Finally standing directly in front of the interrogators, Ervey got the full picture of the situation he was in. The bench on which the interrogators were noting the answers to their questions was simply a wooden slat yanked from the corral and balanced on an old metal drum barrel. The interrogators sat on the tail gate of a pickup parked on the loading ramp extending from the corral. Behind them was a squad of armed men who either leaned against the cab of the pickup or sat on the sides of the box. They all looked quite bored, including the two interrogators. None of them even looked to get a good look of Ervey when it was his turn to go before them.
"Next," was all that was said.
Everybody in the pickup wore cowboy boots and dark solid colored pants and shirts. Nobody wore anything that resembled a uniform of any kind. Half of the men wore baseball caps, while the other half wore straw cowboy hats.
"Name?"
"Harvey Ramirez," Ervey answered grimacing but without hesitating.
"Going where?"
"Chihuahua," Ervey answered looking up at the men in the box of the pickup then over to the approximate spot in the line where Lilo would be standing. Nobody noticed his glances. Lilo was still out of sight.
"From where?"
"El Mulato," Ervey answered firmly.
The two interrogators looked up at him curiously.
"Another one from El Mulato," one of them said. The guards behind him looked up and took notice.
"What's going on with so many blacks on the highway this evening?" the other interrogator said rhetorically.
"Sí, very strange," his partner answered, "where is this place? Are there really a lot of black people living there?"
The men in the box laughed mockingly.
Ervey said nothing.
"Well, where is it? Speak up," insisted the first interrogator.
"It's an old rancho south of Ojinaga," said Ervey.
"So the people there are just rancheritos, country folk, not Africans?" the interrogator asked.
"That's right," said Ervey.
"Who's truck were you driving?"
"My boss'," said Ervey.
"Paper?"
"In the glove compartment," said Ervey.
"Wait, you're talking about the big Chevy, right?"
"Sí," said Ervey.
"That's fine, then. Move on. Next!"
Ervey moved aside but sneaked a peak at their notepad. It only had a few scribblings, not nearly enough even to account for the answered he had just given them. He looked up at the sky and again in Lilo's direction. The dust seemed to have settled. It was now possible to see from one end of the corral to the other. On the other end, the entrance to the corral was now closed. The truck they were standing on earlier was gone and a crowd of guards stood behind it looking agitatedly into the corral.
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