The Cowboy Bible and Other Stories Read Online Free Page B

without permission from the narco bureaucracy. He saw Sussy and yelled at her: Hey you, what the fuck are you doing here? Get in the kitchen, we don’t have enough people to attend to our guests. And if you’re ever late again, I’ll kill you. Sussy started to head inside, but one of the guards stopped her. The boss had sent orders that she not go in. The bartender screamed at the guard that if she couldn’t come in he should wait tables himself. The other guard intervened: Let her go in. Mind your own business. You’re nobody here, and she’s not coming in. Yes, come on in. C’mon, c’mon, hurry up. But in spite of the tussle, she never got in.
    Inside, the booing and shouting was unstoppable. The Cowboy Bible was nowhere to be seen. San Pedro’s smile invited Don Lucha Libre’s suspicions. From the Stern-brand speakers came the announcement that the champion was trapped in a traffic jam. What a joke! A traffic jam in a town that small? He would be there any moment. In the meantime, let’s serve dinner. San Pedro didn’t protest. He could snatch up his money and go, but he wanted to see how far the show would go. In any case, he didn’t care about the money; the juicy part of the deal was that he’d get complete control of all of the drug-distribution points downtown.
    The Cowboy Bible arrived with the championship belt held high and a green face. There was no fight in him. He cheapened the battle by only being able to hold down five cups of the brew. A new champion and a new distributor had stolen the spotlight. Don Lucha Libre was a good loser; he handed the business to San Pedro, and they continued drinking. Nobody left the bar. Los Capi were about to play.
    The limo driver approached Don Lucha Libre and let him know Sussy was outside. He gave him the lowdown: His Cowboy Bible had been poisoned. Without moving from his privileged seat, Don Lucha Libre pulled out his pistol and killed San Pedro with one shot. That single shot was all it took to spark the shootout that ended the lives of all those present, including the new monarch and The Cowboy Bible.
    The following day’s newspaper had headlines across eight columns. There had been a great settling of scores in the world of organized crime. Extrafifí Agency, Thursday, December 27th: At five in the morning yesterday, police officers as well as officers from alcohol control, entered La Cuauhnáuac with the intention of closing it for its failure to observe blue laws. Instead, they found everyone inside had been killed, including the heads of the local drug underworld.
    Sussy never again mentioned La Cuauhnáuac or the deaths or anything. The following week, she began from scratch once more outside the bar, but she couldn’t sell a single burrito. One night as she was putting away her things, a man came up and asked if she knew where he could get some coke. No. I don’t know. Damn it, said the cholo , I’m going fucking cold turkey. Aren’t there any narcos left in this city? No. There aren’t any anymore, young man. Here, buy one of my burritos. No. Fuck that burrito. What I need is to get some coke. I already told you, young man. There are no more narcos. There are no more narcos. It’s better if you just buy one of my burritos. C’mon, don’t be a bad guy. I have some machaca burritos.

‌ Non-Fiction

‌ Reissue of the Original Facsimile of the Remastered Country Bible’s Back Cover *
    For Fernando del Paso
    Beauty she is scarred into man’s soul,
A flower attracting lust, vice, and sin,
A vine that can strangle life from a tree,
Carrion, surrounding, picking on leaves
    She is Suffering,
Manic Street Preachers

‌
A) Rise and Shine
    The science of piracy was a ghost that had always lived in The Country Bible’s heart. Ever since she was a kid, riding around on a gallito in this trashy town. Home to bootlegging, to contraband, to treason imported from all over, from Sevastopol, Anchorage, Cardiff.
    Ever since she bought her ticket to this