Read Online Bradbury Stories by Ray Bradbury - Free Book Online

scowling, not hating, not sad or happy; nothing except puzzled.
    He had taken the watch off that day and never worn it since.
    â€œNoon,” he said.
    Noon.
    The border lay ahead. They saw it and both cried out at once. They pulled up, smiling, not knowing they smiled. . . .
    John Webb leaned out the window, started gesturing to the guard at the border station, caught himself, and got out of his car. He walked ahead to the station where three young men, very short, in lumpy uniforms, stood talking. They did not look up at Webb, who stopped before them. They continued conversing in Spanish, ignoring him.
    â€œI beg your pardon,” said John Webb at last. “Can we pass over the border into Juatala?”
    One of the men turned for a moment. “Sorry, señor .”
    The three men talked again.
    â€œYou don’t understand,” said Webb, touching the first man’s elbow. “We’ve got to get through.”
    The man shook his head. “Passports are no longer good. Why should you want to leave our country, anyway?”
    â€œIt was announced on the radio. All Americans to leave the country, immediately.”
    â€œAh, sí, sí .” All three soldiers nodded and leered at each other with shining eyes.
    â€œOr be fined or imprisoned, or both,” said Webb.
    â€œWe could let you over the border, but Juatala would give you twenty-four hours to leave, also. If you don’t believe me, listen!” The guard turned and called across the border, “Aye, there! Aye!”
    In the hot sun, forty yards distant, a pacing man turned, his rifle in his arms.
    â€œAye there, Paco, you want these two people?”
    â€œNo, gracias—gracias , no,” replied the man, smiling.
    â€œYou see?” said the guard, turning to John Webb.
    All of the soldiers laughed together.
    â€œI have money,” said Webb.
    The men stopped laughing.
    The first guard stepped up to John Webb and his face was now not relaxed or easy; it was like brown stone.
    â€œYes,” he said. “They always have money. I know. They come here and they think money will do everything. But what is money? It is only a promise, señor . This I know from books. And when somebody no longer likes your promise, what then?”
    â€œI will give you anything you ask.”
    â€œWill you?” The guard turned to his friends. “He will give me anything I ask.” To Webb: “It was a joke. We were always a joke to you, weren’t we?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œ Mañana , you laughed at us; mañana , you laughed at our siestas and our mañanas , didn’t you?”
    â€œNot me. Someone else.”
    â€œYes, you.”
    â€œI’ve never been to this particular station before.”
    â€œI know you, anyway. Run here, do this, do that. Oh, here’s a peso, buy yourself a house. Run over there, do this, do that.”
    â€œIt wasn’t me.”
    â€œHe looked like you, anyway.”
    They stood in the sun with their shadows dark under them, and the perspiration coloring their armpits. The soldier moved closer to John Webb. “I don’t have to do anything for you anymore.”
    â€œYou never had to before. I never asked it.”
    â€œYou’re trembling, señor .”
    â€œI’m all right. It’s the sun.”
    â€œHow much money have you got?” asked the guard.
    â€œA thousand pesos to let us through, and a thousand for the other man over there.”
    The guard turned again. “Will a thousand pesos be enough?”
    â€œNo,” said the other guard. “Tell him to report us!”
    â€œYes,” said the guard, back to Webb again. “Report me. Get me fired. I was fired once, years ago, by you.”
    â€œIt was someone else.”
    â€œTake my name. It is Carlos Rodriguez Ysotl. Go on now.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œNo, you don’t see,” said Carlos Rodriguez Ysotl. “Now give me two