Tales From The Blue Reptile

TALES FROM THE BLUE REPTILE

by SCOTT L ANDERSON

Copyright © 2003

Online editions may also be available for this title. For more information,

please visit us at www.lulu.com.

Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers and/or authors.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no

responsibilities for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained

herein.

2 | Tales From The Blue Reptile

As always, this is for Bones and Twinkie.

and

For Dennis, the wildest son of a bitch that I ever

knew. I hope you were in heaven at least five

minutes before the devil knew you were gone.

Tales From The Blue Reptile | 3

I am the lizard king. I can do anything

J. Morrison

4 | Tales From The Blue Reptile

BLUE REPTILE

La Mesa is down by Tijuana. It's probably the worst prison in Mexico,

maybe in the whole goddamn world. I was getting close to my third

anniversary there and I was still relatively in one piece. I'd been pretty

lucky so far since I hadn't been shot, shanked, turned out, or even had

my ass kicked.

I had just come back from the weight pile and was relaxing in my casa,

sipping a Corona and sharing a joint with my cellmate, Javier, a huge

biker doing a life bit for murdering a rival gang member by hacking off

his head with a machete. When the Federales pulled him over they

found the head in one of his saddlebags.

Doing time in Mexico is a helluva lot different than it is back up in the

states. In the good old U. S. of A. you can go to the joint and still expect

to get three hots and a cot even if you don't have a damn dime to your

name. In Mexico if you don't have any jack you're going to be sleeping

on the floor in a communal cell with about fifty other indigents and

shitting over an open hole while all your cellmates watch. And you're

going to be over that hole a whole lot because your diet will consist

Tales From The Blue Reptile | 5

mostly of beans, rice, and if you're lucky a bit of horse or donkey meat.

All mixed together.

My stay was being bankrolled by my employer in the states. My inmate

account had a check deposited like clockwork in it every month. It paid