Maybe I was blacking out or going delusional, but all my mind could
process was the thoughts of dying and about how my mom would kill
me if he didn’t first. I can still recall the vivid rage in his eyes
as he crept by and the gleam of his gun clenched in his fist shining into the spot we were hiding in.
	Flashback, to two days ago- we were all chilling by the store chewing
on some cold empanadas.  It was me and the crew; Gwa Gwa the hustler,
Ramon the funny one, and Jose the loco. (Gwa Gwa means bus in Spanish)
It was another deadly summer, and we could either live in the shade or die in the
sun; until Jose came up with the ‘great’ idea to head out to the river
a few miles down from here. “Mira…. Every Friday there’s always MAD
girls out there plus the watier wll be niccceeee” exclaimed Jose. “You
must be either crazy or stupid; do you not know how far that is?
That’s passed Carajo Land bro” replied Gwa Gwa. See, here is where the
issue arose. The river we were trying to head to was about 12 miles or
so away, if we followed the path to get there.  If we decided to trek
it by the time we got there all the ladies would be gone, at least all
the cute ones.
	“Not if we cut through the Diablo’s Steps” said Jose. This is where
one of the stupidest trips begun, not only have we all been warned
about the ghetto we’ve been told time and time again not to even head
near it. In the barrio parents would scare their children with stories
about shoot-outs and evil monsters. All these stories took place in
Diablo’s Steps. In unison it seemed like we all gulped at once, of
course none of us were going to admit that we were afraid, that’s for
punks. So we took off with our beach towels in hand over the barbed
wire heading through the infamous ghetto.
	When you think of filthy places you probably conjure an image of an
old broken down slum or a ghetto you might have passed or lived in; but
when dirty ghettos think of ghettos - they think of Diablo’s Steps.
This was probably the worst place I’ve been to in my life. Imagine
your favorite city in the world; now picture it with all the buildings
half destroyed, covered in 12 different colors, and naked kids running
around it while holding rocks for toys in there hand.  That’s what we
were walking through in dirty sandals, swimming shorts, and with towels in
hand.
	“Guys…. Before we go any further I need to tell you something”
confessed Jose. “See, a few weeks ago I had to make a run through here
with my uncle and I might have shot at someone.” I had never, ever, heard
a more awkward pause in my life. “WHAT?! You couldn’t tell us that
before we trekked half-way through shits-vile?” said Ramon while
pulling out his hair.  “Bro... I didn’t come in here guns blazing captain commando style its just, these guys were about to stick me up and I got nervous” said Jose.
“Look we’ll be fine, I’m sure the guy doesn’t even remember me. Come on we’re almost out of
here anyways, just keep your eyes open for anything.” Right at that
very moment its like god heard that himself and decided to slap us all
in the face with a ridiculous amount of irony.
       Not even had 15 minutes passed when Jose stopped dead in his tracks
in the middle of the dirt road. “Guys, I think we need to run.”
Standing across the street with his friends was sure enough the guy
Jose was talking about. Either that or someone who really wanted to
hurt us.  I don’t think I ever ran so fast in my life, and if I did it
must have been in my dreams. We sprinted through neighbor’s yards and
across the stacked houses until we saw a pile of rubble with a small
hole under it that we could squeeze ourselves into and hide in. “Quick
in here!”  Said Gwa Gwa while flinging himself into the opening of the
rubble.  If you could have seen the way we were squished in there you
would think we were trying to start our own circus act. To make it all
worse, we could hear and see through an opening in the rocks to where
our pursuer was coming from. Between all the yelling and heavy
breathing it was hard to focus but I’m pretty sure I could never
forget the face I saw that day.
       After we got out under the pile we all decided to together to punch
Jose a few times for almost killing us. “Let’s go home guys” said
Jose. “No way, we’re still heading to the river- we didn’t run all
this way for nothing.” So we trekked the last mile, well more like we
sprinted the last mile but when we got there it was all worth it.
       I swear it looked like a little piece of heaven had made its way on
to earth in a form of a river. The water shimmered and swayed left and
right and was just the right temperature for a blazing summer’s day. We all
couldn’t help but smile, also- we told all the girls there that I was
from America and you should know that they love that type of stuff
over there. In the end, it was all worth it even though we almost lost
our lives in the process.

-Jon Lawke. 2008.