Point of Entry (3) - a Catalina Island Serial by Deb Jensen

The people getting off the plane were anything but romantic. Exhausted, frightened and grubby, they crowded into the van, gripping each other, eyes cast down, silent. A tiny girl tripped and fell to the asphalt with a whimper. A graceful young woman, her mother? knelt to pick her up and brushed gravelly stones from her scraped palms.

“Hurry, cabras mugrientas, filthy goats. Do you think we can wait for your brats?” Chava growled. He thrust the mother and bleeding child into the mass of bodies and slid the door closed. He hopped into the passenger seat and turned to Robert. “Go,” he said. “Go. The smell in here is making me sick.”

Chava Garcia’s father, Guillermo, came to California at a time when Mexican laborers were tolerated, if not exactly welcomed. Guillermo found work with a landscaping crew going to Catalina where, after a time, he met and married Lynette Landers, a local girl with a wild reputation. After giving birth to four husky sons, she grew tired of mothering and moved to Las Vegas, leaving Guillermo to raise the boys. As he skidded into alcoholism, his sons roamed town with other Island kids and hung out on the green pier, claiming it as their birthright.  Three of the Garcia boys became restaurant help but Chava proved more entrepreneurial.

He sat sullenly grinding his teeth and glaring into the deepening darkness. Twenty-eight people packed the 12-passenger van that rolled away from the airport just as crepuscular twilight turned to dark. Robert steadied himself for the drive. The first mile on the poorly paved road held the greatest possibility that they would be noticed. After that, he would navigate miles of dirt road with his headlights off; the Rangers never patrolled at night but no need to risk drawing attention. He accelerated to Island cruising speed, 17 miles per hour. Cool evening air, scented with sage, puffed in through the open window. The first mile took 3.5 minutes.