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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Long</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Storied</strong> <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Jose</strong> <strong>Montoya</strong> 45convoy began to clank forward.<strong>The</strong> trip back to Columbus would be a few hundred jarring <strong>and</strong> noisy miles, <strong>and</strong> would bebroken up into two days. <strong>Jose</strong> was not looking forward to the ride, tossing around inside the mobiledust storm that was the convoy, lurching <strong>and</strong> swaying over roads that were sometimes rutted moredeeply than the axles <strong>of</strong> the trucks trying to travel over them.At the end <strong>of</strong> the first day the convoy pulled to the side <strong>of</strong> the road so that the drivers could restfor a few hours. <strong>The</strong> trucks were positioned so that they straddled a ditch that ran parallel to the road,making a position that the soldiers could sit or lie in with the trucks themselves providing overheadshelter. <strong>The</strong>re was not going to be a fire; the light would be visible for miles across the desert, <strong>and</strong>might attract Villista attention to the lightly protected column. <strong>Jose</strong> climbed down from his perch <strong>and</strong>shook the stiffness out <strong>of</strong> his legs. <strong>The</strong> white alkali dust <strong>of</strong> the desert covered the trucks <strong>and</strong> all <strong>of</strong> thesoldiers, making them look like ghost soldiers w<strong>and</strong>ering the desert. <strong>Jose</strong> had some water in hiscanteen, <strong>and</strong> took a pull on it before splashing a little into his face to rid himself <strong>of</strong> his dusty, clownishmakeup. Dinner was crackers <strong>and</strong> tinned meat, <strong>and</strong> <strong>Jose</strong> could not stop thinking to himself that thiswas not how a merchant prince should be dining on his caravan.After dinner <strong>Jose</strong> climbed back up to the top <strong>of</strong> the crates on his truck <strong>and</strong> looked up at the stars.<strong>The</strong>y were compelling, endless, a sea <strong>of</strong> lights into which he felt he might fall upwards at any moment.New Mexico <strong>and</strong> America seemed far away to him, another whole day <strong>of</strong> bouncing along through thedesert; the stars seemed both close enough to grasp <strong>and</strong> yet tantalizingly out <strong>of</strong> reach. Once again <strong>Jose</strong>found himself in his most familiar daydream, that <strong>of</strong> sailing through the air on a magic carpet with LaCatrina. <strong>The</strong> stars turned into an eternal field <strong>of</strong> wildflowers through which the pair sailed, <strong>Jose</strong>plucking the choicest <strong>and</strong> tucking them into the b<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> his lover's hat amongst all the roses.Time always dropped away from <strong>Jose</strong> when he was in the midst <strong>of</strong> these reveries, <strong>and</strong> this nightwas no exception. Lost among the wildflower stars, <strong>Jose</strong> was the last to hear the drumming ho<strong>of</strong>s <strong>of</strong>