Summary

The author is welcomed to his new job in El Paso by Hayward, who introduces him to the other members of the team – Manuel and Beto. Hayward tells the author to be ready to hit the ground running.

The author describes a contemporary Mexican adaptation (“Antigona”) of an ancient and famous play in which the sister of a slain man searches for her brother’s body, lost in the desert, so it can be buried. Both versions of the story, the author says, focus on the experience of searching even while the searcher also feels lost.

On the team’s first deployment, the author and the others go into a restaurant, which falls silent as they enter and sit. They are thanked for their service by an older couple, and are stared at by a boy whose mother tells them he...