Ripbrownjr
CH1 Finding My Father
Julian and the Comandante Rip Brown
Chapter One
I learned who my father was the day I was kidnapped in a tunnel under the US/Mexican border, fifty feet beneath the surface of the earth.
He was an asylum lawyer in Texas defending the right of passage of children who came in pairs, or alone, fleeing gangs who had raped their sisters, sliced their big brothers to pieces. This was during the height of the border wars when young children were separated from their families, sex-trafficked, murdered or disappeared. That morning, he was at immigration court pre-occupied with his wedding to a Senator’s daughter that weekend. They were going to honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, about as far away from Mexico as you can get and remain in North America. But all those plans changed when he got the surprise call from my mother who he hadn’t heard from in twelve years. We were hiding in a Catholic cathedral in Reynosa, and she was sobbing. “Please. I know I never told you this Thad, but he’s your son. And bad men are trying to kidnap him. You need to get him out, to the States, NOW.”
I stopped listening. Did I hear her say he was my father?