Crispy Baby

The Truck

This day started like any other in Tijuana, a city of Baja California. Papa drove the family food truck to a good street while mama cut the vegetables, I sat in my make-shift crib next to the week expired tortilla chips. I wasn't even two years old then but I still remember.

I remember how the grill smelled when the Pollo desmenuzado (shredded Chicken) for the Fajitas was cooked, I remember how the light reflected off the silver tuck at noon. Most of all I remember the stench of the deep fryer. That horrid smell. it needed cleaned way more often than it was, it was stained brown and started gathering rust at the edges. "Edwardo we need to pick up more tomatoes if you want me to make salsa today" Mama said "sí mi amor remind me after we stop" replied Papa. Ordinary conversations for a very un-ordinary day.

By the time Papa got the truck to a good spot it was already almost eleven. so they had to get ready quickly for lunch hour. The whole day was rushed but profitable no doubt. I sometimes recognize the faces of the customers around town that I saw that day a man with his messy face, a woman and her child all happy to see my parents and happy to help out their business.

At closing time my Mama set me on the counter while she cleaned and Papa took the garbage down the street to the dumpster. I was half asleep barely keeping my eyes open while I watched Mama work. All I remember next, is extreme pain all over my body, the roaring sound and horrible stench of the fryer.

The closest thing i can find to describe what happened next is something called an out of body experience. I saw my self from somewhere else, i saw mama screaming and crying i wanted to comfort her but she didn't seem to notice me she was leaning over the deep fryer trying to pull something out with the strainer when she pulled it out i couldn't believe what i was seeing, it was me. At least i think it was it was, it was so deformed and gross looking that it could have been anything. Papa ran in alarmed by her screams, He looked at what was supposedly me in my Mamas arms and took me from her he asked her what had happened. She explained how she forgot to turn off the fryer and looked away for not even a second and the next thing she knew i was head first in the fryer.

Papa was angry he didn't want mama to be sad so he told her to sit in the front of the truck while he dealt with me. i heard her crying in the front of the truck while Papa looked around. He grabbed the week old tortilla chip box that i would play in and took out a large bag and placed my deformed corpse in it. After wrapping it a few times he placed me in the box and taped it shut. After that he placed the box in the trucks under compartment, and drove out to the desert. He held mamas hand while he lit my box on fire and left me there.