THREE MEXlCAN STORIES
21
"Our country," Juan muttered. "What will it be like down
there? "I don't know if I'll get used
to
it again. I won't have
any friends-but it's worse not having anything
to
eat! .
Good-bye, Tony," he said. "Tell all the others good-bye to–
night."
His wife repeated, like an echo, "Tell all the others good–
bye."
Juan, seeking out his children with a look, said, "Say good–
bye to Tony, boys."
Again Tony held out his hand, grasped with affection. For
everyone he had a word of courage and a phrase of hope. He
stood a moment looking at those who were going into that other
land, Mexico, that at the end of the bridge became a separate
geographical section with a different name.
The footsteps of Juan and his family, beating an uneven
rhythm on the bridge, echoed in Tony's heart. All around him
the lights spread out in a twinkling circle, as the vague sil–
houettes of his friends were lost in the shadows of the night like
the outlines of a dream. The last thing he saw of them was
their friendly hands waving affectionate farewell.
Although his difficulties were many, Juan kept up hope.
Perhaps it was merely bureaucratic slowness that made complex
that which in reality should be arranged with ease, without com–
plications-for official machinery had tangled up everything in
a tiresome snarl of absurd red tape. His rustic brain refused to
accept so many formulas. He couldn't see why one's country put
such a mountain of obstacles in the paths of those who had
come back home. Nevertheless, he and his family, carried along
by the attractions of the unknown, travelled optimistically from
the border into the heart of the land that in former times, they
had left behind them.
Mexico
I
The stations followed one after another in a kind
of enervating calm. Later came the desert. Arid, dry, without
vegetation. Life giving evidence of itself only through the
whistle of the engine or the unexpected appearance of aggressive
coyotes.
Then again, little by little, the stations became more fre–
quent. The stops less long. Juan and his family did not sleep,
anxious to gather into their eyes all the forgotten landscape.
"Say, old woman, here's the station where we first took the
train, do you remember?"
She waited until the sharp whistles ceased before she ans-
