DJB and Me...

San Diego around 9 at night, DJB and I are in Old Town. We're eating at a little place, the kind of Mexican restaurant with a tiny, old Latina making fresh tortillas in the front window. Damn, they're good. We're drinking cold beer, we've had fish tacos, carnitas, ceviche, we're eating our way through the menu. At 10:30  we decide to drive to Ensenada. I don't even remember why. It was a good idea at the time. What the hell, it's only 89 miles away, a short ride down the coast.

We climb in DJB's Silverado, silver and red Silverado, a single cab with a toolbox bolted in the bed. We cross the border and get lost in Tijuana.

"Hey there Hor-hey, how the hell do we get to En-sen-nay-da?" A Mexican guy and his wife, look at DJB like he's crazy, never the less he points us in the right direction.

It's a beautiful drive down the coast. A full moon, the Pacific Ocean is on the right, beautiful beaches and a smooth 2 lane asphalt road, no traffic.  

I get thirsty, open a couple of cold Tecates and hand DJB a bottle, he takes a massive pull and slips the bottle between his legs. We've got the windows down and the radio is blasting a million watt Tijuana oldies station. DJB is driving a nice steady 80. 

Time flies, a couple more Tecates and we're at the harbor. It's 1 in the morning. Nothing is open. We see a local strolling down the street, DJB stops. The guy looks at us like we're crazy.  The Mexican, in perfect English, tells us, "There's only one place open, a late-night place. Alfredo's Sea Boy Bar."

We find Alfredo's, park the Silverado. The Sea Boy has no door, just a greasy curtain.  We pull back the curtain when we do everyone in the bar turns and stares at the two gringos in the doorway. Even the music stopped. It's a scene from a movie and we're in it.

Dennis and I make our way to the bar. At the end of the bar, there is a big guy, his back to the wall, it's Alfredo himself. We order tequila shots and a couple of Tecates from the bartender, a hawk-faced woman with a scar that runs from her hairline, down her left cheek and curves off under her chin. Alfredo later tells us that her boyfriend's wife carved her up one night in a fit of temper. 

We've become friends with Alfredo because his brother lives in Chicago. He likes us so much he gets up, goes behind the bar and pours us samples of tequila. The consensus, Sauva Commemorative. Alfredo joins us in shot knocking. God only knows how many we have as the hours' pass. We've become Alfredo's mejores amigos, 

Dennis and I are now part of the late-night gang at the Sea Boy. 

Making my 3rd or 4th trip to the hellish restroom, as I'm standing at the open trough, I can see the sun coming up through the slit window above me. I wash my hands in the rusty water and head back to the bar. 

"Dennis, the sun is coming up, we need to get back. Dennis and I get into an argument. He claims, "It's not sunrise, it's the false dawn." 
I have to show him my watch 6 times to convince him we have to go. We are embraced by Alfredo, the scar-faced woman gives us a sneer. 

Out on the street, Dennis spots a stray dog, he takes off after it. He's yelling, "Com ere, don't you want to move to the United States like every other Mexican?" He can't catch the dog, he stumbles back, out of breath. "You see that dog? Damn, he was nice, I really wanted that dog."

Back on the road, Dennis lasts about ten miles, "You gotta drive, I can't do it." 

I get behind the wheel, Dennis gets his sleeping bag out of the toolbox, rolls it out in the bed of the Silverado, climbs in and passes out. 

I'm driving my ass off to get back to San Diego, my plane to Boston is at noon, I have to be at the airport at 11 and I haven't packed yet.

At the border, the agent asks me, "Country of birth?"
"USA."
"How about your buddy in the back?"
Dennis sticks his out of the sleeping and says "Fort Knox, Kentucky, goddammit." We make it through and I didn't have to declare the quart of Sauza Commemorative Alfredo sold me at cost.

I made it home, I'm still alive, but sometimes I wonder how I made it this far. Dennis is too and wonders the same damn thing.