La Jabita
Copyright© 2025 by A Bad Attitude
Chapter 4
The two girls were standing beside a truck. The front left tire looked like it was broken off. The younger of the girls ran out in front of me as I slowed. She hurried to the passenger side window as I lowered it. In Spanish she says, “Please help us, there is no cell phone reception here!” I told her I would help and pulled off the road. I got out and walked back to their truck.
“What happened?”
“I hit a hole in the road ... it looks like I broke the axle.” The older girl was not about to cry as she said this ... she was mad! I think it is probably her daddy’s truck and she is going to get into trouble for damaging it. She looked at me for a moment then asked, “Are you on your way to Conception?”
I nodded. She continued, “Would you mind taking us and these 10 sacks of coffee with you? I’ll pay you.”
I smiled and told her I would help. I pulled my truck alongside her’s, and helped them throw the heavy bags into its bed. In no time we were on our way down the mountain.
There was not much conversation on the trip to Conception, but I did manage to find out that they were Liesbet (the oldest girl) and her sister Luz-Karime Lopez. I asked about the coffee. Karime answered, “We bought it this morning and were taking it to our plant in Conception.” That was about all that was said besides me telling her that my name was Rowdy. Upon arriving in Conception, I was directed through streets until we arrived in a small neighborhood. There on a street filled with houses sat their ‘plant’. It looked like it took up about a hectare of ground. On it was a big tin covered building with big sliding doors that were shut, a concrete pad and a small block building, maybe 5 by 5 meters. I was directed to back up to the concrete pad. Liesbet and Karime jumped out and began to dump the red coffee beans onto the pad. I helped. Then Liesbet grabbed what looked like a rake and began spreading them evenly out on the pad.
Karime said as we watched. “I feel sorry for my sister.”
“Why?” I asked.
“This is the last of the coffee harvest this year. By the first of March we are going to lose this place to the bank. They will tear it all down and build houses. That will end La Jabita forever, killing Liesbet’s dream.”
“If you don’t mind, tell me what happened.”
“Sure, its no secret. Momma got sick four years ago. Dad had to mortgage this property to pay for her treatments, which did not work. She died a year later; Dad took it hard. He was never the same and one morning he just did not wake up. Liesbet and I have tried for a year to keep the dream of La Jabita alive but we could not do it. I do not know what she will do now. Her and dad had such big plans. They wanted to buy some land in the mountains and raise this special type of coffee call Geisha. Now she will probably end up working at that car factory outside the capital or as a maid for some rich family. She quit school when she was 15 to help dad with momma.”
“What about you?”
“I graduate in May. My boyfriend and I are planning a June wedding, then I will move to the capital. He works at the strip mines as a heavy equipment operator, I will stay home, keep house and have kids. (Spoiler alert! For some people best laid plans do work out. Ten years later will find Fernando and Karime living in their own apartment in the capital with two kids.)
Liesbet walked up and said she was finished for now. She asked how much she owed me for bringing her coffee off the mountain.
“You let me take you girls to lunch and we’ll call it even.”
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