Datsun

It was so hot that day ... I spent the day exploring la ciudad that mornin' up until the early evening with my cousins.  In August it is disgustingly hot nearly all the time in Santiago, especially in the gritty "city."  Children run the scorching concrete barefoot, every other person sells paper lotto tickets, men exchange pesos for dollars like walking banks... Helmetless motorcyclist zoom by everywhere.  It is busy, chaotic and dusty.  We stopped at Bader for cervezas vestida de novia and quipe ... Before the sun is entirely down we head home.  Marcos, Francis and I jump in the letter E Concho that heads in the direction where my family lives.  The Concho, a four door Datsun, fits, or squishes 3 in the front and 5 in the back, depending on the weight of  the customer.  That day, two commuters occupied the front passenger seat of the car we hailed... My two cousins and I occupied the back seat.  The driver effortlessly gives me my change for our fare while he manipulates the stick shift.  Although there were holes in the seats and even in the floor of the decrepit automobile we were in, the engine purred like a young Lion.  In route, we stopped to let yet another passenger in.  The driver pulled over in his Datsun, like a NYC bus save for the hydraulics, and picked up a young mother and her toddler, a little girl.  She opens the rear passenger door, precisely were I am sitting, makes eye contact with me, subtlety looks me over, we have a moment, and she hands me her baby.  The mother, I presume, sits on whats left of the weathered leather of the back seat of the Datson, her baby on my lap.  The baby, her freshly shampooed hair under my nose, her mom staring out the manually rolled down window.  The baby's tiny feet hang over my knee, her pretty dress, white, covered in blue flowers is playing with her hands ... Her mom, day dreaming out that Datsun window.  The baby and mother's stop is before mine... She opens the Datsun's door, steps out, I hand her, her baby, no words are exchanged ... She picks her up and cradles her toddler on her shoulder and walks away.  The sun blocks their faces...