“And where is this not as much?”
“You know it’s not here, amigo.”
“Something is here,” the stocky man replied, widening his smile and turning toward us. “What do you bring home, muchacho?” he asked Ignacio.
“Nothing for you,” Ignacio said.
The stocky man’s smile flew off his face like a frightened bird.
“That’s not friendly. I let you use my home,” he said, indicating the cave, and his friend laughed. “Now you must pay me my rent.” He lifted his machete a little and pointed it at us. “I know you have dollars.”
“Give them what you have,” Pancho told Ignacio.
“See, su coyote is smart and friendly,” the stocky man said.
Pancho stood up, and they turned sharply toward him. He raised his arms. Then he opened his knapsack to show that it contained only water and some food.
“You’re welcome to any of this.”
The stocky man spit. “What else do you have?”
Pancho pulled out his pockets to show they were empty.
“Keep going, mi coyote,” the stocky man said, waving the machete at him. “Show us you have nothing.”
Pancho took off his shirt and dropped his pants. I was shocked to see him lower his underwear, too, but they wanted him naked to be sure he was not hiding anything. The disappointed bandit turned to us, and Pancho put his clothes on quickly. He picked up his sack of water and food and edged toward the entrance. The stocky man turned with him.
“You don’t want my poor life,” Pancho said. He looked at us. “I’ll be outside waiting to take you on your way after you pay the rent,” he said.
The two bandits smiled and permitted Pancho to slip past them and out.
“Sí, listen to your coyote,” the stocky man said.
“The bastard,” Ignacio whispered. He turned himself so the two wouldn’t see or hear him speak to me. “You can’t run with the water, Delia. It will slow you down. When I say, you rush out as fast and as hard as you can, and just keep running.” I started to shake my head, and he said, “They won’t just take our money. They will rape you.”
A chill shot through my heart and nearly took my breath away.
“Throw your sacks this way,” the stocky man ordered.
Ignacio nodded at me. He reached down and then tossed the sacks so they fell to the stocky man’s left. His companion crossed and knelt down to go through them. Ignacio took my hand behind his back and moved slowly toward the stocky man.
“We have very little,” he began. “We will give it to you,” he added. “Please don’t hurt us,” he said, sounding weaker now.
The stocky man smiled and relaxed, and just at that moment, Ignacio charged at him, head down like a bull, and shouted, “Run, Delia, run!”
With his shoulder, he hit the stocky man just below his chest and sent him flying into the jagged walls of the cave. When his companion turned, Ignacio kicked him sharply under his chin, and he fell back. I ran through the opening and then off to my right and down the slope, barely keeping myself from toppling. As soon as I reached the bottom, I stopped and looked back at the cave hopefully, expecting to see Ignacio running out after me. Instead, the stocky man emerged, and I slipped quickly behind a large rock and fell to my stomach. I peered around it and looked again. His companion joined him. They spoke for a few moments, looked around, and then went back into the cave.
“Delia,” I heard, and turned to see Pancho, also on his stomach. He was behind a thick bush. “Crawl this way. Quickly.”
I looked back at the cave. Where was Ignacio?
“Delia, crawl now, before they come out again.”
I did as he said.
He looked back at the cave and seized my hand.
“Quickly,” he repeated, and started to run, pulling me along.