Language Barrier (Barrera Del Idioma)
On one sunny day in my town, the possible title for a story became stuck in my mind. It was The Treasure of Arroyo Seco and eventually, a story did sprout from that seed. What’s more, I know exactly where this title came from, more or less anyway.
I am a member of a group that helps preserve land in my town and now and then we also help clean up parks in the area. One day we were working in Arroyo Verde park which is a large property full of hiking trails. You can see the Pacific Ocean from most points of view since it sits upon a foothill. It was hot and dry that day due to the Santa Ana winds being out in full force and it was while I was chasing down a wild plastic bag that the phrase Arroyo Seco came to mind. I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded good. My mind wandered as I picked up the human debris left behind by careless picnickers and as it did it batted the phrase around until the entire title came to me. Now what to do with it? It had a nice lilt to it and I know it was very similar to the great Bogart film The Treasure of Sierra Madre so I thought maybe it would make a nice story of some sort.
At the time I was writing a lot of romance stories so I thought that maybe I could do something with this title in that realm. The idea of having the story set in the old west interested me since that would be the first time I wrote anything like it. I have read many volumes of Zane Grey's work and as great as it all is, he never handled relationships between men and women very well. So I thought that maybe I could one-up the master in that area.
With that in mind, I sent a lonely cowboy named Jackson, who thought he was running from the law, on a wild ride south of the border to escape the posses that were out to get him though none were really in pursuit. As he rode south, he stumbled upon a dying old man with whom he shares the last dregs of his water. Before the old man’s life came to an end, he handed Jackson a map and says something to him in Spanish which he did not understand. After the man dies, Jackson buried him with dignity then set out to find water in a barren desert wasteland.
On the edge of death, he thinks he sees a village in the distance, so by laying forward on his trusty horse with his hands intertwined in its reins, he heads for it. Finally, when he can no longer go on, he slides from his saddle and falls into a pit of darkness. Of course, he regains consciousness, that part of the plot was a given, but what would he wake up to? Would he find himself chasing a gold mine as Bogie did? No, that would be plagiarism no matter how much I spun it. So what would be the real treasure? Since this story was destined to be a romance, there could only be one true treasure and that would be love.
In my story, Jackson wakes up to the stunningly beautiful face of Raquel Deseo which made him think he died and went to Heaven when he really was in a village called Arroyo Seco, which I later discovered meant "dry creek". So who is Raquel Deseo? In the story, she is a peasant living in a town that is dying of thirst and she is the daughter of the man our hero tried to save. In real life, she is my friend Raquel who is just as beautiful as she is described in the story. Deseo is Spanish for "desire" and not my friend’s real last name.
I wanted to add some realistic touches to the story, so I thought I would start his awakening moments with a conversation between Raquel and her mother with the entire narrative being in Spanish. My real-life friend Raquel consented to translate my words and thus became the love interest of my lonesome cowboy.
In the end, Raquel falls in love with Jackson, they figure out what her father was trying to say about the map, and eventually save the town.
This story, and 11 more, are in my collection of romance stories titled Anticipating Sunrise which you can find here: https://www.amazon.com/Anticipating-Sunrise-John-Darling/dp/1093289503