Short Story

”Johnny!” said Johnny’s mom. “It’s time for dinner, come get your hands washed and set the table for me”.
“Alrighty I’ll be right down can you do me a favor and set out all the forks and knives we are going to need?” said Johnny.
Johnny was a young boy who lived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He was homeschooled because he could not afford to go to a private school with all his friends. His mother had no teaching status, but she tried to teach him everything she knew about survival skills and how to live without a lot of money. Even though Johnny’s schooling was inadequate he still was very smart and took very good notice on his friends vocabulary and tried his hardest to practice with them. Johnny’s dream was to grow up and be an American salesman and that made as much money as possible but that dream was starting to go down the drain considering he was 14 and didn’t have a penny to his name. His plan was to attend Harvard and get a Masters Degree in business and marketing. The only problem was Johnny was over 3000 miles from the campus and had no money to get there. Now Johnny’s only hope was to stay strong and try to tough it out and get through this life of his.
He and his mother were very close. They did everything together. He loved her with all his heart and couldn’t imagine a life without all she did for him. His dad had pretty much abandoned him as a child when he was still in his mother’s womb and was never seen again. Johnny never got to meet his father and doesn’t hear much about him because his mom is so ticked off at him. Johnny wonders if he is in America waiting for him but isn’t quite sure and sometimes thinks about America in itself and crossing the border illegally to get to a better life with his mother. However he has been looking at the village library and on the computers researching the odds of making it across the border. The bad thing is its at a 1/25 chance of making it across. That is the only thing holding Johnny back is the risk of him making it across and leaving his mother to get caught by the border patrol. Johnny is becoming more confident however and is starting to create a fool-proof plan of making it across with his mom.
“Sergeant Mills to the mess hall, Sergeant Mills to the mess hall,” said the intercom.
“I wonder what I did this time,” said Mills.
“Probably just roll call on all the sergeants, I heard we’re going on a training mission today on the border,” said Colonel Willis leader of the Black Ops. “Well good luck dude see you later.” The Black Ops was a special ops group that was funded by the government consisting of the Nation’s top West Point recruits. They were designed to make sure that no one ever got to sniff the border yet alone see it. These recruits had never met each other before and today was their first training mission and they were going to the border to run protocol and check the security systems and learn how things work. This mission was designed to only take around 2 hours since these recruits were so elite and ready for action. The two colonels in this group were flown over from Iran and just landed here in the U.S after getting back from the front lines in Iran. These men were being called down to the mess hall to make sure they had all arrived safely and one of those people was sergeant Mills.
Mills was a very strong clean cut strong American based man. He was raised in a military based family with his father being a colonel in the Vietnam war and leading the Americans. Mills started his training at thirteen and wanted to become just like his dad and lead an army one day. He was not someone to be messed around with as he was top in his class at West Point with elite military training and special ops training. He was sent over to Iran for an undercover mission trying to discover the whereabouts of the Nuclear explosives they were hiding over there. He was sent over as Ali Farokmanesh and had to dress as a smelly old farmer for 10 years discovering all he could about the Iranians. He used his skills in military to also help the U.S ground forces to move through by taking out a few important leaders in this conspiracy.
Now Mills was back on familiar soil and ready for action. Little did he know he would be assigned to the least exciting job in the military “border patrol”. Mills was not so thrilled about this and at one point almost decided to retire from the army. Mills was a very powerful person and people looked up to him and he knew that and that’s why he stayed in the army and did his time on the border. “Alright Mills here’s the deal. You and a couple members of your squad will be going out with you today to the border for a quick check up on the guards. You will learn the security systems, and how to do work out there. We leave in 0600 hours get your stuff and get ready to go,” said commander Wilson.
“Alright Mills here we are, the U.S, Mexico border where you’ll be on duty for a while,” said the commander. “This here is private Miller, he will be walking you through the process here.”
“Alright Mills let’s see what you got if you see a border crosser what is the first thing you do?” said Miller.
“Sound the alarm and warn other guards and get out there as fast as possible,” said Mills. “Good Mills what do you do if you catch him and bring him back here?”
“Call the captain and get him down here to escort him to immigration.”
“Good now I’ll teach you about the security systems, this here is the alarm it’s quite straight forward. You see a crosser you pull this here lever and your ears will start to ring trust me,” said Miller.
“Alright that’s pretty straight forward but that can’t be all what else you got for me?” “Well this here is the electric fence here, you can set this to high voltage, medium, or low. We usually set the voltage to low in the day because we can see everything, but at night we turn the thing on so high turkeys get cooked by touching it once. That reminds me there is a lot of wild life out here don’t freak if they get shocked because it was their fault in the first place for running into a fence with a bunch of big yellow signs everywhere,” said Miller laughing. “That’s about it and all you’ll need to know with your experience here, if you need something come get me.” “But for now why don’t you head back to base camp for the night and your first shift will start tomorrow morning at 10:00, don’t be late.”
“Johnny!” “It’s time for school get yourself out of bed and hit the shower it’s a big day today,” said Johnny’s mother.
“Alright mom I’ll be down in a little bit,” said Johnny with the aroma of bacon tickling his nose. As Johnny took a shower his mother was making eggs and bacon downstairs which was a rare thing in their house. Today was Johnny’s birthday and his mother was determined to give him the best birthday ever. However Johnny was determined to ask his mom about crossing the border and he knew she would consider it a lot if she wanted to give him the best birthday ever. He knew he was almost playing the guilt game with his mother, but he had made up his mind and knew in his mind that it was the best thing for his family. He knew his mother would want to go also because she kept talking about how much better life would be if they lived in America. Johnny turned off the shower and toweled off and hurried downstairs to the wonderful breakfast that had been prepared for him.
“Mom thank you so much for this wonderful breakfast and it tastes great, but we need to talk,” said Johnny. “I’ve been thinking about you mentioning leaving here for America and I am beginning to think that you are correct in what you say, and I think we should think about crossing the border.” “It’s super convenient and I heard that the percentage of people making it across from Mexico are quite high now and it is the perfect time to make an attempt.”
“I don’t know about this Johnny, I had a friend that just almost got caught by the patrol and said that they have made huge technological improvements and beefed up security to the max their government funding allowed them. The now have electrical fences in some areas along with alarms that can be heard well into California,” said his mother.
“I know mom but we are not going to make it down here, the economy is going down the drain and my window of opportunity is closing if I ever want to attend Harvard and succeed as a business man.”
“I know sweetheart and I’m not saying you are wrong in saying that we should go I am just nervous that we will get split up and we will never see each other again like some of those dramatic movies I’ve watched,” said his mom.
“I know mom and it’s been on my mind too and that is my only fear but do you really want to continue to live here and die in this hut, if we go to America we can have such a better life with actual warm water for showers, and real food instead of beans and rice. We can live the American dream!”
“Alright honey your getting a little ahead of yourself here, but I’ve already made my decision I’m not going and neither are you because I can’t risk losing you.”
“But mom!”
“No Johnny end of discussion! Now get ready for school and I’ll walk you up,” said his mother.
Johnny’s uncle arrived there the next day with the same idea of crossing the border. Johnny knew this and wanted to see if he would sneak out with him and help him cross it and later help his mother cross.
“Hey uncle Jimmy would you mind taking me with you to cross the border when you finally do?” whispered Johnny.
“Sure squirt I’d love to take you along with me,” said Jimmy. Johnny knew Jimmy was an alcoholic with a lot of huge goals that were unattainable by someone of his stature but still it was his only way to get across the border.
“Cool when do you think you will leave to go across?”
“Well we can leave tomorrow if you want,” said Jimmy.
“Awesome I’ll pack a bag tonight and you can come over to my house tomorrow morning but be super quiet as I cannot let my mom know and we must leave a note telling her of our plans, say 6:30 in the morning?”
“Alright sounds good I’ll be here get ready for the adventure of your life,” said Jimmy.
“Rise and shine you lazy peasant it’s time for your shift,” screamed sergeant Mills’ alarm clock. He had set this noise for motivation to get out of bed. Mills arose and took a quick shower and got into his uniformed and jogged out to his post for the day. He brought along with him an iPod, his new red cell phone, and a lunch pail and a dinner bag. Private Miller was waiting for him as soon as he arrived in the hum-v.
“Alright Mills here’s your post your main spot will be up there in that air conditioned cabin for most of your shift which by the way goes to around 1:00 A.M tomorrow morning. However you will have to come down from there every once in a while to check on your vantage point which should be from here to here,” said Miller point his two hands in opposite directions.
“Alright easy enough. I take it I can eat whenever I please but to eat sparingly because I won’t be getting down from here until one in the morning.”
“Yup that’s about it. Oh and there is a radio up there which allows you talk to your other squad mates of the Black Ops in case of an emergency or just for fun.” “Just remember Mills have fun with this we haven’t seen any border crossers in 2 months and I don’t think there will be any today especially on your training mission.” “I’ll be back to pick you up in about 13 hours. Good luck, have fun, eat sparingly,” said Miller on his way to the hum-v.
“Let’s go Johnny were going to miss our ride!” said Jimmy.
“Who exactly is our ride I thought that you would drive?” said Johnny.
“No way Jose everyone knows that the driver does more time than the crossers if they get caught,” said Jimmy laughing.
“Alright I’ll be right down just give me 5 minutes.” As Johnny silently started his descent on the stairs Roberto the driver entered the house screaming
“Let’s go, let’s go times ticking.”
“shhhhhhhhhhh we don’t want to wake Johnny’s mom or we will run out of time,” said Jimmy silently. They started their journey north stopping only for food and bathroom breaks as this was the most crucial time of crossing the border, acting as silent as possible and keeping a low profile. This would include parking the car at least 10 miles away from the border so that the cops would not see them. Roberto stopped the car and asked
“ Are you guys ready to go because if you aren’t I understand if you want to turn around and go back but just know that I know of people who have tried this task and failed many times, but continued to try and cross the border. Therefore do not be shocked if we get caught to but I swear on my life that we will get across one day to freedom and then get your mom over as soon as possible. And with that they were off to the border. When they got within five miles they started to be a lot more careful considering they would be in the line of vision in less than one mile and would have to start to blend in more in order not to get caught before they even got close. They put on the makeshift desert ghillie suits and moved in. Stopping behind every bush and cactus there was scoping for the border and guards. If they got lucky they would be able to cross the Rio Grande a massive river that signified the border between the U.S and Mexico.
They neared the ½ mile mark and Johnny started to get anxious whispering when will we get there and what are the odds of us getting caught again. Jimmy and Roberto could tell that he was on edge and needed some action soon. They could see the fence and border wall and Roberto unsheathed his silent cordless saw that he had saved up for his whole life just for this one moment. He flipped the swish and it vibrated to life. Johnny was shocked at how quiet it was and thought this could work we could actually make it across. Then it happened, Roberto had forgotten about the electric fence being on high during the early morning and night. He had prepared himself for the low voltage but nothing like this. As soon as the saw made contact with the wire he got toasted. Johnny ran to him trying to help him up trying his hardest not to scream. He knew he would hear an alarm any second as that shock was louder than a stampede in a subway station. The alarm sounded and he heard guards footsteps right above them. They had no choice but to leave Roberto. Johnny and Jimmy dove into the nearest bush jumping directly into a scorpion nest. Trying to ignore the stings without screaming Johnny and Jimmy covered each other’s mouth as they watched the guards discover Roberto’s toasted body and hauled him off to jail.
“Stupid Mexican didn’t even realize the big yellow sign High Voltage,” said one of the guards.
“Alright Johnny these are not poisonous scorpions they are just extremely painful for about five minutes then they swell up and you don’t feel anything at all. Let’s move we have to find another way around this fence almost like a hole underneath something that one of us can slip through in order to shut of the electrical power,” said Jimmy.
“Alright just lead the way and be extremely quiet I don’t want to get caught and thrown in jail because then my momma would never forgive me,” so they moved but little did they know that they were moving towards the Black Ops facility where sergeant Mills was waiting for some action as he was just sitting around in his little guard tower for five hours so far. His guard tower was right above where the only hole in the fence was and Johnny and Jimmy were only about ½ a mile away.
Mills was becoming restless whenever he was on the front lines of anywhere he expected to feel the exhilarating of being shot at by a bunch of Taliban soldiers or the feel of dirt in his hair. Here all he had was a cell phone and an iPod along with a little tiny air-conditioned tower with a bed and a small table. He wished that he had never actually been brought here this was the most boring thing he had ever done besides kitchen duty in Guam when he was a private. But he knew he had to suffer through this and would soon be back on the front lines fighting for the country he loved.
They had found the whole and Jimmy decided that he was big enough to fit through it and didn’t want to risk Johnny getting caught so he decided to climb through first. On his way through he caught a wire and got shocked just like Roberto. It wasn’t as bad but it still hurt him and he screamed at the top of his lungs. They all heard the footsteps above them and alarms and one of those guards included Sergeant Mills who had been sleeping at the time was awakened by a mega alarm system and quickly ran down to see all the commotion. When he got down there he took Jimmy away and Johnny had been smart enough to hide. But didn’t realize that Mills was still standing there making sure there wasn’t another person right behind him. Johnny stepped right around the corner almost directly into Mill’s arms and he was also escorted to Immigration along with all of his other buddies as sergeant Mills put it. He tried his hardest to break free of Mills but then realized that this guy was a trained military agent, a graduate from West Point and special member of the Black Ops Mexico’s most hated foes. Now that Johnny and the rest of his gang were in jail the rest of the border patrol kind of took a break considering the fact that not a lot of people will try to cross the border at the same time as others.
“Guys this is all my fault I feel super bad about this idea and wish I had thought of a better way. I should’ve known that we were going to get caught if we tried to cross the border,” said Jimmy.
“Oh it’s ok Jimmy it was worth the try I mean what’s the worst that could happen here?” said Johnny.
“Yeah Johnny’s right that can’t actually hurt us because that would be against their law,” said Roberto.
“Well ya know what I’m sick of just sitting in this waiting room waiting for the man to show up and ask us a bunch of dumb questions like why would you try to cross the border,” said Johnny. “Instead I’m going to break out of here and get back home to where it is safe and sound and away from this horrible place.”
“Johnny’s got a point ya’ll we have to get back down through the border and get home in time before sergeant Mills and his co-partners get here,” said Roberto.
“Alright here is the plan everyone. First we are going to break out of here which shouldn’t be too hard considering that there is no one in here right now. All we have to do to get out of here is bash the door knob with a chair. Then we will have to get to the border again before they realize that we have escaped. When we get to the border and everybody is just going crazy we should be able to slip through the electric fence even though it is on high at night because we really don’t have a choice. After that we will just run until we cannot run anymore,” said Johnny.
“Alright Johnny that sounds like a great plan I’ll use my chair to break through this thing and maybe even find a flash bang or some type of stun grenade that will buy us some extra time when they discover our whereabouts,” said Jimmy.
“Alright then let’s get going!”
Slam! Jimmy smashed the door knob right off on his first whack with the chair then pounded the door in with his next one. He was ticked off that they got caught and had vengeance of once again returning here to get revenge on the hated Black Ops clan. Roberto had miraculously found a stun grenade and was now beginning to create the trip wire trap. He would place a wire on the ground almost too thin to be visible and hook it up to a stun grenade. When someone would accidently stumble across it to check if they were still there they would get a nice bath of magnesium sulfite right in there face. Now that Jimmy was done smashing the heck out of the door they slipped out the back door that no one had ever used before and started running towards the border which was about a mile away. They tried to stay as close to the grass as possible letting their ghillie suits do the rest just in case some stray patrol came by and found them. They were almost to the border and could start to hear the loud hum of the electric generator and wondered how they would hear anything with that dump truck going in the back.
They were at the fence and they could see sergeant Mills still in his perch on his clock radio talking himself up with all the rest of his teammates telling them how much he had owned these Mexicans. Well that got Jimmy super mad almost to the point where Johnny and Roberto would have to subdue him themselves. They tried to calm him down and tell him they would get to him later but he just wanted to give him a stun grenade right in the face. We told him that would be suicide and he almost started running back for one when he finally realized why we had broken out in the first place.
The alarm sounded and the guys were awakened with a huge sound of rolling thunder. It was raining. They sprinted for the fence and looked up for Mills he was gone already heading the other way. The poor guy that got flash had a third degree burn on the left side of his face that looked like a tire mark. They climbed underneath the fence making sure not to touch any part of it speaking from experience. They started to sprint being able to see the open fields and Johnny was imagining his mother with open arms waiting for him to come back knowing exactly where he was.
“Dang it Mills!” said colonel Willis. “We put you on this job for one reason and one reason only to stop border crossers from ever being able to sniff freedom. But you failed me, a sergeant from the militaries most trained officials are located failed me.” “I cannot even believe this Mills. I’m glad you caught them but seriously letting them escape from the inside of the border to the outside is just unheard of. You should’ve been on high alert when those Mexicans were first caught, but no you sat up here with you iPod in thinking everything was good. That’s unacceptable Mills and for that I’m taking you off the patrol and you can go work on the immigration camp to escort the others in and out of our beloved country.”
“Look captain I am super sorry this was meant to be a training mission for me to learn the ropes I had no clue that those crossers were going to show. I’ve never been closer to the border than 1000 miles and you expect me to be perfect? There is just no way I can do exactly what you want. I am super sorry. Do you really want to put a black ops agent in a cubicle typing on a computer?”
“No not really but you leave me no choice Mills you screwed up big time and almost cost us an agents face,” said Willis.
“Alright whatever Willis just know that I’ve seen more action in Iraq on guard duty then here on this crappy border you got,” said Mills walking away.
They finally made it back to Cabo San Lucas to his mother waiting outside with an upset look on her face which was totally expected from her. She didn’t look very happy but when Johnny exited the vehicle she ran towards him and gave him a huge bear hug saying “What do you think you are doing going to cross the border you could’ve gotten yourself killed!” said his mother.
“I know mom but I had to try to get you a better life to retire into and to give my life a chance. That’s all I wanted was a better life for us to live together. I would never want to cause you as much pain as I did and for that I am sorry,” said Johnny.
“Awww it’s ok sweetheart I understand completely what you were doing I just didn’t want to see you get hurt that’s all. Just promise me one thing that you won’t go without telling me again because that is what scared me the most. I would’ve taken this a little better if I had known where you were going but I didn’t, but it is ok I am just glad that you are ok and not hurt,” said mom.
“I know mom and I am sorry again but what about if we go inside and get some food I haven’t eaten in ages and I’m super hungry.
After dessert Johnny thought it would be the right time to thank Jimmy and Roberto for their attempt in helping him reach freedom. “Thanks guys so much for this experience this helped me so much to became a more powerful person along with increasing my leadership skills. I just want to thank you for the thrill of this even though we got caught and didn’t make it to freedom it still taught me a valuable lesson on not giving up at all and working our hardest to try and accomplish something. I also learned that sometimes things don’t happen on the first try so for that I think we need to try this again except with a little less sneakiness away from my mom because I know that this will hurt her and I hate to hurt my mother.”
“Alright little dude I’m glad you had fun and all but we did get caught and almost interrogated, but still you are correct on all those morals that you listed,” said Uncle Jimmy. In the back of his mind Johnny knew that whenever he tried for freedom again he would not be bringing Jimmy with him instead he would bring a way more stable and trustworthy person with a better head on his shoulders. For now he was ok with this because it gave him more experience in the long run for when he did attempt this again and he knew he would because he knew what kind of freedom there was on the other side of the fence. Freedom so powerful and valuable that they had to put a border around it