19. Eternal Slog

To quickly get them out of Colonia Villa, Ervey went onto the Canal Freeway. It was already midmorning, and traffic was heavy. As they made their way, they passed a permanent exhibit of a troop of sculptured conquistadors. Each figure bore an expression of determination and past hardships heartily endured, all of them facing north and focused on the same distant point on the horizon. Maintenance of the exhibit was noticeably deficient. As the conquistadors slogged on eternally, tall weeds grew densely all around them and trapped litter blown in from the freeway, making it seem like they were trapped in a rising tide of shiny candy wrappers and plastic shopping bags. The statues themselves looked frazzled, erosion marks showing clearly on there backs and helmets and tiny seedlings sprouting up from bird droppings and dead plant fibers caked into the crannies carved into the stone by their maker. Anybody looking at the site would have calculated that in a few years the conquistadors would eventually succumb to the elements and crumble into a heap of rubble hidden under a carpet of weeds.
"I don't know if they told you," Ervey said to Lilo without turning to look at him, "but we're going first to Aldama, then to Ojinaga, then back to Aldama on our way home."


Lilo nodded that he understood.


"Home quite late, then," was all he said.


"We would've already been leaving Aldama, but my usual partner quit at the last moment and put us in a bind, which is why we had to go for you at the last minute," Ervey said, "no reason, he just had something else he wanted to do. Just, adios, güeyes, you figure out what you´re going to do. "


Lilo did not say anything.


Traffic slowed down again, and Ervey shifted down the Kodiak.


"Some life these pretty boys have. My boss says that if this güey as for his job back tomorrow or anytime in the future, he'll take him back. Son of a bitch," said Ervey, disgustedly but resigned to the fact.


Lilo kept his gaze on the road ahead. He breathed deeply as if to say something, but remained silent.


"How does he do it? What does it take," asked Ervey rhetorically, never turning his head, "lack of same, conceit, no responsibility for anything."


He got no reaction at all from Lilo.


Ervey shrugged.


Then seconds later, when it seemed that Ervey's one-sided conversation had passed, Lilo spoke," you have to be one of them in the first place so you can even ask for the favor."


Lilo's words rousted Ervey out of his introspection. He looked over at to his partner then back to the traffic a few times, as if trying to reply Lilo's words. He shook his head slightly as if to give up and clear his mind.


"Listen, I have to stop by my house quickly to tell my wife that I'm going to come in late tonight," he said, "how about you?"


Lilo took a few seconds to answer, "I'm fine if I can call in when we leave Aldama on the way back."


"No problem," said Ervey, "I have a cellular that you can use."


Lilo nodded.