The Journey to Freedom: Path to WW3

Chapter VIII

"Start every day with a new hope,
leave the bad memories behind
and have faith for a better tomorrow." Unknown

"Nicholas! Nicholas! Wake up!" Josh yells at me.

"Huh" I reply groggily.

"You fell asleep while we were transporting ourselves across. Are you ok bro?" He asks.

"Yeah, I'm ok, I was dreaming or remembering when Genesis and I were at the supermarket" I tell him.

Josh cuts me off "And you killed the cartel boss? Yeah I remember that day, it was all over the news, you got into some deep shit with the army for that one" and laughs while finishing my sentence.

"Ok guys, let's go. We are only about another two hours away from our home base. I want to get there just as fast as you guys do." I say.

We hop on the motorcycles and start moving the elevator up; as we ascend to the surface we get out of a garage from one of the guys that live in the house we leave from. We start driving off and hit the road. I hold on to my brother and we ride into the highway heading for Piedras Negras, Mexico. It's about an hour away from our location. And from there it's half an hour to our base.

We ride and the sun starts to heat up the pavement. In Mexico years ago when I was in my early teens it would get as hot as 110 degrees. As we ride I see the little hills on the side as we pass by them, the semi green plains, and then you can also see the heat waves come from the ground as the sun light hits the ground.

"Man, I'm starving" I think to myself.

So far we've been going for about 40 minutes and I can feel my hunger rising and my head hurting and not to mention that the fact that I feel light headed. I tap my brother on the shoulder.

I yell "I'm hungry"

He yells back "as soon as we get into town we'll stop at a little shack and buy some tacos."

Tacos sound good right about now, unlike that crap they gave me at the damn compound, it looked like vomit mixed with food. Oh god, Food.  There is nothing better than a home cooked meal.

I remember when my mom was alive and she had already divorced my dad, she put up a business in her car. She would drive down the street and yell that she was selling whatever food she had in the car, some days she would sell corn, some day's tacos and other days she would sell plates of fajitas. She would never over charge like most people, she wouldn't do that just to make a quick buck.  She would sell quality foods at a cheap price.

After a year or two people knew who she was and she had plenty of customers buying from her, she would cater parties, cater weddings, she did it all, and her food was the best. I learned what I could from her and my grandmother.  When it came to cooking, granted I may not be them but when it came to cooking for my kids and my sisters, they never complained.

I remember when I was like 22 I made a cookout for my friends over at my house because it was football season, we were going to watch The Dallas Cowboys play and I had my TV outside, my grill, and a large cooler full of Bud Light. If I remember correctly I must've cooked at least 10 pounds of beef fajitas, 10 pounds of chicken, a pound of rice, a pound of beans, a large guacamole bowl, a large bowl of Pico de Gallo, and a whole large can of nacho cheese, and there were at least six of us to start off with.

They asked me if they could invite some more people and of course I can't say no, since my grandmother never denied people to visit and eat her cooking. I said sure as long as they bring a 12 pack of beer I don't mind and by the end of the first quarter of the game there had to have been at the most 30 people. It ended up being a huge party, since I cooked my food so good that whenever someone wanted to have a cookout, they would bring me the food and I would cook it for them and I wouldn't charge them since I was always invited to places, weddings, quinceañeras, parties, I felt like I was my mom.

We finally get to Piedras Negras from driving from Acuna, because Del Rio is on the border of Acuna. And when we got to Piedras, we stop at the first place we saw and ate some good Tortas. Tortas is the Mexican bread stuffed with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, with a splash of lemon juice and some salt. And you have the greatest food ever! I ate maybe like four or five of them. My brother ate three of them, and the other four squad members ate about three to four each. I felt re-energized again but sore from my back and ribs.

My brother pays the guy and he gives a wave while we walk off. We get back on the bikes and we start riding along the roads and I see the road up ahead where I had caught my ex-wife cheating on me for the first, last and only time in my life. I see the bridge where I caught her cheating on me when we were still married. I look at it and tell my brother to stop here.

We get off and he asks me "what's wrong?"

I just look at the bridge and then remember when I was in Washington and I get a phone call that my wife was missing because my mom went to go visit my daughter and she couldn't find her. I get this phone call one day while I was in my hotel room and my mom all hysterical calls me to say that my wife wasn't at the house that the Army had given us.

I decide to ask for some leave and find her. I fly to San Antonio, TX and drive to Eagle Pass, TX. And then cross into Piedras Negras, Mexico. So when I get here I drive to what used to be the house where she used to live and find that the house was demolished and find a mall.

So, I then finally decide to take a taxi and wait at her father's job, so I can follow him to see where she lives at now. I knew it was weird of me following my father in law, but I wondered why my own wife would just up and leave me like that. So, I finally see him getting into a car and it just so happened that she was there to pick him up, we followed her to a house that I had never seen before.

We park outside for a few minutes and ask the taxi driver if he can drive me around the rest of the day and he agrees as long as I pay him his work day and his fare. I give him a $100 bill and ask him if that was enough and he nods. We wait a block down and see her come out of the house and she gets into a car that pulls up from the opposite end of the street and they drive off.

My wife and this guy go into a restaurant for dinner and drinks, and then they get out and take a drive to a park and take a walk. Finally they go to this empty spot and park under the bridge. I tell the taxi driver to park about 20-30 feet away and to wait for me.

I walk to the car and since it was dark, there was no way for them to see me coming. I look patiently to see what they do or what they talk about but there is no way to be patient when it comes to your wife and it involves another man. I see them kissing passionately. I try not to let my emotions get in the way. I see him grope her, and she enjoys it. I see him trying to do something but I can't see what he is doing, but I see her head go down and he starts to lean his head back. I close my eyes and just think about what I could do to him, but instead I just walk up to car and knock on the window.