22. Deserted

Their stop in Aldama was Palpelería Popular, and office-school-party supply store located in the very middle of town.  It had been the only office and school supply store in town for generations. It was an important draw to the small downtown, despite the fact that Aldama had been turning into a suburb of Ciudad Chihuahua for the past ten years. It's place as a cornerstone of downtown had scarcely changed when Ervey and Lilo drove to it that Monday, yet when they arrived there was hardly anybody around either in or near the store. For that matter, all of downtown seemed eerily abandoned.


"This is very strange," said Ervey, "I've been coming here several times a month for almost a year and it's always so crowded it's hard to get the truck in. Now there's hardly anybody around. Is today a holiday I didn't know about? Day of the office store clerk or the downtown shopper?"




Lilo said nothing as he backed the truck with a couple of feet to the front entrance effortlessly. When he was done, he looked over at Ervey.


"What are we picking up here?" he said.

“Not sure, but wait here a minute while I go in and check with the owner,” said Ervey, opening his door and looking around before he stepped down from the truck. He saw that the long window ledge in front of the store, usually filled with people 

Lilo took his hand off the stick shift and sat back in his seat, indicating he was going along with Ervey’s plan.

Ervey got out and went to the front door, which was made of plate glass like the rest of the long storefront. He looked into the store a few seconds. He saw little activity but nothing that indicated anything was amiss. The establishment showed every other sign that it was open for business. The lights were on. The public sound system played the usual animated ranchera music. The floors were swept, and all of the merchandise was neatly displayed as always. The only thing that was odd was that there were no customers either in the aisles or at the checkout counter. The staff was huddled near the back way wall next to the door that led to the owner’s office and stock room. Ervey furrowed his brow and yanked the door open. 

“Hello,” he said loudly, “you open?”

The staff was clearly surprised. They all stiffened and turned their attention to a bald olive-skinned man standing with his arms crossed standing with his back against the rear door. Nobody responded for several long seconds. The bald man seem to awaken from deep thought and looked Ervey over briefly then pointed his finger at him indicating that he remembered who Ervey was  and why he was there. He pushed off the wall and waved the staff to disperse.

“Ervey, sí, uhh, sí, uhh...” he said, stuttering, trying to gather his composure as he spoke “good morning.”

“Good morning, Don Octavio,” said Ervey, “we come for the pickup. Is it going to work if we carry it out through the front door?”

“Sí, the front door’s fine. You’re not blocking anything,” he said recovering a measure of accustomed authority,” everything’s in sacks that has to be dollied with care anyway.” 

He waved Ervey to follow him to the back room. 

“You come alone?” he asked as Ervey stepped through the threshold.”

“No. I have a partner,” said Ervey, looking down a about a dozen half-filled gunnysacks tied off with bailing wire.

“The dolly is right behind you,” Don Octavio said, “don’t stack them. They’ll have to go out one by one.”

“OK, let me call my partner and get started,” he

“No. Probably best for him to get up in the hold and you hand the sacks up to him so he can arrange them in tight rows against the very back of the cargo box,” instructed Don Octavio forcefully, “also tie them down in the box so they don’t bounce around and rip the sacks. Each sack’s a complete set of parts. Lots of small pieces. Some items are heavy. Also some sharp edges. It was a lot of trouble assembling each set, so I don’t want you to arrive in Ojinaga with pieces missing or strewn all over the back of your truck. I’ll get one of my clerks to stand by the door and open it for you as you load.”

Ervey tested one of the sacks and found he could carry two at a time.

“Better one at a time,” Don Octavio ordered in a raised voice when he saw Ervey about proceed without the dolly.

Ervey did as he was told. Don Octavio stepped back into the storeroom, making it clear that he was going to supervise the work. Once at the truck, Lilo stepped out of the truck and offered to help.

“All I need is for you to take the sacks as I hand them to you and arrange them in a couple of tight rows in the corner away from the safe,” said Ervey, “they’re all the same size and not that many, so tie them down when they’re all on.”

Lilo nodded and hopped on the bed of the box.

“Don Octavio’s a little rare this morning, so let’s hurry up and get out of here,” Ervey added under his breath.

On the way back in, he made eye contact with the clerk assigned to open the front door and raised his eyebrows to him to ask discretely what was going on.

The young man, his face a close resemblance of Don Octavio’s physical features and expression of concern, hissed a long soft whistling noise. Ervey kept moving. All of the store help watched him in silence from their stations. 

Soon all of the sacks were securely loaded into the box. Don Octavio came out to inspect. 

“It’s OK,” he said and walked back into the store, looking back over his shoulder in every direction.”

“Vámonos,” said Ervey.

When the truck was finally back on the highway, Ervey whistled a loud, high-pitched chord approximating a bugle call he remembered hearing in an old western.

“Something strange’s happening back there,” he said, “no?”

“Not happening, happened,” said Lilo.

“What? You know?” asked Ervey.

Lilo nodded with uncharacteristic animation. 

“The guy at the door told me that yesterday afternoon somebody tried to collect an extortion from a neighboring merchant but was confronted by Don Octavio and a posse of other downtown merchants armed squirrel rifles, machetes and homemade weapons. The guy shot at them but missed, and the crowd shot back. He then ran away to a carload of his escorts, but the crowd cornered all of them. He also said that Don Octavio and his side negotiated with the bad guys to stop extorting in exchange for them being let go. And that by they time they left, the first bad guy was bleeding a lot,” he said.

“Wow, incredible!” said Ervey, “but I wonder why downtown is so abandoned.”

“They guy also said that this morning they found a banner with a message from the gangsters that Don Octavio and his people are going to pay for their boldness,” said Lilo.

“So everybody’s expecting a big reprisal,” said Ervey.

Lilo remained silent.

“And here we are hauling away some gunnysacks filled with something we don’t know from the very guy the gangsters are after,” said Ervey, “you think Don Octavio's somehow involved with those gangsters, and they were simply trying to collect what he owed them?”

Lilo slowly shook his head.

“That’s what people always say when they can't explain why somebody gets whacked. People like to think that,” he said, still moving his head from side to side, “but you never know for sure why or even who?”

Ervey felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“I forget. How much longer to Ojinaga?” he asked.

“Two and a half hours by the low road, three hours by the mountain pass,” Lilo said.

“Let me think about that a little,” said Ervry.

Lilo nodded.