With a rip roarin’ yelp of ‘Orale!’ from pot bellied naco in cowboy hat and black fart and squeal of gears, the bus pulls out of heat blasted El Paso. El Paso - Nacotown - dusty dead museum of lackluster Tex-Mex populace, ‘Adios’ I whisper myself bitter and sad as we roll into the great expanse of middle Texas - out where the dear and the antelope play under that dazzling blue sky stretching forever and ever.
Optimistically stare into the mundane flatness and I ponder what lay ahead. The other passengers sit in apathetic silence - wonder if they are thinking the same thing. The trip is long and tiresome. Rusted abandon gas stations - home of lizards and ghosts of Indians metamorphoses into moss covered shotgun shacks under watchful gaze of frazzled old black man in denim overalls as we travel through Louisiana bayous and Alabama bogs and into Florida everglades. Past the highway rest stops - the bathhouses of the new millennium and confusion in changing buses in San Antonio, Houston, Tallahassee, Orlando - the only thing that made it worth while was my seat companion, James - seventeen year old black kid, tall skinny and handsome traveling home to Orlando from San Antonio visit with relatives. We talked of things to while away the time - he rapped with the two ever-smiling gay Jamaicans returning home as I scribbled notes in my notebook - it is still wonderful to know that humanity still exists in this garbage dump.
Cigarette cigarette cigarette - each stop, each stop becoming more unbearable than the last but Angel Headed destination coming closer lightened the angst. Snack on bread and fresh salami purchased from smiling plump Cuban Mother in Pensacola roadside bodega under waving palms, she had a smile and warmth that kept my cold heart going as her little white cat purred against my pant leg.
The Florida everglades sprawl out as we head south to Miami - the final destination on this route. Gleaming spires sprout up in the distance as Miami looms nearer. Clothes stick to my wet body as the humid air engulfs me - bus pulls into downtown Miami station and with a little enquiry - I jump - exhausted from that two day trip - the elevated train through this dazzling metropolis to hotel Miami Sun where I get a small room for three nights.
And so, here I am - sipping damn good coffee and smoking my last pack of Luckies at a corner cafe, some sort of mambo jazz playing, listening to the strange Spanish dialects being warbled and passionately discussed around me, watching the locals stroll to and fro in the muggy air under the big yellow moon and I am damn happy with this decision and knowing that for now - all is good in the universe…