Mr. Iscariot
By Richard G. Brown, first published in The Literary Review
A drunken repo man takes a gangster's car and tells himself he is not afraid of the consequences.
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Plot Summary
Mario Alejandro de Valera y Guerrero goes to the house of local gangster Big John Sanchez. Mario is there at 2 A.M. to repossess Big John Sanchez’s car for Credit Finance Ink. Big John Sanchez refused to make payments believing that there was nothing the bank would do about it. Mario is drinking port the whole time. Mario has a master key ring with fifty keys. He tries several times to open the car door, but a barking dog forces him to wait fifteen minutes between each key attempt. Mario finally gets the Cadillac door open with the fifth key and drives off. He tries to bring the car to the Credit Finance Ink parking lot but the lot is closed until 6:30 A.M. Mario goes to a liquor store and then a cantina. Mario talks to his dad’s friend Viejito Don Marquez. Mario then drives to his house, but his mother refuses to let him inside due to his frequent drunkenness. She also informs him that his 14 year-old daughter, Chana, is not home and has been staying out all night for the past several days. Mario then drives to a hill and sits drinking in the Cadillac. He finds an envelope and inside are various dirty pictures. One of the pictures features his daughter Chana. Mario then retrieves a rope from the trunk of the car and hangs himself from a nearby Gumuchil tree.