- Chapter 26 - end - Page 236

     In '84 he came and set up a bank account. He made me a co-signer, so I could draw on it when I had to pay for this stuff. He wanted something, he'd transfer the money there, I'd take it out. By now I had my own little sidelines working. Luis was starting to be a pain. Besides, I'd had a chance to think things over. I'm realizing, the situation on the hacienda, he's getting rich while people like my father are working themselves to death.

     But what could I do? He had my family. It was weird, walking around in the States, knowing that some son of a bitch had owned me since day one. Here I was in the Land of the Free, thousands of miles away from him, and he still had a piece of my ass.

     Then my father did die, just plain worn out, fifty-two years old. The more I thought about it the more pissed I got.

     I went over for the funeral. Luis told me, buy a couple of pistols and bring 'em over. He said not to worry about customs, he had it fixed. He did. A little later, the same thing, only it's not two pistols, it's ten, and ten shotguns, and a couple of Uzis. He was selling some and keeping a few for himself. These planters love their guns.

     That was the year sugar prices went through the floor. I came over, I went to the hacienda, people were starving to death. Not my family, I saw to that, but our friends, neighbors. It was never that bad before. Babies with swollen bellies, the whole sick scene. Luis had to cut way back. Instead of a new Mercedes that year, he only bought a Cadillac. I was at the point, whenever I was around him I'd have to take a shower after I got home. It was like swimming in a cesspool. But I still didn't know what to do about him. Even after I bought the house for my mother, he could still get to her. And there's all the brothers and sisters, the aunts and uncles and such.

     If I was alone in life, it'd be different. I'd have told him