They day I knew you were coming.

Dear Son\Daughter

Let me describe to you one of the best days of my life.

It was the young Agent’s first swing shift, and the many pushups and miles run at the academy would surely pay off tonight. He was loaded down with all sorts of gear he prayed would never be necessary, and plenty that he hoped to use tonight. Among the former were his sidearm, rifle, ballistic vest, and assorted other weapons. These were accompanied by ridiculous quantities of spare ammunition. (Remember my child; the only time you can have too much ammunition is while swimming or on fire, and I didn’t plan on doing either of those things that night.) The latter included his run-bag full of equipment needed to survive in the field, his binoculars, three flashlights, spare batteries and most importantly, a large handful of flexible disposable handcuffs. He really wanted to use those tonight.The sun was not down yet as he left the vehicle. It quickly approached the mountains to the west.

West, West, West. Those mountains are west. Remember that! That means home is a quarter turn to the right, and Mexico a quarter turn to the left.

Most likely by the time he was finished working tonight, that sun would have worked its way all the was around the world and appear to the east. After a short walk the pushups came in handy. He found a nice cluster of cacti, placed his hands gently on the ground and silently lowered himself to his chosen hiding place by the trail.

They would be coming this way.

Thus began several hours of waiting, listening and contemplation. He knew that other agents were lying in wait barely fifty yards away, but for all the noise they made he may well have been the only man in the whole desert. By now the sun had gone down but the sky was not dark yet. He watched both the sky and the world around him grow grey and fuzzy and then black. The mountains to the west remained silhouetted against the sky with a hazy gray outline of light. There was a perfect breeze and a calm silence.

I can’t believe that they are paying me for this.

Above them was the most amazing starry sky the agent had ever seen. There was no moon to rob the stars of their brilliant dominance. The stars were so many and so bright that it was very difficult to pick out any constellations. He looked for Orion in the night sky. He found it with some effort. From there he found the star that he and his wife had picked out as their own more than four years ago. He was sure the star had an official name, though he didn't know what it was, and he didn't care. To him it would always be their star. That was more important than any name given to it by some astronomer he didn’t know.

It was her birthday, and he was glad that he had moved to swing shift today, as it gave him an opportunity to attend church with her and have a relaxing morning at home to unwrap presents. He thought back to that morning. The plan had been to sleep in as late as possible, because he would have to work late that night. But six thirty rolled around and he heard her try to crawl back into bed silently. He had stirred, kissed her, and murmured, “Happy Birthday.”
She had just come from the bathroom and was sitting cross-legged on the bed with an anxious expression on her face.

“I couldn’t wait,” she said with a wry grin. They had been waiting to perform a pregnancy test till that morning in the hopes of a bonus birthday surprise. The two minutes waiting for the test had seemed longer than the nearly four hours he was spending on the trail. But even seemingly eternal minutes eventually come to an end. They had endured the five months of the academy without seeing each other. They could wait two minutes for a simple test. They went to check the test together.

“The plus sign has got to be positive, right?” he had said.

The silence of the desert had nothing on the silence they had shared right then for the tiniest moment. And then, just as the silence of the desert would inevitably be shattered by his shouted commands as he made his first arrest that night, the stunned silence in their bedroom was blasted away by tears, laughter, and prayers of thanksgiving, as they found out for the first time that they would be parents. (We have loved you since far before you were born, and the news that you would finally be joining us was more wonderful than I can describe.)

She had enjoyed the rest of the presents she got for her birthday, but the great news pushed them all to the background. He had been totally still for nearly four hours. He had had a few curious visitors. A young cotton-tailed rabbit had approached him to have a sniff, and a skunk had passed by close enough to be smelt, but not seen. Your father mused that under different circumstances a meal would have been made of the young rabbit, but he was working.

HA!! They’re paying me to do this!

Radio Traffic: "We just jumped seven that came up the east trail. We will be transporting them out. There are five more at the bottom having dinner."

A half an hour of further reflection passed.

Radio Traffic: "Yeah. They just bedded down for the night. We can’t get down to them without waking them up. What do you guys want to do?"

After a brief conference, your dad and his two companions decided to descend the rocky western waterfall and approach the subjects under the direction of other agents on the ridge.

They set out in the stifling blackness with ease until the descent began in earnest. They carefully placed each foot on the solidest ground and smoothly glided with the grace and silence of jungle cats down the rocky slope (this should read, “half stumbled half rolled down the rocky embankment like drunken stampeding elephants).

Your father learned many things on that decent. First and foremost was that eye protection will be worn from now on while traversing cactus infested desert with no lights on. The blood flowing from his torn eyelid and dripping off his chin taught him this very effectively. Secondly, the Kevlar lining of his field gloves stops the spines of a Sahuaro cactus about as effectively as would gloves made of toilet paper.

They were still several hundred yards up the canyon from the impromptu campsite, and by some miracle they were not detected. Your dad led the group as he was the only one who had been down this ravine in the dark before (Not that this mattered much, as blackness in a canyon looks very similar to blackness out of a canyon). They continued, slowly and quietly, not knowing how close they were.

Radio Traffic: STOP STOP STOP!!!

They stopped. Radio Traffic: Agent in the lead (that was me). Directly to your right less than ten feet, they are still sleeping. Pop em’ when your ready.

He was so ready. The three spread out and he whispered urgently, “Now!”

The three agents failed to take into account how accurate the estimate of ten feet had been. His third quick step off the trail did not yield the familiar feel of rock and sand beneath his feet. Instead it felt a lot more like stepping on someone’s thigh and it elicited a surprised and groggy yelp of pain.

“Er..Um… Patrulla Fronteriza! No se Muevan!” he whispered excitedly to the five men sharing a blanket under a large mesquite tree. He then blinded them with his flashlight and cuffed them together in a line.

The walk out was more enjoyable, because your dad got to use one of his many flashlights and four of his disposable handcuffs. On the walk back he once again saw the star that reminded him of the most wonderful woman on earth (Your MOM!!!), and he also thought of you.

Come quickly my child. We don’t know your face or your name yet, but we already miss you.