The river cuts through the heart of town. As the boy walks to his job down at the feed store he watches the water moving slowly in wide green sheets. He thinks of Mina. He knows her name quite well. He says her name to himself and smiles. The sound of it makes him laugh. The sound of her name pushes him into a little trot and he kicks out at a squashed beer can, sending it spinning down the rocky bank. He can’t believe how just the thought of her transforms his breath. He starts running down Mission, past the saddle shop, past the pit bull that always charges him, then retreats screaming like a coward when he stops short and turns on it. He laughs at his power over dogs and runs on. He can feel Mina’s long waist, her ribs under the light cotton dress; the way her back always breaks out in hot bands of sweat when he touches her breasts. He can taste her neck and feel the deep tremble in her chest as she pulls him tight to her and wraps her leg high up around him whispering Spanish in his ear.

Foreigners

FOREIGNERS