Once You Go Back. 10

Previously, Buckey and Wildred bonded on a road trip into the countryside and Wilfredo’s home. The goal of this road trip was to see the untamed wildlands near Haiti and then to drop Wilfredo off with his family. Read previous chapters and table of contents here.

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“Would you drive some?” I suggested. “I need a nap.” 

“Yes,” Wilfredo nodded. “Will you teach me?” He’d never driven a car.

Teaching someone to drive a stick shift can be sort of intimate. Especially in a sweaty desert. Especially when one of you wants it to be and the other seems ok with that. Maybe the bachata singers weren’t the only guys who liked double entendres. 

With his hand on the little round hard plastic ball of the stick shift, with my hand on his hand, he'd say, "Dimi cuando Boca?" Tell me when Boca? With a tiny question mark at the end. A sexy little question mark.

When Wilfredo mastered the steering and the shifting, he was so proud. We were so proud. He knew his country. He knew the curving dirt roads and secret swim spots. He never dreamed anyone would want to share them. Or let him drive the car.  

I thought about where we would stay the night. We knew no one. According to the Lonely Planet guide, there was no hotel, no restaurant, and no reason to be here unless we intended to cross the border into Haiti – where there was also nothing to do. I did have the iceman’s card. 

Eventually, I drifted off in the afternoon heat. Soon I heard dream voices from home. Glenda smirked and said I know what you and Kenny did in his Bronco. Then Kenny piped up with taunting locker room stories— It’s true that every single one of them Black guys is hung like a horse. A team of nearly naked models joined me in the shower room, and I heard MissK whispering. Dominican men are famously sexy. But she said it in Spanish—even in my dream I knew she didn’t speak Spanish.