The Governor's Wife Read Online Free PDF

Abrams tanks."
    "This is what Bush wanted in America? Our own Berlin Wall?"
    "Obama voted for the border wall, too, Mrs. Bonner, when he was in the Senate. He was a politician before he became the president."
    They stopped in front of a massive gate guarded by two Border Patrol agents wearing green uniforms and wielding military-style rifles as if guarding the gates to a kingdom. Or a prison. Were they keeping them out or someone else in? Her Texas Ranger bodyguard threw open his door. Dirt blew in with the hot wind; Lindsay averted her face until the Ranger stepped out of the vehicle and slammed the door shut as if he were angry at the Suburban. He pushed his cowboy hat down hard on his head to prevent the wind from taking it north to San Antonio and marched over to the Border Patrol agents. After a brief discussion, the agents opened the gate, reluctantly it seemed. The Ranger returned, removed his hat, and got back in the vehicle, grumbling something about "Feds." They drove through the gates, and Lindsay sat up, anticipating what she would see on the other side, which was—
    Nothing.
    She saw nothing but more chaparral and dirt. She had expected something, perhaps a panoramic view of the majestic Rio Grande. But the river was nowhere in sight. The wall just cut through the land like a random mountain range.
    "So the border wall isn't actually on the border?"
    "Oh, no," the congressman said. "The border runs right down the middle of the Rio Grande, so the wall, it is off the border. Here, about a mile. Elsewhere, maybe two miles." He chuckled. "Over in Eagle Pass, the public golf course runs right along the river. The golfers, they would be hitting their balls and suddenly Mexicans would dart out of the carrizos , the thick reeds by the river, and race across the fairways and into town where they could mix in with the locals. So Homeland Security built the fence on the town side of the golf course, to block the Mexicans' path. But they also blocked the golfers' escape. So now the Mexicans jump out of the carrizos with guns and rob the golfers."
    He now gave out a hearty laugh.
    "You cannot make that up," he said.
    "A border wall that's not on the border. That doesn't make any sense."
    "There is little on the border that makes sense, Mrs. Bonner. As you will see, this side of the wall is another world entirely—a world that is not México , but that is also not America."
    "Then what world is it?"
    "This, Mrs. Bonner, is the colonias ." He turned to the window and pointed. "Oh, look—a jackrabbit." He turned back. "Ah, we are here."
    The Suburban braked to a stop and stirred up dust that soon dissipated in the wind. The Ranger opened the back door for the governor's wife. Lindsay stepped out and immediately surrendered her hair to the wind. The ninety-degree heat felt like an oven after the air conditioning inside the vehicle. The press crew bailed out of their vans and began unloading their equipment. The troopers and police got out of their cruisers with their large guns strapped to their waists and stretched their large bodies; they must have recruited the biggest men on the force to guard the governor's wife. Congressman Delgado came around and stood next to her. They were both decidedly overdressed, she in a cream-colored linen suit and low heels, he in a tan suit and tie. He inhaled the dry air.
    "Ah, spring on the border. It is the same as summer." He extended a hand as if gesturing at a grand monument. "Welcome to Colonia Ángeles , Mrs. Bonner. The border's version of a gated community."
    They stood at the entrance to this community of angels. But it was not heaven on earth. The dirt road continued on and seemed to disappear into the dust, just a rutted path winding through a vast shantytown of dilapidated structures that in the distance seemed to merge together to form a massive inhabited dump. Half-naked brown children played in the dirt road and down in the river, dull in the hazy sun. Women carried water from