Page 109 of The Moral Dilemma

“I’ll come for you. As soon as I can, I’m coming for you,” he promised.

Confidence flowed through his veins as he forced himself to stop wallowing in self-pity.

He might have been through hell, and maybe he deserved it. He might have even deserved to die.

But he hadn’t. And he wouldn’t.

For her, he would do the impossible.

He would survive.

Getting his bearings together, he left the park as he explored his surroundings. Not too far was a busy market, and as his stomach audibly growled, he decided to stop by a shop and get some food.

He didn’t know exactly where he was, but going by the size of the market, he supposed he was at least in a mid-sized town.

There were stalls with food, clothing and household items on each side of the road. After he got something to eat, he looked for some clothes, since he didn’t want to draw attention with his tattered ones.

“Gracias,” he smiled as he handed the cash in exchange for a shirt and a new pair of pants.

The shop clerk returned the smile, praising him for his pronunciation. Although his Spanish was fluent, he still had a bit of an accent when he spoke it, which was a dead giveaway that he was a foreigner.

As he made his way down the street he recalled Lucero and her voice. She’d had an accent unlike anyone he’d met at the hacienda—unlike the man at the market too.

It had been clean—almost too clean at times, with no trace of regionalisms. He’d asked her once about it and she’d claimed it was because her parents weren’t originally from the region. Shaking himself from his musings, he focused on his surroundings.

“Perdon, puede ayudarme?” He stopped by a stall with electronics.

“Si, por supuesto. Que puedo hacer por usted?” the man asked with a kind smile.

Raf explained he needed a phone and a SIM card to make international phone calls. The man told him he was only able to help him with the phone. He would have to go to another shop to get a SIM card—especially an international one. But the man was kind enough to point him toward the shop that sold those.

“Una cosa mas,” Raf said as he nodded his thanks for the directions. “Saben donde puedo conseguir un coche?”

The man gave him further instructions of where he could go get a car, suggesting it would be cheaper to hitch a ride with someone.

Raf thanked him, tipping him generously before heading to buy a SIM card, so that he could get in contact with his family. Then, he’d just get a car and drive back to the States. He reckoned he needed to contact the embassy too, since he didn’t have a passport or any type of ID with him with which he could cross the border.

He almost groaned out loud at how complicated his situation was. But at least he was free. That was all that mattered.

Following the man’s instructions, he tried to locate the shop. Yet just when he thought he’d arrived at the right destination, he heard a hint of a conversation. But it was one word that stopped him in his tracks.

“Gringo.”

Someone was looking for a foreigner.

Considering the fact that the town was not very big, Raf thought it unlikely that there would be too many foreigners.

Turning, he strained to hear more.

But the moment he heard his description, he knew he couldn’t linger.

Gritting his teeth, he started in the opposite direction.

“Alla!” one of them yelled, at which point, Raf heard a dozen steps following behind him.

He broke into a run just as gunshots rang in the air.

“Fuck!” he cursed. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

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