34. El Patucho and the narco-youths

AIDS had become a common problem in Santo Tomás. People were not very careful when they had sex, because they usually had sex under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

For young people, the most common drug was H, very cheap, which has the peculiarity of smelling like burning paint. It is made with remains of coca, marijuana, heroin, and they even put rat poison on it

The situation of the town became complicated, to the extent that the young people could not find work when they finished school and lived in that state, which today is known as ninis, those who neither study nor work.

Crime, drug use, and emigration were the most serious problems. Those boys who had bad behavior were the ones who emigrated because they began to experience the rejection of their own relatives, normally they went to Quito but mainly to Guayaquil or Santo Domingo.

 In those places, they lived an anonymous life of unknown street criminals. On vacation, they returned to Santo Tomás, where they bought the things that the boys in town stole.

 During the holidays, thefts multiplied, they even stole clothes that were drying on the cords of the houses, these thieves were called rope makers.

The young people did not have to do in the months of February to March, in the vacations in the Coast, then the delinquent boys returned in cities of the coast, like Guayaquil, in July and August, the delinquent boys returned from Quito, or in the Saw.

At night they would meet on the beach, especially to drink, smoke marijuana, take drugs, and plan robberies.

Máxima returned to her room at the dispensary. In those two days that she remained in Quito, they broke the window of her room and stole a tablet.

He went to the police to report the theft. The policemen went out with her to look for a suspect.

When they reached the river that separates the center of Santo Tomas from the so-called Barrio Malo, they found young people who were drugged.

-Tell me, boss who brings you here- asked one of them.

"I'm looking for the Patucho," said the doctor.

-No, that man doesn't stop around here, he stops by the church. Surely he already stole from you, because we heard that a tablet was stolen. The man steps on the Guayas when he hits. Whenever he wants us to put our hands on him, he just come to get us.

We will fix any matter for him, by hook or by crook.- The boy, quite drugged, made the sign of killing with a pistol.

The patrolman arrived at the church and Máxíma asked about El Patucho.

"Yesterday he embarked for the Guayas," answered another boy with a bad appearance.

The doctor gave up her tablet, but in those days she treated a Chilean patient who lived in the neighboring town of San Medardo.

-Doctor thanks for treating him. How much do I owe you? - asked the Chilean patient.

- You do not owe me anything, emergencies are free and compulsory, in all government care units.

- Well, but let me pay you, the tablet was stolen, right? I have a tablet, which I will gladly give you because I have another one in my country. I'll be back next week.

-Do you always come to Ecuador?

-I married a beautiful mulatto woman from this town, I get along very well with her family, although we separated when she arrived in Chile. Now she is a model in my country, she is doing very well.

That simple gift, which returned to Máxima the communication with her family, was the bond of a friendship that has lasted for years.

-Doctor, the Patucho has already returned, the one you thought she stole from him. Now they accuse him of raping a girl who came from the University in the last shift of the bus, the nurse told him - she is a demon.

Like every Sunday, when she finished her weekly shift, she went out to take the bus that would take her to Quito, but on the way, she heard a shot.

Two people who saw her on the way to the bus stop approached her.

"Doctor, doctor! There is a wounded man in front of the church." Come, please.

Upon reaching the church, some 10 meters away, a small boy was dying in the street. The doctor examined the wounded man. She noticed that he no longer had a pulse, when listening to the heart with the stethoscope, which always carried it, there was no noise. His pupils did not react to the light from his cell phone either.

"He's dead," she said looking at the people around her.

-Who is he?. What is his name?. I have to make a death certificate.

- It's the Patucho ...... Franklin Mendoza. Someone was waiting for him to kill him. He had his days numbered because he was so bad. He always got out of jail, there he was even a dozen times -said a woman.

The doctor did not travel that night, to do all the documents of the deceased Patucho. She never imagined that the would-be thief of her tablet would end up like this.

The next day she boarded the bus thinking about the violence that was being experienced in the town.

On the return trip to Quito, she found the action movies on the bus endless.