She looked back at the rope.
Whoever had tied it had meant to keep him inside.
That made her chest tighten.
“Don’t move,” she said.
The man let out a weak, almost broken laugh. “I won’t.”
Lupita ran.
Her bare feet flew over dirt and debris as she rushed to the edge of the landfill, where an older woman named Rosa ran a small soup stand. Lupita didn’t have money, but she knew where Rosa kept a bucket of water.
She grabbed a cracked plastic cup and dipped it in.
“Hey!” Rosa shouted. “What are you doing?”
“There’s a man!” Lupita cried. “He’s trapped—in a fridge!”
Rosa blinked in shock.
But Lupita didn’t wait.
She ran back.
When she returned, the man’s breathing was worse. She carefully poured water through the gap. Most spilled, but some reached his mouth.
He closed his eyes as if it were the best thing he had ever tasted.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Lupita grabbed a sharp piece of metal nearby and started cutting the rope.
Her hands shook. The rope was thick. Her fingers burned as she sawed through it.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
There was a pause.
“I think… someone wanted me gone,” Mateo said quietly.
Lupita nodded, not surprised. “That happens here.”
After several minutes, the rope finally snapped.
She pulled the fridge door open.
A wave of heat and stale air rushed out.
Mateo collapsed halfway out, gasping, his body weak and shaking.
Up close, he looked worse—bruised, exhausted, but alive.
He noticed her staring and slowly removed a silver watch from his wrist.
“Take it,” he said.
She didn’t move.
“For helping me.”
Lupita shook her head. “Someone would steal it. Or hurt me for it.”
Mateo looked at her for a long moment, then lowered his hand.
“Right,” he said softly.
That was when Rosa arrived, along with two men and a teenage boy pushing a cart.
“What in heaven’s name—” Rosa gasped.
They helped Mateo into a truck and rushed him to the clinic.
Lupita climbed into the back without asking.
