn’t want to break the law not only to avoid legal
troubles but because I couldn’t afford paying the fine. I had bad experiences with cops
before and learned my lesson.
One night I was stopped by a cop because I didn’t have the license plate on front
bumper. I never had one and was never pulled over for that reason but that night I was. The
officer said it was the law and he was right. After that night I paid attention to so many cars
on streets without the license plate on their front bumper. Then I realized there were so
many laws marinated in books waiting to be enforced on people like me. The smartest thing
is to keep a low profile and avoid unnecessary brush with the law especially if you’re
undocumented.
Yesterday under that damn bridge I didn’t know what else to do but to break the law. I
could not keep waiting the entire day behind a red light so I turned off the loud radio and
cautiously made the left turn hoping my felony had gone unnoticed. This traffic violation
would’ve cost me a minimum of one hundred and fifty dollars if I was caught. God knows in
winter time, I can’t make that kind of money in two days.
As soon as the traffic violation was committed I looked in the rear view mirror and saw
no cameras on traffic poles or flashing lights of a police car following me, I sighed in relief. I
turned the radio back on and made another right turn after a couple of miles to get on the
service road. There I noticed a few police cars blocking the service road. About ten other
cars were ahead of me stopped bumper to bumper waiting to be ordered to take the
alternate route. It took another ten minutes to slowly drive up closer and see what was
going on. An SUV was overturned on the road, two police cars blocked the road and one cop
stood in the middle of the road ordering incoming traffic to turn into the only ramp adjacent
to the service road. A fire truck with its lights flashing was parked on the side of the road
and a few firemen were doing their duties. One was sweeping the shattered windshield off
the road and other was guiding a huge tow truck to park close to the capsized vehicle. The
accident didn’t seem to be a serious one with fatalities.
It was now my turn to turn. I had no idea where this detour would lead to but I had no
choice but to obey the officer. So I lowered my gaze to avoid eye contact with the officer in
front as my truck was still missing the front bumper license plate and slowly made the turn
into the ramp. Then I noticed it was clearly marked for high occupancy vehicles only, a huge
diamond was painted on the road. I was the single occupant of the truck. I’d just broken
another traffic rule by obeying the lawman on foot.
At least this time I had a good excuse for breaking the law. But if a cop had stopped me
in the middle of the busy freeway I had a lot of explaining to do. I knew if I was caught, the
cope wouldn’t even listen to my story but gave me a ticket and advised me to go to court
and explain it to the judge. It would’ve meant one day of skipping the work and explaining
why the violation was not my fault in my broken English to a white judge.
As I was driving in HOV lane I kept looking for a way to go back to my original
destination. The damn lane was completely barricaded for protection and to expedite the
traffic flow. I kept looking for an exit lane with no luck. I ended up driving all the way back to
my own neighborhood before I could exit the HOV lane and finally got off the freeway. I was
forced to drive twenty miles back to my home wasting at least five dollars gas and two hours
of my only day off for nothing. I still had to do my grocery shopping.
As angry as I was about my entire morning, the event of today seemed weirdly funny. I
was hungry yet too frustrated to drive back to downtown to do my grocery and it seemed
senseless to go back to an empty refrigerator. As I was dwelling what to do next driving in
the neighborhood close to my mobile home park I noticed a Salvation Army store and turned
in the parking on a whim and parked the truck. Why would they build such a store in this
town? Rich people don’t need salvation they have money, no wonder the parking lot was
empty. I went inside just to browse for a few minutes as I had no money to spend on clothing
or furniture I didn’t need. Prices were all high for a store designed to sell used merchandise
to low income customers like myself. I walked out of the store hungrier than before
wondering what to do next.
Before I got to my truck I saw a man on the opposite side of the street in a deserted gas
station forced a little boy into his truck and hurriedly drove off and disappeared. I could not
believe what I saw. His truck was the same year and model as mine, an old white Ford F-
150. That was not good. What if someone saw him kidnapping the little boy and gave the
description of my truck to police? My God, what an awful day, nothing was going right for
me. The smartest thing was to get away from there before I was arrested for nothing. So I
jumped into my truck and rushed back home and forgot all about the damn grocery shopping.
This morning I heard the news reporter saying on television, “The first twenty four hours
after kidnapping is the most crucial time to recover the missing child. Police is urging citizens
who have any information about this crime to contact the law enforcement authorities or
FBI immediately.”
Hum, maybe I should sell my truck. I can be in a lot of trouble if one of these days cops
knock on my door asking question about the missing boy.
