Lowrider Lost in the Land of Giants!

CHAPTER ONE:  DAMN GPS!

Chuy, as usual, was late for the Friday night cruise.  Pinche Frank kept him after work to talk about Monday’s job.  He’d promised to take Huero along for the ride, but Chuy didn’t have time to drive across town to pick him up and then back again to Josie’s All-Night Diner, where the club met.  He rushed through one more wipe down of his ride, then edged his way into the weekend rush hour. Mistake.  

After a half-hour of going nowhere, he crawled off the interstate using an unexpected exit.  He pulled over and tried to get his GPS to give him an alternate route to Josie’s, but the app wouldn’t cooperate.  His phone went blank for a minute.  “Mother….” He thought about tossing it out the window.  The screen flashed, whistled, and buzzed.  No GPS audio, but directions appeared in a strange font, hard to read.  Chuy followed the best he could. 

He drove through neighborhoods he’d never seen, past buildings he didn’t recognize.  He circled blocks, backed out of dead-end alleys, disoriented.  He slammed his fists against the steering wheel, then jumped on the gas pedal.  His Caddy swerved through the darkness.  He looked for something familiar.  A street sign, a Walgreen’s, a Sonic – anything.  He found himself on a dark stretch of road surrounded by weeds and rocks. He couldn’t see any city lights.  None of the downtown buildings. No other cars shared the road.   He stopped and climbed out.

Thump.  Thump. Thump.  The ground shook.  He saw what he thought were trees shaking in the misty moonlight, but they were too big.  The shadows parted.  He couldn’t believe what he saw.  

What the hell . . . 

Lowrider Lost in The Land of Giants (2019)
Lowrider model, story and diorama by Manuel Ramos

Alebrije Toro by Luis Sosa Calvo, from the collection of

Flo Hernández Ramos

Later.

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Manuel Ramos writes crime fiction. His latest is The Golden Havana Night (Arte Público Press.)