Cathy, Alexis, and I were walking out of the Bi-national friendship garden after weeding it out. The agent on the North side of the secondary barrier was sitting in his vehicle. "Can you open the door for us?"
He snarked a little. "Go down to the beach and walk around."
The other agent had told us to ask the agent on duty to open the door when we finished. "You don't have a key?" I asked politely.
"No."
It was only a short walk down the hill. Not worth arguing about. "Like it would've hurt'em to get out of his vehicle." remarked Cathy. "Why didn't he opent he gate?"
"I don't know. I think he was just being a dick." That was my guess from the look on his face when he answered.
When we got to the bottom of the hill he was there waiting in his vehicle. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, I told him and walked over to his truck."
Alexis and Cathy kept walking up the hill.
"I could give you guys a ride up the hill in the back of the unit." He said chuckling.
"Sure." I said only half realizing it was another sarcastic remark.
"What's the purpose behind the garden? What are you trying to do?" He asked in a non-threatening way.
"The garden has a dual purpose: to make friends across the border and promote native habitat."
"What's your name?"
"Dan Watman, yours?"
"Agent Pacheco...Yeah, but what are you really trying to do?"
"I guess you haven't been briefed. I have this project where we do events at the border fence under common interest themes with the idea of making friends through the fence."
"What's the purpose of it?"
"To make friends through the fence."
"Where are you from?"
"I grew up in Modesto, California."
"You grew up in Modesto? Me too."
"O, wow yeah we're about the same age, maybe..."
"What high school did you go to?"
"Beyer."
"I went to Modesto High, graduated in 1984."
"I graduated in '89."
"I joined the marine corps and then joined Border Patrol,16 years"
"Oh, well, different paths to end up in the same place. Have you been in this area the whole time?"
"Yeah."
"I'm surprised we haven't run into each other."
"Me too. Yeah, there's good stuf that goes on around here we just had to put up the wall cause people passing illegal documents through the fence, switching out kids, and passing drugs through the fence. It was getting out of hand. Too much illegal activity."
"Yeah. I've commited myself to this friendship concept and kind of look at it as necessary independant of any illegal activity."
"I understand that."
"My friend's waiting for me. I gotta go. Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, nice to meet you too" this time with a genuine as opposed to sarcastic smile and a stretched arm to shake hands through his window.
