He buried his uncle in Nuevo Laredo then drove back across the river and out to Colonia Angeles to visit his mother's grave in the little cemetery. There he had cried for her and for himself. He felt alone in the world.
He stood to leave but heard a shrill scream from a shanty where women had gathered. They told him in Spanish that the woman inside was having a child, but the baby was stuck and the midwife could not turn the baby. The woman and child would surely die. He ducked inside the shanty and saved mother and child.
He knew then that this was to be his life. Coming home to the colonias had not been a choice, any more than one chooses where to be born. But still he had questioned his path in life, this harsh life on the border.
But not that day.
That day the governor's wife rode next to him. Their paths in life had intersected on the border. And he no longer felt alone in the world.
'Do you make this journey often?'
Lindsay decided to break the silence.
'Once a week before. Now, perhaps twice a month. But never at night. Highway bandits.'
'Bandits? In America?'
'On the border, it is-'
'I know. An entirely different world.'
Pancho sat between them, the windows were down, and a hot breeze blew through the vehicle. Lindsay stared out at the desert landscape that seemed endless and vacant. Until she saw blue water.
'That is Falcon Lake,' Jesse said, 'where the American on a jet ski was murdered by the cartel. The Mexican government sent an investigator, but the cartel killed him, too. No more investigators came after that. The border runs down the middle of the lake, but Mexican pirates often cross over and rob American fishermen.'
'Bandits and pirates?'
He shrugged.
'But they say the bass fishing on the lake is very good.'
They drank coffee from a thermos and drove through border counties called Zapata and Starr and Hidalgo and small border towns named Rio Bravo and Roma where the river and highway both turned east 'Back in the fifties,' Jesse said, 'Marlon Brando came here to film the movie Viva Zapata. I have never seen it. But these counties became famous when the votes of dead people here elected Kennedy and Johnson in nineteen-sixty.'
— and La Joya and Mission and Alamo and the landscape gradually changed from the scrub brush of the desert to the fertile delta land of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, lush and tropical with palm trees and bougainvillea, lemon and lime orchards, cotton and cane fields, orange groves and grapefruit orchards, and humid air that seemed to stick to her skin. They followed the river all the way to Brownsville at the southernmost tip of Texas.
'The river wraps around three sides of this land and creates a peninsula. There are over one hundred colonias in the county, some completely surrounded by Brownsville, but the city will not annex them because they would not add to the tax base. Ah, we are here.'
Jesse braked to a stop in front of a small white structure that appeared identical to the clinic in Colonia Angeles.
'Four hours, that is not a bad time.'
It was just before eleven.
'I trained a nurse/midwife to work here. Sister Sylvia, she is a nun.'
Lindsay wrapped a green scarf around her head to cover her red hair.
'Will she recognize me?'
'Who would expect to see the governor's wife in a colonia outside Boca Chica?'
They got out and went to the front door where a sign was posted: EL PROHIBIDO EL PASO. DANDO A LUZ.
'Yesterday there was death,' Jesse said. 'Today there will be life.'
Pancho found a shady spot outside. Inside they found a sparkling clinic offering an antiseptic scent, six women in labor, and Wayne Newton's voice on a boom box.
'Sister Sylvia, she likes Wayne Newton. I am not sure why.'
The clinic had been arranged like an old-time labor-and-delivery ward. Three women with bulging bellies lay in beds lined along one wall and three more along the opposite wall. There were no privacy curtains, but there was much moaning and groaning and occasional curses in Spanish. The joy of labor.
'No epidurals in the colonias,' Jesse said.
A round, gray-haired Anglo woman wearing blue latex gloves, a colorful scrub top, and a big crucifix hurried over to them. She had a stethoscope around her neck and a relieved expression on her face.
'Doctor, thank God you have come. Six women, I could not do this alone.'
'Sister Sylvia,' Jesse said, 'this is Nurse Lindsay Byrne. She works with me now. She is Irish.'
A reminder to use her accent. The women greeted each other.
'Sister Sylvia normally delivers two or three babies each week, but six in one day, that is a bit much even for her. That is why she called me.' To Sister Sylvia: 'Any breeches?'
'No, thank God.'
She made the sign of the cross.
'Okay, let us wash up and see what we have.'
Jesse and Lindsay went over to a sink in the back and scrubbed their hands with surgical soap then put on latex gloves. They followed Sister Sylvia to the first woman. In this case, child.
'I've arranged the mothers by age,' Sister Sylvia said. 'This is Delilah Morales. She is fourteen. She is expecting her first child.'
She did not look up from her iPhone. She was texting. Her nails were long and painted red. Her perfume overwhelmed the small space.
'We are close enough to town for cell phone service,' Jesse said. To the girl, he said, 'Hello, Delilah. I am Dr. Rincon. I will be delivering your baby today.'
Like a waiter at a fine restaurant.
' Gracias. '
She groaned against a contraction. After the pain had passed, she resumed texting. Jesse put his hands on either side of her belly and felt for the baby.
'Delilah, I must check your dilation, to see how close you are to delivery.'
She did not respond so Sister Sylvia put Delilah's left leg in a stirrup, and Lindsay did the same with her right leg. Delilah's full attention remained on the iPhone. Jesse put his hand between Delilah's legs. That got her attention.
'Hey! What are you doing?'
'I must check your cervix.'
'Well, don't do it down there!'
Jesse chuckled. 'That is where your cervix is. I have to feel it, to see how dilated it is, to know how close you are to delivery.'
'With your fingers?'
'I am afraid so. It will not hurt much.'
'I do not let men touch me down there.'
One of the other women across the room laughed.
'You sure let Gustavo touch you down there or you would not be here now!'
'?Callate la boca! '
'Girl, do not tell me to shut up!'
'Ruby,' Sister Sylvia said, 'she is Delilah's mother.'
'They're both pregnant?' Lindsay said.
'Yes. Ruby will become a mother and a grandmother today.'
'Okay, ladies,' Jesse said, 'no fighting. It is, uh, not good for your babies.' Back to Delilah. 'I am a doctor. I have delivered many babies. I know you are scared since this is your first baby, but trust me, I know what I am doing. Okay?'
She shrugged and went back to texting. Jesse inserted his fingers into her vagina.
' Dos.'
