The City of Dead Roads.

And then reality reared its ugly head. This morning I woke up and Vincent was gone. Now there is nothing strange about that, people come and go here so quickly that there is a certain unwritten rule that you should not get attached or involved in their plights. But, I did and I was saddened by the fact that Vincent didn’t say goodbye. I really did like him.

Well, my life did go on. I was attempting to locate an apartment in Juarez with the help of Keith and this old hobo named Andy. The old man wore a smelly blue suit that was blotched with stains on the knees and crotch. Andy had an old dirty jacket, shiny over the dirt. He had no socks; his feet were covered in tattered shoes. His greasy silver hair was slicked back over a pink forehead. The old slob always looked slack jawed and incoherent. We found Andy living under a bridge near the mission. He was collecting social security so he had money. He was Irish and used to be a boxer when he was younger. Now he was just old and feeble. One in Juarez and with the advice from a friendly old taxi driver, Andy found an apartment and moved in immediately. I didn’t see any apartments I liked or the rent was too high.

Keith and I hung around some bars but it started to rain. All the streets in downtown Juarez were flooded. We both were drunk beyond belief. To get back to the bridge that crossed to El Paso, we had to wade through hip deep polluted water with the chance of electrocution from downed power lines. It made for a funny situation. Kept asking taxi drivers if they rented canoes. Through that crazy night drizzle streets like Hong Kong we waded slowly through market ways and we come out on the whore street district and get off behind the fruity fruitstands and tortilla beans and taco shacks with fixed wood benches---it's the poor district of Rome. There is no describing the awfulness of that gloom above the adobe rooftops. Rain is blearing down--pretty boys are dashing over gutters full of pools--dogs bark at rushing cars, the drizzle empties eerily into holes of festering sewage...

Once back in El Paso, ate at a Chinese restaurant warmed up to hot tea and returned to The Mish.