Daylight had come with Chonito sitting alone in a truck parked in front of a house in the swanky San Francisco neighborhood of Chihuahua City. The truck's windows were half-way lowered. It was his new abode, but he had been lingering in the pickup. He shared it with a group of other men, some older and some younger than him. The curtains were drawn and the automatic door to the large garage was closed, so it could not be known from the outside if the residents were in or out or up or in bed. Chonito fingered the electronic key fob that disarmed the alarm system, which also served to announce to those inside that somebody was coming in. The protocol called for pressing the disarm button at least a few seconds before he came in to not surprise those inside. It was a routine Chonitos had followed many times by now, but he hesitated. A long while passed with Chonito siting motionless in the truck.
In the meantime, a small flock of blackbirds and sparrows lit on his truck and on the single tree, a pine, planted in the otherwise featureless bricked front yard.
The birds scouted every inch of the vehicle in search of a morsel that might have left behind by humans. They collectively scavenged all the nooks and crevices of the rear box, roof, and front hood, but found nothing. In the process, a small brown bird lit on the truck's window sill and methodically inspected its narrow ledge, probably a behavior that had been rewarded in the past by the discovery of something edible. Just before it walked the full gauntlet, the little bird turned an eye to the inside of the truck and caught the sight of something that made it pause. The bird stood motionless, curious, intensely anxious. Even the slightest movement from the other side of the glass window would tell the bird to quickly flee. Chonito stared back, completely still. The stand off lasted only a couple of seconds. The bird saw something rare. Another bird land beside it for a brief second, as if to provide a quick consultation, and they both darted way at once. The rest of the flock followed immediately in a burst of flutters and high-pitched chirps, leaving the entire neighborhood quiet and still.
Chonito, took a deep breath and pressed the disarm button without stirring or even turning his gaze from the truck window. Seconds later, somebody peaked through the curtains in the house. Chonito sensed the motion and threw open the truck door and walked up to the front door.
He opened the door and walked through a long unlit vestibule into a brightly lighted living room.
"Hey, Culito!" a young tall man called out to him from the opposite end of the living room close to the entryway leading to the kitchen, "where've you been?"
"JJ, güey, JJ," said Chonito, "I've been scoping out the police headquarters like they told me."
The young man snickered and turned back to somebody who stood out of Chonito's line of sight in the kitchen.
"Ah, sí, El JJ," said the young man, "you've grown up."
Chonito walked to the middle of the living room and collapsed onto large white on gold velour sofa with embossed paisleys. He looked around for the remote control to the large flatscreen television sitting opposite the sofa. He finally spotted it in the flaccid hand of a man sleeping in front of the cabinet on which the television set was resting. The man was fully clothed, as if he had fallen asleep trying to figure out how to operate the television. His hat, a white felt, lay crushed under his head. Chonito threw up his hands and looked up to the ceiling.
"And this güey asleep in front of the TV?" asked Chonito out loud, "new or visiting or what?"
"He's your new partner, Culito, I mean, JJ," said a man from inside the kitchen, "be careful with him cuz he just came down from the mountains and hasn't yet learned beds, TV's or even the difference between women and pretty young boy like you."
"Ah, Culito, finally you've arrived," a dark curly-haired man said from a dark hallway.
"Sí," said Chonito.
"He doesn't like it when they call him Culito," the tall young man said, "he want to go by El JJ."
"Well, whatever you go by, what happened last night?" asked the curly-haired man gruffly.
"Nothing," said Chonito.
"What do you mean nothing?" barked the man, now rubbing his hair with a towel, "I didn't send you there to see nothing."
"Well, I watched all night until the shift changed at six, and nothing happened," answered Chonito.
"Fool, something always happens!" barked the man, "you're job is to catch it and report back to me. Understand?"
"Well, sí, that's what I did," said Chonito, "but nothing happened."
"Slobbering fool," said the man, "anybody go it our out, or did were they closed for the night and didn't let anybody out even to smoke cigarettes? I can't believe you didn't catch anything. Who're you with, us or the others?"
"No, no," pleaded Chonito, "nobody came in all night, neither pedestrians or cars. Nobody stepped out at all. There wasn't anybody milling around even in the lobby, which was lit up and abandoned except for the receptionist all night. Now the receptionist did seem to be on the phone a lot, but otherwise had no customers."
"You see, there was something happening, idiot," said the man, "it's just that you didn't know to look for it. But how do I know you're telling the truth? That there was some traffic and you were asleep or you're lying."
"Why would I tell you anything but the truth?" asked Chonito, a worried look on his face, "you said watch the state police station downtown and that's what I did. I watched from the big window in the restaurant across the street with the lights out like you told me. I only went to the bath room once. I wouldn't think of you deceiving you because I know it'll bring me big trouble."
The man looked intently into Chonito's face and scowled. After a few seconds, he turned away.
"You better not forget that trouble you'll be in if you do lie to me," said the man.
"I bet they now know we're watching them and are doing their business somewhere else," man said turning to the kitchen.
"It was about time they figured it out," said the man out of sight in the kitchen, "let's not waste time there anymore. Move them to another place."
"You hear" him?" the curly-haired man asked, turning back to Chonito, "rest up today because tonight you're going to El West, you and this beast on the floor."
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